Planning process: finally the last part!!!!!

Hi everyone! Can you believe it - I leave for Seoul tomorrow????!!!!!! Pretty exciting yet nerve-wrecking!!!!! I've packed most of my stuff and most of them consisted of foooooood hehe. Anyway, I'll finish off blogging my planning process. I realised that my previous blog posts were really toooo lengthy, so I'll try and keep it in easier-to-read paragraphs. I've also edited my previous blog posts, so that it's easier to read.

Certificate of Health

This is one of the important documents that I needed to hand in. The application process was in late April-early May (if I'm not mistaken), and this certificate is due in July, so I had ample time to get it done. I had to check my immunisation history (MMR, chicken pox) as well as my tuberculosis (TB) history. Since the prevalence of TB is quite high in Asian countries, I understand why they needed TB results.

Anyway, I thought obtaining this certificate was easy, because I figured that all I had to do was to do the TB test, and getting my GP to certify everything. Fast forward a week before the due date, I realised that I had no history of a chicken pox shot. Siiiiiighhhhh. I was really worried, because as far as I know, me and my siblings didn't have chicken pox when we were little....

Anyway, I had to do an extra test, just to check whether there was any chicken pox antibody in my body. And thankfully!! Results came back and I have the antibody in my body. Honestly, I was sooooo worried because if I didn't have the antibody, I would need to get a chicken pox shot in Melbourne as well as in Seoul. But thank the lord because I didn't have to go through that procedure.

Health insurance

Thankfully, Monash provides ALL exchange students with free travel insurance, which of course, includes unlimited medical expenses. The only flaw for this insurance is that it doesn't cover all my electronic items, which sucks big time. To play it safe, I bought an extra travel insurance from STA Travel at a very reasonable price to cover for my electronic items.

Visa application
For Australian citizens, if you are staying in South Korea for more than 90 days, you have to apply for a visa. And in my case, since I am an exchange student, I have to apply for the D2 visa. The process was pretty simple. All I had to do was to fill up the form, pay for the visa and hand it in directly to the Korean consulate/embassy in your city, and for my case, it was in Melbourne. Unfortunately, the D2 visa that they offer in Australia is a single-entry visa, so no travel outside of South Korea for me during the semester :((((((

Flights

Getting your flights sorted is a simple and straight forward process. I'd recommend going to a travel agency to get your flights sorted, especially if you want to do extensive travel after your exchange! They'll really help you out plan your itinerary and what not. I was really contemplating on going to Japan after my exchange buuuut with much thought, I realised that my bank account would be weeping if I went to Japan.

I went to STA Travel at Werribee Plaza to sort out my flight details. Nikki helped me organise my flight details and explained every fine detail to me regarding my flights. She was honestly the best person to talk to - she was super pleasant and extremely helpful. I'll definitely seek assistance from her again in the future!

Accommodation
This process was simple yet the one of the most nerve-wrecking experience during this planning process. The application process was during my exam period, but thaaaankfulllyyy I didn't have an exam on the day the application opened.

Before the application opened, I read up some blogs/reddit posts from past exchange students from KU. They mentioned how competitive it is to get into the on-campus accommodation, especially CJ International House. So being the very kanchiong (read: Singlish for panicky/worried) person I am, I was on the website the minute the application opened. I got my choices sorted and handed the application in.

Mind you, I had to wait A MONTH for the accommodation results. Now you know why it was a nerve-wrecking process. Aaaand when the results came through, I managed to get the room that I wanted, which was a single room!! I was thrilled when I got the accommodation, because that's one less thing to worry about on my list.

After getting the results, I had to upload my TB results and pay for my housing fees. We only had a week to do so, or else our rooms will be up for grabs. Once that was sorted, I could finally rest for a week.... before the madness begun. And that madness was course registration. Aka THE most frustrating process everrrrrrr.

Course registration
Probably the most nerve-wrecking experience in the planning process. Course registration was hands down, extremely competitive. It felt like The Hunger Games..... without all the killing, of course. Originally, I had planned to do 6 courses while at KU, as it was equivalent to my full-time study load at Monash.

Two weeks before the actual course registration, I had already put at least eight courses on my preferred course list. The preferred course list speeds up the registration process on the day of course registration, because all you have to do is to click the register button and you'll be registered.

Anyway, I managed to successfully register into four courses, and I was put onto the waiting list for the other two courses. I was, of course, very frustrated because I had to wait for another two weeks, just to check if I made it onto the registered list. >:(

Two weeks later, and I didn't make the cut :( :( :( But luckily for me, the four courses I had registered earlier was still considered a full-time load according to Monash. (Just a heads up: It was a requirement for me to be studying a full-time load while abroad. The requirements may be different for other universities, so it's best to check with your university.)

So these are the courses I will be studying at KU!!!!
1. Bioinformatics (English)
2. Bioinformatics (English)
3. Microbiology II
4. Introduction to Korean History and Culture (English)

So why am I doing two Bioinformatics courses, you ask???? Well apparently, both courses have different content, and I have to do both according to my faculty lol. And as you can see, for Microbiology II, there's no English next to it, which means the course will be taught in Korean. I don't know how I'll manage that, but hopefully, it'll help me improve on my Korean listening and reading skills. And I reeeaallly hope that the professor is going to be lenient on me and give me assessments in English....

So that's about it! That ends my three-part series of my preparation for Korea!!!

I shall blog again when I'm in Seoul. :)

Planning process: part two!

Hey guys!
I'll be flying off to Seoul very soon and I think I've gotten all of my admin stuff done, to the point where I can begin packing! It still feels so surreal to me that I'm actually going to Seoul very soon....

Anyway, I will be blogging about my long and ardeous process in applying for the student exchange program. I promise, this post (and the next one) won't be as long as the first one. Sooooo I finished my story off when I completed and handed my application to my university's abroad team. This was in December 2015, and the abroad team told me that it takes about six to eight weeks to get a nomination letter.

... In reality, it took 4 months for me to get it. I even went to the pre-departure session for exchange students, even before knowing that I was nominated. So anyway, the letter just pretty much outlines what I have to do, which was basically applying to the partner university directly. Also worth mentioning is that my university advised that nothing is confirmed until you receive the acceptance letter from the host university, so booking for accommodation/flights at this point is not recommended.

For Korea University, I had to provide them with the basic required documents: academic transcript (which costs me 30 freaking dollars!!!!!), personal statement, copy of a valid passport, certificate of health and health insurance. And also, you needed a GPA of at least 2.5. The personal statement is pretty much the statement of purpose, as mentioned in my first post. The certificate of health and health insurance wasn't required at the time of application so I didn't really think about it until after my acceptance.

Aside from those documents, I needed to provide them a list of my proposed units that I plan to do while at Korea University (KU). Initially I thought it was for my course registration period, but turns out it was for visa purposes, which I will mention in the last post for this planning process. Also another thing was that I had to print and sign off a form called the oath of good conduct. As the name describes, it was a form where I had to sign my life away so that I will be a good student who represents KU well.

That's it for my KU application process! It was way easier than my university's application process, and maybe this was because I've already had most of the documents prepared. I sent off my application to KU and waited for about 6 weeks until my acceptance letter arrived, which was in June 2016, just before I headed off for my holiday in Singapore.

...... And that concludes my second post for the planning process!

Until next time!

Planning process: part one

Hello everyone!!

As I've mentioned before, I'll be blogging (extensively, in three parts) on how I started planning for this trip. Not sure if anyone got my hints, but I will be going on a student exchange trip for a semester to Korea University, located in the capital city of South Korea, Seoul!!!!!

Contrary to what everyone would be feeling right now, I'm actually pretty nervous for this trip because it'll be my first time being away from my family for quite some time (Five months isn't that long... but still...). It's also a first for me to organise everything, from visa application to accommodation to flight tickets, so I guess it's a good way for me to be independent. However, before all of this started, I had to do a lot of research.... which all up took a year.... and to whoever that is wondering, I started researching about this when I commenced my university studies in March 2015.
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First off, before I could even think of going on exchange, I had to ask for my mum's permission. Maybe it's a habit that I'm used to since I was in primary school... that I always ask for my mum's permission before I do anything. Initially, she didn't agree on the idea but with much persuasion and influence from her friends, she finally gave in and agreed.

After getting the green light from my mum, I had to do a lot (and I know it sounds like I'm exaggerating but it honestly took me six months in total) of research. First and foremost, I had to decide where I wanted to go. To be honest, if you've hung around me for long enough, you would know that I would go to Seoul, without a doubt LOL.


Open-advising session + second opinion
Anyway, after making that really difficult decision (lolol), I had to go to an open-advising session with the Global Officers, who are current students that have gone on exchange before. This session provided me brief information (i.e admin stuff mainly) about going on exchange. They also shared their stories while on exchange, which all sounds exciting to me, because their adventures are endless. However, while this session was informative, I still felt like I needed to hear more experiences from other people.

That's when I found a very nice person who has been to Seoul for exchange, in Monash University's exchange group (of which btw, a very good group to be in as they have so much information about exchange) on Facebook. She shared her Seoul experience and also gave me in-depth information on the application process for the student exchange program. It was very reassuring to listen to her experience as it helped me to eliminate all the doubts that I have about going to Seoul.


Research: university, credit transfer
Anyway, after that, comes the most tedious process of all: looking up on which university I wanted to go and researching for units at the exchange university. Luckily for me, Monash has exchange agreements with four universities in Korea: Seoul National University, Korea University, Yonsei University and Sogang University. Originally, I had my eyes on Yonsei University because I've heard so much about it and it's a very popular university among exchange students... but after much research, I couldn't enrol as they didn't have the units that I needed to do. :(

It kinda sucks because for my degree, I have to do three core units and an elective every semester. And since they're core units, I don't really have much flexibility on what units I can choose, so it was a really tough process for me, because it involved a LOT of research (I know, it's my third time mentioning this). Anyway, after researching all the universities, only Korea University (KU) offered the units I needed to do. KU offered two of my core units for the semester, which was a huge sigh of relief.


Faculty approval
Afterwards, comes the second most tedious process of all: getting the KU units approved by my faculty. This has to be done in order for the units to be credited towards my degree. And as I've mentioned before, my units aren't flexible so it was a really tedious process. I had to compile the unit guides of all my KU units and forward them to my faculty exchange coordinator subject to approval. I had to email my coordinator a couple of times so that I can get more units approved... just in case the units I needed to do wasn't offered or maybe the classes are too full.


Statement of purpose
After all these tedious research, of which btw, it took me three months to do, I had to write up a statement of purpose, which outlines the purpose of my exchange, how I will represent the university and goals that I hope to achieve while on exchange. Writing a statement of purpose didn't take long because everything that had to be said has already been lingering in my mind for a long time.... This is a story for another day, so I'll probably blog about it very soon ^_^


Financial plan
Following the statement of purpose, I had to come up with a financial plan, which basically outlines how much you are going to spend while on exchange vs how much money you will actually have. It's good that Monash has included this in the application form, because it assists me in planning and budgeting for my trip.

Thankfully, Monash has an abundance of scholarships that they give out, especially for those who go on exchange/study abroad. Regardless of where ever you go, as long as you have the acceptance letter from the host university, you are entitled to get a scholarship worth a certain amount from Monash.

In addition, the Australian government also has the OS-HELP loan for students who are going on exchange/study abroad. Students can apply for this loan worth a certain amount, and for those studying in Asia, they give out a higher amount compared to those studying in other parts of the world.

It was kinda tough planning my finances because I couldn't really estimate how much I will need per week when I'm there, how much flight tickets are etc, simply because I've never been there before. For extra confirmation, I seeked help from the same girl I mentioned before, who once again, saves the day.


Referees + supporting documents
Last but not least, I needed to provide two referees and supporting documents for my application. It wasn't too hard finding a referee as I've known my Korean tutor for nearly a year and I got along with my other Stats tutor, of whom I've only known for less than three months. As for the supporting documents, I just needed to provide a copy of my passport and my bank statements, which isn't hard to obtain at all... You just need a scanner and the actual documents lol.

This summarises the application that I had to submit to the Monash Abroad team. Sorry for the lengthy post and lack of pictures lol. Anyway, do expect another lengthy post because I'll be blogging about the application process for my host university, which is a shorter process, but still very tedious!

Until next time!