How to Get Ready to Study Abroad

How to Get Ready to Study Abroad

Studying abroad can be a life-changing experience, one where you learn about a new country, culture, and lifestyle that you may have never experienced otherwise. However, like any big lifestyle change, it’s important to make sure that you’re fully prepared. If you’re wondering how to get ready to study abroad, here are some key things to keep in mind that will help you get ready for your time away from home.

Figure Out Your Finances

Studying abroad can be very expensive, even if you aren’t paying anything additional from your normal tuition. That’s why if you’re looking into how to get ready to study abroad, figuring out your finances should be the first thing you do. Not only do you have to pay tuition for your academic program, but you will likely also be spending more money than usual on things like recreational activities and food. If you think about how much you think you’ll spend, make sure to add a little bit of extra money to that. Scholarships can help with any academic-related expenses, and applying for multiple small scholarships can be extremely helpful in making your trip more affordable.

Get Any Necessary Medical Treatment

Although you will likely have access to medical treatment while you’re abroad, it’s a good idea to go to your family doctor in order to get your yearly physical, especially if your regularly scheduled yearly physical would usually occur during the time that you plan to be abroad.

If you don’t have access to your family doctor to go home for a physical, you can also check in with the health center on your campus to see if they will administer your yearly physical or otherwise screen for medical conditions. You don’t want to get abroad and just to find you have a medical condition that a doctor could have easily noticed and corrected before your trip.

Get Your Prescriptions

If you have a prescription, whether it is for your vision or a medical condition, make sure that you get enough to last you through the trip. If you’re going for a 2-week study abroad trip, you may not need to stock up on your prescription. However, if you’re thinking of how to get ready to study abroad for a month or more, it’s a good idea to check up on how much of your prescriptions you’ll need while you’re abroad. Check with your doctor to see if you’ll be able to get a refill of your prescription abroad or if you’ll need to bring a supply with you that will last for the entirety of your trip.

If you wear glasses or contacts, it’s also a good idea to get an eye exam before your trip. Your eye doctor will be able to give you an updated prescription so that you can get new lenses or a new supply of contact lenses that you can bring with you on your trip. Make sure that if you wear contacts that you have enough lenses for your entire trip. Depending on the type of lens you use, you may need a new pair every day or just every week, so make sure you plan ahead.

Preventative Care

You also want to make sure that you aren’t going to have any sudden medical, dental, or optometric issues when you get abroad. That’s why it’s important to get your yearly physical and eye exam when you’re thinking of how to get ready to study abroad, but don’t let your preventative care stop there. You should also make sure that you make an appointment with your dentist before you leave for your trip. Dental care may not seem like it’s important to check in with before your trip, but if you end up needing to get your wisdom teeth pulled or have another dental emergency while you’re abroad, it could be difficult to figure out the medical system abroad.

Make sure to schedule your appointment with enough time that you can make any follow up appointments for treatment regarding what your doctor finds. If you schedule your appointments between one and two months out, you should be in the right window, depending on what your doctor, dentist, or optometrist finds during your appointment.

Get Travel Insurance

You should definitely talk with your travel advisor about what kind of travel insurance you’ll need abroad. There are many varieties of insurance policies, and the one that you need depends on your trip and specific needs. Your advisor should be able to tell you ones that past students have used or which one the trip organizers recommend that you get.

You should check with your current medical insurance provider as well to see if they cover medical treatment abroad. Some may cover it, but others will require you to take out an additional policy. It’s best to know this in advance so that you can work the cost of insurance into your travel budget, so make sure to ask about this early on in the process.

Think About Your Cell Phone

Speaking of plans that may or may not work abroad, you will definitely need to think about your cell phone plan when you’re thinking about how to get ready to study abroad. There are some plans that will have phone coverage in certain foreign countries but not others, so make sure to check. If you are going to a country not covered by your normal plan, you may be able to buy an add-on to your current plan that will allow you to have cell phone coverage while you’re abroad. The key to not ending up with extreme surcharges or no usable cell phone while you’re abroad is to make sure that you do your research ahead of time.

Tell Your Bank You’re Going Abroad

After speaking with your phone company, make sure that you speak with your bank and credit card company about the fact that you’re going abroad. If you start using your debit or credit card abroad without informing your bank or credit card company, they will most likely shut down your card and prevent you from making any transactions. If this happens, you would have to spend a lot of time on the phone verifying that you are, in fact, abroad, and it’s not someone who has stolen your identity. If you’re adjusting to a new time zone and culture, you don’t need to add the stress of speaking with your bank or credit card company to the mix. When you’re thinking of how to get ready to study abroad, make sure you’re thinking of the financial institutions that you use and telling them that you will be out of the country.

Book Your Plane Tickets

One of the basics of how to get ready to study abroad is to book your plane tickets. Some programs will encourage you to fly out of your home airport with a group of other students, so make sure to talk with your study abroad advisor before you book any flights. If booking plane tickets is totally up to you, make sure that you look into booking your tickets as far out as possible. Once you are sure of your arrival and departure dates for the trip, you can book your tickets.

Make sure to check the carry-on and checked bag policies for the airline that you’re flying on. Some airlines will allow one checked bag without an additional fee, but others will make you pay for every checked bag that you bring with you. Many will also have weight limits for your luggage, so make sure that you’re not overpacking your suitcase to the point where it isn’t allowed to be checked.

Make Sure You Have Your Important Documents

Before you leave, you have to make sure that you have all of your important documents ready to go. Make sure that if you need a student visa to go abroad, make sure that you have all of that in order before you get to the airport. Your study abroad advisor should be able to help you with this step of how to get ready to study abroad.

It’s a good idea to bring multiple forms of identification with you while you’re studying abroad, and make sure that one of those forms is your passport. You may also need a student ID for academic purposes, so make sure to check with your study abroad advisor when it comes to documents that you’ll need. You’ll probably also want to have copies of important information such as where you’re staying, what school you’re studying at, and any other important addresses or phone numbers you may need. If your phone dies, you don’t want to end up lost in a foreign country with no way to remember the address of your dorm or host family.

Make Copies of Your Important Documents

As important as it is to have the original copy of your important documents, you shouldn’t rely on just having the original with you. Make sure you have at least one physical copy of any important documents such as your passport.

Prepare For Homesickness

Unless you’ve already been away from your home country for months (or even a full year) at a time, the odds are that you are going to be going through a kind of homesickness that you haven’t experienced before. Although you may think that when you’re going through the steps of how to get ready to study abroad you’ll be focusing on concrete steps to get ready to go abroad, you should think of your mental health as well. Make sure that you make plans for when you’re abroad to connect with your friends and family that aren’t going with you.

For example, if you usually attend church services while you’re at home, you should look into virtual options or churches that practice your religion where you’re studying abroad. Finding people that share your faith can make the isolation of being abroad less isolating.

You can also make a plan to exchange letters with those that are at home — it can make things a lot easier than making sure to text or call at certain times since letters can be replied to at your leisure. If you decide to exchange letters with friends or family at home, consider buying address stamps before you go abroad to ensure that the address that you’re sending your letters to is correct every time. International postage can get expensive, and you don’t want to end up having to add extra postage because you wrote the incorrect address the first time.

Pack Smart

You should plan what you want to pack depending on what your airline will allow you to bring. If you start with the amount of packing room you’ll have, you can start by packing the essentials and add the less important things later on. Studying abroad is a great opportunity to try out a capsule wardrobe and work on cutting down on the amount of clothing you use. Make sure to bring versatile, durable pieces that you can mix and match to make a multitude of different outfits with the pieces while you’re abroad.

While you’re thinking of packing and how to get ready to study abroad, make sure that you plan for anything that you’ll buy while you’re abroad. You should probably try to focus on spending money on experiences instead of things to get the full cultural experience, but inevitability you’ll want to buy some souvenirs. There’s a reason that annually there are 1.1 trillion dollars is spent on travel-related expenses, and souvenirs factor into that. Make sure that you won’t have to check an extra bag on the way back because you overpacked on the way to your study abroad destination.

Consider Your Valuables

You’ll probably bring quite a few valuables with you on your study abroad trip, like your cell phone and laptop. Make sure that you’re thinking of how you’ll keep them secure while you’re abroad. Certain accommodations may come with a safe, which you should definitely look into using when you aren’t bringing your valuables with you.

When you’re out and about, try to avoid looking too much like a tourist so you don’t become a target of thieves, especially in more tourist-centric areas.

If you’re thinking about how to get ready to study abroad, I hope this article has helped you get some good ideas. Studying abroad is a wonderful opportunity, and making sure that you properly prepare to study abroad is a great way to get the most out of your trip.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *