North America

Forget the European rail dream. North America runs on flights and, in Mexico, genuinely superb long-distance buses. Amtrak is slow and pricey everywhere except the Northeast Corridor, where NYC to Boston is about 4 hours and NYC to DC around 3.5. Otherwise, domestic budget airlines are your friend: Volaris and VivaAerobus in Mexico, Spirit, Frontier and Southwest in the US, Flair in Canada.

Inside cities it's wildly uneven. NYC, Montreal and Mexico City have great transit; most other US cities were built for cars, so budget for endless Ubers or expect to feel stranded. Crossing borders is doable but rarely a spontaneous weekend move.

• Mexico City → Oaxaca: 6h luxury bus (ADO/ETN) from ~€30
• NYC → Boston: 4h on Amtrak or ~4.5h FlixBus
• Toronto → Montreal: 5h VIA Rail or a 1.5h flight
• Mexico City → Cancún: 2.5h flight from ~€40
• Most US cities: budget for Uber, suburbs are car-country

Continuous assessment rules here: midterms, weekly readings, quizzes, graded class participation, and a final GPA on a 4.0 scale. It feels heavier and more relentless than Europe's one-big-exam model, so the workload sneaks up if you coast. On credits, a typical US course is 3 credit hours, roughly 6 ECTS, so 4-5 courses gets you a full 30-ECTS semester.

English is native across the US and most of Canada (Université de Montréal teaches in French, but McGill is English). In Mexico, Costa Rica and the DR, teaching is in Spanish, though Tec de Monterrey, UNAM and the Universidad de Costa Rica run English-taught tracks for exchange students. Standout student cities: Boston, Montreal, Mexico City, Austin and Toronto.

There's no free movement here, so everyone needs paperwork, and the exact rules hinge entirely on your nationality. The US is the strictest by far: exchange students get a J-1 (or F-1) visa, which means a DS-2019 form from your host uni, a SEVIS fee of around $220, and an in-person embassy interview, so start months ahead. Canada wants a study permit for programs over 6 months.

Mexico, Costa Rica and the DR are lighter-touch: short study stays often fit inside a visa-free tourist window, but anything long needs a proper student visa. Whatever you do, buy real health insurance, because a US hospital will bankrupt the uninsured.

• USA: J-1/F-1 with DS-2019, SEVIS fee and embassy interview — ESTA is NOT valid for study
• Canada: study permit if over 6 months, plus an eTA to fly in
• Mexico: temporary-resident student visa for programs over 180 days
• Costa Rica / DR: many nationalities visa-free 90/30 days, student visa for longer
• Everywhere: sort proper health insurance before you land

US life runs on big portions, diners, weekend brunch and campus meal plans, and two habits catch everyone out: tipping 15-20% is basically compulsory, and sales tax is added at the till, so nothing costs what the sticker says. The other trap is the 21 drinking age, so carry your passport and don't count on campus bars. Down south you eat properly and cheaply: tacos and comida corrida in Mexico (the big meal is midday, around 2pm), casado and gallo pinto in Costa Rica, la bandera in the DR.

Time your semester around the good stuff: Día de los Muertos on 1-2 November in Mexico, US Thanksgiving and the college-football fall, or spring break madness in March.

Pick a base and explore its region hard; trying to 'do North America' in one semester is a rookie fantasy that just burns money on flights. From a Mexican base, the Yucatán, Oaxaca and Puebla are cheap and genuinely stunning. From the US Northeast, NYC, Boston and DC chain together neatly by bus and train. Costa Rica is a cheat code: volcanoes, cloud forest and two coastlines packed into one small country.

Book the big-ticket trips early, especially anything around a festival, and you'll get far more out of one region than a frantic dash across five.

• Yucatán loop: Mérida, cenotes and Tulum — from Mexico City ~€40 flight
• Oaxaca for Día de los Muertos (book months early, it's mad)
• Costa Rica: Arenal volcano, Monteverde cloud forest, Manuel Antonio beaches
• US Northeast: NYC → Boston → DC by FlixBus or Amtrak
• Banff and the Rockies from a western Canada base

Five countries, five very different semesters. Work out your single top priority, match it to a country, and don't overthink the rest.

• On a tight budget — Mexico, hands down
• Best nightlife — Mexico City, or Montreal up north
• Nature & outdoors — Costa Rica for jungle, Canada for mountains
• Easiest in English — the USA or English-speaking Canada
• Beaches & warmth — Dominican Republic, then Costa Rica and Mexico's coasts
• History & culture — Mexico, from Aztec ruins to Frida Kahlo

The mistakes here are predictable and totally avoidable. Almost all of them come down to underestimating cost, distance, and how much lead time the paperwork needs.

• Start the US visa 3+ months out — SEVIS and interview slots clog up fast
• Never go uninsured; one US ER trip can hit five figures
• Sticker prices exclude tax and tip — add ~25% in your head in the US
• Don't plan Euro-style weekend country-hops; the distances are enormous
• The US semester starts late August, not October — sort housing early
• Mexico City sits at 2,240m: you sunburn fast, nights are cold, altitude is real