Lay out a plan to meet our standards. The better your scores and background are, the more chance you'll have of getting in and getting scholarship money. This can be different from what you're used to back home, or a far cry from the atmosphere among your peers in class. For some, it may be an unpleasant surprise. Sometimes they're curious.
Curiosity can be nice.
Many study abroad to meet the locals and make friends. Then again, if you're on a one-year program, this situation might not even come up. We have no time to go outside anyway. The program is too intensive. There are never any, because Africa doesn't count in the world economy.