Notes from Abroad: Lengthy preparation precedes semesters abroad

For students spending their semesters abroad, the registration process didn’t end with simply signing up for classes on Penn InTouch.

Though the semester is already underway for many students who are abroad, the process began as early as February, when most Penn Abroad applications are due. Students say that the process of obtaining a visa and coordinating with Penn departments back home can be a stressful one.

Assistant Director of Penn Abroad Rochelle Keesler said that regardless of where a student is going, all Penn Abroad programs begin with the same process, including essays, health information and recommendations. Unique program requirements may include a housing application, a language placement test and a minimum GPA. Of all 107 Penn-sponsored programs, only one requires a student to submit a high school transcript, Keesler said.

College senior Vince Cooper, who spent the fall of his junior year in Seville, Spain, remembers the application and registration process as being “pretty long.”

Once he had been accepted to the program, Cooper remembers the frustrating process of applying for a visa.

“That process was so stressful,” he said. “Since I live in Delaware, I had to go to the consulate in New York City, and they are extremely overbooked. You can’t make an appointment there until three months before you leave, but then they’re booked three months in advance,” he said.

“So pretty much I would just log on everyday for the month of July to see if a spot opened up,” he explained.

College and Wharton junior Cora Neumann is spending the semester in St. Petersburg, Russia. Neumann is a Russian-language target student for the Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business, whose process of obtaining a visa was complicated by the fact that she is an international student from Germany.

“Applying for the visa was rather stressful because to be able to get a visa for Russia, you need an invitation letter, and that one came rather late,” she said. “Thankfully the visa processing center in Germany is pretty quick, so I have had my visa for around two weeks now.”

Neumann also said that her application process as an international student was more complicated because her home country’s first language is not English.

“I needed a physician’s statement, which was interesting because my physician at home doesn’t speak much English,” she said. “I had to translate the whole thing to my doctor and then tried to translate things [back to English],” she added.

College junior Melissa Tustin-Gore is studying abroad at the National University of Singapore this semester, where she has been since July 28. She described her application and registration process as “really really awful” and even said that she “regret[s] coming to this university to study.”

She said that even though she went through the normal Penn Abroad application process, she then had to reapply for everything once she arrived in Singapore because none of the original application materials went through — a process that was even further complicated because their computer systems did not recognize the hyphen in her last name.

After she arrived, she had to wait several weeks for her visa to process and had to register for classes, which she thought would be taken care of beforehand.

Aside from all of the registration problems she faced, Tustin-Gore also talked about how difficult it was to reach advisors at Penn. “There is the problem of coordinating things with back home,” she said. “No one seems to understand that I am literally on the other side of the world and cannot attend events at Penn.”

Tustin-Gore said that Student Financial Services specifically was hard to contact. “Coordinating things with [them] has been a huge nightmare. I was really scared about money at a lot of points — and still am — because my bill keeps showing weird things, but it takes [them] a long time to get back to my emails and I can’t just pick up the phone and call them,” she explained.

Still, Tustin-Gore does not blame Penn for the complicated process she has dealt with. “I don’t think this is Penn’s fault,” she said. “But I do think that Penn needs to stipulate that this university take care of these things and properly accommodate the exchange students or else they should end their partnership.

“This has taken a serious toll on my mental health,” she added.

While Tustin-Gore and Neumann are just beginning their study abroad trips, Cooper has had time to reflect on his experience. Though he acknowledged that there were tedious parts of the application process, he said that the Penn Abroad program coordinators did their best to streamline the experience.

“The coordinators of the program put a lot of thought into all aspects of the trip,” he said. “They ensured everyone was matched to a family that fit well with their personalities and ways of living. We went on periodic cultural excursions throughout Spain. Even the planning for and acquisition of tutors was thoroughly taken care of,” he said.

“I definitely cannot complain,” he added.

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