So what do
you need to before you study abroad?
Studying
abroad can be difficult because you are typically planning a trip where you
leave your family and everyone you know along with most of your possessions
behind… well unless something terribly tragic happened to you and you have
neither family nor possessions…
Before
trying to take on this long and dangerous venture you should at least be able
to prepare for it so you survival chances can go up. Thus here is my list of
things you need to do to prepare for feeling the wrath of the league… no!
stupid copyright. the list of things you need to do to prepare for studying
abroad.
Numba wan
You're at school and this person comes to your class and tells you
about thing interesting experience that comes with going to another country…
somehow they intrigue you and you want to go. You think about it and decide you
might do it a year from now. So that means you don't have to worry about
preparing now doesn't it? それは違うんです。 Although you may think you
don't have to do anything you actually need to start… NOW. Many of the
documents required to go abroad can take months to complete and most will need
to be completed months before you even study abroad, or even before you are considered
for study abroad. *deep breath* So the first on my list of things to do to
prepare for study abroad is get your passport. Passports at the very fastest
take 2-6 weeks to get, BUT this service costs a lot more. In fact unless there
is an emergency and you have a good reason to apply for a passport late, the
very fastest is 6 weeks, and that is still the expediated time frame (their
website say less than 6 weeks but that’s all)
cheapest expediting fees are like $60 so I wouldn’t recommend it. If you
get it the routine way they say it takes more than 6 weeks. To be totally
honest mine got to me faster than this, but the real reason I stress the
importance of it is because some study abroad programs wont even consider you
if you do not have this already, and all of them require you get it before are
100% cleared to come (plus you need it to get your visa)
Noomber
twoo
Learn
about the different programs your school has and what is required to go to
them. And actually research it! Just hearing from someone else "oh you
should go here" sounds great and convinces many people they should go to
wherever that is but please, Puleeze do not do this. You need to figure out
what you want out of this experience and then select the location that best
suits your needs. Want to not push your graduation back? Find a school that has
courses you need for graduation. Care about understanding what you are
learning? Find a school that has more classes in your native tongue (I would
assume English if you are understanding all of the linguistic jokes I's be
makin', it's not like you are a linguist right. Right?) want to just have fun
and party all the time? Go to UTK where they butt chug (shame you shouldn't
bring that up. Plus that isn't study abroad) Regardless you need to research
about the school. If the thought of researching for study abroad sounds like it
is a lot of work, then don't, but when the place you picked causes you problems
don't come crying to me. No really. I do not want to deal with a teary eyed
you… oh the salty messiness. Ugh. But honestly, most schools give credits… is
that right? Credits? Credit? I think it's usually 1. okay most schools give a
credit for studying abroad anyway, so at least put a credit's (that sounds
plural but it is not) worth of work in to preparing for it.
三番目
So now you
have your passport to pass the ports and programed your program in your plans,
and are about ready to hit this guy making corny jokes. Now what do you do?
There are still like 10 months before this whole study abroad thing anyways.
Well aside from the fact that many programs have really early sign-ups so you
should already be applying to the one you want, you also are starting to notice
that they want you to have this thing called money… and they want you to have a
lot of it. Typically they want you to have enough to cover your living expenses
for the whole year. Because everyone has that laying around. Except for that
person earlier who has no family nor possessions, they have nothing. If you
happen to be like them and have no money lying around then I'm sorry but you
are screwed… I hope you really didn’t believe me. In all actuality there are
several ways to get money for studying abroad. Many are very helpful and
useful, but you can't rely on all of them to be in your bank account by the
time your program requires it. If there is any way to start saving now you
should do it. Now there are several ways to help with the money, but I'll talk
about them in another post. Just know that even the projected amounts are just
living expenses and you will almost undoubtable need more.
Number 4
For those
now on a limited budget (good for you saving for this trip) you may want to
start planning the things you will need to buy before you go. This is a scary
step and often you find you did it wrong if you wait until the last second to
do it. This one is also hard enough that I will actually make another post
about "what to sneak in" but just know that you should try and get
things that you need to order, sooner rather than later. Like that really nice
camera lens so I could record myself talking about Japan. Only took 4 weeks to
get to me. So glad I didn't wait until a week before leaving to try and get
that one, otherwise I would be typing all of these posts…
#5
Ensure you
have amenities to communicate with family, and try to have a cost effective way
to do so. I would say the basic thing to do is make sure you have internet
where you are going. If you are staying in dorms at the school you are studying
abroad at then having internet is probably a given, but how do you contact your
family. If you want to video call your family there are several free services
you can use such as skype. Phone services are a little different. If you want
to just bring your own phone from home to a different country then you may be a
little surprised to find they have big up-charges for international calls. And
not small up-charges either. For me I found the cheapest way for me to phone
family was to use google voice, a free service, to make calls to my family.
Before I left the country I set up a permanent phone number attached to my
Gmail account which I can make calls from straight from Gmail. Then just for
international calls I added $10 to my account so that I could make international
calls. Turns out that it wasn't necessary. Calls to my family did not count as
international because I set up a phone number that was local for them, the only
calls that cost me anything were the ones to people in Japan. By the way, after
a year in Japan I still have more than $7 left from that initial $10. there are
many other ways to do things just like this so go out and research them. You
may want to buy a watch that can have world time separate though so you don’t
call home at 2:00 in the morning though.
Well this
post has gotten a bit long. Want to see the rest of my top ten? Subscribe! also feel free to leave a comment down below. I would love to hear from you.
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