Below you’ll find a guest blog written by Bob Bessette, the father of a junior at Bowdoin College in Maine, who is finishing up her semester of studies in Ireland.  I was particularly interested in his post because my son Ben, who is a sophomore at Beloit College, plans to attend school  in Ireland for a semester during his junior year.

If you want to learn even more about studying abroad, I wrote my own post on the subject two years ago when my daughter, a graduate of Juniata College, was studying at the University of Barcelona for a year. Here is my post: Studying Abroad: 7 Things Parents Should Know

Here’s is advice from Bob who writes his own blog at TotallyUniqueLife:

Studying in Ireland

Four long months have passed since we our daughter left to study abroad at the University College Cork in Ireland.  When she returns in a week,  she will be presumably a lot wiser, not only in the subject matter she has been studying, but also in the ways of the world.  I guess that’s the essence of studying abroad – to expand your horizons and get to know another culture other than the one you have lived in for your whole life.  Based on a recent conversation with my daughter, it appears that the study abroad semester has been successful.  She said just the other day during a Skype session,

“I’m just starting to realize that I’ll be leaving soon. Ya know, I’m really going to miss this place but I’m really looking forward to coming home.”

Isn’t this what you really want to hear as a parent?  She has fostered friendships with others who were also studying abroad, as well as with Irish students.  During this time she has also been able to visit two additional countries, Scotland and Italy.  She created a life for herself at her dorm making dinner on a nightly basis with roommates from other countries that also enjoy the cooking process.  She has explored the region, gotten to know the natives at the local marketplace and pubs, and has garnered a true sense of what the Irish culture is all about.

Study Abroad Tips for Parents

As parents, this was the first time my daughter had ever gone on a plane by herself.  We have traveled to Greece, Spain, and domestically as a family over the years, but this was the first time we ever watched, with misty eyes, as she walked through security to head off on her own adventure without us. Actually, it was a lot tougher leaving her off at college for the first time.  But this was different since we couldn’t just jump into our car, drive two hours, and be with her should she need us.  After four months of dealing with our daughter studying abroad, here are five tips I’d like to share with parents whose children are about to embark on a similar experience.

1. Finalize Travel Plans

One rather unnerving experience occurred while we were checking my daughter’s bags at the airline terminal the day she was leaving for Ireland.  The attendant asked my daughter if she had her return ticket yet and she responded “Not yet”.  The attendant told her “Then I can’t let you travel today”.  Needless to say, we were taken aback.  He explained that there was a recent edict from the State Department disallowing foreign travel unless a return flight was already booked.

Luckily my daughter had already scoped out return flights so she had a good idea of what it would cost.  She asked him if she could buy a ticket online right there using her laptop. He said “Sure” but he just needed to see the details and proof of purchase.  Within minutes she had bought her ticket online, showed him the ticket number, and we were on our way to eat some lunch before she was off to the security line.  Look into whether or not your child will need a return ticket before taking off.  It may save you from some heart palpitations at the airport.

What is strange is that my daughter actually knew of others from the U.S who did not buy their return flight before they left and had no problems flying to Ireland.  Perhaps it was a temporary thing or something related specifically to the airline.

2. Skype is your Friend

If you have not heard of Skype yet, get to know it.  Skype is a software application that will allow you to have a video chat with your child over the internet at no cost.  All it requires is that you download the application onto your computer and your child does the same.  You will also need a webcam that will plug into a USB port on your computer.  My daughter’s laptop already had a built-in webcam.  We had to buy one for our computer at a very reasonable cost.

One amazing aspect of this study abroad experience is that we actually have had more contact with our daughter since she has been in Ireland than when she is two hours away at college.  With Skype we have gotten to see and talk to her regularly and have not missed her nearly as much as we thought we would have.  There is something about seeing her and talking to her, in lieu of using email or talking on the phone, that allays those pangs of separation anxiety.  If there is one tip I would give any parent whose child is heading abroad it’s download Skype.

Technical Note: When my daughter got to Ireland she could not use Skype in her room at the dorm due to what we thought was a firewall issue.  What was strange was that another roommate could use Skype to communicate with her family.  We discovered that the latest version of Skype, which was on my daughter’s computer, would not work with the in-dorm proxy server.  All she had to do was uninstall the latest version of Skype, install the older version and Skype was up and running.  Hopefully your child does not have a similar issue but, if he or she does, this could be a potential solution.

3. Consider Social Media

My wife and I do not do Facebook but, to be honest, it may make a lot of sense to create a Facebook page so that you can have access to any pictures or comments that your child posts to their Facebook page.  Fortunately, my daughter created a blog when she went to Ireland that allowed us to see her pictures and hear of her adventures in Europe.  The only problem is that she posted all of her pictures on Facebook but only a few on the blog.  We had to ask our youngest daughter or other family members to log into their Facebook page so that we can see the many pictures our eldest has posted.

If you use Twitter and your child does as well, this is another way of using Social Media to keep in touch with your child abroad.  My daughter doesn’t do Twitter but, believe it or not, I do so it wasn’t a viable mode of communication for us.  It could be another option if both you and your child are regular Tweeters.

4. Bring Enough of the Essentials

This may seem obvious but some of the basic items that your child uses every day may not be available in the country to which they are heading.  For example, my daughter could not find quality dental floss or Chapstick in Ireland.  These are two items that she uses every day.  So I ended up shipping her 2 packs of dental floss and a 3-pack of Chapstick in one of those padded envelopes.  Unfortunately, the package did not arrive for over a month and we had thought it had gotten lost in the mail.  In the meantime, she was able to get these items from someone else who was visiting from the States.  If your child uses something on a regular basis, make sure they bring enough of it to last them the amount of time that they will be abroad.

5. Try to Relax

We, as parents, go through a lot when it comes to our children.  If you are anything like my wife and I, you worry about anything and everything that could go wrong with your child.  It is especially difficult when they are in another country far away from your control.  If I were to give some advice to my fellow parents it would be to try to concentrate on the many benefits of the adventure on which your child is about to embark.  If you try to focus on how much your child will gain from this experience, it will be a lot easier for you to relax.

In one week we will be welcoming our child, with open arms, back from an adventure that only she has experienced.  It was tough on all of us but personal growth is achieved through trying times.  I somehow think that she will be a little bit older and little bit wiser from the experience.  I wish you and your child much success with your mutual study abroad experience!

Bob Bessette is a parent who has felt the pangs of separation anxiety associated with his daughter going away to college.  He writes about experiences like this, and others, on his own blog entitled TotallyUniqueLife, which deals with practical solutions, tips, and advice for your life.

You can find all the advice at Studying Aboard: 7 Things Parents Need to Know

Here are some of the tips:

Get Skype.

If you haven’t downloaded Skype on your computer, do it before your child heads abroad. My daughter called me almost every day on Skype so I feel like she’s never really left. She told me when we were driving home from the airport after her first semester in Barcelona that American students want to hear from their parents more when they are studying abroad because the emotional connection is important when they are living in a strange land. And that includes students who are normally quite self sufficient.

Start early.

Studying overseas requires completing lots of paperwork. The biggest pain for Caitlin was obtaining her student visa from the Spanish Consulate, which required a trek to Los Angeles with her file folder jammed with documents. Caitlin had double and triple checked the items she needed, but the consulate still rejected her initial visa request.

What was Caitlin’s omission?  As instructed, she had brought a statement from our local police department that stated that Caitlin wasn’t a criminal. A consulate worker told her, however, that this letter had to be notarized by government employees with San Diego County and the state of California!

At least Caitlin had time to collect the signatures and return to LA on another day. When we were waiting in the consulate’s lobby, a hysterical Spanish woman pleaded unsuccessfully for permission to allow her American husband to travel to Spain on their honeymoon despite a glitch in the paperwork.

Understand that college elsewhere is different.

Attending universities in Europe is more impersonal than in the United States. Caitlin attends Juniata College, a liberal arts school in Pennsylvania, where all her professors know her and they are always eager to chat and be helpful. Not so in Spain. Professors seem to give lectures and then call it a day.

Caitlin discovered just how unapproachable some of them are when she asked a professor at the University of Barcelona to write her a short recommendation. She needed it to apply for a grant to attend a political conference in Paris in the spring. The professor seemed shocked that Caitlin would approach him and he didn’t appear to understand what a recommendation was.

When Caitlin didn’t know the exact name of the grant program – and she hadn’t brought him a pen – he called her a “disaster.” Later, when they walked to the classroom where the final exam was held last week, the professor blurted out to the students, “It’s all Caitlin’s fault that I’m late.” Caitlin, however, persevered and got the recommendation she needed.

Encourage your child to take advantage of his/her surroundings.

It’s easy to attend school in a bubble. Americans tend to hang around other Americans. One of my daughter’s top goals in Barcelona was to ditch most of the Americans. One of Caitlin’s best Barcelona friends turned out to be a 60-year-old woman, who has taken Caitlin mushroom hunting and hiking in the Pyrenees. Caitlin has got herself invited to fondue, chocolate and dinner parties where she’s met people from Germany, Italy, Israel, South American and elsewhere. She’s learned about wild Spanish traditions of which I’d put el Caga Tio, the bizarre Catalan Yule Log, at the top of the list.

Lynn O’Shaughnessy is the author of The College Solution and she also writes college blogs for CBSMoneyWatch and US News & World Report.

If I’m remembering correctly, only 5% of college students who study overseas stay for a year.

Caitlin studied at the University of Barcelona. I think living in Barcelona was a much greater experience that attending the gigantic — and rather impersonal — university that’s spread out over the beautiful city.

One of the benefits of living in Spain is that the rest of Europe is close by. Just for fun, I wanted to share a blog post that Caitlin wrote this week after she returned from a visit to the Czech Republic to see Walky, her high school/college friend.  It’s a very amusing post. You can check it out here:  Brno & The Czech Republic.

Lynn O’Shaughnessy is the author of The College Solution and she also writes for CBSMoneyWatch. Follow her on Twitter.

That’s the conclusion that I drew during our family’s two-week vacation in Spain and France. We were visiting my daughter Caitlin, who has been attending the University of Barcelona for two semesters.

During the vacation, I kept getting into conversations with Europeans about their universities. I had some knowledge about European universities, but the conversations reinforced what I already believed:

Compared to the European universities, Americans are very, very fortunate to possess their own unique higher-education system.

In Europe, a college education is cheap or even free and offer no frills. In Europe, you won’t find the cute liberal arts colleges where the classes are small and the professors are eager to be mentors. In Europe, classes are typically held lecture-style and professors don’t consider their roles to be mentors.  But size alone doesn’t explain the difference. Most Americans, after all, attend large state schools.

At the University of Barcelona and many other European universities, there is no central campus. The university buildings are scattered across the city. Lots of these buildings look more like office complexes. There is no heart of the university. No quadrangle to meet. No dormitories. No sports teams. No mascots.

In a subway in Paris, I struck up a conversation with a young Parisian attorney, who told me that he had gotten his MBA at the University of Chicago. He said he loved going to the University of Chicago and what he really appreciated was being about to touch his professors. I thought it was a curious choice of words, but Caitlin explained that from her experience in Europe the professors stand on raised platforms during lectures and their desk are equipped with see-through panels that separate them from pupils.

I also struck up a conversation with a physician in Great Britain, who had attended the University of Oxford. He said he wished that Great Britain offered liberal arts colleges as they do in The States. At Oxford, he only got one year to pursue a broad array of liberal arts before he was required to only take courses in his major.

We all like to gripe about higher-education in the United States, with cost being the No. 1 complaint.  I thought, however, that I’d give everyone a reason to feel fortunate that our children will be receiving their college degrees from institutions in this country.

Lynn O’Shaughnessy is the author of The College Solution and she also writes a college blog for CBSMoneyWatch. Follow her on Twitter.

Further Reading:

German University: Roughing It In College

Anyway, I survived the party for 65 people and the highlights included mini brie jalapeno souffles, a Stilton tart with cranberry chutney and my own version of George’s at the Cove smoke chicken, broccoli and black bean soup.

Without further ado, let’s get back to college. As usual, I am sharing the posts that I wrote for my college blog for CBSMoneyWatch last week. Hope you enjoy.

The Dirty Secret Behind College Football Bowls

I always assumed that college football teams that go to bowl games rake in money. Not true. Many are money losers for the colleges.

Studying Abroad: 7 Things Parents Need to Know

I think this is my favorite post since I started writing a college blog for CBSMoneyWatch earlier this year. I write about my daughter’s adventures studying at the University of Barcelona. I’ve been disappointed that it hasn’t gotten more page hits. Maybe everybody is just too busy Christmas shopping.

The Top 10 Colleges Which Reject Nearly Everyone

Read the list of the most exclusive universities and you won’t see any surprises. But boy, people like to read about those Ivy League schools.

Lynn O’Shaughnessy is the author of The College Solution.

I hear this question a lot from parents who are stressed about the high cost  of a bachelor’s degree. They naturally wonder if starting at a cheaper community college and then transferring is a smart move.

The transfer student question is also relevant for teenagers who begin at four-year universities and then end up transferring to other colleges. About one in five students who start at a university end up transferring someplace else.

A new study from the National Survey of Student Engagement suggests that transfer students from community colleges don’t fare as well when they transfer. These transfer students are less likely to participate in such important campus activities as internships, studying abroad, doing research with a professor and taking part in a senior seminar.

Transfer students who came from other four-year institution became more involved than the community college transfers, but they too lagged behind the students who began at the institutions. Alexander C. McCormick, the director of the NSSE survey, suggested that many students transferring from other four-year schools were probably not doing well at their initial institutions.

Despite the survey results, some students attend community colleges.  On its site, the College Board has posted six reasons why high school students might want to start at a community college.

The big challenge that transfer students face is having their credits transfer. Here is a cheat sheet that should help boost your chances of keeping those credits.

Further Reading:

Transferring to a Different School

Getting a Community College Scholarship

Leaving Free Cash on the Table