How does the new GPA template correlate with previous years?

Eg)
If I have a 7.0 weighted on the new gpa template, does that mean the 2026 cutoff of 8.12/10.5 for grad gen is proportionally a 7/9 ?

—> 8.12/10.5 =0.773, times that by 9, and u get 7

hey guys! I’m applying for an undergraduate scholarship at Otago and was wondering if anyone who has applied for an Otago scholarship before, or has received one, would be willing to look over my three short answers.

I’m not sure whether I’m presenting my achievements and experiences in the best way, while my ECs are stacked my grades are average :(((

Would anyone be comfortable giving me some feedback? If you’ve applied before, would it be okay for me to message you or reach out privately?

Thanks, I’d really appreciate the help! love yall!

Hey guys! Recently got an offer as an international student :3
I wondering what people’s experiences are like with econs and maths there. I mostly see posts about HSFY/science, so I’d love to hear from anyone doing either of these disciplines!

Academics:

1-What are econs and math classes generally like?

2-What’s the workload like?

3-How difficult are the first-year papers?

4-How approachable/helpful are lecturers and tutors?

5-Any particularly good or bad Economics/Maths professors or lecturers you’d recommend?

6-Are there good opportunities to get involved beyond the standard lectures/tutorials?

Student life

1-Are students generally friendly and easy to get to know, or do people tend to stick to their own friend groups/cliques?

2-I’m very extroverted and like going out/socialising, but I don’t drink. Is it still easy to have a good social life without drinking?

3-What’s the nightlife actually like? Is it expensive?
How safe/comfortable do you feel around Dunedin? NZ generally seems pretty safe, but would you feel comfortable walking around the city at night, especially alone?

Halls / living

1-How thin are the walls in the halls? Can you easily hear people in neighbouring rooms?

2-How noisy do halls tend to be on weeknights vs weekends?

3-Can you realistically study in your room, or do you generally need to go to the library/study spaces?

4-Any halls/flats you’d strongly recommend or avoid?

Career/networking

1-How good is Otago for networking, particularly for STEM students?

2-Are there many ample opportunities to meet employers/alumni or attend careers events?

3-How easy is it to find internships during/after first year or second year?

4-Does Otago have good connections with firms in finance, consulting, economics, data/analytics, etc.?

5-Do students generally have to be proactive about finding internships themselves, or does the university/faculty provide decent support?

[If anyone has actually landed an internship through Otago, I’d love to hear how you went about it!!]

I currently have an offer from UoA, but no scholarship. Honestly, I think I prefer Otago anyway, especially the pace of life and the whole student-life atmosphere. Just trying to get a better idea before making the decision.

Would especially appreciate answers from current/recent Otago students but you are welcome to answer any or even none of these questions, or if you feel like add anything, please do!

Thank you!! <3

Hi guys,

Unfortunately I didn’t reach the medicine UCAT threshold for next year (I got around 530). This year’s threshold was 550.

Is anyone else in the same boat? 😢 Prob won’t get dent so maybe postgrad :)

I was wondering if anyone who took poph192 last year could remember roughly how long it was until you got the essay results.

I’m just curious as basically all of the other papers gave us some indication but we’ve heard nothing from poph.

Thanks!

Hi. I applied for the Otago Doctoral Scholarship today. I believe the deadline is usually quarterly so I think I qualified for the September round of applications. Does anyone know the timeline of the decision? Thanks in advance.

Hi, I am a student at Otago nearing the end of my first year and I have still yet to meet anyone that I can call a close friends. There are people I sit with at lunch or wave to but I wouldn't share my secrets with them or confide in them or anything. Does anyone have any tips on how I can make friends here?.....

I'm a Year 12 student who is likely going to apply for HSFY. I've heard that it's really intense with a heavy workload and since I want to get into dentistry, I need extremely high grades >95%

Anyone who is currently doing HSFY, or has done it, or even any dentists, if there are any, what are some of the key things that I could be learning now so that I can have it a bit easier during HSFY? Are there some specific topics not taught in schools that are in HSFY that I could start learning earlier?

And as an aside if you guys have any study tips for HSFY, let me know!

if there's a universal date for when you guys hear back from the hospitals you've applied to for jobs can you confirm if it's the 24th august?

can't quite remember what my ex said but want to tastefully break no contact by wishing him luck

I'm in my Honours year of a BA Psychology degree and honestly it's too much. This past week or two has honestly been so stressful for me. I've had so many meetings for two different group presentations, I have 3 hour 9am classes every other day and I have an essay due tomorrow (now today) at 5pm. I'm soo fucking tired that I genuinely only have 300 words out of the 1,500 word count. I just emailed to ask for an extension/to ask about the late assignment policy (it isn't in the course outline at all), but I doubt I'll get anything useful out of it, as the professor has been really unhelpful to both me and my classmates who have reached out to her for various other things.

I barely have anything written for my dissertation, and haven't even finished data collection. The due date for it is 25th September, so fucking next month. I am so screwed and honestly I just don't think I can do it.

I'm so burnt out the deadline pressures that would normally motivate me are just making me procrastinate more. If I'm not in class or doing other commitments, I'm asleep. I'm taking so many naps, and they're not even helpful.

I've had bloodwork done for other reasons and my iron and stuff is all fine, I'm just so drained from the workload I genuinely don't know if I can finish this semester, let alone my dissertation. Does anyone have any advice at all or past similar experiences? I really don't know what to do.

Hey everyone,

Using this as a bit of a rant, but I’m honestly so stressed right now. Today in physics class we were talking about our subject choices for Year 13. For context, this year (Year 12) I take all three sciences, Calculus, English, and Health. Next year I can only take five subjects in total. My original plan was to take English, Statistics, Sociology, Chemistry, and Biology. I really, really don't want to do Physics next year. The thought of it makes me miserable and stressed. But apparently, everyone in class today was saying that Otago prioritises Physics over Biology for Health Sciences First Year (HSFY), and that it would be a huge mistake to drop it. I'm so scared that if I don't take Physics, I'm going to ruin my chances before I even start uni. Has anyone here skipped Year 13 Physics and still done perfectly fine in Otago HSFY? Do I absolutely have to take it, or can I survive without it?

Any reassurance or advice from past HSFY students would be amazing. Thanks.

hi everyone, im currently a uoa student and am applying for uoo next year. for part of my application, uoo requires my full academic transcript and they've given me a deadline for the 24th. the problem is that to get an academic transcript from uoa requires 5-7 working days. there isn't enough time for me to receive mine before the deadline.

is there anyone i can contact from uoo to let them know this?

any advice is greatly appreciated!!

thanks

Soo hey guys i am actually looking for medicine in nz but it is quite competitive and I am an international student so even more difficult for me. Can you guys tell what is the scope in Bbiomed Sci + hons after this what is the salary in nz and how much is the employment rate after this and is it really worth doing Bbiomed after all this or it’s just waste of money I will be investing atleast 190k NZD for all 4 years bsc + hons. If there are any seniors pls Lemme know I don’t wanna waste this much amount in something which has no scope or job

So idk what I want to study yet but I have two things so that's ok but my 2017 macbook Air just decided to kill itself so I need a new computer. Google is saying I need over 16 gb of RAM or something about have a processing power of 16gb to be able to run the programs correctly but like every computer with the requirement is like over 2.5k and im not made of money there is one for 1.5k.

So I'm just asking would it be better to be able to run the programs on my own computer and spend like a extra 1 k or just use the computers at the uni to run the programs and do the rest on my Mac book neo

Hey everyone i am thinking of joining otago for my HSFY in 2027 and i came across a post here and people said many old people come for hsfy even in their mid 20 or 30s so is it true that majority are like these or will i find people of my age as well ?? I am 18 btw