An update for my appeal results.. it's approved! Now waiting for confirmation from Korea University!
A short guide to the steps to take for NTU GEM Discoverer Summer Studies - Korea University (note that this is for Korea University so if you have applied to a different university you might find that some things would probably be different!)
1) Apply for Summer studies during the specific application period and wait for results.
2) After being offered the university, check out the host university's summer programme website and look for the page where they show the courses being offered during that summer. Also check the requirements for application and note whether they require a hardcopy of your official transcript to be mailed to them. Some schools only require a softcopy for eg some of my friends going to SKKU printscreened their degree audit and submitted that online! If a hardcopy is required, go to Studentlink to request for your official transcript. A small fee is required and they will email you to go down to SAC for collection when it's ready!
3) Start course matching by going to Studentlink, click on student exchange and course matching updating module.
- An easy way to find some courses that have been matched before is to use coursefinder, also in the same area of studentlink. From there, click on your university and you can search for modules from a certain course (eg your major) or modules taken by people from your major. Although you do have to double check that the modules in coursefinder is being offered in the upcoming summer and also that the syllabus is the same or the school might reject your coursematching! If unsure, you can just match more courses and choose from those that are approved! Do feel free to match courses that have not yet been approved as you never know if the school will approve it.
4) After getting your approved courses, choose two to apply for and go to the host university's website to apply for the summer programme. You may also need to apply for housing at the same time as well. I also did my payment for application and the whole programme at the same time.
5) Pay for application and mail out your transcript if required. Mailing of transcript through registered mail requires about 6-8 working days so this can be done as soon as you collect your transcript. Normal mail would be cheaper and takes slightly shorter also but I opted for registered to make sure that it doesn't get lost! If you do not mind spending much more, you can also choose a more expensive option which if I'm not wrong costs around $25 and is the fastest mode of delivery.
6) Apply for insurance. Not sure about other schools but most schools will require insurance for the duration of the summer programme. For KU, proof of insurance during the duration of the summer programme must be emailed to them by a certain deadline.
7) Buy air tickets. You will need to consider various things such as stopovers during the flight, if any, cost, timing of flight, any particular offers for tickets etc. Note that June is the holiday period so popular flight timings may be sold out or be more expensive!
8) Check out accomodation. Hostel would probably be the most fuss free option but you may also want to look at renting a place outside of school. Reasons that you may want to do this includes
-cost: renting an apartment outside may be cheaper if you stay with a group of people
-location: nearer to shopping areas, easier to travel around etc
-friends: you can stay with friends from a different university (though if the campuses are far away you must be willing to travel)
-more privacy: KU allows you to choose your roommate but in the case that you are going for summer studies alone and are not able to get a single room you might want to rent an apartment so that you do not have to stay with a random roommate. I have not checked this option out as I am most likely staying in the KU hostel but I expect that renting an apartment alone would probably be very expensive.
If your summer programme is in Korea, you can check out goshiwons, which are small rooms that are usually rented to students for the purpose of studying intensively. Staying for one month would probably be okay for most goshiwons but do note that when I researched on this online some bloggers have mentioned that some goshiwons do not accept short term stays so just check with the goshiwons that you are interested in!
I'm now at this stage so I shall just list out the other things that I need to do and I might just update this as I check things off my to-do list!
To - do List
1) Apply for insurance (already contacted the insurance agent, waiting for confirmation so that I can mail it to KU)
2) Plan for accomodation before moving into hostel
3) Plan for Busan, Jeju and Seoul (Met with Clarissa, Kaiyun and J last night to discuss part of this!)
4) Research on SIM cards
5) Settle payment for hostel when it is confirmed
6) Apply for International Driving License
7) Settle Jeju car rental
