This small update will be more of a "do as I say, not as I do" moment for anyone planning to study abroad. I recommend keeping a list somewhere of everything you need to do with deadlines just so you can keep track of when paperwork is due and travel arrangements must be made. So far, everything is going fairly smoothly for me, except yesterday when I realized I forgot to book my airport transfer to Warwick. I was so caught up with booking my plane ticket that I forgot to buy my transfer ticket, and consequently, no spots are available now for the Saturday I was planning to arrive. However, it all worked out for me because I was able to change my flights, so now I'm leaving on Thursday and have a transfer booked for 9 a.m. on Friday (it was the last spot available though so this was by the skin of my teeth). It took me three hours to get all this worked out and would not have been possible had I booked a regular economy ticket, so this is my warning to be vigilant about all this because you do not want to be stranded at an airport, especially if no one speaks English where you're heading. That is not a fun experience.
In other more fun news, I went to my biometrics appointment a few weeks ago and my application is currently somewhere in the UK Visa Processing Centre. I sincerely hope my passport gets back to me. The appointment itself was very fast (all they did was take my fingerprints and photo), but it did require driving all the way to Charleston. Then I mailed my passport, stamped appointment receipt, and copies of supporting documents (birth certificate, emails about housing, acceptance to Warwick, etc.) with a paid return label up to New York. The processing center says it should only take fifteen business days to make a decision for student visas, and I really hope their estimate is correct because everything hinges on me getting it back in time. I also got emails about housing and classes two days ago, and the deadline for accepting my housing contract is September 1st, so check your email vigilantly around late August because you do not want to miss that deadline. I'm living at Tocil for the year and I'm very happy because that was my first pick. The email about classes was just asking for me to reply listing the class codes and names I want to take, so now I'm signed up for classes about American History, Modern China, Imperial Natures: Environments and Empires, and one about the early part of British Imperialism. They're all year-long so I hope we go really in-depth with the material. I'm sorry for this all being a list of information and deadlines, but I hope it's useful to have a more technical perspective on this process. All of this can be quite stressful and I couldn't find much information myself, so if you're in my position down the road I hope this was at least a little helpful.
Small edit 9/1/23: I got my passport in the mail just a day after this was published. It took only two weeks from the day I mailed it to the office for it to be processed and returned.
View of St. Philip's Church in Charleston from its graveyard