Stuff I wish someone had told me before I studied abroad – Blog 1

By BRYNNA WILLIAMSON/ Vice Editor in Chief

Hey there students!!

In the pages within, you will find a little bit of humour, a little bit of tears, and a whole lot of honesty.

This is my first-hand account of what it was like to think about, apply, go abroad and come back – they’re my tips on “Stuff I wish someone had told me when I was preparing to go abroad.”

Just so you know where I’m coming from: I’m a single woman from Tyler, Texas. I have never really traveled outside the country before, and have never been on a plane. I’m a Christian girl who is a senior in college (woah, that is kind of crazy to say); and lastly, I’m a Pell Grant recipient and a grateful recipient of many other scholarships as well! 

In short – if you think you’re too poor or scared or inexperienced to go study abroad, just listen to what I have to say. I thought those things about myself before I went to Ireland for a month, too.

First of all, I would say that if you’re even thinking about going abroad then you need to purchase or renew your passport. I had to think about it quite a bit before I did it, because – let’s face it, I’m broke – but it was absolutely worth it. I can’t imagine trying to get all this paperwork done without even having my passport. You’re going to need it pretty much straight off the bat, and besides, it’s viable for 10 years after you get it. So for the majority of us, if we’re going to travel abroad then it’s likely to be in the next 10 years anyway.

So just go get it.

Do it.

Seriously.

I’m going to be honest, it was a bit confusing to try and get all the paperwork and stuff. But here’s the upshot: there’s lots of places that do your passport photo and whatnot, but it’s waaaay more simple and, if I’m remembering correctly, cost-effective to just go ahead and let UT Tyler do it all in one. Go ahead and buy the package that will do it all in one.

Here’s passport stuff, explained simply by someone who had to figure it out:

Passport Stuff

I’m prefacing this section with an acknowledgement that this is all from the perspective of you having to buy a passport for the first time. If you already have a passport but just need to renew it, there’s a whole ‘nother process, so please do your own research there because I would have no idea how to go about doing that. Disclaimer over. 

There’s two different kinds of passports: Passport “books” and passport “cards.” Passport “books” are what you think of when you think of passports:

These can be used for land, air or sea travel. They’re accepted everywhere that I know of and they have pages for countries to “stamp” to let you in.

Passport cards are cheaper, but don’t let them fool you: it’s a card like a driver’s license, but it is only for land or sea travel and will only let you in to select countries. If you only ever intend to travel to one of the countries on the list, you may be interested in this, but I would honestly just get the book. The possibility of needing the book and not having it is too great in my opinion.

So. Let’s talk money. 

The UT website looks like they only are asking $50 for the whole thing – $35 for the execution fee and $15 for the optional-but-I’m-telling-you-now-to-get-it passport photo. However, I found out that there’s also an “application fee.” It is not from UT at all, but actually from the government. Everyone has to pay it, so don’t be mad when you get charged for it. For the passport book, that fee is $130. So if you’re getting the whole package, it comes out to something like $180.

Now I know that’s a lot, but please trust me– from a broke person to a (statistically) broke person, it’s worth it. You just gotta bite the bullet and do it. It’s valid for 10 years and is totally worth it. Plus it’s really neat to get the shiny book and see all the potential in the blank pages. 🙂

When you go to get your passport, bring your ID, your birth certificate, and knowledge about yourself and your parents. You’ll need to know your Social Security Number, your date and place of birth, and your parents’ full names and dates of birth. If there’s extenuating circumstances in any of what I just said, check either with your local passport acceptance facility (here, that would be the UT Tyler Office of International Programs) or at this link. 

You will need to fill out a form called the DS-11, which has a lot of information but is actually not hard. They’ll give you that form so you don’t need to bring it or anything.

Lastly, don’t throw away the copies they give you of your passport photo– you’ll need those later– and don’t be afraid to ask questions!!! Cause Hey Jude, “well you know that it’s a fool who plays it cool.” No one will think you’re stupid; they’ll think you’re wise for finding out before you commit.

Next, let’s discuss scholarships. It’s a biggie, I know. To be honest, as I mentioned earlier, if I didn’t get these scholarships I could not have gone on this trip. I needed them – and boy, did God pull through for me on this. Let me show you how to apply…

Scholarship Stuff

There’s tons of scholarships out there for college students. As I always like to say, college is the one time in your life when – if you’re looking for it – people will throw money at you and all but ask you to take it just so that you can have these experiences and learn these things. So please take advantage of that!!

Scholarships do take up time to fill out. Applications, letters of thanks, and searching do take time. But please don’t worry: they don’t take as much time as perhaps you’re thinking. If you stay on top of it and knock it out because you’re excited and you realize that you can “earn” thousands of dollars by writing this one paper, it is so worth it.

The basic bottom line of scholarships is this: apply for absolutely everything that you can. Do some research if you would like, but to be honest you don’t need to do a ton – your study abroad advisor is about to become your best financial friend. If they’re anything like the amazing study abroad advisor I worked with (shoutout to Iris Hobma!!), they will be able to tell you what scholarships the university offers, when you need to apply for them, what big-name scholarships other organizations offer and what you may qualify for, how to fill them out, and when to do it by. 

Just ask!! (This is going to be a recurring theme. Ask questions, just do it. It’s a good thing. )

I was blessed to receive several scholarships: the Phi Kappa Phi was one I got through an organization Iris told me about. It’s a Greek Life organization that gives away study abroad scholarships, but the deal is that you must have a 3.75 GPA or higher (there’s no wiggle room), and you must attend a university with a chapter of PKP. It doesn’t matter if you’re a member or not – as long as the college has a chapter, which UT Tyler does! That grant was 1,000 dollars, plus I was featured in the campus newsletter, in my local newspaper, and received a “Merit Page” because of it. Good deal!! It will walk you through the process once you start applying.

I also received several grants through UT Tyler. I had to fill out an “application” for that, but Iris told me how to do it, where the link was, and by when to do it. Then, once I did, she finished it for me. Easy peasy, just like normal UT applications.

Apparently there is also a Pell Grant for summer studies – AND it works for study abroad!! If you talk with your study abroad advisor and they say you’re eligible for summer studies, the amount you receive towards study abroad will end up being roughly half of what you get in Pell Grants per semester. 

THE BENJAMIN GILMAN SCHOLARSHIP

And… drum roll… the main reason I’m writing these articles… The Benjamin Gilman Scholarship. I received this scholarship first, and it was in the amount of $3,500. If I hadn’t received this, I would not have been able to go. 

The Gilman scholarship is a federal, nationally-competitive scholarship aimed at making study abroad accessible to low-income students who are high achievers. It’s very competitive, but don’t let that scare you away – they give away tons of money every year!! Summer scholarships range from 1,000 to 5,000 (check their website for most recent numbers). If you’re accepted, you are open to a huge number of other benefits, including more scholarships through other organizations, immediate access to international help, occasional events at the local embassy, and the Gilman Alumni page with even more benefits. Receiving it is pretty great, to be honest – it feels like I’m in a fancy “club” now!!

However, not gonna lie: the application was a pain to fill out. I believe they said to to budget 11 hours to fill it out, and they’re not kidding. There’s so much information.

HOWEVER, like I said, I don’t regret it at all. Just don’t do it like I did, which was to do it the college student way and literally wait until the day it was due to freak out and do it all and barely turn it in on time. If you work on it for several weeks or even months before, I’m telling you, it is really not that bad. 

I ended up receiving $3,500 from the Gilman scholarship. That was the biggest chunk of money I received towards this and it was seriously such a huge, huge help. I’m a Pell Grant student – I really don’t have money per se – but God through this scholarship provided for me to be able to go. The Gilman, I believe, ended up paying for my flight, plus I had money left over to contribute towards the tuition and fees.

The Gilman scholarship distributes through Zelle, which is a Paypal or Venmo-esque app. I’m going to be honest, it looks really sketchy. However, Zelle is a legitimate app and I’ve never had any problems with it. It’s run by “Early Warning Systems LLC,” for reference. It did take a long time to distribute. If you are going to be going on a program through AIFS like I did, be aware and CHECK TIMELINES because my full tuition and fees were due before my Gilman distributed, so I had to get creative!

Main Gilman scholarship takeaways:

1. Have your program info ready as you fill out a scholarship, like dates, place, etc. You will be repeating it… a lot.
2. Fill out the applications with time to spare. This applies to other scholarships as well!!!! Don’t be like me: I missed out on some scholarships because I tried to do it too last-minute.
3. Ask questions!!
4. Apply for everything you can.
5. Get some kind of an outline of your life story that you can then change up and vary for each scholarship.
6. The Gilman is awesome 🙂

Other pre-trip things I found out:

Here’s the bottom line on the pre-plans for your trip: the whole shebang feels huge, but really, honestly, and truly, the secret is to get excited about your potential trip. If you start to feel excited, then it will be a treat to do the research because it’s not really research at that point – it’s opening doors for your trip abroad.

Applying through UT Tyler was not that hard. It did take a few hours, but looking back I can’t even remember the process very clearly. It wasn’t a huge deal.

One of the most important things about your pre-trip/application process is to KEEP EVERY RECORD. No kidding.

KEEP EVERYTHING.

Personally, I had a bunch of tabs relating to the trip open on a separate window on my computer. Importantly, I also kept a new file in my documents where I kept everything. That was huge, because you end up using something later that you didn’t think you’d need at the time (i.e. copies of your applications, receipts, transcripts of conversations with officials, etc.). 

Another tip is to not be afraid to ask questions. Trust me, you will feel way more prepared and at peace if you know the answers to your questions! It’s fine. You probably can’t ask more questions than I did of everyone, and they didn’t hate me 🙂

Don’t worry about all of these things! I will also have tips on preparing for your trip and actually being abroad. It will be ok!!