I know exactly what it feels like to be an international student many thousands of miles from home. At first I found the whole experience intimidating and scary. But I soon settled into my new college life I worked extremely hard and studied well. I even made friends with many other students on campus and really enjoyed hanging around with them. During term time, I loved spending time abroad.
The holidays though were a completely different story. Most of my friends returned home to spend the holidays with their families. …

Your time as a foreign student should be very rewarding. It’s full of lots of new experiences and your time in the foreign country will be both interesting and confusing. One of the first things that you will have to deal with, even before your course starts is the foreign currency. In the US this is dollars and this is one of the most famous currencies in the world. It is important to budget your money so you don’t find yourself being caught short.
If this is your first time away …

One of the most difficult challenges for a freshman in college is having to live in the same room as someone else, particularly someone with whom you are not related in the slightest.  This is more difficult for single children, but even if you have lived together with a sibling in the same bedroom, it can still be a trying experience.  In addition to the brand new stresses of living on your own, being separated from the support of your family and high school friends, college-level academics, and everything else, …

While college is largely about academics, it is also about creating your own social life away from the constraints of your family and your home town.  Everyone has a certain amount of emotional baggage, and college provides a fresh start, a chance to make new friends who do not think of you in terms of how you used to be.  So while it is commendable to devote your time to your studies, you should not do so to the detriment of making friends and having new experiences.  Contrary to popular …

Your advisor is a professor whose job it is to keep track of your progress throughout college and to give you counsel on what classes to take to fulfill general education, major, and minor requirements.  Colleges normally pick advisors based on, when you are a freshman, what you think your major will be, so that you have someone who can also act as an advisor in your specific discipline.  As such, if you change your major from what you thought it was going to be, it is perfectly normal to …