Speaker 1: oh my god hello my name is lindy jung i am primarily a youtuber who makes videos about writing and books but today i actually wanted to talk about something a little bit different so if you've been following this channel you know that i studied abroad last year from october to december i went to costa rica and it was probably like the best 10 weeks of my life and I was able to do it completely for free, which was kind of like a freak accident almost. Honestly, I really didn't expect that to be the case, but I have done my due diligence and I'm now like sort of collating this resource in case anyone else happens to be in a similar situation where they think that they just don't have the money to study abroad in college. So I want to go at this from the most neutral viewpoint possible and just present the information as is, but I do want to acknowledge that it is a huge privilege to be able to go to university in the first place. I went to a public state university so my tuition was much much less. It was in-state tuition to begin with and then I received a full financial aid slash scholarship package for my last two years. And of course beyond that being able to study abroad not just from a financial perspective but from the point where you are able to you know like leave your job, leave potentially family or other dependents like being able to go somewhere for a couple months to a year just in terms of your situation your personal you know your personality and your comfort level that's also a huge privilege but if everything else is lined up for you like you don't have dependents and you have a job that you can leave for a little bit or that you can just leave outright and you're not like tied up in leases and any other considerations and you have the capability within yourself and the desire to go and study abroad and you just feel like the money is what's holding you back, I am here to tell you that there's a way and I feel like it's definitely something that everyone who can should consider because studying abroad absolutely has honestly done so much for me in terms of not just being able to experience a new country and a new lifestyle and like meet wonderful people. I guess for a little bit of background on me, I recently got got my bachelor's of science in zoology, so I've been studying life sciences this whole time. I had a lot of in-classroom, lab, and even field courses that sort of showed me what field work in ecology and ecological sciences looks like. I'm lucky enough to have a field job right now, and I was able to get that job because I went to Costa Rica, and instead of just having a couple of hands-on experiences that were relevant to my field, maybe once a week or once a quarter, I was able to go and gain research experience by working on multiple like smaller and more casual research projects, but very guided and focused research projects that showed me what research looks like. And I also was able to make connections and to understand ecology and biology on like a face level. Like I was able to have a very hands-on experience with what I was learning with the subject matter. And it was so cool because the things I'd been studying in classrooms were out there in the world for me to see in Costa Rica. So it absolutely like broadened my horizons, helped me gain some perspective in what I want to do with my life, which is ultimately teach. And I feel like now that I understand what science looks like and how science relates to the real world and how it can result in these amazing careers that have so many different paths. Sorry, this is like a science right now, but it was just so enlightening and such a wonderful experience in terms of my career and not just my personal growth. But yeah, I just really feel like that idea of, oh, studying abroad is just a way to like skip a quarter and like drink a lot and you're gonna have to come back and catch up and all your friends will graduate ahead of you. That is definitely not the case. You can absolutely have a career focused study abroad experience and a career enhancing one. And also it's just great to get out of your comfort zone, I think, especially at this age. It is very common, especially in America, I think, to just go to high school and go to undergrad and then go to your job. And I think Americans especially, we tend to live in a bubble. It'd be amazing if more of us were more comfortable like moving somewhere else and learning how different people live and seeing what the world is like beyond just our borders and what we see on television and in the news. So that is my like advocacy for studying abroad. And because of financial aid and scholarships, it absolutely is possible for people who are not in the best financial situation or just feel like it's not possible. So let's just like jump right into this subject. So the first area I wanna cover is the actual logistics of studying abroad. Like how do you find a program and how do you start to apply for it and start to organize yourself and get ready for this to happen? For me, I went to a university, like a University of California, a UC, and that's a pretty extensive public university network in my state, and they have their own subset that is like for study abroad. It's called UCEAP, so University of California Education Abroad Program. And that is across all of the UCs. I went on this program with people from all of the UCs, basically. And I don't know if other public university systems have this specific organization in place, but basically I looked up UCAP and they had a bunch of different programs listed that all cater to different majors and career paths and countries. I just clicked on the ones that were for bio and I looked and most study abroad programs will have a GPA requirement. It's relatively low, but it is a good thing to know about. I think mine was like a 3.0, like the requirement was a 3.0, which I was well above that, thankfully. Sometimes it'll be like a 2.5 and sometimes there'll be no GPA requirement at all. But just to keep in mind, like it's good to have a better GPA and that will also help you with scholarships. I applied for my program super early because I read it was impacted. So there was a limited number of spaces available. And it was a very small program because our group, my program was really unique. Our group like stayed together for most of the duration. We weren't, you know, given like different apartments and just sent to classes every day. We were all learning as a group and going from place to place and like living in the same research stations and getting really close. When I submitted, it was a relatively painless process. It was just like any online application. I wrote a couple of short essays. I put in my transcript and gave my basic information in medical history. I think it is very good to not procrastinate even if the program you're looking at isn't impacted like mine was because sometimes things like requesting transcript paperwork or getting letters of recommendation, that can take time. So you just want to get the ball rolling and get the application submitted as quickly as possible because it is probably the most painless process. Also, another thing to consider is I didn't have a passport when I first applied for this program, so I had to get one. And they were pretty lenient on me. They didn't make me submit my passport information when I initially submitted the application. I was able to submit that later. But just so you know, if you don't have a passport and you're even thinking about studying abroad, it'd definitely be a good thing to consider getting as soon as possible, because I got my passport during COVID. It took several months for me to receive it. I started the passport process enough in advance that I wasn't super nervous about it, but I was just like, you know, there's always that anxiety of like, oh, there's one piece missing from my application and I just need the government to like hurry up already. Circling back to program selection, every program is different. Even within schools, there'll be different programs available to you. There'll be language focused ones and ones that are more like cultural immersion. Ones that kind of just like drop you in a city and let you do your own thing. ones that allow for more immersion with a host family. I recommend really taking your time to look through all of the options and figure out which one is the best fit for you and also to understand your goals. This isn't the first time I was able to go abroad for a long period of time. When I was right out of high school, I kind of like impulsively moved to France for a year to work as an au pair. That for me was, I just wanted to live in France. That was my entire reasoning. And I didn't have a good time. My other reasoning was like, I wanted to learn French, which I did do. But yeah, otherwise I didn't really have concrete goals for myself and I feel like one, I was 18 so I was a little bit of like a silly girl. And two, I was just kind of lost. Like I didn't know what to do with myself on weekends. Once I'd done all of the touristy things, I was just like eating pastry, you know. I didn't have particular like goals for myself. And I think when it comes to studying abroad, especially cause you're basically, you know, this is part of your education. You should really know or have an idea of what you want to get out of this. Even if it's just becoming fluent in a language, like what kind of fluency do you want to achieve? Do you want to become very comfortable with conversation? Do you want to become fully literate? Cultural exposure, do you want to like get to know people in your host country? Or do you want to maybe like pick up some sort of like community activities you can provide something like give something back? I think it's always great to give something back. For me, I just saw the description for the Costa Rica program and it spoke to me immediately. It read as very like outdoorsy, field-based and sort of intense, which I was really excited about. I'd already sort of done the whole like move to a different country and you know mess around and drink wine. That didn't appeal to me at this stage of my life so I was very very thankful that I was able to find a program that felt different from the rest. And around the same time that I was looking into programs and eventually settling on the Costa Rica one, I was also looking at scholarships and starting to bookmark the ones that were relevant to me. I found scholarships by googling but the ones that I actually ended up applying for and getting were ones listed by the UCEAP department and my university specifically. there were scholarships that were specific to my home campus like my university and then there were ones that were available to all UC students who were applying for education abroad programs and then the other one that I ended up finding and applying to was also listed by my university but it was not affiliated with either of those like subsets it was actually the Benjamin A. Gilman scholarship which is funded by the I think department of state and that one had some really interesting requirements that I'll get into it was a great scholarship that covered pretty much all of my remaining costs including like food costs and other necessities while I was in the country and I probably wouldn't have been able to go without that scholarship. One helpful tip here, if you find a scholarship that sounds like it'll be a good fit for you and you're interested in applying, mark the application due date in your calendar. Just write it down to have it so you know. I usually mark a week ahead of the actual due date so I give myself like a little bit of a buffer there. It's just super helpful to keep that stuff organized so you're not constantly like Shifting through different tabs and bookmarks. Staying on top of due dates is one thing I really really recommend Okay back to the application process So my application was accepted a couple of months after I submitted up until the month that I left for Costa Rica There were like a range of different orientations both in person and over zoom various meetings and informational sessions Just to get me super prepared for what was about to come. So stay on top of those for sure I feel like that's gonna be relatively normal they want you to be prepared before you make the big step of basically moving to another country, so make sure you're actually absorbing the information and asking questions so you know what's going to happen. Be sure that you do your own research and stay on top of the legal requirements. There's usually a lot of paperwork involved. I didn't need a visa because I was there for under 90 days, but the visa process can be very troublesome. Your study abroad organization should be able to help you with most of it, but just making sure you're on top of that will be super super helpful. Sorry this is like a memory now but one of the in-person orientations, there might have been only one, but the one that I attended allowed me to actually meet a couple of other students from my school who were going to go on a program. We made a group chat and nobody talked in it but a couple of people from that meeting and I arranged to sort of book the same flight and get a hotel a couple of days before the official program start date in San Jose. I recommend doing that especially if you kind of feel nervous about you know setting off on your own or if it's your first time going abroad or your first time staying abroad for an extended period of time. Definitely connecting with people that you're going to be doing this program with and flying over. I mean it's a great bonding experience. Personally I was like that flight was the first time ever that I've ever gotten airsick because I basically hadn't eaten that day and some other stuff was happening and I was like probably not making a great impression but it was so much more comforting to to have someone to link up with at the airport and to sort of find our little group and then spend the first couple of days in San Jose together. So now that the logistics of the application process are over, I'm gonna talk a little bit about my personal financial background. So like I said, I went to a public school, a University of California. I started receiving significant financial aid specifically the year that I turned 24. FAFSA has this thing where if it's the year that you turn 24 and you're submitting a FAFSA that year. You get financial aid based off of your income instead of your parents. Up until my third year, I was receiving financial aid based off of my parents' income instead of mine, and obviously they made significantly more money than me. I was personally living below the federal poverty line because I was working a part-time minimum wage job and a couple of other jobs. I was covering most of my living expenses, but my parents were gracious enough to cover the remainder of my tuition. But basically because my financial aid was being calculated based off of my very minuscule income. I just received so much of it. I was fully covered. They covered part of my living expenses for a time, which was amazing. And then because I was a good student, I received some merit-based awards on top of that. So I was chilling. For the last year, I was chilling. Up until that point, it had been nothing but struggle bus. I was basically the person, the friend who can never go out and do anything because they're so broke. And because of this situation, until I started receiving financial aid in full and realized how good that was, I was like, there's no way I'm going to study abroad. I love to travel and I obviously love living abroad and experiencing new cultures, but I did not think that was possible for me. I honestly didn't know anyone who had studied abroad in my like social circles, but then I just kind of went for it because I figured that even if financial aid didn't cover all of my expenses for studying abroad, then I could probably scrounge up the rest because I was like looking at financial aid calculators that my school provided and seeing that it was a pretty good deal. So the total cost of my quarter-long program is 14k roughly, so $14,000. Financial aid for me covered $9,000 of that. I received multiple scholarships that I applied for independently, including the Gilman scholarship that covered the remaining $5,000 and also gave me a neat like $1.4, like $1,400 in my bank account directly that allowed me to cover living expenses and any other expenses that I had. I bought my own round-trip plane ticket with my own money because my scholarship, my biggest scholarship, the Gilman one, had the stipulation that I could only buy a plane ticket with that money if I flew an American airline and all the American airlines were super expensive. I went with Volaris and I used travel credit card points with a travel card I just signed up for to pay off that plane ticket. I don't think it covered the entire thing. I think my travel points were only like 250 out of the the roundtrip flight, which was probably around like 460. I covered the rest of that with my personal savings, which came from my main part-time job, which I'd been working for three years. And I continued working at until the summer before I left for Costa Rica. I don't know why that was so hard for me to articulate. So obviously this is not a super common situation. I entered my undergrad really late. That turning 24 and getting financial aid based off of your personal income thing was a huge lifesaver. And I don't actually know that many people with that situation. I know a couple and we're all having a great time, but I understand that it is not super common. However, it is very common to receive at least some degree of financial aid. And you're probably qualified to receive scholarships as well. There's scholarships for all sorts. I mostly submitted for need-based ones. So those were not like very competitive because I do think that a lot of people who receive financial aid don't see themselves as being able to study abroad. Like I wrote some very, very, very pathetic essays and I still got my scholarships, which I feel kind of weird about, but you know, we're just doing it. We're going for it. I will talk about the Gilman Scholarship specifically a little bit later because it is a very odd one. It is a need-based scholarship, but I recommend that everyone give it a whirl and apply. It was a little bit more of an extensive application process because it's national, so the whole country can apply for it. And I honestly was not expecting to receive that scholarship especially because they asked for this very specific thing. I'm just like talking about it now, I guess. They asked for one very specific thing, which was to submit a proposal for a project that you would do after coming back from studying abroad that would basically inform other undergrads with financial need about the scholarship and talk to them about studying abroad. So basically conducting a community project that helps more people learn about the Gilman Scholarship. So that's why I'm talking about it because honestly I left campus and I have not looked back. So this is what we're doing. I hope at least some of you apply for this scholarship based off this video because I feel really bad otherwise. To qualify for the Gilman Scholarship, you do need to be receiving a Federal Pell Grant, which was one of my grants that I received throughout undergrad. They also really like it if your study abroad has a goal that feels like it'll help America. I wasn't really sure what they meant by this, but basically I just talked about how I'm really interested in sustainability and ecology and I wanted to go to Costa Rica, which is this sustainability hub and has so many wonderful innovative people working on sustainable agriculture, living and conservation in general. And I wanted to bring that back to the States, especially when it comes to my future high school classrooms and that worked apparently. So I feel like it doesn't have to be super specific. It doesn't have to be, here's my action plan and here's how I'm going to become president of the United States. I just talked about how I think the experiences I would pick up from Costa Rica would benefit the community that I come back to. So it is an interesting one. And I will say I was very intimidated by this application process and all the questions that they put forth, but honestly, it was relatively straightforward. I didn't put in a huge amount of effort into the application. If you have financial need, I think it's definitely one to look into. Back to scholarships as a whole, I think it is very, very valuable to be in communication with someone at whatever study abroad office or program you're applying for. It could be someone based through the university, it could be something like CIEE. Just be in communication with someone there so they can answer any questions you have about applications, maybe direct you towards scholarships. That was a big one for me is my office had the links to scholarships. I wouldn't have been able to find them otherwise. If you feel weird about talking to people, there's usually some sort of like Zoom informational session that is open to the public. Or you can come to an open forum, maybe anonymously ask a question or see if someone else asked the question that you had and maybe just get more comfortable with the staff that you might be communicating with. They know more than you, they have seen it all and they can help you. My other recommendation is to get a travel credit card if that is possible for you. Open up those cards, get that points bonus, get the miles bonus, and then book your plane ticket with that. That was a huge help for me. I probably would have been struggling a little bit if I'd had to just pay for my plane tickets out of pocket because I was not going to waste money by booking an American airline. Also, a travel card is going to be very handy because most of the time they don't have that weird extra charge for using the card internationally. I think that more or less covers the financial side of things. please let me know if you have any other questions. I love talking about my study abroad experience and I think the financial side of things is very interesting and not as complicated as a lot of people might think. Now I'm just going to like wrap it up and talk about my takeaways from this as best as I can. I will say one of my big tips is that I studied abroad, not even in my last year because I got delayed. After I was done with all of my classwork, my required coursework, I stayed on for an extra year. I reapplied for FAFSA and everything. In that first fall quarter of my fifth year was when I studied abroad. That was an amazing decision. If you can make it your last quarter or even the first quarter of a hypothetical fifth year, it's just going to make things so much easier. You're not going to have to come back to anything. You're not going to have to figure out new leases. You're not gonna have to sublet. Just pack it all up, leave for a little bit and reenter society as a graduate. Consistently for the other students in my program, the biggest problem for a lot of them was finding housing when they got back. And I am really glad that I didn't have to go through that. basically just came home and it's been great. I got my diploma like this week even. So to cap it all off, college is this really, really interesting point in your life that is not really like any other time. It's when not having a lot of money can really work to your advantage in very specific ways. Trust me, I know that not having a lot of money can be very difficult and a challenge in a lot of other ways but studying abroad is definitely one of those areas where not being rich or from a rich family was very helpful to me. But even if you're not a financial aid recipient, even if you're paying out-of-pocket full cost, studying abroad can often be the same price as a regular quarter or a regular year at school. Crunch some numbers, understand your finances, and understand how much this will cost realistically and how much aid you're able to get and how much scholarship money you'd be able to get. It's a worthwhile experience if you're able to hack it. Again, it doesn't just have to be a quarter that you spend lounging around in parks and drinking wine and painting. It can definitely be a career booster and an educational experience. The field experience that I got from my study abroad quarter literally helped me get my current job. I was interviewing for that job while I was in Costa Rica and apparently that impressed them. Also just like, I don't know, the overall experience was very cool for me. Like it was amazing. I think that Costa Rica in particular is one of those places that a lot of visitors are only going to get a surface level experience of, but because I was able to spend more time there and interface with the community and have a host family and meet people who've been living and working there. and just like going to these wonderful remote places that no one else has ever heard of. I was just able to see so much more, which is one of the main reasons why I love living in a different country instead of just visiting. Anyway, that just about covers this topic. So thank you so much for watching. I hope this is helpful to at least some of you who are considering studying abroad. Again, if you have any questions, let me know in the comments below. I will do my absolute best to answer everything. Thank you for watching and have a great day.