Opinions on this grad school plan (to move abroad)?

I agree with u/sighing_sage that you should first see if there's anyone working on your area of interest before getting too far along with this plan.

My main concern for you is that you have a specific area of interest and also a language barrier. Not only will you have to find a program that suits your interests, but likely one that will allow you to work through English.

Unless you plan on spending a few years learning French before heading to France, you cannot enter into a French program without speaking French. The program will not be designed to teach you the language and you will likely have a slew of difficulties. Even if your entire department speaks English, they might not be interested in teaching or supervising you in English.

So step one is finding a French geographer working on Indonesia and step two is ensuring they either offer a program conducted through English. Or if you're looking exclusively at research PhDs then make sure they're willing to supervise you in English for at least the first little while.

/r/AskAcademia Thread