Applying to Go Abroad

Now is when I get into the nitty gritties of my application. I’ve already told my reasons for going abroad and my reasons for choosing Hong Kong of all places. So now I will explain the Education Abroad Program (EAP) through which I am going and why I chose it.

There was a lot of lead-time involved in the application process. I had to submit my application on January 5, almost a full eight months before the start of the program. Programs to Hong Kong had one of the earliest application due dates I believe, but the latest one that I knew of was the program to Vietnam, to which a friend (and fellow International Studies major) of mine is going. For technical reasons, I could not turn in my application any earlier than January 5, which was risky since the my EAP website was down nearly all of winter break, with January 5 being the first day of classes for winter quarter. One copy of the application had to be submitted electronically through the website and one had to be submitted in person to the Programs Abroad Office, here on campus.

Before then, I had to meet up with country advisors. Mine was Tonia and she oversaw most of the East Asia programs. She looked over the basics with me, informed me of the dates, and laid out the scholarships (of which I was qualified for two). She said until further notice, I would not need letters of recommendation.

There, I decided to apply through EAP for a couple of reasons. First, I would pay tuition to the Regents of the University of California, so I would not have to deal more than I had to in HKU’s unfamiliar system. (It’s still unfamiliar). I would pay in United States Dollars and the EAP office would coordinate finances with my host university. If I had gone through a third party, I would still pay in USD, but to an organization that has no affiliation to UCSD. This way, I hope any problems that arise can be dealt with easier, as they would be with one bureaucracy than multiple ones.

And being affiliated with the University of California, I get direct UC credit for classes I take abroad. There are pros and cons to this set up, but I went with the pros. Advantages are that the classes count towards my GPA, so they have to potential to reflect my work abroad, and that credit is directly transferred without having to send transcripts to the UCSD Office of Admissions (and Relations with Schools). Recalling that I had to send transcripts from my high school, my community college, and the College Board (AP tests) there, the experience was not good. They had few people working, and they could not tell me if my transcripts arrived, even if they had not inputted the grades. Because of this, I sent multiple transcripts from each institution at different times to ensure that they did not lose my transcripts, nor could they say I did not meet deadlines.

Cons are that since the grades I earn abroad would be counted towards my UC GPA, if I do poorly, my GPA will reflect it. In addition, UCSD and HKU would not have a relationship in my interest, as I would have to go through a third party. In the end, I recommend, as I did, that if there is an EAP program going where you want to go, opt for that one rather than a third party.

From there, I had to go to a half-hour “First Steps” session, where we discussed the logistics of the application process. There we were given access to my EAP and reminded of due dates.

In mid-December I finished the bulk of my application. It consisted of a few essays, including questions asking, “Why did you choose this country and this school?” “What motivates you to do well abroad?” and “Why are you choosing to study abroad?” I had to also include my academic history and a list of classes that I was planning to take before I left.

Perhaps the most important part at the time was the pre-approval form. It had me list classes that I planned to take abroad based off of a database that EAP compiled of classes previously transferred. I chose classes such as “Hong Kong Politics” and “China and the World” for my first major (International Studies-Political Science) and Bilingualism for my second major (Linguistics). At the time of application, I had not yet taken on my minor in the Study of Religion, so I am not planning on taking any classes abroad to apply to it. I am also planning to take my non-western Fine Arts requirement class there. To this effect, I had to get department approval from my two (at the time) departments plus my college.

Unfortunately, my classes chosen were based on the database and not the listing of classes actually available (which is still not completely online). So I would later find out that I had to revise my class list and after that find out that I had only been accepted for two of those. Because of this, I am going to have to register for the rest of my classes when I arrive (during the first two weeks of class). But I’ll write more about that later.

So I turned in my application the morning of Monday, January 5. It was then that I was told that I needed a letter of recommendation. I had not been told earlier. It was not unreasonable, for there were 30+ applicants to the program at HKU for which there were eight available spots. However, as I had only been told then, Tonia gave me extra time to get those.

Scrambling through my coursework I decided on asking two TAs in hopes that one would give me one. They were both for classes that I had received my A+s in fall quarter. For MMW 1, I asked an anthropology graduate student, to which he graciously agreed, though the only writing samples of mine that he had were short answers and short essays on three exams. On the other hand, I asked my TA from INTL 101 Languages in Competition, a communication graduate student to write my second letter of recommendation, to which he also agreed. I figured he would know more about me and attest to my qualifications because I wrote a 4,700-word term paper on Hong Kong’s bilingual-trilingual society for that class, on which I earned an A.

As they were both kind enough to write letters, I walked into the Programs Abroad Office on Friday morning with two letters of recommendation, thereby completing my application.

Two or three weeks later (before many of my study abroad friends even had to submit their applications) I received my acceptance. To my shame, I let out a brief, high-pitched scream, but I was elated. I feel that I was accepted because I was to have senior standing by the time of the program, I submitted a 3.925 GPA (which was later adjusted to 4.0), and most of all because I submitted a letter of recommendation attesting to my knowledge and interest in Hong Kong itself.

To that effect, I owe much thanks to these two graduate students who so graciously aided my admission on such short notice. I also thank my departments and my college who support and encourage study abroad. My host country’s advisor, Tonia, was also extremely helpful and knowledgeable throughout the whole process. Of course the student workers, one of which my first roommate’s sister, at the Programs Abroad Office deserve mentioning for their work ensures the productivity and success of the entire operation. In fact, if one of them didn’t go over my application with me before I turned it in, I would have forgotten to sign a certain very important line.

Lastly I thank my family for their support in my endeavors. I know I spend a lot of their money (though with discretion), so I’ll be sure to do my best in this program in appreciation of their love of and faith in me. As it has now come to my attention that my mother is afraid of what I’ll do next, I’ll have to keep my future plans a secret from them (and most of you, the readers) for the next seven months (when my program ends) before unveiling the next chapter in my life.

What happens after I got accepted? That’ll be in a later post. Thanks for reading!

Copyright © 2009 James Philip Jee
This work may not be reproduced by any means without express permission of the author.