By Alexa 
When I first went to study abroad, I had bad anxiety. It wasn’t so much that I was traveling to another country, it was the long-term travel and logistics of everything involved. How was I going to find a place to live once abroad? What would the prices be like? Would I be able to afford it with the exchange rate? Would they grant me my study visa to enter the country? Would I be able to practice the language and learn efficiently while I was abroad? Would French people laugh at me while I tried practicing French?
I was also mainly worried because I was pursuing this new endeavor without much personal support. If I were to go abroad and not be able to afford everything, would I fall on my ass? Back then I understand why I would be scared, but in retrospect, everything was smooth sailing. In my fear though, I made a few key mistakes as I was headed to France to study for the year.
I procrastinated on getting my visa
I was cautioned by my study abroad program to make sure to leave a significant amount of time to get my visa, that way if there are any issues, I can restart the process if necessary.
Getting a visa is like going to the DMV. You make an appointment, but the appointment time is just to get you in the door. I was lucky that I resided near a major city where there was a French visa application center because they are usually only in major cities. Once you get in there, it takes a while to be called to present your documents to one of the people working there. The documents for a study visa are usually financial because they want to make sure that you have a good amount of funds needed to cover your trip abroad. They then take your passport with your documents, send it to D.C. to be approved at the French embassy, have the visa applied to the pages, and then they send it back. That takes about 4-6 weeks. Therefore, if you don’t get approved, you have to go another round and make sure you submit the correct documentation.
My procrastination led to me getting to France about a week after the program started due to my waiting to receive my passport back from the French Embassy. It may not sound like much but being late a week made me miss out on trips that the program planned for when we arrived in France, it made me miss out on meeting my classmates early on, I missed out on my placement test to find out which level I would be in, and took away time for me to be able to look for a place to live, which made me feel like I had to scramble once I got there.
- I could have negotiated the amount of rent that I paid for my apartment.
My study abroad program had connections with a lady that was able to help us find places to rent in France. I was lucky enough to have my own apartment in France. The woman who owned the apartment couldn’t find two students who wanted to move in together and rent the place so I was able to rent it with the contingent that we would find a roommate for me. However, once I got settled in finding a new roommate proved to be difficult and, quite frankly I wanted the place to myself. Since I was at the advantage in this case because the woman couldn’t find someone to rent her space and I was the only one willing to do so, I could have negotiated the rent for the spot and gotten it at a considerably lower rental amount. I would have negotiated a better price that would have allowed me to spend the extra money on other things.
- Apply for as many scholarships as possible.
I’d convinced myself for whatever reason that I wouldn’t really win many scholarships, although looking back now on my resume, it was impeccable and I probably would have won a lot of scholarships. In fact, I applied for only one fellowship through my school and I was the first ever person to be awarded not only to study abroad, but I was awarded the full amWhen I first went to study abroad, I had bad anxiety. It wasn’t so much that I was traveling to another country; it was the duration of time I’d be living in France and logistics of everything involved. How was I going to find a place to live? What would the prices be like? Would I be able to afford it with the exchange rate? Would they grant me my study visa to enter the country? Would I be able to practice the language and learn efficiently while I was abroad?
I was also mainly worried because I was pursuing this new endeavor without much personal support. If I were to go abroad and not be able to afford everything, I was scared that I would fall on my ass. In retrospect, I understand the anxiety, uncertainty, and fear of a new experience, but everything was smooth sailing. In my fear, I made a few key mistakes as I was headed to France to study for the year.
I procrastinated on getting my visa
I was cautioned by my study abroad program to make sure to leave a significant amount of time to get my visa, that way if there are any issues, I could restart the process if necessary.
Getting a visa is like going to the DMV. You make an appointment, but the appointment time is just to get you in the door. I was lucky that I resided near a major city where there was a French visa application center because they are usually only in major cities. Once you get in there, it takes a while to be called to present your documents to one of the people working there. The documents for a study visa are usually financial because they want to make sure that you have a good amount of funds needed to cover your trip abroad. They then take your passport with your documents, send it to D.C. to be approved at the French embassy, have the visa applied to the pages, and then they send it back. That takes about 4-6 weeks. Therefore, if you don’t get approved, you must go another round and make sure you submit the correct documentation.
My procrastination led to me getting to France about a week after the program started due to my waiting to receive my passport back from the French Embassy. It may not sound like much but being late a week made me miss out on trips that the program planned for when we arrived in France, it made me miss out on meeting my classmates early on, I missed out on my placement test to find out which level I would be in, and took away time for me to be able to look for a place to live, which made me feel like I had to scramble once I got there.
I could have negotiated the amount of rent that I paid for my apartment
My study abroad program had connections with a lady that was able to help us find places to rent in France. I was lucky enough to have my own apartment in France. The woman who owned the apartment couldn’t find two students who wanted to move in together and rent the place so I was able to rent it with the contingent that we would find a roommate for me. However, once I got settled in finding a new roommate proved to be difficult and, quite frankly I wanted the place to myself. Since I was at the advantage in this case because the woman couldn’t find someone to rent her space and I was the only one willing to do so, I could have negotiated the rent for the spot and gotten it at a considerably lower rental amount. I would have negotiated a better price that would have allowed me to spend the extra money on other things.
Apply for as many scholarships as possible
I’d convinced myself for whatever reason that I wouldn’t really win many scholarships, although looking back now on my resume, it was impeccable, and I probably would have won a lot of scholarships. In fact, I applied for only one fellowship through my school, and I was the first ever person to be awarded not only to study abroad, but I was awarded the full amount of the fellowship as well. Nobody before me had ever done this which goes to show that if I had applied for more, maybe I would have received more. I had a classmate that applied for many scholarships. She applied for so many that even after we were already abroad, she kept receiving money. Knowing what I know now, I would have applied for a lot more because the worst they can do is say no, and at that point nothing in my life would have changed anyways, so I might as well have gone for it because I don’t know how many yesses, I would have gotten.
Studying abroad as a graduate student
I feel terrible admitting this but studying in graduate school was a little bit more arduous. I was the oldest person there but that didn’t matter to me. It was more so difficult for me to connect with the undergraduate students because they were into things that I had already tried and knew that I had no interest in such as clubs and drinking and whatnot. I also think more of the credit that I studied for would have been applicable as an undergraduate student. I’m not saying that I wouldn’t have studied abroad as a graduate student given the chance again, if anything I would have done both. However, I think that more study abroad scholarships are applicable to undergraduates and that it’s a little easier to find a friendship group when you are closer in age to everyone.
I wouldn’t have told certain people about my plan to study abroad
Even though I was worried about the logistics of traveling abroad, I didn’t feel like traveling abroad in itself was a big deal, but for some people from my world, it was a big deal because it was more than they had ever done themselves. I remember one guy asking me, “why go all the way to France to study French, why not just stay here and study French?” Small-mindedness at its finest. I had people try to down talk my plans along with downright sabotaging them out of envy. Did it work? No. Did it hurt? Yes. But I could have saved myself the trouble if I didn’t tell certain people about my plans. I learned the hard way that if they people around you aren’t working toward to anything better, they’re not going to be happy about you doing it. In their minds, it makes them look bad and highlights the fact that they never tried. In life I learned be careful about who you tell your plans to. Not everyone deserves to know, especially if they aren’t contributing to the dream in the first place.
Studying abroad is a great experience and one that I don’t regret at all. In fact, I had dreamed of doing so for so long that I knew I didn’t want to graduate from college without completing that journey. However, doing it on my own did create a few fundamental mistakes for me. If I had the opportunity, I would do it again in a heartbeat. It was a one of the few experiences I had that allowed me to grow so much as a person.