Information for Parents

We are pleased that your son or daughter has chosen to study abroad with a CET program. CET is proud of its programs and we are excited to be a part of your child's overseas experience. While living and learning in an unfamiliar culture can be daunting, it offers unparalleled opportunities for growth and self-discovery. We are committed to helping your child make the most of these opportunities.

This section of our website was designed in response to some of the more frequently asked questions we have received from parents over the years. We hope that it will help you better understand who we are and what we do. For more information, navigate via the links on the lefthand side of this page. For starters, we encourage you to visit our General Information and Home Institutions pages for introductions to our mission and our students. Secondly, NAFSA, the Association of International Educators, has produced a pamphlet for parents about study abroad. What Parents Need to Know! is a great resource and one that you might consider reviewing. In addition, we would like to apprise you of some of the things that you can expect while your son or daughter is overseas with CET.

All students experience culture shock. It is a natural and necessary part of encountering an unfamiliar culture. CET believes in placing students in challenging environments because it is precisely within those environments that learning occurs. Therefore, as a parent, you can expect that your son or daughter will experience many of the ups and downs that naturally accompany adjusting to a new culture.

With our commitment to challenge students comes our commitment to help them through the rockier periods of adjustment. Resident directors are on site to listen and counsel, and point out other resources if necessary. Our experience tells us that one of the most effective ways for students to come through culture shock is to embrace immersion. We encourage students to make local friends, speak the local language as much as is possible or required, and refrain from seeking too much refuge among other Americans. In fact, we have found that students who refrain from daily contact with their parents and friends at home are more successful at working through culture shock.

Surprisingly, some of the most difficult culture shock can occur upon return to the US. Many students find themselves missing life overseas, crave talking to people with similar experiences, and may feel left out of life in the US. To help students through this transition, CET recently developed Journeying Home, a 30-minute film that describes students' experiences with culture and reentry shock. For more information about our Journeying Home video, click here.

Parents frequently ask us about how to best prepare for the administrative side of their child's departure from the US--in other words, what information will they be receiving from CET and when. First, we'd like to point you in the direction of our Conditions and Terms, a document that all students sign upon enrollment in a program. This document clarifies our cancellation and refund policies.

Outside of this document, it is CET's policy to communicate details about our programs directly to the program participant. From the application to pre-departure preparations to the return home, all correspondence will be directed to the student rather than the parent. Aside from helping us avoid complications arising from multiple recipients, we feel that our students, as young adults about to embark on an overseas experience, are capable of receiving and digesting this information themselves.  We trust them to impart essential pieces to their parents, advisers or other family members as appropriate.

Just as our on-site resident directors are there to assist students, the CET staff in DC is here to assist you and serve as your liaison to the programs overseas. Please do not hesitate to call the DC office at 800-225-4262 should you have any questions or concerns. All of our staff members have studied or worked abroad and are in daily contact with each of the program directors.

We encourage you to visit our Program Safety page for more information about CET's policy on program safety and experience handling crises overseas. In addition, please know that should an emergency arise, by calling the DC office at any time (even after normal business hours), you will be transferred to an on-call staff member who will be able to provide information or redirect your call as appropriate. Please note that we prefer to reserve resident directors' cell phones for use by students overseas. Therefore, in the case of an emergency, we ask you to please call the DC office and not the on-site resident director.

We are excited that your child has chosen to study abroad with us. Please feel free to contact us at 800-225-4262 or cet@academic-travel.com. We look forward to hearing from you.