Opportunity to travel - Australia is one of the most naturally beautiful countries in the world so like anyone visiting, I was very eager to see the sights. The Whit Sunday Islands, only a three hour flight away, was a great getaway for the weekend.
I decided to take a sail boat for this trip, where I was able to snorkel and see the fringing Great Barrier Reef. Australia is a very large country about the same size as the US so you do have to take planes to many of these places, but I believe it is worth every penny! Great location- Whether at ACU Strathfield, a suburb of Sydney, or the North Sydney Campus, the city is always easy to get to by public transport and takes less than 20 minutes from Uni.
Tight knit community - All of the courses that I took at ACU were split into two components of a lecture and a tutorial. While lectures ranged from about students in a lecture hall, tutorials consisted of only people in a classroom. This allowed for close engagement with teachers or "tutors" making my learning experience at ACU fulfilling and less intimidating as an international student.
I was also very happy to see familiar faces everyday instead of getting lost in the mix of students that were both local and international. Opportunity to meet locals - The international community at ACU was relatively small so that opened up the opportunity for me to meet more students who were natives to Australia.
Since there are no dormitories at ACU Strathfield, many of the people I met commuted everyday by car or public transport. I was a commuter myself so I did not feel as though I was missing out on anything happening on campus, instead it was easier for me to meet some new friends out in the city for a coffee. I felt that because I was one of the only Americans, local students took interest in what my experience was being so far away from home and I had just as many questions for them.
