Saturday night I stopped by my mailbox and found my official acceptance letter from API. (For those of your who don't know, that is the program I'm travelling through). I had already been approved for study abroad through my university, but I needed to be accepted by my program too. I'll post a picture of the letter later.
I had a LOT of paperwork to do in order to get accepted through API. I highly recommend that you find a reliable scanner before you start your application process. I'm so grateful my office has one, because all my communication had to be through e-mail or faxes.
After I jumped around for joy, I actually sat down to read my letter and we met with a tiny bit of an unpleasant surprise. I have 2 weeks to give them a $400 program fee that cannot be deferred or refunded. Um. What?!
BE PREPARED FOR THINGS LIKE THIS LADIES AND GENTS.
If you are going through a non-university program, be ready for some hidden fees/advanced payment requirements. Even if your financial aid covers it, you might need to fork over a few security deposits beforehand. START SAVING IMMEDIATELY. Lucky for me I made arrangements and could handle the payment on time, but it gave me a mini heart attack first let me tell you.
Anyhow, now that things are peachy keen, I'm working on follow up documents. I highly recommend getting to know your study abroad advisers. I have a peer adviser named Alyse whom I've been e-mailing, and I stopped by to see her in person the other day. :) She was super duper helpful and nice!
So, things that I'm working on now:
- Getting insurance
- Arranging flight information
- Immunizations
- Looking into visas
- Sending in passport info
Chances are, you're going to have a lot of questions about things like this. It varies for each country so I can't really give you any specific advice except to say ASK PEOPLE WHO KNOW. You might feel a little foolish, and like you should know most of this yourself, but you are given advisers for a reason. I had no idea what kind of arrangements to make for a flight, and Alyse showed me travelocity.com. She also helped me navigate the cdc for immunization information, and even gave me a little culture-gram tool to help me learn things about the customs, fashion, and weather in Grenoble.
Be sure to thoroughly research visa requirements! Lucky for me, I don't need one for my program, but it takes a LONG TIME and a LOT of paperwork to get one, so if you need it, research things asap. Same thing with your passport if you don't already have one (I do).
WHEW! Well. Now you're all updated on the technicalities of my little adventure. Can't wait to post pics!
<3 A.
No comments:
Post a Comment