Student Profile

Erin Eydt

While Erin Eydt was still at school in Wellington, she attended Hands On Science classes at Otago.

“I loved the beautiful old buildings, and everyone I talked to said ‘go to Otago, it’s fantastic, you’ll meet new people from different backgrounds and with different ideas’,” says Erin.

So when Erin left school thinking she might want to be a doctor, she enrolled in a Health Sciences First Year, and found Otago lived up to its reputation.

“I loved that it was all together in one place, with the halls and the flats so close to the University. It’s a little world all of its own. The first year was a great year. There were some fantastic people, and a few real gems of teachers. I really enjoyed biology and biochemistry, and the facilities were amazing. There were computer labs all over the place, and I couldn’t believe the library — it was beautiful, and warm and comfortable.”

But Erin’s first year didn’t go according to plan. “It was exciting being in a hall, and I lost focus a bit. I’d been very academic at high school and I know at varsity I didn’t do as much work as I should have in one of my subjects that I didn’t like much, and that let me down. About half way through the year I realised that I didn't really need to do medicine. It had seemed the easiest thing to do because I was interested in the body and biology, and found the body fascinating. But now I was studying other subjects and I saw there were other things I could do.”

Erin didn’t make the cut for medicine, but by now she had a new perspective on life. “I looked in the Prospectus and biomedsci just jumped out at me. It looked exciting and new and a bit different. There were interesting majors, and the degree gave you scope to study some non-science papers too.”

Now Erin is in the final year of her degree. She’s changed majors a couple of times, but she’s still studying her favourite subjects — and recommending Otago to her friends.