3 Questions You Must Answer Before Moving Abroad To Study

Studying abroad can be a great experience as a student, but sadly, it's not as easy as enrolling in a college and hopping on a plane. Rather, you must have a plan in place to ensure your international move works out over the long term. To help you with this, consider answering the following three questions:

How Will You Fund Your Education Abroad?

Higher education can be an expensive pursuit, whether it's in the United States or abroad. However, studying abroad brings additional expenses such as relocation costs. Studying abroad may also prove to be an expensive pursuit if the cost of living in your host country is significantly higher than living in the United States. Therefore, it's important to have a comprehensive plan in place for funding both your living costs and tuition fees, as failing to do so could result in unnecessary stress during your time abroad.

Some students will choose to self-fund their education, but for many, this simply isn't an option. Therefore, if you don't have enough money to self-fund your tuition, you should look into the possibility of obtaining a federal loan, grant, or scholarship. If you are a solid student, you should have a multitude of scholarships available to you for studying abroad. However, you should check with your financial aid office as soon as possible to ensure you don't miss any application deadlines.

How Will You Manage Your Finances?

Once you have your tuition fees and living expenses sorted, you have to decide how you are going to manage your finances in your new country. Many students who choose to study abroad for a lengthy period of time make the mistake of not opening a local bank account. However, this can be a bad move as you will have to pay foreign transaction fees for using your American card abroad. You may also have to pay a fixed percentage every time you take money from an ATM, so it's often best to open a local bank account to eliminate these unnecessary fees.

You should also talk with a financial advisor about how the United States' tax regulations apply to you whilst abroad. If you are studying full time and don't take on a part-time job, you should have no problems. However, if you are studying part time or plan on juggling education with work, you may still have to pay a certain amount of your income to the I.R.S. This can come as a very unpleasant surprise to many people, so make sure you know the details before jetting off.

How Are You Going to Integrate with the Culture?

Studying abroad can be one of the best experiences of your life, as you will be at the perfect age for exploring your new country and developing an international outlook on life. Therefore, it's important to assimilate into your local culture to ensure you are making the most of your opportunity.

One of the best ways to do this is by learning the local language. Of course, many leading international universities will teach courses in English; however, you should still make an effort to learn the local language to converse with local people. You can take steps to learn the language before you go – there are a plethora of learning tools available to help you quickly master a language. However, often the best way of mastering a language is by jumping in at the deep end and learning in-country. Therefore, make sure you learn a few key phrases and start talking to the locals as soon as you arrive!

Living and studying abroad can be a great experience, but the process of relocating can often be extremely stressful. Therefore, to make sure your move goes as seamlessly as possible, speak to an international relocation company who will be able to manage the logistics of the move on your behalf. You can find an international relocation company online at http://www.hollandermoving.com/.


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