As a college student, could you ever imagine your life without the internet? How would you write and print out your papers, instantly talk to your friends at other college campuses and send emails to your parents to update them about your health? The world would be a much smaller and complicated place without internet access.

The internet links you to other people and gains you access to worldwide information within seconds, so if you're going to join a study abroad program then you need to make sure that you have an international internet access provider to keep you up-to-date with your host country, as well as with what's going on back at home.

Accessing the Internet at Your Host School

If you walk onto a college campus, it would be strange if you did not see students taking notes with their laptop, professors using the internet as part of their daily lesson or entire groups of students researching their latest paper on a computer in the library. The internet is just too important, and college life would be impossible without it!

What is amazing is how the use of the internet transcends across the globe to international universities. Almost every university around the world offers internet access to their students, whether it's located in a computer lab or through a wireless service for students with laptops.

It is especially important for you as a study abroad student to have internet access while on campus if you have not brought your own personal computer. That's because the only way for you to search the web or to contact people back at home would be while you are at your host school's campus.

You should always check with your host school to see if they have some kind of facility set up for you to gain access to the internet. Some university study abroad programs even provide laptops to their study abroad students for the length of their stay, so you should always ask the study abroad program director about this incentive.

Staying in Touch on Your Own

You will definitely need international internet access if you're going to study abroad for a semester, but even if you just do a summer study abroad program for a couple of weeks, you will still need the internet to help you find the hot spots in your host country, to help you translate beyond any language barriers and to communicate with anyone back in the U.S.

So if you've brought your own personal computer, such as a laptop, you want to make sure that it has wireless Wi-Fi capabilities so that you will have international WiFi internet access no matter where you go. That means you will be able to take your computer to cyber cafes, bookstores or other public places and access the internet without any problems.

In order to gain access wherever you go in your host country you need to have an international internet access provider, such as MaGlobe, which provides internet access around the world.

MaGlobe and other international internet access providers offer a prepaid service that you can access no matter where you travel, and the service often comes with a free email account and easy setup instructions. If you're going to have your own personal computer with you while you study abroad, you must have an international internet access provider plan in place before you leave.

Other Modes of International Internet Access

Computers are not the only way to gain international internet access. If you decide to take your cell phone with you to your host country as a means of international calling , you might be able to use it to gain access to the internet.

Your phone needs to have GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) technology, which is a type of wireless system that transmits frequency bands to give your cell phone access to the internet in over 200 countries such as Europe, Africa and Asia.

Over 600 millions people around the world use this new global system, so if you do plan to study abroad you should make sure that it is installed in your cell phone.

You also need to make sure that your cell phone plan includes international calls. It's much more convenient to gain international internet access through your phone rather than carrying around a big laptop computer.

PDA's (Personal Digital Assistants) are great if you're a college student on the go. These devices, which are small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, allow you to store personal contact information, to track appointments and to take notes, and many also connect you to the internet.

You can either connect them to your personal computer to transfer files and gain access to internet, or if they already have wireless capabilities, you can use them to gain WiFi internet access wherever there is wireless networking. You can use the prepaid internet provider MaGlobe to access the internet on your PDA.

When you join a study abroad program it's very important to have international internet access. With the internet you'll be able to easily access your host school's web site if you need to find a number to contact someone, and you can even look up information about places to visit in your free time.

Most importantly, it's the best way to connect to your friends and family back home.

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Related Links:

Students' Internet Access Jumps 42 percent - by eSchool News

Monitoring Student Internet Access - By techrepublic

Dealing with Internet Addiction on Campus - By Dr. Kimberly Young 

Online Video:

Lack of Broadband Creates Digital Divide

Trish Smith is a copywriter for Green Student U, Student Finance Domain and Study Abroad Domain, websites that are devoted to providing college students with helpful environmental, financial and study abroad advice.

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