“Melbourne, come at me! I love it here. My name is Shanti, I’m 19 and half Irish, half Indian. I moved here because I wanted a new start and thought Melbourne the perfect place as there are so many opportunities and the city is so cosmopolitan.

“I chose to study the Bachelor of Information Technology as my cousin did this degree and is doing extremely well. RMIT accepted me and I’m so glad I took the offer. It’s difficult sometimes but there are loads of people willing to help you and who want you to succeed. I have found it easy to make friends – all you have to do is go up to someone with a smile and introduce yourself. Just remember that they are in the same situation and will want to make friends too!

“My campus is right in the city and it’s great. There are so many places to eat, to go for drinks with friends, have coffee, study inside and outside. It all helps make uni life a bit more laid back so it’s not as daunting as you think it will be. And this is coming from someone who has to go to uni five days a week, sometimes from 9am till 7pm! Make your academic work a priority and give yourself time to get it done; then you will have time to chill with new friends, go out and experience the nightlife, whatever you want to do.

“Going out can be quite pricey, but it is easy to find a part time job. And once you start getting to know the place, you will find the cheaper places to eat and drink!”

What Shanti has to say about how she found out about Study Options…

“I found Study Options just by browsing online for somewhere that would be able to help me apply to study in Australia. They were really helpful and friendly. I could call or email whenever I had questions and they submitted all of my applications for me so I didn’t have to worry about it. They even went to the extent of reading through drafts of my application covering letters to check that they were right.”