University of Auckland

no much support for new students, there’s not much help with organizing your degree, cross credits etc. hard to find information, apart from that it’s a good university with friendly people

The problem with reviewing universities is that the majority of people that go to them rarely have experience of other institutions — they’re in for their bachelor’s degree, and they’re gone.
There are two key strengths to UoA. First, they have some –very– good academic and research staff. Secondly, they’re geared up for long hours, and the location (double edged sword here) puts you right next to the city. It has a very good bookstore, and standard student amenities — pharmacy, doctors, dentist, student union/​bars, etc.
That being said — it’s an ugly campus, filled with brutalist architecture. The admin staff, as other people have pointed out, are terrible (even by university admin staff standards) — the entire experience, from admissions through to graduation is painful, frustrating, counter-​intuitive and in at least one case that I’m aware of, career-​ending. Some of the teaching is conducted by (admittedly talented) academics that really want to be pure researchers, and make no attempt to conceal it or their contempt for undergraduates. Food options on-​campus are frankly terrible and reminiscent of a late 90s foodcourt, without any of the good places in it. Maintenance staff pay no attention to people around them — avoid sitting near planter boxes, because they’ll show up and start watering them without warning, which can result in you spending the rest of the day damp and uncomfortable. Parking is expensive, even for students here, and public transport options to and from the university are essentially summarised by ‘go to Britomart/​down to the city’.
EDIT: As of Feb, 2014, earlybird car parking in the main carpark (Owen G. Glenn Building) has changed so that you must be in before 10am, and out before 6pm, or you will pay hourly rates.

You know what I find unhelpful? They offer this amazing-​sounding support network for Maori and Pacific students (which in itself is totally cool, I’m fine with that) because they often come alone from schools and don’t have an existing friend network at the university. But probably a bunch of other people of other ethnicities come under that category (myself included) and offers of assistance aren’t so attractively forthcoming. Not that they wouldn’t help you if you asked. But they’re not raving about it in most of your lectures in your first week of classes. Why don’t they just offer that for everyone?
That’s really my only gripe, except for the fact that sometimes they have technical difficulties with the overflow room I sit in (because they let more people than fit into one lecture theatre enrol in a paper) and I don’t want to listen to loud buzzing or have to miss some of the lecture while I climb over the seats and run to try and find a seat in the main room.
Otherwise UoA is pretty sweet. It has everything you could ever want on campus including a pharmacy and post shop. Probably you should read their website though if you want to go there.

Wait — are you actually going to make any kind of decision regarding your educational future based on Unilocal revues? Think about it. If the answer is no, then what can I tell you? Ignoring the actual range of courses and classes, Auckland Uni offers that quintessential ‘uni’ experience that everyone hungers for before they have it and then reminisces about forever afterwards. AUT is more of a technical institute, Unitec is a farm, Massey is Massey. But Auckland Uni is where you get the whole aspirational, thirst-​for-​knowledge, hallowed halls, patches-​on-​the-​elbows-​and-​a-​pipe thing that TV has told you that college should be. Plus with all the drinking too! If you’re dying to buy a wool coat and flirt with bored girls by talking about outdated European novels, then this is the place to go. But, you know, only if they offer the papers you want to do. That’s what you should actually be basing your decision on. Because if the answer to my original question is yes, then good luck with everything. Just … yikes. Good luck.

This Uni does have amazing facilities, whether you like echoey old buildings, or shiny new ones. It has a lot of food places, clubs, support groups and events throughout the year. If you head to the quad on a Thursday, there’s always a cheap market if you’re looking for something a little different.
Well, the education and facilities may be great, but the admin is PURE CONCENTRATED HELL! Okay, there I said it. Whether it’s sending you to the back of beyond for a lecture about Asian Cinema to some obscure place in the Science Building, not telling you that they changed what papers you have to do for your degree in the middle of your degree, or sending you to multiple different offices just so someone can finally say ‘no, sorry, we can’t help you with that’. Bureacratic red tape nightmare! Make sure you check and double check your papers every year and don’t give up if you need something. Also, never, ever listen to what SSO tells you. It’s all crap. Go talk to a human being, preferably your faculty HOD.
Don’t get me wrong though: I absolutely loved going to Auckland. I recommend you sign up at the AUSA, just so you get the free diary (with map inside). It helped me with 4 years of Uni! :)

Whether you’re going for an education or to make some fun, if not drunken and blurry, memories, The University of Auckland is excellent. I loved the years I spent there getting my degree, at least I did after I had finished. The lifestyle of this university is very different to other campuses, because it’s not really a campus. There are so many people here it can seem quite daunting, but it also makes it very easy to keep to yourself, if that’s what you want to do. I had some really excellent lecturers here (I still love you, Stephen Turner), and some not so great ones. I spent most of my time skulking around the English department, but the thing I did find frustrating about this place was the distance between classes. Sometimes it would feel like I was going from one side of the city to the other. The quad back in my day was always filled with people and things going on; there were always markets, rallies, performances, the works. The Thursday Markets (I don’t even know if they still exist) were awesome and spend lots of money on records and little badges, trying to be cool. Back then, Shadows was cool and you’d get a jug of beer for $ 4.80, and cool bands used to play there too. Oh, to be a student again.

Ah, UoA. The place where I became enriched in knowledge but poor in pocket. So very very poor.
I spent almost four years here obtaining my degree, and I loved every minute of it, in hindsight at least. UoA is pretty much world class in NZ. I know in my faculty at least, the lecturers were all passionate, highly qualified individuals with a wealth of knowledge to share.
The university has everything you’d expect; a huge library, an abundance of food places, an information centre, a book shop, labs, a student association, a bar on campus etc etc. The library was my favourite haunt and where I used to spend most of my time. The entire uni is situated across a few different streets and there were a lot of outdoor areas available to eat lunch at.
I loved uni. I didn’t realise this until I left. I hated it at the time due to the travel and the high workload/​assignments but now I’d give anything to go back. If only I had the $$.