A few starting points for students who come to the prestigious Australian National University, Canberra
Before you come to Canberra:
From your home country, try establishing contact with a lot of senior students from your own country or from here. If you make a request I am sure no one will say No to help. One way of doing this is to become a member of the PARSA Facebook community.
Apply for University accommodation.
Plan your day of arrival in Canberra at least 3 or 4 days prior to Orientation Week. Try to get ideas about the courses that you are planning to take in your degree program.
After you come to Canberra
The first thing anyone would do is look for accommodation. From my own experience, I say that getting accommodation in Canberra is difficult. If you decide to stay off-campus and be more independent, then it takes life a bit more difficult. The starting point for the accommodation hunt is the
YHA (Youth Hostel Association). You can book your stay there for a week or so.
Then from the various contacts you established prior to coming to Canberra you can move around the city searching for accommodation. The University Accommodation Services will be providing you with all the help that is required.
Try to find accommodation in the inner north region of Canberra. The suburbs(Turner, Lyneham, O'Connor, Dickson, Braddon, Reid, Campbell)in this region are close to the ANU.
You can find short term accommodation in
Canberra Wide Apartments.They have apartments all over the Canberra CBD, a number of them very close to the ANU. It is a perfect place if you are finding a home away from home. I would personally endorse this as a good option.
If you are planning to look in for a shared accommodation then ANU's accommodation portal (
http://accom.anu.edu.au/UAS/187.html) will be of great help.
Secondly, after you find accommodation, finish off all your essential things like banking, Applying for
Tax File Number(TFN)etc. Now, once all these are settled, it’s time for some shopping. You have a lot of options for shopping in Canberra. The Canberra Centre and the Dickson Shops are close by. From here you can get a lot of things that you need for your daily life.
If you wanted some furniture for your house, then try the
ANU classifieds, from where you can get a lot of second hand goods used by students. They are cheap and good. For students from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri lanka, the options for getting groceries are limited. There are two shops in a suburb called Belconnen, there are 3 shops in a suburb called Woden and also one in dickson(closest to ANU).
Don't miss Orientation Week. This gives a lot of information that you actually would require. Attend the library tours, which give you a lot of information that is very much essential during your course. Also enrol in the workshops organised by ASLC (Academic Skills and Learning Centre).
Now it’s time to plan for your rigorous and enjoyable academic session ahead!
This is an excerpt from one of the articles that i contributed to the ANU Post Graduate and Research Students Association (PARSA) Survival guide 2010.
