The international student experience is easily one of the most challenging events you will ever experience as a young adult.
For many people, the choice to leave your home country to study in a foreign land is simply that. A choice! Unless you live in a war-torn country, where emigrating becomes a need for survival.
For the vast majority of people, the challenges of adapting to a new country, with a new way of life, is not worth the potential upsides - whether tangible or intangible.
For them, comfort is the ultimate goal in life, and anything contrary to this is seen as a threat.
On the flip side, the minority of people - especially those at a young age - who choose to take on this courageous feat, embracing the unexpected along this journey, learn something about themselves that can't be taught.
For you who is a part of this minority, brave enough to study abroad, your degree of success will largely be decided by your initial expectations.
The people who start this journey expecting it to be a world of rainbows and unicorns, don't get too far when the real challenges set in.
While the people with more realistic expectations at the start, almost always end up becoming successful.
My goal in this article is to layout what you could consider as a framework of expectations at each phase of your journey as an international student.
This is what I wish someone would have sat me down and made me understand before I left my home country of Nigeria to pursue higher education in the United States.
I strongly believe that if you understand and internalize this concept of expectations, you will be immutable to the challenges of studying abroad as an international student.
Now, I will be discussing the international student experience in the United States of America from my decade long experience pursuing higher education at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Nevertheless, the international student experience is not much different from one country to another.
The International Student Experience in 5 Phases
After traversing my journey as a US international student, I've distilled down the experience every international will face into 5 distinct phases.
Each phase comes with its own unique set of goals and challenges, which are not always apparent until one is waist-deep in it.
And when deep in each phase, it's quite difficult to see beyond each phase until you’re out of it.
1. Admissions Phase
Your journey as an international student becomes official the moment you start seeking admission into a U.S. university.
This journey could begin at any education level, be that an undergraduate, graduate, or professional degree level.
For most people, the main goal in this phase would be centered around getting into a dream school (where you join a cohort of like minded people) and obtaining some type of financial assistance to do so.
In this phase, your challenges will be things like
- Choosing a program of study - For many applicants, finding a program that is well aligned to your interests is not always easy. For example, you might want to pursue a graduate career in biomechanical engineering. The challenge here is the difficulty finding universities with a stand-alone biomechanical engineering program, as opposed to having that as a sub-program under a mechanical engineering or biomedical engineering degree program.
- Choosing schools to apply to - Pick any traditional program - think finance, electrical engineering, or data science- and you will be met with a list of thousands of universities to choose from. Where do you start?
- Shooting for competitive standardized test scores - For some the challenge could be getting test scores sufficient to be considered competitive for acceptance into a program of choice. For others, it could be about getting scores that bring bragging rights.
- Being academically prepared - For many universities, especially when seeking graduate admission, you are not selected for your test scores alone but on your level of academic preparedness for your selected program. Unfortunately, academic preparedness takes years, which is in stark contrast to standardized testing, where you can memorize your way into a good test score in under 2 weeks of studying.
- Obtaining financial assistance - With the rising cost of education, obtaining scholarships, fellowships, or grants to study abroad is becoming fiercely competitive. In the United States (and other western countries) financial assistance in the form of government grants and education loans are severely limited for international students. Most international students who receive financial assistance to study in the U.S. are funded by their admitting university, the government of their home country, and in some cases international third parties like the Fulbright program.
- Getting accepted into top-ranked schools/programs - It is still true today, that having the name of a top-ranked school or program on your resume can open doors for you. However, as an international student, you will face stiff competition getting into one, even if your test scores and academic preparedness is competitive for the program.
2. Pre-US Immigration Phase
Congratulations! You've been granted admission(s) into one or more programs in the U.S.
Now the next challenge is securing a U.S. nonimmigrant student visa.
For many people, applying for a student visa at a U.S. consulate or embassy is the first time they formally interact with a foreigner in a position of authority.
Given that it is at this stage that your dream of living and studying in a foreign country could come crashing, t's no surprise that for many international students, this phase brings a high degree of stress.
In the Pre-US immigration phase, your worries will be
- Having the right documents for your student visa interview
- Preparing for a face-to-face interview
3. Adjustment Phase
You've finally set foot on U.S. soil as a foreigner!
For many this could be bittersweet. One one hand, you are excited for all you've had to accomplish to get to this stage (and rightfully so) but on the other hand you've been thrust into this unfamiliar world which stirs up anxiety.
In this phase, your major goal will be about quickly finding your feet and feeling comfortable in your skin as a foreigner.
Common challenges in the adjustment phase will be things like
- Dealing with culture shock - Unless you come from a country with a very similar culture to the United States, you will deal with some degree of culture shock. This is true regardless of how much exposure you have to U.S. culture.
- Adapting to a new academic environment - Did you ever know what T.A office hours, participation points, term-papers, and mid-term exams were before starting an academic program in the U.S? Those are just few academic nuances about the U.S. higher education system that you will need to adapt to.
- Building a social circle - How do you break down the cultural barrier that gets in the way of making meaningful connections/relationships with people in a new country?
- Understanding laws - From the moment you set foot at a U.S. Port of Entry, you are obligated to comply with all U.S. laws, especially U.S. immigration law. Like they say, ignorance of the law is never an excuse.
4. Pre-Graduation Development Phase
Your ultimate goal in this phase is obtaining a rewarding experience from your U.S. education. But at the root of this phase is a real opportunity for development. Which could be academic, early-career, or personal development.
You see at this point, you have already demonstrated your ability to survive in a new country. So now the challenge is about how you would thrive.
The development opportunities in this phase are things like
- Finding yourself through personal growth - Moving away from the close support of your family and close-friends makes you self reliant. While this could be an initial challenge but over time you will grow deeply as a person.
- Managing personal finance - Can you rely on yourself in the case of a financial emergency? How you manage your money as an international student will be critical to your well-being.
- Gaining US work experience - How do you go about securing U.S. work experience, be that in the form of an on-campus job or on off-campus internship?
- Traveling experience - Are you willing to expose yourself to more growth opportunities through traveling?
- Building connections via professional networking - You've heard the saying, "sometimes it's not what you know but who you know". Learning how to build and grow your professional network is invaluable not just for your career development but it also benefits your personal life.
- Securing full-time job opportunities b4 graduation - You've invested the time and money to study abroad, will that be a waste if you can't obtain a full-time U.S. job opportunity after completing your studies?
- Furthering your education - Do you plan to advance to a higher education level right after completing your current degree? If so, how can you ensure that you are well prepared for this transition.
5. Post-Graduation Development Phase
You've completed your program in the United States and have transitioned or you're transitioning into an early professional career.
Congratulations, you've arrived at the last phase of the international student experience!
While the challenges of being an actively enrolled student might be over, those of being an early career professional have just begun.
The challenges in this development phase are things like
- Getting into a top-tier company in your industry - Every industry has an elite group of companies that most professionals envy. Are you well prepared to start your professional career with these coveted companies.
- Getting immigration sponsorships - If you choose to remain in the U.S. long term, you will need to consider transitioning from a nonimmigrant student visa status into a longer-term working visa or a U.S. Green Card. How are you gonna get this?
- Pursuing global career opportunities - Maybe you are open to working in other parts of the world after completing your program. If so, how do you find these opportunities?
- Early career mobility - Depending on your industry, advancing in your career as a foreign professional could be challenging. How would you properly navigate this?
- Entrepreneurship -Have you got the entrepreneurship spirit? If so, in this phase you will have to deal with the challenge of transitioning into starting and running a business as a foreigner in the United States.
Conclusion
As you can see, the journey of an international student is filled with several challenges.
Knowing the challenges at each phase should not cripple your spirit, instead it should serve as a guiding light.
You should understand that whatever challenge you are currently experiencing or will experience in each phase, you are not alone as there are tons of others who have walked in the exact same path and have achieved success.
This knowledge should give you a newfound confidence that whatever stress, frustration, or pain you experience is nothing but just a phase that will eventually pass...
And if you've got a healthy mix of optimism, persistence, and resourcefulness, you are destined to be successful as a Sojourning Scholar.
Are you ready to begin your international student journey? Get our FREE E-book - Roadmap to Studying in the USA that will help you successfully navigate your way to pursuing higher education in the United States.
Be Unbounded!
