About the middle of my sophomore year of college, my friends and I were hit with study abroad hysteria. Would we go abroad, as is traditional for third year American college students? Where would we go? Would we have to speak a foreign language? What would the exchange rate be? Would the academics be more or less difficult? Would the food be alright?
If you are one of those students who are lucky enough to have the opportunity to study abroad, you will have your choice of any country. With the world the way it is, choosing a country to study in may be harder than expected. There are some factors that you have to take into consideration when choosing to study overseas. The four main factors are Language, Culture, Safety and Environment. Let’s take a look and see what each factor brings and what you have to consider before choosing a country to study in.
Language: One of the most well known reasons why students want to study overseas is to practice the language they have taken in school. Places like Spain, France, Italy and others have become very popular. Consider first your level of proficiency in that language. Are you a beginner who can get by or can you really communicate if you were to go to a country such as France. The school will provide a placement test to see what language level you are on. You may have to complete some class work in order to study abroad.
Culture: Sometimes learning another language is not the reason why you want to study abroad. Often times students prefer to go to other countries in order to take in the local cultures. Sometimes these include countries that speak English and sometimes they do not. Local cultures in countries like Spain and France have history and a lot of it. While you are studying abroad you can check out the local restaurants and see what their foods are, they are bound to be very different than the ones we have here. Local religious customs are different than other countries; you can see their churches and structures of where people gather. You can also take in Museums and Art Galleries too.
Safety: Safety should be your number one priority when it comes to studying abroad. With the world changing every day, there is potential for some problems at your country of choice. Do some research and looking into the safety warming and travel warnings of the country that you wish to study in. You should make sure that you have the phone numbers to the authorities and the local United States Embassy.
Environment: Most programs for studying abroad is a semester. You are going to spend one school year in a foreign country. You have to take into consideration if you will be able to live away in another country for a school year. You will also have to take into consideration what the weather is all year round, how much stuff you will be taking. You have to consider that if you study abroad can your field of study really benefit from it? The most important thing when you attend college is your education. If your course load abroad won’t really apply to your major where it will make an impact then is it worth it to spend a year away?
Many students have enjoyed the great experiences of studying overseas. But with recent world events there has been a drop in students who wish to study abroad. Recently there has been more interest, if you would like some information on how to apply to study abroad we have complied some of the things that you are going to need in order to apply. It is extremely important that you choose a good study abroad program. The application process is not really any different than applying for College. In order to gain acceptance you will have to prepare a proposal on why you wish to study abroad.
You will need to incorporate why you want to study in a particular country and what you would like to study when you are there. Now, every program has different pre-requisites in order to study abroad. Find out what they are and make sure that you meet all of the requirements necessary. Once you have found a program that works for you, request a catalog of the courses of study that is acceptable for you. If your major isn’t on that list, you may want to find a program that can accommodate the field of study.
Some programs only run through the standard school year, most programs do not offer summer programs, if you really want a summer program you are going to have to do a lot of research first. Once you receive the application, fill it out the best that you can. Do not leave any sections blank or incomplete; create a stand out essay or proposal. You want to show the program that you really want to do this.
It would also help if you had some approval letters and recommendation. You may want to try to get these recommendations from the head of the department in your field of study. Teachers would make great recommendations as well. If you do any work-study extra curricular activities then get letters from supervisors or directors of these programs. Every letter helps you get one step closer.
Before you choose to study abroad, think carefully about the country that you wish to study in. Be careful of the programs that you are entrusting to get you approved for abroad. There are some programs that offer countries that have had some problems. You want to study in a country that you can feel safe in; there are some counties that do not want students from other countries. Make sure that you do the proper research before filling out the application.
Once you have made up your mind and have received acceptance, make sure that you do research on the country that you have chosen. Make sure that you have surety numbers, embassy numbers and that you understand what studying abroad really means. Studying abroad can be a very rewarding experience and not many students get to experience it, so cherish every minute and work hard. You won’t be sorry.
Before you have children, you have a certain set of responsibilities, but you don’t have anywhere near the same type of worries that a parent has. The minute a child enters your life, you suddenly realize how fragile the world is and how easily you could lose the child that you brought into this world. For some parents, the fear of losing their child is enough to stop them from allowing their child to experience anything new, such as a high school student exchange.
The fear can consume parents, but the reality is that if you prevent your children from doing the things that they long to do, especially safe things such as a high school student exchange, you are taking them away from the experiences that could shape their future dramatically. If you’re worried about letting your children become high school exchange students, there are a few things that you should know.
The Family
The families that are chosen for a high school student exchange are, for the most part, your average, every-day families. When a family decides that they want to host an exchange student, there is a process that they have to go through in order to be considered a qualified family. If they have not gone through the process, which includes a great deal of paperwork and an inspection, they are not allowed to host a student. The safety of the student is the most important thing for any high school student exchange program, and they are going to make sure that whatever family takes care of your student will do so as well as they possibly can.
Your Child
Many parents are concerned that, just like a child’s first sleepover, the student will get to the foreign country and will decide that they don’t want to stay the required amount of time. Unlike that first sleepover, it’s almost impossible to go and retrieve your child, especially if you don’t have the financial resources to afford a trip to Germany, Italy or wherever they may be. If you support your child and keep in contact with them, they should be able to handle the separation as well as, if not better than, you can.
There are many reasons that most parent can come up with as to why their children shouldn’t become high school exchange students, but the truth is that most high school exchange students get so much out of their experiences abroad that you should tear down the excuses and allow your child to enjoy experiencing the world.
If you are one of those students who have been lucky enough to be able to study abroad then you may be in for some culture shock. It can be a very scary yet exciting time in a student’s life but as fun and as exciting as it may be there are some things that you should take very seriously. Even though there are thousands of students just like you who will be studying in the same College as you, you have to watch out for yourself.
You will foremost be excited and scared at the same time. Don’t let the excitement overwhelm you. Before going over to the country where you will be studying, you will want to learn everything you can about that country. You should know the weather, culture, the food, the school where you will be attending and the crime and terrorist alert levels if possible. Now you will have to start packing, don’t take your entire room, you will be back. Some students go for a semester or a year. Take your clothes; try not to take a lot of valuables, since you aren’t familiar with the area. It is almost a mentality of don’t take something you aren’t prepared to lose. So you may want to keep your valuable jewelry at home.
You should have the phone numbers of your College sponsored Abroad Program. You should have the number of the local Police and Fire Department as well as the number for the U.S Embassy, it may sound far fetched but you never know. Things happen unexpectedly and you want to be prepared. Once you are over there, you will become homesick. Try to make friends while you are out of the country. Some students tend to seek out friends from the same country but try to make friends from the country you are studying in.
What better way to understand the culture by having a first hand look at the country where you are studying. Gather a group of people and take some tours of the local area where you are staying. It is a good idea to get out into the community but you should never venture out alone. Stay in a group and always stay in public. Never stray from your group, there are safety in numbers.
Discuss your hopes, fears and concerns with your parents or your school counselors. They can make suggestions on where to go and sites to see. You have to remember that you are there to study and a get a great education from another country. Not every student will get the chance to study in a different country. Think positive things about the journey and remember it is only for a semester or a year and not forever.
Find out all of the information ahead of time and see if you can do as much research as you can before going. This should be an exciting time in your life, don’t let your fears or anxieties get in the way. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Every year, thousands of college students decide that they’d like to be a foreign exchange student so that they can travel to a distant land and learn about the culture and the people there. Out of those thousands, only a few hundred decide to actually go. Why do the others avoid going? Some avoid going because they’re worried about not fitting in, while others are scared to travel so far on their own. The vast majority of people, however, decide to give up the dream of traveling abroad because they’re worried about funding.
Seeking Help
If people who wanted to go to college gave up on their dream because they didn’t have the money to pay for schooling readily available in their bank account, you would have very few people going to college. This is why financial aid is available – to help those who want to go to college and to have that experience but who would be otherwise financially unable to.
There is also help out there for those who want to become foreign exchange students but who are worried about money. There are a few different types of financial aid available for those who are looking to experience life in a foreign land.
Parental Financial Aid
Parents who are looking to send their children overseas can take out various types of loans, with differing interest rates so that they can send their children to a foreign land without having to empty their retirement accounts. Many of these loans have a much lower interest rate than the loans for college students do as most adults have a much better line of credit than college students do.
Student Financial Aid
College students can also be responsible for their own bill and can get financial aid that is designed to help them to become foreign exchange students. There are a number of different loans that they can apply for if they’re looking to travel across the ocean, and most of these loans are much like college loans, repayable only after you’ve graduated. These loans will provide students with money for living expenses and in most cases will also leave them with enough money for books and to get around the country a little.
If you’ve decided that you want to visit another country to learn about the culture or to expand your own horizons and to go outside of your comfort zone, know that there are many different financial programs available to help you to achieve your goal.
One of the main reasons that most young people decide to go off to college is so that they can experience what it’s like to live on their own and to have new experiences without a parent hovering around them. Quite often, however, these same students will balk at the idea of being an exchange student, worried that if they go to a foreign land, they won’t know how to get around and will look, and feel, like tourists constantly.
This, however, isn’t the case. In the majority of cases, people who become exchange students love the time they spent in a foreign country, especially when they went to a country that they had some interest in. There are tons of things that you can learn, and enjoy, when you decide to be an exchange student, and the majority of the things you’ll discover are outside of a classroom.
Different Lifestyles
Many who come back from an exchange trip say that the thing they loved the most was learning about the different lifestyles that people live in the country that was visited. Many in the United States believe that our way of life is the only way of life, but those who travel to other countries under the foreign exchange student program learn that there are many different ways to live.
Different Cuisine
Some students are worried that they won’t like the cuisine of the country that they go to, and they use that as the excuse as to why they’re avoiding going to that specific country. The truth is that most countries that allow for exchange students have amazing food. Can you imagine eating a fresh pastry in France? How about some real Italian food in Italy? And what would it be like to go “down under” and to eat the types of food that you’ve only read about? Being an exchange student often leads one to find that they enjoy a much wider variation of cuisines than they originally thought they did.
Different Language
Some decide that the language barrier is the key to keeping them from going anywhere as an exchange student. While there are many places that you can travel that would require learning a bit of a new language, there are other places that you can go where English is the native language, or where most of the countrymen know how to speak English enough to allow you to converse without too much problem.
If you’re coming up with reasons to avoid going anywhere as an exchange student, think about the many benefits you’ll get from a trip abroad before you make up your mind.
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