The Exchange Guide: info for Australian students doing exchange in USA

The Guide

Latest Blog Posts

College Deep Dive – Clemson University

For the 2nd edition of The Exchange Guide’s College Deep Dives, we take a trip to South Carolina to hear Bridget’s exchange journey and why she was so keen to …

College Deep Dive

College Deep Dive – University of Florida

Welcome to The Exchange Guide’s College Deep Dives! An opportunity to get a personal insight into a previous exchange student’s experience on studying abroad in the USA. Meet Marc, a …

Tips and Advice

The biggest mistakes students make during exchange

Life is full of making mistakes and learning from them to ensure they do not happen again. We have all had that moment where we wish we could hop into …

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Testimonials

MaxUniversity of Michigan

I wish I knew about this!

If only I had The Exchange Guide when I went on exchange a few years ago, it would have been a breeze to organise.

MaddieCalifornia State University, Sacramento

Simple, clear and effective

The Exchange Guide provides a comprehensive playbook of literally everything there is to know about going on exchange. Highly recommended to all prospective exchange students!

JakeUniversity of Colorado, Boulder

An organisational lifesaver

Without this guide, I have no idea how I would have organised my exchange journey. Everything from deciding where I wanted to go, to getting my visa, to organsing a phone plan was covered. Before I knew it, my exchange was lined up right in front of me! 10/10.

Welcome to the Exchange Guide

The Guide

Latest Blog Posts

College Deep Dive – Clemson University

College Deep Dive – University of Florida

The biggest mistakes students make during exchange

Testimonials

I wish I knew about this!

Simple, clear and effective

An organisational lifesaver

Have a question? Keen to give some feedback or provide us with some updated exchange information? Feel free to get in touch with us.

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.

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.

Save your electives for exchange