6 Things to Keep in Mind Before Studying Abroad

A Budget: It’s critical to stress how important it is to have a budget you want to spend over the semester, along with how you want to spend your money. Not only is it important to have weekly and monthly budgets, it’s also important to budget your money into categories such as food, traveling, shopping, etc. It’s easy to spend foreign money like it’s not real money, especially when it first seems like Monopoly money. Keep track of your spending to know you’re not spending over your allotted budget and to ensure you’re spending your money how you want to. 

Language Barrier: It’s important to remember that there is a language barrier. Although some people may speak English, you’ll feel better if you are able to communicate in the language. Brush up on some basics before studying abroad so you won’t feel so overwhelmed. It also doesn’t hurt to bursh up on some basics before traveling outside your study abroad city. Some key words and phrases to know are: hello, goodbye, thank you, please, sorry, excuse me, etc.

Basic Meals: Chances are, you live in an apartment and have to completely cook for yourself. After having parents cooking for you or a meal plan for all your life, it’s a shock. Try to learn some basic meals before you go, especially ones with meat or protein.

Basic History and Tourist Attractions: You’ll be living in a brand new place and it’s important to know some basics about what your new home is like. It’s overwhelming being in a new place with so many museums and so much exploring to do. Although you have an entire semester to check out your city, weekends will most likely be spent traveling elsewhere and time is going to fly.

Decide Where You Want to Travel: Decide where you most want to travel first. That way, you know what places you’re willing to spend more money on. It won’t hurt to start looking into travel options ahead of time because once you’re abroad you’ll feel overwhelmed.

If Classes will Transfer: It’s important to figure out what classes you can take and how they will transfer back to your home university. The last thing you want is to take classes that won’t transfer back and will make you behind on graduating. It’s also important to ask your home university if classes abroad are pass/fail or if they actually count toward your GPA. It’s easy to slack off abroad and if your classes count toward your GPA, you’ll know you need to stay focused.