I had the best experience at the University of Sydney studying abroad. My favorite part of my time there was living at one of the residential colleges on campus, St. John's. I got to live with 250 Australians and it really gave me a fully immersive experience. I highly recommend that anyone who is considering studying abroad at the University of Sydney apply to live in one of the residential colleges because it will absolutely be the highlight of your time in Sydney.
The city of Sydney itself is easily the best place to study abroad in Australia. Because Australia is a huge country, it is not so easy to travel as it might be if you were to study abroad in Europe. So unless you are made of money, you're not going to be able to travel to a different city every weekend. But, there is so much to do in Sydney you will never feel like you're missing out. The public transportation is great and from USYD's campus you can easily take a bus to the beach or downtown where you can then catch a ferry to so many different areas of the city. The food is also incredible with so much great international cuisine as well as a to die for cafe culture.
The classes overall at USYD are manageable, but not easy. You won't have many mandatory hours of class as all of the lectures are recorded and available to watch online which makes it easy to miss class and travel.
What would you improve about this program?
I wish there were more initial trips to help get kids over jet lag/oriented to Sydney. I know some of the other providers had pre planned trips and I always wished I had been able to do something like that.