Prospective international students who have not traveled to the United States need to prepare for a cultural adjustment when coming to study at Boston University, officials said.
“They have an enormous amount of information given to them, not just about the school and Boston area, but also acculturation to the U.S., banking services, immigration and American culture,” said Andrea Popa, assistant director for scholar services in the International Students & Scholars Office.
Students said they decided to attend college in Boston because they were interested in learning about other cultures.
“I decided to come to BU because it is in general really diverse, and I could meet many different kinds of people coming from manyw different countries,” said Chihoon Jeong, a School of Theology graduate student.
Despite the new experiences international students seek, there are many social and academic obstacles they have to overcome, Popa said.
“I think there are international students who don’t have a lot of knowledge of how different the academic culture can be here,” she said.
Expectations to participate in class, attend class, adjust to the learning curve and the exam-based culture may be different from what they are accustomed to, she said.
Jeong said he needed to take two tests, the Testing of English as a Foreign Language and the Graduate Record Examination to apply for school in America.
Some international students said they found many cultural differences while adjusting to Boston.
Jeong said there were many misunderstandings because he had trouble explaining himself in English.
“I’m from Korea and the culture here is very different,” Jeong said. “There are a lot of cultural differences – sometimes greeting people, hanging out with people and also dating people [is different].”
The culture at BU is far from that in Singapore, said Jeslin Tay, who was a one-semester exchange student in the fall.
“First, there is a very strong Terrier spirit, with people coming together over niche sports,” she said. “At my school, I can’t even tell you what we do other than study.”
Students here are more involved in their classes and the faculty is very involved, Tay said. In Singapore, the education system is very hierarchical.
With home hundreds of miles away, international students said it is hard to be so far away from their families.
“I miss home in general,” said Eun Kyung Park, a College of Communication freshman from Cambodia. “It’s hard when I can’t go home as easily as everyone else for Thanksgiving and spring break.”
Popa said there are many practical preparations students need to make before coming to campus. They need to get immunizations, apply for visas, find housing and learn about the city of Boston.
International students said the most important thing about coming to school in a different country is to be open-minded and try new things.
“The most important thing is to be yourself and try to engage in the new society,” Jeong said.
BU has many services available to international students that they might be unaware of, Popa said. They have writing services, student life activities and health services available to them.
“That’s not always the case in other cultures,” Popa said. “Sometimes we have some extra outreach to let students know that the university culture in the U.S. includes this panorama of services that are available to them that might not be available in any other university contexts worldwide.”
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