Studying abroad will bring about many benefits including the opportunity to learn new languages and new cultures brought about by the interaction with students from all over the world.
Have you ever considered studying abroad? There are many universities all over the world offering places for foreign students. Getting to study at a university far away from your country comes with many advantages. This will include getting to learn a new language and new cultures brought about by the interaction with students from many parts of the world. However, being far away from home could prove difficult to many. This has the effect of making the not realizing the dream of d=studying abroad to many. This article aims to take care of this by sharing some amazing tips about studying abroad. Want to learn more? Continue reading.
Plan early
A lot of activities should be prior to studying abroad. You will need to apply to the school you have identified and go ahead to register for whatever course you want to take. You will also have to take care of your travel. This will include ensuring your passport is in good condition, booking for your flight, as well as packing you belongings. While abroad, you will need a place to stay. This has to be arranged before you travel to avoid hotel expenses which could cost you a lot of money.
All the above activities should be done before the day comes for you to travel. To be on the safe side, it would be best to start planning for your study as early as six months before you travel.
Look for financial aid
Studying abroad could prove to be a costly affair. In fact, many people drop out of college after a few years due to lack of finances. To avoid this from happening to you, you should take the effort of researching for all forms of financial support you can get.
It is important to look out for scholarships that could be available to you. There are various kinds of scholarships. For instance, in the United States, there exists national scholarships like the Gilman scholarship which are offered to students from all over the country. Likewise, you could apply for scholarships from your country which are offered to students intending to study abroad. There are also available scholarship opportunities offered at the university level. These come in various forms. It could be financial aid to cater for your tuition fees. The scholarships could also come in the form of free laptops upon registration. This would be a high-end professional laptop under $1500 or so.
Getting to research about the available scholarship opportunities and applying for them will go a long way in making you achieve your educational goals faster at a lower cost.
Learn their language
Many universities accept foreign students for their classes. Some of these students will come from countries that speak a different language from that spoken in their new school. If this happens to you, it will present an opportunity for you to learn a new language. This will be crucial as it could be the only language spoken during classes. It will also help you to interact with other students.
In many cases, the university will have language classes offered to foreign students. This will equip you with basic knowledge of the language spoken in that specific country. If this is not available, you should find a good school in your country and take language classes before you travel to your new school.
Save as much as you can
As it has been stated in this article, studying abroad is a costly affair. You may be lucky enough to benefit from scholarship opportunities. However, you will still need some money to take care of accommodation, food, and travel expenses. You will have to take care of these expenses yourself as scholarships only cover for tuition expenses.
To have a smooth school life, you will have to save enough money to handle some of the expenses mentioned above. There are many ways you could get the cash. This will include taking up holiday jobs and other internship opportunities that offer financial compensation. Every money you earn should be spent wisely to ensure you save as much as possible for your college expenses.
Get new debit and credit card
While studying abroad, it would make perfect sense to do all that is possible to keep your expenses in check. Failure to acquire new debit and credit cards is one sure way of having to incur additional costa that could be avoided. To start with, your credit card may not be accepted as a payment option when purchasing goods in your new country. This would force you to use your debit card which will have to cost you more. To add to this, using your old debit card will involve the exchange of currency. The currency conversion rates could be high forcing you to part with more money.
You study abroad will mean you will be staying in the new country for several months. To avoid high expenses, you should consider getting new debit and credit card the moment you arrive in that country. This will save you a lot of cash.
Familiarize yourself with local laws
A majority of people travelling to a new country will find themselves in trouble for breaking a law. Many of these people are caught unaware due to their lack of knowledge of the prevailing law in that country. It is important to note that the laws of the country you visit will not necessarily be the same as those of your country of origin. A good example is traffic laws, these tend to vary from one country to another. To avoid being caught on the wrong side of the law, it would be wise to familiarize yourself with the laws of your new country. You will only be safe if you know the right thing to do, and at the right time and place.
Additionally, it would be wise to avoid getting involved in any kind of riots or demonstrations which are typical with most university students. Don’t follow the crowd. Stay safe by avoiding demonstrations.
Avoid booking your return ticket early
One of the biggest mistakes made by students studying abroad is to book their return ticket early. This has the effect of limiting your stay abroad. For example, is you register for a six-months-course in a university abroad, getting an early return ticket will mean that you will have to travel back to your country immediately after the six months are over. A situation may arise requiring you to stay a bit longer. This could be an internship opportunity which will not be possible if you book your return ticket early.
Avoiding this will ensure you have some extra time after you have completed your course. You can utilize that time well. For example, you can take advantage of this time to travel to places you were not able to visit while taking your course. You can as well take internship opportunities during this time.
Get a new SIM card
A majority of travelers usually hold onto their SIM cards while they are abroad. This will mean that they will have to use public Wi-Fi to access mobile services. While this may work for some, it is only worthwhile for travelers who are only visiting the country in question for a few days or weeks. However, studying abroad will entail living in a new country for a few months. Failure to get a Sim card registered in the new country will only mean you will have to spend way more on mobile services. This will not be good especially for students who, in most cases, are struggling with low finances. Getting a new SIM card will be the way to go and will also help to cut on costs.
Keep the memory alive
While studying abroad is a good thing, it is only available to a few people. It is also an opportunity that comes a few times. While studying abroad, it would be good to keep the memory, which will serve to remind you of the time you has abroad. You can do this by keeping a journal which will detail every moment you had; the good and the bad. It would also be wise to take as many pictures as possible. Capture every moment and keep the memory alive.
You will be lucky to have the opportunity to study in a university away from your country. Apart from having the chance to study in one of the world’s top universities, the opportunity will come with many other advantages, some of which have been discussed in this article. This opportunity may come with its fair share of hurdles. However, this article has strived to reduce this by sharing tips that would help in your study abroad. By keeping the tips discussed in this article in mind, you will have a smooth college life.
Author Bio
Jeff Finder is a Digital Nomad who travels around the world and blog about technology, gadgets and specifically laptops at Laptopcut.com. He’s also an international speaker and love to persuade youth to find their voice online and make it count.
