Application, a process full of decision...

Hello, everyone!
This post will be full of information about Tea and my application process. There will also be tips on what to consider and how to find the information you're looking for.

Before you can start your exchange year, of course there are many things to consider... What university, what kind of scholarship etc.

So, if you study Japanologie at the Universtiy of Vienna, your application process will probably be 99% similar. If you study something else, this might help you but not be 100% the same. And if you're from another country, I can't guarantee anything. But it can't be that different.

For Japanologie students, we have partner universities. They are listed here. Best would be to just go there and check out the homepages, see where they are located at etc. For example all the "Tokyo" universities might not be as "Tokyo" as you consider them. Of course, Tokyo is big, but for most of the universities, you'd have to go 1 hour by train until you're in Shibuya. Of course that's only the main building, but you probably won't live there but somewhere further away from the university... So please considert that while applying. If you're curious about Momoyama, that will have to wait for another blogpost...
While you're at the homepage, you could also do some research on the costs of the dorms, facilities that the university has etc. It will come in handy later for the application.

Scholar ship - Non EU Exchange

Now, there are different kinds of scholar ships. I bet nobody will go alone and pay all the school fees. They are freaking high and only rich people could afford that. Thank god there are scholar ships! In Austria, there are two that help you when going to Japan. One of them is the Non-EU-Exchange Program (former joint-study). For more information read here!
They give you a lot of information already but some of them are not all that detailed. That's what I'm here for! Apparently, you will need this stuff if you apply there:

•    Application form with a passport photograph
•    Typewritten curriculum vitae / résumé
•    Typewritten statement of purpose: please write a 1 page essay per partner
      university stating your reasons why you want to study there (use a
      separate paper for each university!). Be specific in relating those reasons to
      your past and current academic and extra-curricular experience and your
      goals in the future.
•    Study plan: list 4 to 5 courses (per semester/term) for each university
      you indicated (just the number and the title of the courses). Please use a
      separate paper for each university!
•    Two letters of recommendation (Empfehlungsschreiben) by professors of the
      University of Vienna
•    Transcript of records: “Sammelzeugnis” in German
•    Copy of diploma examination certificate ("1. Diplomprüfungszeugnis"), if
      applicable/
•    Copy of bachelor’s certificate, if applicable
•    Proof of required language skills (see information sheet), e.g. TOEFL or
      IELTS score report

Here starts the fun. Two weeks or three weeks, let's be good and say one month before application end, they send you the information on what they need from you, if you want to go to Japan. You can apply for three universities and have to rank them. While you rank them, you still have to write a good statement of purpose. So you have to make them all look good and be determined to go exactly there! So, in the end, here comes in handy what I told you before. Since you already know some courses, the dorms, facilities etc you can write down why you want to go there using that information. For example, I decided on Momoyama because they were in Osaka - I've been to Tokyo 3 times already, so I wanted to see something new. And because their courses are very much to my liking - a lot about movies and TV. Since I want to work in the media world in the future, those came in handy. Even looking at the old course list is of great help. Also, since you have to write up a study plan. When writing the study plan, please consider that you'll also have to reach a certain amount of credits. For this scholar ship, it's necessary to reach those credits or you'll have to pay back the whole amount you recieved.

And lastly, the worst parts are the letters of recommendation and the Sammelzeugnis. Sammelzeugnis is just a matter of time - the office isn't always open, and since I was working and studying a lot during that time, I hardly found the right moment to go there. So getting that was hard for me. And the letters of recommendation are nice and easy, but be aware that you shouldn't wait too long for asking a teacher! They will need time to write it for you and if you get to 2 days before the deadline and are like "Please write something good about me!?", then they probably won't be amused.

Here is an extra tip for the study plan. I really had a hard time searching for them, since the universities won't ever put up their course list one year in advance. One of my co-students told me: "Simply write UNIVERSITY NAME course list" into google, and that's it. It didn't really work out for all universities, but it should help a bit. For Momoyama, you can find the course list here in the Course Book.

After that, you will have a tiny interview with other applicants. I can't tell you about other years, but this year, all 19 applicants were accepted and are now in Japan.
What you get is very simple: 4.000 € financial help (400 € per month (=9 study months) + 400 € for the flight).
Acceptance into one of the universities. The nice part is, if you apply for three universities that are popular and they seem like they can't really send you there, they will ask you if it would be okay to send you to another university. If you're like me, you'll probably also be like "I don't care which university, just send me to Japan!"

Scholar ship japanese embassy

The second one I applied for was the scholarship from the japanese embassy. You will find all the imporant information on their homepage, so drop by there!
I only have one tiny advice: Be a good student. Like, really. If your grades are only so-so, you shouldn't stress yourself out with the interview and the test. On the other side, it was a nice experience, so you might want to try it anyway. The interview will be held in Japanese only, the test is also in Japanese and it has 3 parts. A is the beginners part. Very easy and nice. B is the level I am on, so I probably already made a looot of mistakes during that part. And C is like where you have to be fluent or something, because I hardly could understand the Kanji in there. Most of the parts are grammar questions, for every part there are some Kanji you have to write/write down the reading. And one part is a reading test, where you have to answer the questions afterwards. I didn't make it, but if you look at the money you'll get, it's worth trying it. Also, they will pay your flight AND you'll be one of two students who made it for this kind of scholar ship.

So this was the first round of paperwork. I will try to upload my applications somewhere (if I find them... *cough* I think I left them on my computer in Vienna >.<) so you can see what stupid stuff I wrote.

With that, またね！