Thursday we spent the day at La Trobe.  La Trobe is located in Bundura, a suburb of Melbourne, about 30-40 minutes from the city center. The campus is services by a tram and bus system, so students studying at La Trobe have really easy access to the city, without being right in the middle of everything. We met with Joanne and Rachel … and learned that Joanne isn’t Australian, she’s American.  She came to Oz for a masters degree, and never left.

La Trobe is a beautiful parkland campus.  School had just started, so we were able to see a lot of the campus in action, and you could really feel the beginning of the semester excitement. La Trobe has about 20,000 students at the Bundoora campus, and has a few regional campuses as well, the largest of which is in Bendigo, which I’m scheduled to visit on Saturday.

We had another full day, with a presentation on study abroad at La Trobe and meetings with Media and Communication and Technology and Engineering, both of whom gave wonderful overviews of their programs and offerings to study abroad students. The communication prof with whom we met, Lawrie (short for Lawrence) Zion made a video on the history of the Australian accent and provided copies for everyone.  It’s about an hour in length, so I figure, if I watch it back-to-back on the flight home, I’ll be a very convincing Ozzie by the time we land in LA.

We learned that evening that a light rain really slows up traffic … so note to students, if you’re thinking of traveling from La Trobe into the city center at rush hour … plan on it taking a good bit of time. The reason for the traffic in Melbourne is that the city is an older city and there’s a tram; so although the road is wide enough for four lanes, you can really only have two lanes going, as the tram runs down the middle.

Dinner that night was at a lovely Italian restaurant (very different from the one we visited on Ligone), and we had more time to chat with Joanne and Rachel about La Trobe and Melbourne in general.  Folks who live in and around Melbourne absolutely love the city. They all say that while it’s a hard city to visit, it’s a really easy city to get to know. Hard to visit, they say, because there are so many hidden gems that are really hard to find if you don’t know to look for them … and the only way you learn to look for them is by living there for a bit of time. It is, however, a very easy city to get around, with a great public transportation system. Young, vibrant, and a lot of fun!

Why, as a student, would I choose La Trobe? Lots of course offerings open to international students, including communication, health science, education, and life sciences, among others. A number of ecology and zoology courses that include field trips as part of the course work. Beautiful parkland campus, just outside of the city center, but with easy access to the city center.

Why, as an advisor, would I recommend La Trobe to students? Very strong adacemics. Mid-sized uni, so perfect for students who are looking for loads of course offerings, but not a huge uni. Safe suburban location, within easy reach of the city. Great for “culture vultures” as there’s always something going on in Melbourne!