Hello!
For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Claire and I spent half of 2019 studying abroad. I was fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to spend all of January in Portugal, Spain and Morocco studying business, and the last half of the year in a long-term study abroad program in London.
If you are wondering if study abroad is the right choice for you, don’t worry - you’re not alone. Hopefully this post can give you a sense of clarity in the decision process.
*Disclaimer - I would like to note that the information here is based on non-COVID19 opinions. If you don’t feel comfortable traveling or studying abroad during the threat of a new wave of the pandemic don’t worry. You have your entire life to explore the world, don’t feel bad about staying on campus.
Here is the step-by-step checklist that I wished I had during the decision process:
Can you afford it?
Studying abroad is one of the most enriching and irreplaceable experiences, but it comes at a high cost. Many schools offer scholarships or opportunities for reduced prices, but at the end of the day studying abroad will still be very expensive.
To put it into perspective, my short-term program in January of 2019 was a base price of around $7200, with an additional $800 in cash that I had spent on going out, dining, etc - not included in that base $7200.
Short-term total: $8,000
My long-term program in London came with a very large price tag. The tuition itself for the semester was about $30,000, which included my housing and courses for the four months. On top of that, the round trip ticket from Newark to London was about $850 and my visa was $400. I also spent an additional $5000 on weekend trips, exploring London, groceries etc.,
Semester total: around $36,250
I had a feeling that my experiences abroad were going to be expensive, so I decided to, in the nicest of ways to say this, work my ass off all summer for the two summers prior to going. Throughout the summers of 2018 and 2019, I worked as a co-manager of a local boutique for 40 hours per week, along with being a freelance social media and contributing writer for a media agency, taking up about 10-15 hours per week. I worked as hard as I could while home to make sure that I could afford to do everything that I had wanted to do when I was abroad.
Are you bored?
I’m the type of person that always needs something new and exciting. I loved my life before studying abroad, but I had felt that there was a part of me that was missing. I had listened to some of the most influential people in my life talk about their global experiences and I wanted to be able to share in that feeling of wonder and excitement.
If you feel that your life is kind of at a standstill and you’re just going through a routine day in and day out, then I 100% recommend studying abroad. While studying abroad, you will be thrown curve balls that I can’t even describe. One day you’ll be in the souks of Morocco negotiating on luggage with snakes and monkeys dancing around you and another day you’ll be getting punched in the arm by a homeless man crossing the street in Lisbon.
Are you ready to be uncomfortable?
Studying abroad is one of the most uncomfortable things that I have experienced thus far. In the beginning of the trip, I stayed within my comfort zone. I ordered food that sounded “safe”, I went to the restaurants that had an English menu, I stayed in the center of town, where there was a majority of tourists and people selling sunglasses and selfie sticks, all while staying in the large pack of students from my home university.
During our time in Morocco, I felt a shift within me. I don’t really know how to describe it, but I knew that I had felt different about the whole situation. I no longer wanted to go to the restaurants with the English translations or stay where there were majority tourists. I no longer felt the need to stay in a pack and do everything together all of the time. I knew that I needed to break free from what I thought I knew about myself in order to grow as a person.
Before studying abroad, I had wished that someone told me how uncomfortable I was going to feel at times. It takes time in order to get accustomed to the change in life, but once you truly escape the limitations that you have set for yourself in your head, you feel like a brand new person.
Are you ready for change?
I went into 2019 thinking I had my entire life planned out and I knew exactly who I was. I had these ideas for what the world was like, just based off of what I watched on the TV and read online.
It’s hard to accept that you might not actually know much about yourself, and that's ok. This is what it means to be human. We are constantly growing and changing!
I went from never leaving the country before to spending the most amazing six months between two continents, eleven countries, and twenty-three cities. 2019 was the most amazing year of my life and I’m beyond grateful for the friends and memories I’ve made on the trip. I look forward to the next stamps I’ll have on my passport in the coming years.
I hope you enjoyed this post!
I hope that this post helped you in any way possible with your study-abroad decision. If you have any questions that you would like me to answer, please feel free to leave a comment below!