Humans of CSE May
Navigating the transition between high school and university can be a daunting journey characterised by many challenges. For interstate students, these challenges can feel even more pronounced. From homesickness to learning how to cook their first meal, moving interstate means adjusting not only academically, but socially, mentally, and emotionally.
In this month’s edition of Humans of CSE, we delve into the unique experiences of interstate students within the UNSW CSE community. Whether it’s building a new support system of friends or familiarising themselves with the unfamiliar, three interstate students share how they’re making Sydney their new home away from home.
David, 1st year Computer Science/Mathematics student
Introduce yourself!
I’m David, I came to UNSW from Adelaide and I am currently a first-year doing Computer Science and Mathematics — I’d say Adelaide is like Sydney but smaller.
Why did you choose UNSW over universities in your home state?
I just wanted to move out, go interstate, and live a little bit more independently. I essentially randomly picked what university would be good, but I also liked the idea of coming to a bigger city.
It helped that I knew some friends that were coming to UNSW, and that this uni was the best in Australia for what I wanted to do. If not a Sydney uni though, I would’ve gone to Melbourne.
How do you balance living independently, whilst also keeping on top of your academics/social life/financial matters?
In a way, I hoped everything would work out naturally. I tried to make sure that in any one week, I’m keeping on top of my stuff, making sure I have enough food in my room, and making sure I’m going out with my friends.
My routine is getting more consistent now. At the start, it was a bit all over the place, though. I didn’t come with anything, so initially I thought “oh my God, moving in is taking way too much time”, but after a while I found it was quite manageable. It isn’t a lot more work living here now compared to living in Adelaide.
What do you miss most about home? Do you ever get homesick? How do you deal with that?
A few weeks before, I was super excited to come. However, on the first plane from Adelaide to Sydney, I was really sad about leaving.
I have a cat at home, I used to have two but one passed away, and I really miss her. In general, I miss a lot about Adelaide — the overall environment, the same shops, the same buildings, the routine, just the familiarity in general.
Do you see yourself staying in Sydney after graduation or staying in your home state?
I don’t see myself moving back to Adelaide. I was thinking I could stay here or try living overseas for some period of time, since I want to see the world as well. In terms of staying in Sydney, once I graduate I would have lived here for five years with my friends so I’d be settled in by then. I also moved to Sydney for Computer Science job opportunities, which I think are better than Adelaide’s.
What advice would you give to students moving interstate to study at UNSW?
Get and stay involved — try to go to events, sign up to clubs, and make sure you stay going to events. In the first week, I went to a whole bunch of different things, but some things I wished I had stuck with for a bit longer or taken more seriously.
I was trying too many things and they didn’t all stick, but it could be a good thing, after all you want to work out what works for you. In that way, you will also have more things to choose from to stick with. Go out and see what you like!
Also be organised. Get your Opal card early — for me, I think I got my Opal card about four weeks into being here, so be organised and have a plan.
If you could say one thing to your family and friends back home about Sydney what would you say?
Sydney is a good place to be! If any of my family and friends want to move to Sydney, I’d recommend it, and we can catch up.
Yunaa, 1st year Advanced Computer Science student
Introduce yourself!
My name is Yunaa! Before moving to Sydney, I was born in Thailand, but moved to Melbourne — the city where I grew up and graduated high school. I study Advanced Computer Science, hoping to major in Cyber Security.
Why did you choose UNSW over universities in your home state?
I first came to UNSW for a summer camp, National Computer Science School. Ever since then, I started seriously considering moving interstate. I wanted to start a new chapter of my life — I was in the same school for my whole pre-tertiary education and I realised that all the people from my school tended to go to roughly the same uni (Monash or UniMelb). I knew that moving to Sydney would be the drastic change I was looking for and I would be able to meet a lot of new, different types of people.
How do you balance living independently, whilst also keeping on top of your academics/social life/financial matters?
I think doing one thing at a time — slowly introducing things rather than going into everything at once - helped me adapt to university. When I start one [extracurricular], I do it for a few weeks and then ask myself “is my timetable free enough to add another thing?”. Taking things one thing at a time means I can properly settle into a routine and balance everything else I have to do.
In particular, living in Colombo College has made the move interstate easier. I picked Colombo because I thought it would be a good way to transition to living independently — we have to do everything ourselves e.g cooking and cleaning — but we still get the social benefits of living in a college. Since I live on campus, I am overall pretty balanced: I go to uni for most of the day, come home to study, and then afterwards [my college friends and I] hang out during the night.
What do you miss most about home? Do you ever get homesick? How do you deal with that?
I miss seeing my dog the most! I also miss seeing my parents and friends, but I manage that homesickness by calling them often. I found that bringing things (e.g books and figurines) from home to keep in my current room makes the experience better. I also have a polaroid wall! I brought polaroids of friends from home, and now I’m adding to my wall as I go.
Keeping in contact with my Melbourne friends hasn’t been too hard. I’ve been fortunate that it’s been a mutual effort — it would have been hard if it wasn't mutual, since it’s easy to ghost or drop off. While living in Melbourne, I also had friends in Sydney so it’s not my first time keeping in contact with long-distance friends.
Would you recommend other interstate students come to UNSW?
If you want to try something new, I would recommend you move interstate. I feel like being out of your comfort zone helps you grow as a person and be more inclined to try something you haven’t done before. In uni, especially as an interstate student, you have to put yourself out there more and make a conscious effort to talk to new people.
It’s been a really good experience for me personally. My mindset was that if I moved here and didn’t end up liking UNSW or Sydney it would be much easier to move back than vice versa.
What advice would you give to students moving interstate to study at UNSW?
Make sure you’ve covered all possibilities and thought about it long enough to move. I’ve personally thought about moving since NCSS (about 2 years). It’s important to plan out everything before you move - what you need to bring from home, what you need to buy when you first arrive etc.
You should also apply to accomodation places early since the process is very long and you don’t know when they’ll get back to you. I personally applied at the end of December. Waitlists are also very long so apply early and have many backup options in case it doesn’t work out — in my case, applying in late December is pretty late and I was lucky to get in, so make sure you get in early!
Do you think moving interstate has changed you? In what ways?
Moving interstate has made me more conscious of how I spend my time and where I spend money. I’ve learned to manage what I want to do a lot better now since I have full control over it and I have to do it - there’s no parents to rely on.
I’m also more willing to try new things I haven’t tried before like reaching out to talk to new people. I’ve gotten better at that compared to when I was in Melbourne.
If you could say one thing to your family and friends back home about Sydney what would you say?
Come visit the beaches! When I lived in Melbourne, beaches were a lot further from my house. Since living in Sydney, I’ve been able to visit Bondi and Coogee. I also have friends who live in Northern Beaches, so I’ve also visited Manly, Dee Why and Shelly.
Stuart, 1st year Computer Science/Commerce student
Introduce yourself!
Hello, my name is Stuart and I am a first-year, in my second term, studying Computer Science and Commerce! I was born in London, but I moved to Perth when I was 12.
Why did you choose UNSW over universities in your home state?
I’m very big into entrepreneurship, and UNSW has a good entrepreneurship program which I feel offers me better opportunities compared to in Perth. Sydney in general has a lot of opportunities to develop yourself. There’s a hackathon every week, as well as plenty of workshops, and the opportunities just come to you. There’s always a place to go, or a thing to do.
What is your accommodation situation like, and how did you find it?
So, a year ago I actually studied my first term in Term 1. However, I had to take a two term break, so now it is my second term at UNSW.
In my first term, I stayed at a sharehouse in Juniors Kingsford, and it was very good! However I found that you are sort of on your own in a sharehouse. As long as you clean, your roommates aren’t really concerned with you, and it also means you have to step up really quickly as a functioning adult. While I did make two really good friends staying at this sharehouse.
Now, I live on campus in a college! I feel like college definitely offers a true first-year university experience, and I was able to make a lot of unsuspecting friends. For example, I met my current friend group in the common room on a random day, and we were having jelly together, and now we do a lot more things together.
Your friends sound like a great support system in Sydney — what other fond memories do you have with them?
With my college friend group, we have a tradition where on Thursdays, we go to Maccas at 12pm, get food, go to the hammocks at Alumni Lawn, and play games and eat Jello. We ate so much jelly — right from the moment we met! — because we’d buy it on a 50% discount from Coles.
I also had traditions with my sharehouse roommates, too. Every Friday back then, my mum would order these vegan burgers and we’d cook and eat them together. Nowadays, I instead go down to a park with a grill and just mess around with the swings, or climb up the slide and chill up there. It’s a nice vibe.
Last year, I was also diagnosed with diabetes and was mainly managing that shift in my life on my own. However, I do remember my roommate, now my closest friend in Sydney, coming to sit with me in the hospital and reading with me.
How do you balance living independently, whilst also keeping on top of your academics/social life/financial matters?
In general, I’m prepared at all times, I have a ‘go-to’ food in case there’s no other options as well as always having clothes ready if I need to go out at a moment’s notice. For my social life as well, I have my aforementioned traditions as well, but I also find that a lot of good things come out of sparking random conversations. I like chatting up people in the elevator, and I remember once I did this and the guy I spoke to was, later on, my tutor. Since we already knew each other because of that moment we spoke again, and he was happy to give me advice on a lot of things. I just think in general college is built around getting the most out of what you find, or rather what finds you.
What do you miss most about home, and how do you deal with that?
I miss a lot of things — when I was diagnosed with diabetes, the first thing I did when I returned to Perth was go to the Scarborough Night Markets. There, the sun sets over the water rather than over the city compared to Sydney, so I was able to enjoy that while eating food on the beach.
I also miss being able to play volleyball with my Perth friends on the beach, especially since we’d set up the court while the sun was setting and it was beautiful. Another thing I miss is seeing the stars, since they are much clearer in Perth than what they are in Sydney.
If you could say one thing to your family and friends back home about Sydney what would you say?
Although I’m living the life over here in Sydney, it doesn’t mean I’m not going to be going back to Perth. At the end of the day, I can’t forget my roots and where I came from. Love Sydney though!
For more useful resources:
CSESoc Discord - A great place to ask questions and get advice from fellow students!
UNSW Subreddit - This is not CSESoc affiliated, however it is popular amongst students when seeking useful advice that may have been asked by past students in subreddits. Use at your own discretion.
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Kaiyu Su, Mary Fakhr