When you move to a foreign country with only two suitcases, it’s a big leap of courage. You leave behind your familiar life in your home country and start in a foreign land full of unfamiliarity and excitement. The early days of study abroad are full of wonder and magic, but as time goes on, reality sets in. It’s overwhelming for many students to juggle the responsibilities of studying abroad, such as managing the academic demands of college, getting familiar with the ways of the foreign land, learning how to use public transportation, and just generally managing day-to-day life. There are many ways students manage the challenges of studying abroad as international students, and I can only speak for myself. My way is to be extremely organized.
On one hand, staying organized as an international student is key to mastering your academics. On the other hand, staying organized as an international student is key to survival. Having a handle on all the daily grind of classes, homework, reading, assignments, exams, studying, papers, and projects helps you cope with being in a foreign country. Establishing and sticking to a routine in a foreign land helps keep you grounded and focused amid excitement and overwhelm. The blueprint below provides tools to help you get started managing your daily life.
Mastering the Academic Transition
The educational system in a new country often differs significantly from what you experienced back home. Grading rubrics, lecture formats, and assignment expectations can catch you off guard. To prevent academic stress from accumulating, you need a centralized system to track your obligations.
Once you have your course syllabus and know the specifics of what your professors will require of you, it is a good idea to get all of your information out in one afternoon and plot your entire semester on a single timeline. This is important because the worst feeling an academic can have is being suddenly hit with a major project (such as a midterm or final exam) that they had no idea was coming. Even worse is the feeling of constant panic, knowing that many essays and other reading due dates are approaching, but not having a solid handle on the timeline for each.
In addition to staying on top of your studying, completing your assignments is very important. Oftentimes, the coursework in a foreign country is even more difficult than the coursework in a student’s home country. Many universities abroad require a lot of independent studying and require students to think critically about the material. To help students stay on top of their schoolwork, it is important to have a tool that helps them study and retain the information they have read. Creating flashcards can be a great tool for studying for exams and completing assignments. A flashcard creator with built-in note-taking and spaced repetition features can help you study more efficiently while keeping all your learning materials in one place.
By using flashcards, students will be able to break down complex information into smaller pieces and study in shorter periods of time. This will also help students retain the information they have read and avoid cramming the night before an exam.
Establishing a Weekly Life Routine
As an international student living in a foreign country thousands of miles away from home, it can be challenging. There is often no immediate support system to fall back on, and a routine or ‘way of life’ can be lost in the excitement of being in a new country. However, when studying abroad, it is very important to remember that to study successfully, one needs a well-organized life. This means having a routine for all the life admin one would normally do at home, such as going to the grocery store, doing laundry, and planning and making meals, to ensure one does not fall behind on studying.
Assign specific days of the week for your ‘Life Admin,’ such as shopping for groceries, doing laundry and cleaning your room. For example, you may like to do your meal preparation for the week on a Sunday afternoon and then do a ‘big sort out’ of your room too. On a Friday afternoon, go through your personal budget for the past week, including any money spent on social activities and even any trips you’ve taken.
Track your finances as well as you track your time, and stay organized financially as well. If you transfer money abroad, you have to pay the exchange rates. Many banks also charge transfer fees. The cost of things can be different in a foreign country than they are used to. Therefore, it is a good idea to track your expenses weekly. Organize your expenses by category and set a budget for non-academic activities, such as going out with friends or traveling. With a clear financial organization, you will have less stress and be able to fully enjoy your time abroad.
Managing the Administrative Paperwork
When you move to another country to study, you will find that there are lots of pieces of official paperwork to deal with. A selection of these is listed above. To make sense of this paperwork, keep track of it, and avoid losing it, make sure all your documents are filed securely in 2 different places.
Losing a critical document can lead to severe administrative headaches or even legal complications. Create a secure dual-filing system to safeguard your information.
A dual filing system (DIFS) is the simplest way to store a mass of foreign documents. The majority of your important documents should be stored in an accordion folder within your foreign home or apartment. The DIFS also has a duplicate filing system in cloud storage, where high-quality scanned documents are stored in organized folders. There should be at least 5 folders, including immigration, university, health, housing, and other relevant categories. Store an online link for the cloud storage to the foreign student’s trusted family member back home for safekeeping and easy retrieval should the foreign student lose his or her original documents.
Prioritizing Wellness and Social Connections
When thinking of organization, students typically focus on planning for school and making sure that all necessary steps are taken to succeed academically. However, many fail to realize that school is only half the equation. Organizing your life to succeed at school also means planning for your overall well-being and making time for health, socializing, and relaxation to maintain academic performance.
Make time for yourself to look after your physical and mental health and for leisure activities. It is easy to become a hermit when you are feeling culture-shocked and homesick, but equally easy to get caught up in studying, neglect your social life, and go out too much. Make sure you have time for exercise and for just relaxing and recharging your batteries. Treat these appointments with yourself as fixed as any others – as if you had a university exam scheduled and didn’t want to miss it.
So be sure to treat these appointments with the same seriousness that you would treat a university exam. This will give you the chance to relax and recharge before moving on to other things, and to have the energy you need to deal with difficult situations, and to really get the most out of your time exploring your host country and forming new relationships with other people.
