While students on the Charles River campus are scrambling to select housing and register for classes for next semester, Boston University students studying abroad are asking their campus counterparts to do the scrambling for them.

Housing selection is not much different for students studying abroad than it is for students on campus, said Housing Director Marc Robillard. Abroad students are still required to meet deadlines and send in housing deposits at the same time as students on campus, but they must also assign a proxy — a person who makes a housing choice on their behalf.

A proxy can be a friend, parent or the Housing Office, but Robillard said student proxies are best because communication between abroad students and proxies is vital to getting a desired residence.

“I selected my proxy based on who I wanted to live with and who I knew could make the right decision,” said College of Communication junior Jonah Kaplan in an email from London. “It’s as if you’re signing away your housing selection discretion . . . so he better be damn trustworthy.”

In addition to assigning a proxy, abroad students are supposed to email the Housing Office with their choices, Kaplan said.

“It’s a lot more pressure for the proxy than it was for me,” said College of Arts and Sciences senior Carrie Mountain, who studied abroad in London for the spring 2006 semester. “My senior year was in their hands.”

To prepare for the fall semester, abroad students also have to register for classes after prior approval from an advisor, Kaplan said.

“In my experience, the advisers at BU are only there to give you a signature,” said CAS sophomore Anna Fajkowski in an email from London. “The sheet [with desired classes] was just to make sure that in case something happened while you were studying abroad, or if you are in a place with little available Internet, that BU could sign you up for those classes.”

Despite BU’s structural system for dealing with housing and course schedules for abroad students, Kaplan said abroad students are sometimes “left alone wandering in the desert without any communication with the home base.”

Abroad students will register for classes on Boston time, which can sometimes benefit the students who enjoy their extra hours of sleep.

“London is five hours ahead of the East Coast, which works out perfectly for registering for classes,” Fajkowski said. “In other words, I don’t have to wake up early.”

On the other hand, the time change can be a burden for students in Australia, such as COM junior Brendan Marrese.

“My registration date and time are different,” Marrese said in an email. “I’ll be registering on Monday in the middle of the night here. Not that great when you have to be up for work the next morning at 7 a.m.”