Kristina Hiratos, Bachelor of Business (Accounting)
Aston University, England (Semester 1, 2017)
Some tips and advice for future students heading on exchange:
- The biggest tip I can give to any student looking to go overseas on exchange is to just go with the flow, you never know what curveballs are going to be thrown at you and what people you will meet as a lot of plans can and will be made at the very last minute and these will often end up as your favourite memories.
- If you get the opportunity to connect with other QUT students going to your exchange university then please do as I ended up making the closest friends with my fellow QUTie travelling and going on way too many runs to get noodles!
- Make sure you keep in contact with friends and family back home! Even though time zones can be a challenge I made sure to keep up with everything that was going on, even being skyped in to sing happy birthday to my cousin and skype calling the whole family after they had midnight mass for Easter while I was travelling Europe which made the exchange not so daunting.
- Carry a portable charger and actual plugs and cords with you everywhere! You never know when your phone will run out just when you need to take that perfect photo or you are lost in the wilderness of another city in another language.
- If you have the chance try and stay on campus!!! There are some universities, like Aston, that say they won’t let 6 month exchange students stay on campus which isn’t true, do your research and if you are going into someone like Europe where it is the second half of their academic year some students will be leaving so you can take over their contract. Living on campus makes likes extremely easy in terms of studies and getting to know other students without having to go very far.
- Make sure you have allowed for recommended amounts of money then some more and a little more than that! You never know what can happen and the travels you will do and things you will buy so it is always good to be prepared; however, if you are on a more strict budget like I was it is very wise to set up a weekly spending amount to make sure you have enough money to buy that snow globe you have always wanted as well as your groceries and pay for your bills.
- Do your research on clubs and societies as it took me months into my exchange to even find out certain groups exist and I ended up going to one of their balls around half way through the semester which was awesome.
- Try and make some connections outside of the exchange students through people you may end up doing group assignments with or have classes with as these friendships are invaluable when it comes to getting any sort of help in and out of classes, plus it makes the experience around campus when you have some familiar faces to reach out to and see around
- Get a sim once you arrive in the country you will be going on exchange to as it will be a lot cheaper and especially in Europe data you get on your sim is now international roaming so being able to keep in contact with anyone and finding your way around foreign places becomes very easy. If you have the chance to get an international sim before you go over it becomes good to use while you transition between countries in airports if you can’t get onto wifi and need to contact anyone.
