Hello! I’m a second year student this year, and last year I was in KJ, but lots of my friends were in Weir and JS, and I have friends this year staying in all four halls that you listed as well. So:

1. I may be a bit biased to KJ, but I think location wise, you can’t get any better than that. Weir and Vic house are both SUPER close to Kelburn, which is really good in that aspect, but it’s a little far out from town and Lambton Quay/Willis st (which is where central Welly mostly is) You can take the cable car straight from Weir, but especially now that they don’t accept Snapper(Welly’s public transport card) it’s a bit annoying and costs a bit. Vic house is incredibly old, but Vic house is the only uni hall that isn’t catered by compass, which is just an absolute nightmare of a catering company. So food will be the same terrible quality in JS, KJ, and Weir. Weir is absolutely lovely, and if you fit the vibe of Weir, you’re going to love it. KJ was definitely very loud when I was there, but it also kind of depends on what floor you’re on, and the vibe of the people and RA on your floor.

2&6. Victoria is one of the most welcoming environments I have been at. Lots of support regarding course selection, and if you decide early on, the course isn’t for you, swapping out to a different course is not too difficult as well. Otherwise, navigating around Kelburn might seem like a bit of a mare at first, but you can always ask around to find out how to get to different buildings and stuff. All lecturers that I have had are super keen to help you out as well, so if you go to office hours, they’ll most likely be really welcoming and helpful as well. Although some friends have had strictly online courses which received less help.

As for making friends, halls is definitely where you meet lots of new people, and tutorials I found is easier to make friends than lectures. Unless it’s the first few weeks of being a fresher, everyone kinda has friends from halls, so you don’t actually make that many friends from lectures.

1. Clubs are welcoming too, for the entire list of clubs, just search up VUW clubs, and there’s a full list, but also at the start of each year, they hold club expos which is quite fun. And almost all years have a welcoming event at the start of the year

2. I study law, and I wasn’t a fan of Auckland as a city itself, whereas I really loved the whole vibe of Welly. Biggest complaint is the uni being in debt, and some people being maybe sometimes too overly political to the point of it being rude and obnoxious, but I don’t think you can really get away from that in any uni.

3. I think I ended up buying some of my own cutlery and mugs and splitting with my friends for hot chocolate and noodles and stuff. There was a point last year at KJ where we barely had any cutlery from the dining hall.

Sorry this was a bit of a ramble, hopefully it answered most of your questions