Contact at least one returnee, current participant, and/or exchange student from/at your host country/institution. Returnees and current participants may not respond right away, so attempt to contact them as soon as possible.
Ask your contact (via email or in person) about their program, about the academics and academic culture (i.e. differences in educational philosophy and structure; differences in instruction and assessment or grading; and differences in academic pace, expectations, readings, and independence) in your program, and what they think is important for a new student to know. Use the "Country-Specific Orientation Topics" (above) for additional topics.
Write a summary of your discussion. Your summary should be: no less than two pages, double-spaced, 12-point font size maximum, with 1" maximum margins and well written. In the summary, you must include relevant academic topics from above.
