How to Establish Your Own Study Abroad Goals

Here’s what you gain from studying abroad. Like any major endeavor in life, one surefire way to maximize your ability to get the most out of an experience is to combine forethought and intention-setting with reflection and retrospection. Establishing your goals for studying abroad is a key step towards making this incredible opportunity as meaningful as possible.

Let friends in on your study abroad goals—instant accountability-buddies!

We’d hate for you—or any student—to let the learning potential of this experience go to waste. It’s nearly impossible to know why study abroad is beneficial to you if you haven’t done the legwork of establishing your own objectives of studying abroad. What's more, you shouldn't limit yourself to only study abroad learning goals. Think more broadly about how this experience can impact you professionally and personally, too.

Read on to learn our guide to setting your own study abroad goals, plus how to make sure you not only identify them, but that you crush ‘em, too.

Pro tip: Use S.M.A.R.T. goals

Before you sit down to write out your study abroad goals, know and understand the S.M.A.R.T. goal-planning framework. This can help make establishing your objectives a breeze.

S = SPECIFIC. No wishy-washy, vague, unclear goals here.

M = MEASURABLE. If you don’t have benchmarks to pair with your goals, how will you know if you’ve met or exceeded them?

A = ATTAINABLE. Don’t overcommit to an unreachable achievement. It needs to be something you actually can do.

R = REALISTIC. Similar to being attainable, your goals need to be practical and sensible. If you are working towards something only to realize part-way through that it’s near impossible to accomplish, your motivation will go out the window.

T = TIME-BOUND. Make sure you attach a time-period to each of your goal to increase your accountability to actually getting it done! For study abroad, this can look like goals before and after your international experience, or even goals while studying abroad.

Types of study abroad goals you should think about

Keeping in mind that you can have different goals for before, during, or while studying abroad, here are some broad examples of important study abroad goals to consider making your own:

Academic goals for study abroad

YOU will have the biggest impact on your academic outcomes of study abroad.

There’s a reason it’s called “study” abroad and not “give-up-all-things-learning-and-just-get-credit-for-no-reason” abroad. You have to study—and even have study abroad learning objectives! To help you stay focused and make your time abroad as a student productive, you should determine a healthy number of your own study abroad academic goals. 

So, what are some academic goals for studying abroad?

Example academic goals for studying abroad:

1. Don’t procrastinate. Get your work done on time (or dare we say, early?)
2. Attend classes. You think it’s hard enough on your school campus, but just wait until your distraction possibilities include things like crazy-cheap plane tickets to London that leave on Wednesdays.
3. Do your homework—including reading. Give yourself ample time to absorb and review your work.
4. Set a goal for your grades. A 4.0 GPA can be a pretty badass souvenir from your semester abroad… 
5. Take notes. Active listening is good, but when paired with active note-taking, it’s even better.
6. Find a study spot all for yourself. This can be a neighborhood cafe, a nook in your international university library, maybe your dorm room. 
7. Get enough sleep & take care of yourself. There’s nothing wrong with including self-care in your study abroad academic goals. Going to class feeling like your best self will help you focus, improve knowledge retention, and ace your exams.
8. Do an internship. Pairing theoretical knowledge with opportunity for real-world application through a professional experience abroad is a winning combination.
9. Take a foreign language course. Immersion FTW!
10. Take a course on a different subject in a foreign language. You want to actually improve your Spanish? Here’s a great step towards that.
11. Visit with each professor at least once over the course of your program. Bonus: Becoming more than just another student in their class can reap many benefits.
12. Read 1-2 books about your study abroad destination. These can be on any topic, so long as it gives you even more context about your new home.
13. Participate in class. Raise your hand, add your two cents to discussions, ask that question you feel a little silly asking… 
14. Write more than the bare minimum for one paper. Or get at least one 100% on a test. Push yourself to accomplish more than “good enough.”
15. Time management. Carve out time in your daily schedule for accomplishing all of your study abroad academic goals!

Professional goals for study abroad

Study abroad + professional goals = winning combination! #Hired

One of the best takeaways from an experience abroad is a bright, shiny addition to your resume. But you can’t just put it on your future applications and hope that hiring committees will be impressed—you have to have some meat to it. You have to have more in-depth professional goals for study abroad and think deeply about how study abroad can impact your career.

Example professional goals for study abroad:

1. Network. Remember the golden rule: offer more to new people you meet than what you ask for.
2. Research careers. Talk to professionals in your chosen field that are working abroad, whether they are “locals” or “foreigners” in that position. 
3. Shadow a professional. When else are you going to have the chance to see what a “typical day” in an international office is like?
4. Score an internship. You can find part-time internships in your study abroad destination that can sometimes earn you additional credits. If this is a huge goal of yours, talk to your academic advisor and study abroad advisor well in-advance to learn your options.
5. Challenge the way you think. There are many different solutions to different problems in the world. Take some time while abroad to look for other ways of doing things. 
6. Set an appointment with a career mentor or planning advisor. You can often have these meetings virtually—start planting seeds now for future career moves later.
7. Master intermediate or advanced fluency in a foreign language. If you want to use a second language in the workplace someday, now’s the time to kick your skills into high gear.
8. Develop a global mindset. Global workers are only able to function in diverse environments if they have adequately developed cross-cultural minded knowledge, skills, and abilities.
9. Improve your soft-communication skills. Solid communication skills are essential for career success. Make a goal of becoming more empathetic, improving your listening skills, handling conflicts. Emotional intelligence will serve you well in the workplace and beyond.
10. Take on a leadership role within your study abroad group. Maybe your resident director needs help facilitating a clean up schedule or asked for student support in arranging your fall break travel schedule. Step up!

Personal goals

Hopefully your study abroad reasons & goals include personal growth & development.

Your study abroad personal goals are just that… personal! When you look at yourself in the mirror, what do you hope to accomplish? Who do you want to be? Who do you want to become? Start charting your path towards self-improvement with the help of setting study abroad personal goals. 

Example goals for personal growth from studying abroad:

1. Become more confident. Look at you rockin’ wit yo’ bad self! ABROAD! 
2. Learn travel skills. Create strategies for booking hotels and hostels, finding great flight deals, or researching fun things to do in a country.
3. Wake up early. We’ll let you in on a little secret: morning is the best time of day.
4. Don’t let your diet crumble. You really don’t need two pretzels from that adorable street food vendor, do you?
5. Develop a self-care routine. Face wash, meditating, yoga. Long showers. Reading instead of scrolling through your phone at bed time. Short walks after every meal. You name it.
6. Become proactive. Be the creator of your life!
7. Read more. If you haven’t read a book “for fun” in awhile, now is the perfect time.
8. Pause your Netflix subscription. Your fave shows will be waiting patiently for you to binge whenever you get home, don’t worry. GET OUT THERE AND LIVE LIFE INSTEAD!
9. Adopt a growth mindset. Everything is an opportunity to learn if you let it be. Think more about your attitude towards hardships and wins in life and how it can affect your overall wellbeing.
10. Travel solo at least once. It’s fun to adventure with friends but have you ever adventured by yourself?! Give it a whirl!
11. Write a blog. What you have to say matters. Share it!
12. Have more patience with people who frustrate you. Not everyone can be your BFF, but you can challenge yourself while abroad to show more grace to people who usually get under your skin. This is just one example of possible areas for personal growth from studying abroad!
13. Chill out on the social media front. Blame bad connectivity or weird time zones, then limit the time you spend mentally checking out of your study abroad destination every day.
14. Learn a local recipe. Learning to cook for yourself is no easy task. Work on these skills now, and throw in something fun and local (and tasty) to learn, too! 
15. Write three letters home. You don’t need to go wild and write every long lost family member, but writing a few—maybe even one to your future self—makes for great study abroad personal goals.
16. Start a savings account. If you have yet to experience the satisfaction of working hard towards saving for a big purchase and accomplishing your goal, now’s your chance.
17. Don’t break a bone. Come back with all of your limbs—a safety-related study abroad goal can be helpful.
18. Visit ## countries. If you want your passport stamp collection to reach double digits, make visiting multiple countries a goal!
19. Get involved with a local organization or activity. Adult sport leagues, a meaningful cause, a language partners group. Push your comfort zone and join something cool!
20. Not ask Mom & Dad for more $$. This is your chance to test your personal financing skills—budget your money properly and you’ll never have to crawl to your parents begging for more.

Your goals of studying abroad matter

Making your own study abroad objectives might not be sexy... but it's essential!

Your study abroad goals are hugely important—and deeply individualistic. Get some ideas from above, but also sit down and have a think about what YOU want to accomplish. Your goals, whether personal, professional, or academic, can (and should) span the spectrum.

Your last task is to schedule time to REVIEW your S.M.A.R.T. study abroad goals. Without planning this session to purposefully reflect on where you fell short and where you exceeded in your objectives, you miss a huge opportunity for growth.

Now get out there and accomplish your mission. We’ve got your back!

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