study abroad

This morning I got an e-mail from my coordinator informing me that international services received a confirmation from ISEP about my placement at the University of Wrocław!

I stopped by the office later in the day to pick up my acceptance forms. More forms!

I’ll be the first student from my university to study in Poland.

There will be a cheese and wine reception for all the 2009/2010 exchange students on April 8th.

On Saturday I attended the international services’ pre-departure workshop and had a chance to meet some of the other students that will be going on exchange this year. Everyone received an information package stuffed with travel guides, country guides, checklists, course approvals, and at least a dozen other forms that need to be filled out and handed in by the end of the month. The workshop itself was a chance for some of the staff from international and health services to talk to us about safe travel, grading systems, health care frees, power of attorney forms, mailing transcripts, and so on.

At the beginning of the meeting, everyone was given a chance to stand up, introduce themselves, and say their country of choice. Most students will be going to France, the UK, and Australia.

I’m still waiting to hear back from the University of Wrocław and am starting to get a bit anxious. All the other students I’ve talked to have already received their letters of acceptance.

On Friday I received an e-mail from ISEP Central, informing me that my application has made it to Washington and is now being processed.

There will be a mandatory pre-departure workshop held at school on March 28th.

The tedious process of completing my ISEP application package (http://www.isep.org/Downloads/US_Student_Application.pdf) is finally behind me. This included a line of personal statements for each university I applied to, language proficiency reports, academic references and course request lists that had me phoning schools all over Europe and pulling all-nighters for two weeks straight.

I have my heart set on the University of Wrocław, with the University of Helsinki and Åbo Akademi University as back-ups—but for now all I can do is wait to hear back from ISEP Headquarters.

My interview with the International Services committee was a nice little walkover I took virtually no time to prepare for. I was told it would be easy. And surely enough, on Friday I got an e-mail from one of the coordinators congratulating me on becoming a 2009/2010 ISEP exchange student!

My outbound exchange application is complete, but the entire application process will run its way through to the end of the winter term. I dropped off the forms and statement of purpose on Thursday, my academic references are in, and now I’m waiting for International Services to contact me for an interview.