Read her first installment.
Liane wrote
The application process can be a daunting task, and believe me, it took all I had to make it through the piles of paperwork on top of my regular class, homework, and extra curricular activity schedule. Although it may seem a bit scary, it was definitely worth it for me to see my dream come true and finally travel to Japan. Today’s article will be focused on the application process I had to go through for my program down to the last detail I can remember without boring you to death. This may or may not be similar to anything you have or will have to fill out, but it will give those of you who haven’t gone through it yet an idea of what’s involved.
The study abroad program at my school to go to Japan is for studying the language and is structured such that students who continually stay in the school’s Japanese Language classes go abroad the fall semester of their senior year. (This is a little unusual because most college students who go abroad do so their junior year.) To go abroad to Japan at my school, you are only required to have two years of language, but most of us take two and a half before heading off. There are some exceptions for those who had experience with Japanese before reaching college, but as you know from my introduction, college was my first chance, so I had to wait.
The application process started fall semester of my junior year. In September, I went to an informational meeting about studying abroad and all of the different programs offered. This was completely optional and they ended up not having much information on my program, so I e-mailed my Japanese (American) professor and asked if I could talk to him about the program, a meeting from which I don’t have anything memorable to tell you. For the application I had to write an essay, fill in three short answer questions, fill out personal information, get one or two recommendations and hand it in to the Center for Global Education (CGE) office on campus by the due date in October. To give you an idea of what you might be asked, here are the three short answer questions I had to fill out:
1. How will participation in this program help you meet your academic goals? How does this program relate to your major and/or minor requirements?
2. What qualifications do you have for participation in this program (language training, relevant coursework completed, on campus activities and organizations)?
3. Why do you think you are particularly well-prepared to spend a semester living in a different culture?
I believe that by the very end of my first semester or the very beginning of the second semester, I knew I was in. The catch was that I was only in according to my school. Fortunately or unfortunately, the one Japanese study abroad program we had was actually through the Michigan Universities, so after being accepted by my school I had to do another application for them. I received an e-mail from CGE in January to set up a meeting with someone there to go over what needed to be done now that I was in. At this meeting I was given the application materials to send to Michigan, financial forms, health forms, and various other things that needed to be filled out, all due at different times over the next couple months, the last of which was April 1st. These forms included a behavior agreement, liability waiver, flight form, medical form, and a copy of my passport among other things. I was also told that Michigan Universities have never rejected accepted students from my school, but I had to have my application out by a certain day in February (the 20th, I believe) or I could not be guaranteed a spot. Luckily, I didn’t have to write another essay, and was able to use the one I’d already written, then just filled out some more personal information, health information, got more recommendations (from the same people I originally asked), and answered some more short questions. I was finally notified by Michigan Universities that I was accepted in mid-March by e-mail, but that only meant I had more to do.
Unfortunately for me, I received a voice mail on my cell phone from Michigan one afternoon saying that there had been some mistake made which ended up in me not receiving the new forms to fill out at the same time that most everyone else had, probably back with the acceptance e-mail. Of course I immediately flipped out because I had that much less time to complete everything. I was able to get a lot of it done by the deadline, but there was one thing that I had a lot of trouble figuring out how to get done on time. The medical forms said I needed a chest x-ray, I believe to test for tuberculosis, however, they had again made a mistake and this was not necessary for a one-semester stay. I found out from others that it *is* necessary for a year, but if you’re only staying one semester and they try to tell you that you need a chest x-ray, DON’T BELIEVE THEM! You’ll also be happy to know that there are no shots involved, or at least there weren’t for me.
Among the new rush of forms from Michigan, there was one bunch I needed to take care of by the deadline for sure if I wanted to go to Japan. That was everything for my visa. For me, I already had a passport, so I didn’t have to go through that, but if you do, my advice is get your order in ASAP because your passport will most likely not come as quickly as you’d like. Putting that aside, along with the new forms, I had to provide 6 passport size photos to be used for visa, school ID, and a picture to send to host families (I believe). You can get passport photos almost anywhere these days, and I probably didn’t get mine at the best place, but hey, I already had my passport picture so I didn’t care quite as much how well the photo came out.
When I had my photo taken, I was ready with a minimal smile and the guy looked at me and said “no smiling.” I thought he was joking, you know, photographer reverse psychology or something to get a good smile out of you, so I smiled wider. Well as it turns out, he really meant it. He informed me that the government had recently changed the rules for passport photos because smiling makes your eyes squint. I guess they can’t identify people as well when they’re squinting? In any case, after hearing that, I was glad I had my old smiling passport photo firmly printed into my passport until 2010.
Now, as many of you may know, Chaz has warned us all a few times to *NOT* give your passport away to the people you will be working for if you go to Japan on a program like JET or NOVA. Well, like it or not, you *DO* need to give/mail your passport away in order to get a student visa (or another kind of visa) to be able to stay in Japan. For me, I sent my passport, six passport photos (only two were for a visa), and some visa paper work to Michigan and they took care of it for me. By the way, if you’re traveling to Japan for leisure and only staying a short time, like a month, you do not need a visa of any kind and will instead get temporary permission (or something like that) upon landing.
During all these other fiascos and piles of paperwork, I really really needed financial help to be able to go abroad, as my mom is the sole provider of income for my family (aside from my work-study.) She did not have enough to allow me to go without taking out bigger loans than she already had, which I didn’t want to put her through. So, what I did, and what you can do too, was apply for the Bridging Scholarship. This is not something provided by my school, it is a scholarship that anyone out there accepted for a study abroad in Japan program can apply for, although it is restricted to US citizens. This scholarship is $2500 stipend (for one semester) given in check form to be spent on your cost of living, room/board, and food. This application is due in April and again, you need to write an essay, get some recommendations… by this time you’ll know the drill. I also applied, to a scholarship given by my school to a select few studying abroad on any program. I unfortunately did not receive this scholarship of $200, but was told that this was because I was a high-need student and as luck would have it, there was a fund specifically for students studying in Japan that no one else would be using because I was the only one from my school going this year! I met with someone who controlled this account, and was extremely surprised and thrilled to be allocated $10,000, $7000 toward my school tuition, and a $3000 check for other expenses. With this money, and $2500 from the bridging scholarship I later received, I was able to pay *less* going abroad to Japan than I would have staying at school in the US that semester. So, to everyone out there reading this who thinks they can’t go because of money, there are ways to finance this trip if you can find the right opportunity. I did, however, need to prove that I had at least $3000 to my name (or my parents’ name) to assure those in Michigan that I had some money in case of emergency.
The only thing left on my list of thing to deal with (that I can recall) was booking a flight for myself. There were a couple of designated group flights that would be met by someone from the school I’d be going to in Japan. I had originally been thinking that I could get on an earlier flight through another airline company, but then if that flight was delayed, there would be no guarantee that I would make it by the time the group flight did, so eventually decided the group flight would be best. So all together, I needed a ticket for the group flight there (arriving Sept 1st), and a ticket back, which I decided to book for January 3rd as I wanted to take some time after the semester was over to travel. I did a lot of price comparing through various sources, and everything seemed to be about $1200 round trip until I was given a tip by my senpai (senior upper classman) who had gone to Japan the year before. She told me about a Japanese travel agency with many offices in the US called IACE Travel. My mom did the calling for me (I had homework to get done!), and I was able to get round trip tickets on the flight I needed for just less than $1000. In general, it’s a good idea to try to be a little bit flexible for your return date, because you may be able to get a better price. Also, just FYI, this was not chronologically the last thing I did. My school needed to know what flight I was going on by April 1st, and your school or program may ask for that information as well, so don’t leave this for last minute. Also know that some schools or programs may book and/or pay for your flight for you.
After all of that was set, I had an orientation at my school in April with all of the other students going abroad in the fall, and missed an orientation for my program that took place in Michigan sometime later in the semester. All I had left to do was get ready…
Next Time: Packing Etc. Before Take-Off!
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