Find out the best way to get home from the local bars and clubs. Many colleges have free late night rider buses, but otherwise its always useful to have Uber and Lyft on your phone.
It is probably best to befriend people who are part of greek life (e.g. in classrooms, around campus etc…) This way you bypass the whole rushing process, and can get some exposure to greek life through your connections
It’s a good idea to call your credit card company (e.g. Citibank) to inform them of the dates you are travelling and where you are going. This way they are expecting to see overseas transactions and won’t treat them as suspicious.
Scan every document you receive and save it somewhere safe (such as your email, dropbox or in the cloud). You never know when you might need to access these forms and documents.
Southwest Airlines
Southwest Airlines does not charge for check-in baggage (where as most airlines charge $25USD per bag).
Southwest Airlines does not show up on Google Flights or Skyscanner – hence you will need to go to the official Southwest Airlines website directly.
Southwest Airlines does not have arranged seating – instead you are grouped into classes and then it is first-come-first-serve based on your boarding position number. Sometimes this can be a bit like the hunger games, but just remain calm and find an available seat.
If there are prerequisites for a course you are interested, email or call the direct professor in the USA to express your interest in doing this course and to see if they could waive the prerequisite requirements
If you need the OS HELP loan, do not go on exchange in your final semester (since you are ineligible for the loan having no credit points to come back to). You should rather do this in your penultimate semester.
Look at your college’s semester dates on their website to find out when semester begins and ends. Try book your outbound international flight date for 30 days PRIOR to the start of semester, and your return flight 30 days AFTER the end of semester.
