Students who were sitting where you are

I had a 2.8 GPA and had been told by two consultancies that Australia was out of reach. Oli & Associates found me a pathway diploma in Brisbane, got the credit transfer agreed in writing before I applied, and I finished my bachelors a semester behind where I would have been anyway. Nobody else showed me that route existed.

The visa file is what I remember. Every document was checked twice and the sponsor letter was rewritten three times before they were happy with it. My interview lasted four minutes because there was nothing left to ask.

They talked me out of my first choice. I wanted the USA because my friends were going; the counsellor showed me what the same money bought in New Zealand, and what the work rights looked like after. I am in Auckland, and my parents still thank them.

I did my IELTS preparation in their Pokhara classroom and got a 7.5 overall. The class was fifteen people, not fifty, and the trainer marked my writing herself every week.

My refusal from a previous agent was the problem, not my profile. They rebuilt the whole file, explained the earlier refusal properly in the new application, and it went through first time.