Hey, welcome to my blog! This is what I'm (hopefully) going to use to document my year abroad in Japan. It is mostly a place for me to write down what's going on in my life while I'm studying at Ritsumeikan, although I am hoping it will be useful for the students who go after me too--there were a few blogs around about Rits, but nothing too substantial so yeah, why not.
Gonna start with the various things I had to do when applying for Rits, as for me it was confusing and (at times) frustrating.
I applied for the IJL (intensive Japanese language) track beginning in September, which is part of Ritsumeikan's Study in Kyoto Program. It had one of the latest deadlines out of the Japanese universities partnered with Edinburgh, which was around March 20th. There is a good reason for the late deadline though, as Rits requested I fill out a medical form (which meant I had to get my eyes tested and get a doctor's referral for a chest x-ray); a 13-14(?) page application form; and a 600-800 character personal statement in Japanese. However, since they now accept people with no knowledge of Japanese, beginners do not have to write a personal statement, or so it said on the form. If you are applying for a scholarship you also have to write a page or so on why you need one and in what way it would be beneficial to you in Japan and blah blah blah. They ask for proof that you can financially support yourself (through loans/scholarships/help from parents/etc) while in Japan too.
The personal statement is to be written without help from anyone (otherwise they cancel your application), but it is manageable. It sounds like a lot but once you get into it it's not so bad. By far the most annoying thing was the medical forms which completely confused my doctor. They could only fill out basic things like my blood pressure, weight and height. I also made the mistake of going to the x-ray department in Lauriston Place without a doctor's referral, and was rejected until I came back a few days later with one. The x-ray cost about £35, which is a lot cheaper than most hospitals in my area, or so I've heard. I had to get my eyes tested at an optician as my doctor couldn't, but it didn't take very long. Anyway, I left it until late as always and the process was much more stressful than it should have been, so any prospective students reading this, be prepared! Do everything early and your application process should go smoothly.
Since Rits had such a late deadline, I wasn't surprised that they were one of the last universities to contact their applicants. Well, out of our partnered universities, that is. I got Rits' acceptance email on June 27th, while most of my classmates had already received theirs weeks before. Kyoto University was probably the worst for being late though, as my girlfriend soon found out--she had applied back in February but didn't receive any news until July! It was pretty ridiculous. But yeah, when they say 'late', they really mean it, haha.
So, next post will be about housing and a bit about flights, visas, etc. As of right now I haven't received my certificate of eligibility (they send it out in August so it could come soon) so I can't really talk about visas in any depth yet.
Saturday, 4 August 2012
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