Small town girl heads to big smoke to study
Swinburne psychology student Katie Wykes shares her experience of moving to Melbourne and residing at Hawthorn campus.
Imagine you’re a country kid who has lived in a small country town your whole life. The same 20 people you’ve known for years made up your Year 12 class. Then you face coming to a university in a massive city. Seems a tad overwhelming, right?
That’s what I faced when I moved to Hawthorn, living on-campus to study a Bachelor of Science (Psychology and Psychophysiology) at Swinburne.
But as it turns out, it really wasn’t that terrifying. Many students are in the same boat. I moved down to Melbourne a month before uni started. Not many other people had moved into Unilodge’s Swinburne Place residences when I arrived for the year. So the first two weeks or so before my housemate moved in (and I didn’t know anyone) was the hardest part.
But once my housemate moved in everything was fine. Unilodge magically paired me up with another girl who is shy and awkward like me - turned out to be a perfect match!
There are plenty of positives to living on campus, even when you’re not a massive party person (like me - and my housemate). Being close to all your classes means you can sleep in that little bit longer. The majority of foods you could want close by (except KFC!) so you don’t have to decide on the food you want until you’re hungry. The train station is in the middle of campus and there are plenty of chances to meet people and make friends.
The only con is if you want an early night and a party is pumping - but you quickly adjust to noise.
As for uni, I’m not going to lie, there have been units I haven’t loved and some lectures that I’ve used for nap time. But for the most part it’s been good, I’ve found most of the content I’ve learned interesting, made friends in my classes (slowly yet surely) and never got lost and wound up in the wrong class!
Swinburne seems to be a lot smaller than some other uni campuses I’ve been to, which makes it easy to get around. There are great cafes and shops on campus (Haddens is a must!) and Safeway and McDonalds are super close. I’ve hated uni at times, loved it at others, but for the most part it is what it is - a nice place to learn and make friends.
If I had any advice to newcomers it would be, firstly, don’t stress out about assignments (yes, the majority of us do them the week before they are due). Everyone’s worried about making friends, so just be yourself and don’t hide yourself away. Party hard if you want to and be lazy if you want to be. Just have fun with whatever you want to do and the rest will come (relatively) easy.
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