So you’ve picked a program, been accepted and soon you will be going abroad! That’s awesome, but preparing for a trip abroad can be a lot of work! There is a lot to think about before you even get on the plane and we’re here to give you advice on some of those important things you have to do before you go.
This is our Pre-departure Series, where we go over a few of the super important things everyone has to tackle before they go abroad. Pre-departure planning can be stressful so we’re here to make it a little easier!
My name is Brenna and I was a student worker in the CoF International Programs office for two years. I have traveled a lot in my life and gained a lot of practice preparing for a trip.
While I was at OSU, I spent three weeks in Malaysian Borneo as a part of the Oil Palms to Orangutans faculty-led program run by CoF International.
I also spent three months in Germany on an internship. I have always found that the pre-departure stuff I did was more work and more stressful than the actual trip itself so I thought I would share some of my knowledge and experiences on the things you need to do before you go!
In this series, you will find three articles about the most important parts of preparing to go abroad: flights, passports and visas, and packing. They were written for any kind of traveler going anywhere for any length of time. These are not meant to be exhaustive, but just to give you a good overview of these topics.
If you can’t get enough of the series, check out our Pre-departure To-Do checklist – it has a lot more things that you might want to consider as you are preparing to go abroad, like preparing and managing your finances abroad! Feel free to copy down this list and adjust it for your own preparation.
Please Note: Student tips are not official advice from the College of Forestry.