Getting Ready to Go Home: Tying Up Loose Ends at Study Abroad

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At the end of your semester or year abroad, you must fulfill all your academic responsibilities, which include taking exams and making sure you collect all your academic materials (papers, textbooks, syllabi, and so on). You also need to take the time to say goodbye to people and places in your host country.

Make sure that you've returned all your outstanding library books, paid all the necessary fees, and completed any paperwork the international student office requires. You don't want your transcript, and therefore, the transfer of your credits, being held up because you forgot to pay a small library fine or turn in the keys to your dorm room!

Taking exams

You may find the end of a semester abroad very different than it is at home. Maybe at home you mostly write final papers or take-home exams. Maybe you're used to a flexible exam schedule, with professors letting you take exams early or late for various reasons; or you may even have self-scheduled exams! Don't expect this to happen while you're abroad.

Abroad universities tend to take final exams very seriously, primarily because they carry a much greater weight than they do in the U.S. Expect to sit through several three or four hour exams. (I took four exams in June, all of which counted somewhere between 85"100 percent of my final grade!) You have to take the exam on the day it is given " not earlier and not later, unless you have a catastrophe.

My younger sister graduated from high school on the same Saturday that I had my last exam. (Yes, exams may be given on Saturdays when you're abroad!) But there was no way for me to fly home for this. The department and course I had the exam in was just too large to accommodate special requests for exam changes. My only option was to take the make-up exam in late September; I would be in the middle of fall semester in the U.S. by then!

If you need to write final papers at the end of the semester, my best advice to you is to plan ahead. Chances are that you're at a big university where libraries are crowded and resources are a little harder to come by during finals. Many universities abroad do not have the same type of extended library hours during the regular semester or even during reading periods and finals that you may be accustomed to in the U.S. Additionally, if you don't have easy access to a computer, plan on spending time in computer labs and maybe waiting a little while to use a computer. If computer facilities allow you to book computers ahead of time, take advantage of this option.

Ensuring transfer of credit

Shortly after you return to your home university, you need to follow up with your registrar's office, dean, and major department to make sure all of your study abroad credits transferred correctly. As tempted as you are to throw out all your academic materials as you pack for home, don't! Although dragging textbooks, notebooks, syllabi, and papers home with you is a pain, it's the best way to guarantee that you receive credit for the work you've done. And if your course credit ever comes into question at your home university (for example, should a course count toward your major credits?), you can provide your home university professors with these materials. You can sometimes ship these things inexpensively at a book rate. If you want to avoid bringing textbooks home (unless you got attached to them), making note of the title, authors, publisher, and edition should be enough.