Lesson 1: Going, Arriving and Getting Around
Practicalities
If you are going out of state or out of the country for your education, make sure you check on a few things before departure:
Are your medical expenses covered? What kind of health insurance do you need to get? You don’t want to wake up in a hospital bed with a tremendous bill next to you. Usually when you go to a different country sometimes you have to pay a fine if you are not insured for more than a certain number of months. In Canada you get automatically insured at most universities and the fee is added onto your tuition, but some countries will actually not care at all whether you are insured or not.
Double check all deadlines, being late with paperwork or payments can have very serious consequences. In most cases there are also late fees, considering how much it is already costing you to attend college you want to avoid those as much as possible.
Make a checklist of things you want to take with you, it avoids being 500 miles away from home and think of something important still sitting in your old room. This is also a good exercise, so try and think of a checklist now and discuss it with the other students. Likely they will think of something you overlooked and visa versa.
Decide how you will be keeping in touch with family and friends; compare long distance plans in advance so you will not be stuck without a phone for a month. Also look into infra structure; if you have never or rarely been to wherever you are going for college you need to know about public transit services. If they are absolutely non existent, then you do need to consider getting/taking a car. It is also important to know what is available in terms of transportation if you want to go home for a long weekend and you will not be able to drive it. Knowing these seemingly irrelevant things in advance can save you a lot of time and money in the end when they do become relevant.
As soon as you arrive you also want to get a bank account at a local branch. Check on student credit cards and compare them. If you are planning to use your credit card in emergencies only or just as if it were debit, meaning you pay the complete bill when it arrives, then you do not need to worry about the interest rates. Rather look at a card that gives you some perks; like points that go towards free things. Free is always a good thing in university, and often you will see people line up for cold pizza, as long as it’s free!
Change your address with every possibly person or agency that could be relevant. If for whatever reason you want to keep your parents house as your primary mailing address work out a way to still get to your mail.
If you get your roommates contact information before moving in (some colleges will do that) get in touch with them to find out if they are bringing things like a TV. You don’t want to end up with more microwaves than you need. This is more relevant if you are living in an apartment style setup instead of a dorm setup. Even in a dorm though having a microwave can prove to be a life saver.
