By on December 21st, 2015

3 Tips for Traveling With Student Groups

If you’re putting together a group trip to the United States to help your students learn the English language and gain invaluable experiences in American university classrooms, you’re definitely taking on a great project. Organizing this kind of trip can be a lot of fun, but it can also be very stressful if you don’t take care of a few essentials upfront. Here are our best tips for putting together a trip and traveling with student groups.

Start the Visa Process Early

First of all, set your deadlines for student visa applications well ahead of your deadlines for booking lodging and plane tickets. We worked with one group of students from Iraq who were studying at ASU a few months ago, and only half of the group members were able to come to the US because of visa delays. So make sure that you give yourself plenty of time to turn in all necessary paperwork and to make time for slow application processes.

Place Your Students (and Teachers) in Homestays

A lot of people think that USH only works with individual students, but we also work with larger groups of students and teachers, which can add a lot of value to your trip. Not only does it usually cost less to book homestays with us than to find rental properties or hotels (especially if you’re staying for several months), but it can also really add to your students’ experience. They’ll get more opportunities to speak English, and they’ll see more of the culture here, too. Plus, they’re likely to make friends with their host families, too.

Be as Detailed as Possible

Finally, when you let your students know what to expect for this trip, don’t just tell them when they need to have their visa applications in, when they need to pay for their travel and homestays, and how long they’ll be staying. Get as many details about every aspect of the trip as possible, and share these with your students. This includes things like luggage limitations, layovers, and how they’ll get from the airport to their homestays. The more details you can give them, the less likely they’ll be to get confused, turn in incomplete paperwork, or show up at the wrong place or time.

For more information on placing your group in homestays near some of the finest colleges and universities in California, Arizona, or Florida, contact USH today.