Last spring semester, I was luckily accepted to the University of Bristol exchange program. I was thrilled by this news because this semester, I get to study at a top university in the UK and explore Europe for the first time. This will be the opportunity of a lifetime! Therefore, I devoted my entire August into preparing for my trip. There are several preparation tips I would like to share with all of you who are thinking about going abroad:
1. Find the program that fits you, or create your own program.
I knew I want to study abroad as early as freshman year first semester. Starting that time, I decided firmly that I would love to go to U.K, since I am a huge fan of Jane Austen, Harry Potter, the Royal Family and British accent. As I was looking through U of R study abroad website, I found this new exchange program between U of R and University of Bristol. Since I concentrate on biosignals and systems, I need to take many electrical engineering courses, and Bristol has a fantastic Electrical and Electronics Engineering department, once my courses are approved, I will receive course credit and still graduate in four years!
2. Apply to scholarships and grants.
Studying abroad could be expensive, even though your financial aid package will be carried over, there are additional fees such as flight and traveling fees. Thus, applying to one or two school or outside scholarships will help you significantly. I was fortunate enough to receive an exchange grant and a Haijim International Experience scholarship to cover my extra expenses abroad.
3. Get courses approved before you leave.
Once you are accepted into your program, the next thing you need to do is to get all of your course approved so you are guaranteed to receive credits after you come back. I had to ran across the campus and schedule appointments with different academic offices. There are many paperwork involved but it’s totally worth the time!
4. Plan your trip ahead of the time.
Because Bristol orientation week doesn’t start until Sep 21, I have quite some free time before the courses start. Thus, I decided to backpack Europe with two fellow exchange students. However, there are a lot of preparation works to do. We spent a month looking for cheap hotels, hostels and Airbnb accommodation. We also spent a lot of energy on booking rail pass and reservations. Preparing for a trip ahead of the time could be stressful sometimes, but it saved us a lot of money and makes us feel more confident about getting around in Europe.
5. Figure out how you will use your phone and money overseas.
Calling, texting and buying grocery seem to be the most common daily tasks and I hadn’t paid much attention to them until a month before my departure, I started to wonder how would I use my phone and money abroad. Then I realized that my current phone plan doesn’t support international roaming and my current credit card will charge a foreign transaction fee if I use it abroad. After doing some research online and talking to some friends who had studied abroad, I decided to purchase a local U.K sim card for my phone when I get there, and applied to a new credit card that doesn’t charge me any foreign transaction fee. Even a $5 flat ATM fee could add up to a large amount of money if you use a bank that charges you oversea usage fees.
6. Be open about trying new things and get excited!
This will be technically my second time studying abroad since I am an international student from China. I remember when I first came to U.S during my junior year in high school, I was very timid about talking to locals so I missed out many opportunities. Thus, when I came to college, I decided to be open and friendly to everyone, and I made many great friends. So, be open and friendly, and you have friends all over the world!