canberra, ANT ( Australia)

[sssleyer]

Hello People!

I am an international student, I intend to enroll to a Phd program in physics at the Australian National University at Canberra, Australia.

I choose this University because of the high ranking and the excellent research in my field of expertise.

But the city is something completely else, I heard people say: "the best thing in Canberra is the road out of the city", "there is no one after 18:00 outside -

the streets are empty, they all sit home, watch TV and drink wine" an I doomed?

I'll be grateful if some one that actually lived there or studied at ANU can enlighten me regarding the city and student's life there (especially the social life).

TNX

[fluttering]

I heard people say: "the best thing in Canberra is the road out of the city", "there is no one after 18:00 outside -

the streets are empty, they all sit home, watch TV and drink wine" an I doomed?

You're not doomed. Canberra has a bad reputation, but that's largely based on people comparing it to Sydney or Melbourne (which each have 3-4 million people, compared to 200,000 or so in Canberra). It's more like a large country town than a city, but it has enough city attributes such as cafes, restaurants, bars, live music, theatre, etc. Some people do stay home and drink wine (especially during winter - it's cold outside!) but you shouldn't have too much trouble finding people to go out with. Just make sure you make friends with some locals, they will show you where the cool places are.

I would recommend living on campus or nearby suburbs - O'Connor, Braddon or Ainslie. Then you can walk/bike to your lab and you're close to civic, which will help your social life. Housing can be quite expensive, so if you live at a self-catered college it may well be cheaper than living off-campus and will give you the opportunity to meet more people. There are some residential colleges dedicated to postgraduate students - University House and Graduate House, but they don't have a reputation for being particularly fun, so a better option would be the graduate apartments at either Burgmann or Bruce. The worst time of the year to find housing is January-March, because it is when most of the new students start and when all the new government employees arrive.

[sssleyer]

Fluttering ,

Thank you very much for the detailed replay.

I suspected that the Graduate House and the University House would be a bit too quite, from the other hand if I go the the hall-style residents, like Ursula, Burton, Toad etc (mainly undergraduate)..

I might not quite fit, I am not a standard 22-23 years old Phd student, I am 26. So I am not sure if 18-years-old-fun is what I am looking for. Of course I am into socializing and party but I think I am

over puking at corridors

The college (Burgmann collage and PG village) is quite a new idea to me, can you please elaborate? how does it differ from standard dormitory?

Currently I finish my M.Sc studies at Israel, here we have student-flats around the Uni. self-catered of course. the only interaction with the management we have is only when we receive the key or

something is broken. How's the catered idea works? they feed you 3 times a day? and If I don't want to eat at that specific hour... sounds strange.

It doesn't really bother me if it is a big city or not, I lived in rural cities (~200,000 people) all my life, they are much cheaper then the metropolitans and sometimes much more interesting. But I want to ask about the student's social life, are there student's Bars? clubs? etc... this question might sound silly but after great afford I wasn't even able to locate an ANU-students forum at the web, the student association doesn't have one, and no un-official students sites...usually in those cases it indicates the place dead socially. So I thought at least the city would be interesting and found quite disturbing descriptions.

In any case, Thanks again for the help.

[fluttering]

I've never lived in a catered hall but yes, generally the idea is that you go within a certain time range to get your meal and it's cafeteria style serving. I've eaten at catered halls (not at ANU, but other Australian unis) and the food there is generally not worth the extra money you pay.

Basically, there are three types of on-campus accommodation: catered colleges, self-catered colleges (you share a bathroom & kitchen; often the cheapest option), and self-catered apartments (self-contained apartment, either alone or with other students, which is a nice blend of apartments & college benefits, but costs more). The colleges have dances, band nights, toga parties, inter-college competitions, etc.

There are definitely student bars in Canberra - the best known is probably Mooseheads. There are plenty of clubs and student associations - in o-week there is usually a day when you can sign up to join all the clubs. If people use the internet for socialising it is mainly Facebook, but a lot of things are advertised the old-fashioned way: flyers, noticeboards, newspapers, or word-of-mouth. That's why you need to make friends with locals!