You’ve been accepted into the university of your choice and the money is in place to pay. Most important now is to get cracking on the admin that will guarantee you have the right to study and a place to stay.
When it comes to passports, the country that issued it isn’t so important unless you are hoping to save on school fees. A Bermudian with a British passport, for example, will pay the same tuition fee as a British national:
“The Bermuda passport works in the US and Canada, but in the UK, if they use a Bermuda passport they will pay international fees, which is double the price,” explained Sandra Dill, the PeerForward programme manager at Mirrors, an initiative that “empowers students to achieve their full potential in school and life.
“It’s the same as if they were in the US or Canada. If you don’t, you’re going to be seen as an international student without a passport to that country.”
Student visas are also on the checklist. For students headed to the US, it’s a task taken on by the school. If going to a university in the UK on a British passport, a visa is not necessary; if headed to Canada, students need to secure an entry visa as well as a study visa.
“For people going to Canada, I would say once a student gets accepted, to start the enrollment process right away, because it doesn’t happen until they pay their enrollment fee. Once they pay the enrollment fees, then they can get their visa,” she said.
An added step is that students must submit their biometrics – a photo of themselves and their fingerprints as proof of identity – before they can enter Canada.
“Every now and then, the Canadian government does a biometric assessment here. But if they don’t do it here, then students have to go to someplace else, normally to the US, to have it done because they cannot enter Canada as a student without it.”
Cell phones make communication with friends and family possible. Many students will get a SIM card from whatever country they are in; others will stick with their Bermuda plan and send messages via WhatsApp when they are not at home.
“With WhatsApp, you have to be near WiFi. If there’s no WiFi, you can’t use it. So most students get a SIM card. But it’s best not to get it at the airport. They’re more expensive.”
Students have told Ms Dill they’ve had an easier time using debit and credit cards issued by Bermuda bank accounts in the US and Canada than in the UK: “In the UK, if they want to set up a bank account, it can take a while. It’s similar to setting up a bank account in Bermuda – they need proof of who you are, where you live, that you have the right to be in the country and so forth. It takes a bit of a time in England. However, I’ve been told that if they go to Lloyds Bank it’s less cumbersome. So, my suggestion is to look for a Lloyds Bank near them and try that.”
Schools in the US and Canada send acceptance letters as early as April and at the latest, June, if students meet the application cutoff in December. In the UK, the application deadline isn’t until January. Conditional acceptances will come in March; a formal place offering won’t come until July or August which doesn’t allow much time to get everything in place before the school year starts.
“Accommodation is the biggest challenge in the UK. They have limited dorms. [Organise] your dorms as early as you can,” Ms Dill said. “When you receive the acceptances from the schools, they will give you instructions as to what to do, and everything is by email. No longer do people talk to you anymore so students really have to be attentive to their emails.”
As well, many students prefer to live off-campus which means they must be able to provide months of rent in advance and a guarantee of funding moving forward.
