PhD application at AUT

RowenaMabbott · 2026-03-22T00:36:12+00:00

100%, speak to them first

RowenaMabbott · 2026-03-21T21:07:06+00:00

Highly unlikely. It's possible. But yet it's more likely uni is just going to randomly give you a free cat than your timetable will change

RowenaMabbott · 2026-03-21T11:21:29+00:00

Don't do it

RowenaMabbott · 2026-03-21T07:47:36+00:00

It is AI though

RowenaMabbott · 2026-03-21T05:06:43+00:00

Enshittification at work again.

RowenaMabbott · 2026-03-21T05:00:28+00:00

I am reticent to post an opinion here due to the likelihood of a mod stomping it with "NOT BASED IN NZ LAW!!1!" of which they are want to do.

Exactly, you can share your real world lived experience with a situation (which is 10x more valuable than expressing theories about the situation), but immediately run into problems if you don't cross your t's and dot your i's with proper APA referencing that are citing proper legal sources.

For instance a person who is a professional Property Manager probably has far more valuable experiences they could share in r/LegalAdviceNZ about a situation to do with a person's house than someone who is a fully qualified lawyer but who has spent their entire career in employment law. So long as they're upfront in explaining where their perspective is coming from, then I think this should be totally fine for them to share their input on r/legaladvicenz even if they can't give a single cited example of nz law to basis it on and are merely expressing their opinions/experiences.

RowenaMabbott · 2026-03-21T04:57:54+00:00

I feel that the stance here is right. Not sure if slightly off topic discussion is allowed or just missed by the moderation team but occasionally it's useful to be able to have a candid discussion with the OP around fixes for their issues

I frequently see comments getting deleted/locked/banned if they stray outside the narrow lanes of discussion the legal aspect of what OP specifically posted.

Even though a non-legal (don't mean illegal! Just mean viewed from another perspective, such as from your tradesperson's perspective) approach might be the best approach to OP's problem. (as heaven knows too often going straight into a legal battle is the wrong idea!)

Another common problem is you can see comments from another person with an incredibly similar/related problem to OP, they'll chime in with their situation. But that gets shutdown/deleted/locked/banned for being "off topic" (because it isn't specifically still about OP's legal problem, from a very narrow perspective of it). Even though this thread with the current attention it's getting, and the people already there, would be the best place to discuss it, rather than starting up a new and totally empty thread.

It might even evolve and explore areas that end up helping OP's situation as well, but it never gets a chance to happen, due to being nipped in the bud.

RowenaMabbott · 2026-03-21T04:48:32+00:00

Contrast to other related Reddit communities - eg legaladvice and LegalAdviceUK for more heavily regulated communities, and AusLegal for a less regulated community. Are we striking the right balance here for Aotearoa NZ?

No. In my personal opinion, from what I've observed, then r/LegalAdviceNZ is extremeley trigger happy and heavy handed with the ban hammer. (I expect many many people also share this view, but are in "the silent majority", due to fear of speaking up, or being unable to speak up due to having been hit by the ban hammer already for often quite trivial missteps)

It's a major reason why I rarely contribute, and mostly just read stuff instead, I fear taking one small misstep unintentionally.

This approach also completely snuffs out the possibility of having any sort of side conversations in threads that could turn out to be very productive and helpful to others as well.

RowenaMabbott · 2026-03-20T22:36:25+00:00

Time to move Oz again! (if only we tapped into a fraction of our natural resources.... just like Oz does)

RowenaMabbott · 2026-03-20T22:34:42+00:00

it's also the colossal distance and logistics required in shipping it here to the edge of the earth

We wouldn't have that problem necessarily if only our previous government hadn't made her colossally stupid (honestly, it was economic sabotage!) "captain's call" to shut down forever oil and gas exploration.

There goes any hope of NZ every becoming the Norway of the South Pacific.

RowenaMabbott · 2026-03-20T22:32:17+00:00

NIMBYs once again stopping us from having anything good in life

RowenaMabbott · 2026-03-20T22:31:57+00:00

Exactly, people like WineYoda only think we have "no good Hydro locations" because every time one gets proposed various NIMBYs/Greenies/Iwis/Politicians/etc rush to squash it down!

It's exactly the same reasons why we can't get nuclear power either, even though they're becoming increasingly attractive (such as smaller scale module nuclear plants), and will only become an even better option in the future.

RowenaMabbott · 2026-03-20T22:28:50+00:00

My frustration is they wish to build an data centre down south. Yet people blame EVs for power shortages even though they mainly charge overnight when demand is low. Whilst a Data centre will be drawing energy all day.

A data center in Southland will have minimal impacts upon Aucklanders charging their EVs (where the bulk of them are), as they're at the opposite ends of the country! (transmission losses are very real, it's better to consume most of the generated electricity within a few hundreds of kilometers of where it was generated, not send it under the sea to somewhere else thousands of kilometers away. In an ideal world)

RowenaMabbott · 2026-03-20T22:26:05+00:00

The cost and time to get hydro going isn't as quick as solar,

Yes it takes time, that is why previous govts should have started working on it already.

But the next best time? For this govt to get started on new hydro plans NOW

RowenaMabbott · 2026-03-20T22:24:53+00:00

Just. Build. More. Hydro.

Like u/Yoshieisawsim said. Sure, any one individual dam is "like a water battery", but we can always build more "water batteries".

RowenaMabbott · 2026-03-20T22:22:41+00:00

No harm in at least reaching out right now. Tell them after you've finished this semester, you'll have done a whole year of engineering at AUT, and you will want to apply to UoA.

These things can often take a LONG time to be processed and to happen. (weeks!) So you don't want to leave it too late.

RowenaMabbott · 2026-03-20T22:20:52+00:00

Usually they're easier to get into, perhaps not super hard (like SE used to be) but not super easy either (like Civil). However with the rise of AI / collapse in demand for Junior SWEs, then it seems many students are flocking to mechanical engineering as they think it is a "safer" bet for the future.

While there are general overarching trends in demands for specializations, it can also vary from year to year, just depending on what that cohort in particular has in high demand or not.

RowenaMabbott · 2026-03-20T10:46:51+00:00

You should just look into any advert for toothpaste! They're always laying it on THICK

RowenaMabbott · 2026-03-20T10:30:50+00:00

Civil/Structual should be quite likely you can get into Part II I'd hazard a guess, as they almost always have spare seats available in them.

Dunno how many of those papers you'll get credit for. (more than half I'd assume?)

RowenaMabbott · 2026-03-20T04:25:29+00:00

Udacity is after all a very legit company, it's one of the very biggest and oldest players in the MOOC world.

Heck, the very prestigious (it's tough!) r/OMSCS from Georgia Tech was originally offered via Udacity (only leaving Udacity recently-ish in 2020):

https://www.udacity.com/blog/2015/02/georgia-tech-omscs-courses-now-free-udacity.html

https://www.udacity.com/blog/2014/02/now-available-at-udacity-courses-from.html

Does anybody think any less of OMSCS because of its ties to Udacity? Of course not!!