Questions to Ask About Study Abroad
Twenty questions to ask before committing to a study abroad program, most of them best put to students who have just come back and to the staff who run it. They cover what a month actually costs, housing, how classes are taught, language, safety, and what the first two weeks are like.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What did you spend in a typical month, and on what?
Why ask it
The programme fee is published; the monthly figure is not, and it is what determines whether the year is comfortable or anxious. Ask for the breakdown, since transport, phone and food vary enormously between cities. A returning student will usually remember the surprising item, and that is the one to budget for.
Where did you live, and would you choose the same again?
Why ask it
Housing shapes the experience more than the university does. The reconsidering is the useful part: people who would change usually cite the commute, the noise, being far from everyone else, or a kitchen shared with twelve people. Ask how the allocation was made and whether preferences were honoured.
Who did you actually live with?
Why ask it
Living with local students, with a host family, or in a block reserved for visiting students produces three different years. Programmes rarely advertise which they are. If everyone in the building came from your own country, ask how anyone met local people, because that answer will apply to you too.
How many hours a week were you in class, and how much work outside it?
Why ask it
Teaching loads differ sharply between systems, and a timetable with six contact hours sounds pleasant until you learn that everything rests on one examination. Ask both numbers together. The gap between them tells you how much self-direction the term will require.
How is assessment handled there?
Why ask it
One final exam, continuous coursework, an oral examination, or attendance-based marks: each rewards different habits, and students accustomed to steady coursework often struggle where everything lands in one week. Ask what proportion of the grade sits in the final assessment, and whether resits exist.
How much of your day was in the local language?
Why ask it
Programmes described as immersive often teach in English and leave the language to daily life, which is fine if you know it in advance. Ask what happened in shops, in the department office and with housemates. A student who says they barely used the language is describing what your experience would be.
Did you make local friends, and how did that happen?
Why ask it
The mechanism is what you need: a class with local students, a sports club, a job, a shared flat. If the answer is that the visiting students stayed together, that is not a failure of effort but a structural feature of the programme, and it should inform which one you choose.
What were the first two weeks like?
Why ask it
Almost everyone finds the start harder than they expected, and hearing the specifics normalises it: not knowing where to buy food, a registration office that was closed, a week without internet, unexpected loneliness. It also reveals how much of the arrival the programme actually organised.
What went wrong administratively, and how long did it take to fix?
Why ask it
Bank accounts, phone contracts, residence registration and student cards are the standard obstacles, and the delay is what matters. Ask what documents were needed that nobody mentioned beforehand. This is the single most useful category of advice a returning student can give you.
What did the programme arrange, and what did you have to sort out yourself?
Why ask it
The line between the two is the actual product you are buying, and it varies wildly at similar prices. Ask about airport arrival, the first night's accommodation, registration, insurance and a local phone. Providers will describe support in general terms; returning students can list what nobody helped with.
How easy was it to travel at weekends, and what did it add to your costs?
Why ask it
Independent travel is one of the main reasons people go and one of the main reasons budgets fail. Ask about the practicalities: whether Friday classes exist, how far the nearest transport hub is, whether attendance is monitored. A student who travelled every weekend will also tell you what it cost them academically.
Were you ill at any point, and what happened?
Why ask it
The general answer about insurance is less useful than one account of someone seeing a doctor: whether they paid up front, whether anyone helped them find a clinic, how long it took, whether language was a problem. Ask about prescriptions too if you take anything regularly.
Was there anything you felt unsafe about, and how did you handle it?
Why ask it
Better than asking whether a city is safe, which produces a reassurance. What comes back tends to be specific and manageable: a route to avoid at night, a common scam, a neighbourhood, transport that stops early. Ask women and men separately if you can, since the answers often differ.
Did anyone work or intern, and was that permitted?
Why ask it
Work rights depend on visa type and are commonly misunderstood, with real consequences. Ask what people actually did, whether it was allowed, and whether anyone had a problem. If earning is part of your plan, verify the rules with the consulate rather than with a returning student.
What surprised you about the university itself?
Why ask it
Open enough to catch what a structured question would miss: enormous lecture halls, professors who are unreachable outside class, a library that closes early, a department that never answered email. These are the frictions that determine whether the academic term goes smoothly.
What did you take that you did not need, and what did you wish you had brought?
Why ask it
Small, cheerful, and genuinely useful. Answers cluster around documents, medication, an adapter, a warmer coat, and far too many clothes. Ask what was expensive to buy locally, since that is the part worth packing rather than replacing.
Was there a point where you wanted to come home?
Why ask it
Most people have one and few volunteer it. What changed is the important half: a friendship, a routine, a trip, a phone call, or simply the sixth week. Hearing that the low point is normal and temporary is worth more than any amount of preparatory encouragement.
What would you do differently if you went again?
Why ask it
Concentrates a whole term into one piece of advice, and the answers are usually structural rather than sentimental: choose different housing, take a lighter course load, join something in the first week, travel less. This is where a conversation earns its place.
Who was actually useful when something went wrong?
Why ask it
Every programme has a support structure on paper and one or two people who genuinely help. Getting the role, and ideally the name, gives you somewhere to start. If the answer is that nobody was useful, that is a serious mark against the programme however good the destination.
Knowing everything now, would you choose the same programme?
Why ask it
The closing question, and the hesitation before the answer is as informative as the answer. Ask what they would have needed to know to choose differently. Most students say yes and then name one thing they would change, which is precisely the detail you came for.
Comparing programmes before you commit
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Ask the right person
Returning students, for daily life
Cost, housing, loneliness, what broke and who fixed it. Ask the study abroad office to connect you with two people who went to the same place, and ask for one who did not enjoy it as well as one who did.
Programme staff, for structure and liability
Insurance, emergency procedures, what is included, refund deadlines, who is resident on the ground. Get these in writing; they are commitments rather than impressions.
Your own department, for credit
Which courses count and who approves them is a question only your home institution can answer. A provider saying credit transfers easily is describing their experience with other universities, not yours.
Current students at the host university, for the academics
If you can reach one, ask about the teaching, the workload and whether visiting students are integrated into classes or taught separately. It is the thing brochures describe least accurately.
Comparing on the same terms
- Build one spreadsheet with a total cost column for each option: fee, housing, food, local transport, flights, visa, insurance and a month of contingency.
- Convert everything into a monthly figure. Programmes of different lengths are otherwise impossible to compare, and the monthly number is the one you will feel.
- Note what each option gives you academically. A term where nothing counts towards your degree is a much more expensive term, whatever the sticker price.
- Write down your two real priorities, language, cost, a specific course, or a specific city, and rank the options against those rather than on general appeal.
- Check the calendar overlap yourself. Term dates abroad often run into your home institution's next term, which affects flights, exams and housing at both ends.
Common mistakes
Judging a programme by the photographs
Marketing images show weekend trips, not the eleventh week of a term in a rented room. Ask what an ordinary Wednesday looked like and weigh that answer more heavily.
Assuming an immersive programme uses the language
Many programmes teach in English in a country where another language is spoken. That is a legitimate option and a completely different year from studying in the local language. Confirm which one you are buying.
Underestimating the first month
Deposits, a residence permit, a phone, a travel pass and setting up a room all land at once, often before any aid disbursement arrives. Plan on having more money available at the start than in any later month.
Only talking to people who loved it
Programmes offer their most enthusiastic alumni as references. Seek out someone who came home early or was disappointed, and ask what they would tell a student considering the same place.