Hi everyone! Paris here again to share some more amazing opportunities I’ve taken with the University of Exeter. Despite being an English student, I decided to embark on a study abroad year and went all the way to South Korea. Keep reading to find out how I managed to get there, and how amazing my time abroad last year with Exeter was!
If you know anyone who’s ever been on a gap year or spent a couple months soul-searching in a distant land, you will have been told it “was the best time of my life” 100 times. But it’s the truth! And here at the University of Exeter, there are amazing opportunities to do that all important self-discovery abroad, whilst getting your degree!
When you apply for Exeter, even if you don’t know for certain if you want to go abroad during your course, make sure you apply for a “with Study Abroad” course so that, unlike me, you end up on the priority list when applying.
As I didn’t apply for a Study Abroad course, I was on the reserve list and had to absolutely make sure I got a 1st/high 2:1 to get to my second-choice host university. On the priority list, you still need to do well in your first year, however you should get one of the options on your list.
You get 8 different choices when picking your host university – that’s a lot of countries to pick from!! There are obviously more and less popular ones so you can be tactical about where you pick – as I was on the reserve list, countries where English wasn’t a first language like South Korea had a lot less competition.
That being said, I always knew I wanted to go to South Korea, and so the opportunity Exeter provided me with to travel there on an exchange year was incredible! The breadth of countries and integration of the year abroad into my course was the main contender that swung my application to Exeter in the first place.
It varies for each subject/programme, but for English the year abroad is added as the third of four years to my course, and overall counts for 1/7th of my grade (2:1:4).
I did my exchange at Ewha Womans University with four other people from Exeter and seven of us in Seoul overall, which meant I already had people to fly out with and get to know before I even started. This made the experience a lot less daunting than it might have been doing it alone.
By chance, we also managed to connect with other people from the UK at our university, which was quite common for each different nationality. This would be one of my top tips when trying to acclimatise in a new country: finding a network of people from home that you can share common experiences or interests with – like missing a Sunday roast! – can definitely help ease the initial homesickness.
Being in South Korea, the time difference between there and the UK was pretty challenging to combat, as being 8/9 hours ahead involved a lot of struggle coordinating when to catch up with family and friends. Setting a strict routine or designated time every day or on days where you’ll call home also helps both you and those you miss make time for each other, so you don’t miss out.
What I found is that my reliance on calling home for comfort and in homesickness slowly dissipated the more I got comfortable in Seoul, and by the end I was barely calling home at all! Filling your days with busy and exciting things can not only help distract, but is also the whole point of a year abroad! Above all, try and get the absolute most out of your opportunity to be living somewhere new: travel a lot, be a tourist, but also go off the beaten track (safely!) to places you might not be able to visit if just on holiday.
If you’re feeling really motivated, I would also recommend learning some of the language before you venture out into the big wide world. Alongside the massive variety of countries Exeter provides for Study Abroad, the University also offer tons of different language modules that you can take alongside any course. If you take a language module for two years, you also graduate with a “Proficiency in (Said Language)” as your degree. I only took a beginner’s module in Korean for one year, but I would definitely recommend even doing this if you can, it was much better learning at uni than struggling on Duolingo!
Moving to another country almost completely alone was the most challenging thing I had ever done, but also the most rewarding! It has been my biggest achievement to date, and the skills I learnt during my year have definitely shaped me to who I am today. It helped grow my resilience, confidence, social skills and general adaptability to any situation – not to mention my tolerance to spicy food!
This has also meant that, although completely unrelated to my English degree or future career in law, my experience and skills learnt abroad have made me stand out in any application or interview process for potential jobs. By completing a year abroad, it encompasses all the skills mentioned above that an interviewer is looking for, and makes for some very interesting stories to bring up during the interview!
If I had to pick my favourite memories from my whole year in South Korea, it would probably be the trips I made outside of Seoul. Going to Busan to see cherry blossoms, getting completely lost in the rural East coast of Korea, or going to Jeju island over my birthday, were the most fun and freeing times of my year, and the most interesting too! Experiencing the culture of the country outside the capital (or host) city is something I would highly encourage you to do, even if it’s daunting. I usually travelled with a friend, but even if you’re going solo, exploring different parts of your country will be so enriching to your experience abroad.
There were, however, some things I would have really liked to have known before I went:
- Give yourself LOTS of time to sort your visa – no matter what country you’re going to, check and double check the documents you need to sort to travel there, and if there’s anything else you need to do. For South Korea, we had to try and find a doctor that would do a TB scan for our host uni, which was definitely an unexpected part of my year abroad prep.
- Expect to spend your budget – if you want to make the most out of your year, you will want to travel, try different food, and be a tourist for a whole year. There are schemes in place that the University of Exeter and external organisations provide, from scholarships to government grants. Research all your options thoroughly and make sure not to miss application deadlines!
- The homesickness will get better – I spent a lot of the first 3 months in Korea feeling incredibly homesick and lonely. Once you start filling your diary with fun things to do, the time difference and loneliness becomes a distant memory. I promise that the feeling of wanting to leave in your first week will pass!!
Another thing to bear in mind is that you are on your year abroad for you! I felt a bit of FOMO whilst the rest of my friends were in their final year at Exeter, but reminding myself for how amazing and unique the experience I was having was really helped bring back some perspective to my feelings. I also made some friends for life out in Korea, and the memories I’ve made with them are some I truly will never forget. It also makes reuniting with Exeter friends a lot sweeter when you’ve got so much to catch up on! (Your Instagram will also be a lot cooler than theirs!)
But above all… have fun!! This is most likely the best opportunity you will ever get to have almost-total freedom to live and explore a completely new country, so you need to make the most of it! Travel, be a tourist, and explore neighbouring countries if possible, but whatever you do make sure you start early. My biggest regret is not doing more travelling and activities in my first term, and having to cram everything in the last 3 months.
And yes, you will turn into the annoying study abroad student who “found themselves” on their year abroad, so make sure to stay in contact with your study abroad friends once you’re back; they will unfortunately be the only people who understand how amazing your year was. Exeter holds a few different “returner” events once you’re back for your final year, and so if a lot of your friends have graduated already, I would recommend going to these to hear about other people’s years and meet new people.
If you’re considering whether or not to do a year abroad, my advice is to research what countries you might possibly want to visit, and then check if Exeter provides an opportunity to go. If they do, GO GO GO!!!! Trust me, you won’t ever regret it.
For more information on years abroad at Exeter, visit their website for all the information you might need to start planning your year away. Have fun!