Graduate school in NZ or Australia (good schools, universities, earthquake)

[Niandra]

Hi, I'm an American who has been really in love with New Zealand and Australia since I was a kid. More of an infatuation, I suppose, since I've never visited. I'm considering heading that way for grad school (psychology's my thing). Currently I'm living in Boston, MA and saving up for a trip there to check out different schools.

Any insights and advice from people who are in grad school over there would be appreciated!

[Darla.R]

One of my children is considering an undergrad degree in Psychology and he's been sizing up universities and talking to people working in the profession over the last month or so.

The University of Queensland (26 in the top 50), Griffith and Bond seem to be the three universities of choice around here. UQ has a beautiful campus and a residential collegiate system with special arrangements for post grads. Bond is smaller and has a pleasant campus that is expanding rapidly with modern student accommodation. Griffith is a building site and parking is difficult but it does have a massive, newly built teaching hospital on its doorstep. The last two are both on the Gold Coast, Uni of Queensland on the riverside in Brisbane.

You may find this useful QS World University Rankings by Subject 2011: Psychology

Australia's universities, with seven institutions in the top 50, led by Melbourne (8), Sydney (11) and Australia National University (20). Psychology is a well-funded and popular area of study in Australia, and the top-ranking Australian universities scored consistently across the three criteria, indicating a level of consensus as to their quality. Across the Tasman Sea, four New Zealand universities were represented, with two making the top 50: University of Auckland (27) and University of Otago (41=).

[aussiekiwi99]

I have a friend studying undergrad psych at the University of Canterbury in NZ. I'd avoid that school since it was affected by the earthquake earlier this year. Apart from that I dont know too much about schools in the area.

My advice is more to do with your trip down under to check out the schools. Traveling around Oz and NZ can be pretty expensive so I suggest you do your research and select 2-3 schools that interest you most and visit only those. As Darla said theres quite a few good schools in Oz and NZ so I'd say a lot of what will influence your decision is what kind of lifestyle you're after.