[Research] Luggage on Black Friday

Since American Airlines allows you to have two free checked bags for an international to South Korea, I had initially decided to buy a luggage set. Black Friday is just around the corner and so many stores are having sales on their luggage sets.

[Research] Airlines and Travel Sites

So, obviously, I'm the kind of person who does A LOT of research before trips and such. Because of that, I'm already researching how much it's going to cost for plane tickets, kind of luggage who be best to buy, baggage allowances, and what type of stuff that you should definitely take to Seoul. Trust me when I say I've watched a lot of YouTube videos. lol

There are two good student discount travel sites that you should check out when you're deciding your flight abroad. STAtravel.com and StudentUniverse.com

[Research] Ewha - Course List & Comparison to FHSU Courses

Okay, after multiple MULTIPLE research of the courses available at Ewha taught in English, I have came up with a list of courses that I think I wouldn't mind taking during my study there.

Because my major is International Business and Economics, I need to take mostly Business, International Studies, and Economic classes. Which Ewha seems to have plenty of them. I'm hoping to take most of my gen. ed. classes before the fall so I should be able to take most of these classes.

Anyways, if you are interested in which classes that I have listed for my application, you can see it here. I have listed the course number, title, description, and listed prerequisites. Hopefully, it'll help you like it's helping me~

Oh! And if you're interested, I also made a comparison table of Ewha courses vs FHSU courses. There's not as many courses listed but it helps so that I can show my coordinator that I have done significant research and can show that the courses will transfer over to FHSU.

[ISEP] First Phone Call with Coordinator

About an hour ago, the study abroad coordinator called me, effectively waking me up. It's a good thing I'm able to fake being awake. lol

Anyways, she just went over the application process with me and the financial part of studying abroad.

So here's some things I found out from our conversation:

• Because I am going to be studying in English, I don't have to fill out the Language Proficiency Report. Yay, considering I was wondering about that since the moment I saw it.
• FHSU will be enrolling me in 12 credit hours each semester. So I don't have to take more than 12 credit hours at the university I'm placed at. This is to keep me enrolled at a full time student at both my home and host institutions.
• I don't have to pay the application fee until I submit my application. For Fort Hays State University, the deadline for the Fall semester/Academic year to study abroad is January 15th.
• If ISEP is able to place me in a program, I will find out around Spring Break. They will tell me which university I am placed in and I will have the opportunity to accept it or try for them to place me in a different program again.
• All my college/university transcripts need to be sent to our school's International Student Services to be bundled with my ISEP application. This is includes any community college classes or even Advance Placement classes you took in high school. I was surprised that my community college credits that I earned back in 2006 still qualify. 
• My two academic references must be Fort Hays State University professors. So I guess you have to have the references be from the institute you are coming from. This will be difficult for me, I think, since I'm an online student so I don't have the closest relationships to my professors.
• You don't have to do a personal essay for each university you apply to. From every account that I had read online, they said they had to write an essay for each university about why they wanted to attend that specific university. The coordinator said I do not have to do this, BUT if you want a better chance of getting placed at that certain university, you should write a personal statement of why.
• You should really put as many options down as you are interested in. Even though I am just interested in studying in South Korea, my coordinator said to research other places I would be also comfortable studying at. Because you never know if the first five universities will accept you. It could because of your major or GPA. Of course, if you put the university down, you need to do the research about the courses and do a course request list for each university. Apparently, out of the five students who went to study abroad from my university last year, 3 received their first choice, 1 received their third choice, and 1 received their fifth choice. So it's always good to have options.
• The flight to and from the university you will be studying at is completely your responsibility. This is not included in the ISEP fees. You are responsible for booking and paying for your own flight to the country you are studying at.

I think I impressed her because I had already done so much research beforehand. She didn't have to tell me about the visas or passports. I already have a passport from when I went to England (and it has a horrible picture of me). So all I need to do is get the visa after I receive placement and the entry packet from the host university. She did tell me that she recommends getting the multiple entry visa as I may want to travel in/out of the country during the year I'm there.

On another note, I have done all the course research for the five universities in South Korea. And still, my first choice is going to be Ewha. It just really appeals to me as it has a lot of the classes I require for my degree and Ewha has the most placement spots available. So I think that it's more likely I'll be placed there. After all, my GPA is decent and well within their limits.

So Research Has Already Paid Off

So the research I've been doing has really paid off while filling out the course request page in the application packet. I highly suggest you do lots of research and make sure the classes you want to take are actually worth taking. All the ones I put on the application are required for my degree so it won't be as if I'm missing a semester or something.

Here's what my course request page looks like, in case you are interested:

Researching Universities and Courses (Ewha Womans University)

To get ahead of everything, I already started researching the course that I can take at Ewha and Korea University. I haven't even met with the coordinator yet and I'm already doing this. Hahahaha~ I guess I'm just too excited?

Ewha Womans University only admits female Koreans but both male and female international students. They have two international dorms for undergraduates. The first dorm is older and has common bathrooms, which means they have larger rooms. The second dorm is newer and has private bathrooms in each room, making them smaller. When researching this, I thought that I would definitely want to be in the newer dorm with the private bathrooms. After all, I couldn't imagine sharing a common bathroom with everyone on the same floor. However after reading many accounts from others, if you have a private bathroom, you are in charge of keeping it cleaned and stocked. I don't know if I'm just lazy but that doesn't sound appealing to me. The common bathrooms, I heard, are very clean since there are staff who clean frequently. Plus, you are forced to have more interaction with the other exchange students. Which I desperately need. I'm hoping this abroad experience will help me get over the shy exterior I have.

Anyways, these are the classes that I am considering:

• 10619 - Religion and Culture in Modern Korea
• 10833 - Understanding World Heritage in Korea
• 11027 - Pop goes Korea: Korean Media and Culture
• 11116 - Introduction to World Music and Culture
• 21643 - Public Speech and Presentation
• 22195 - Macroeconomics
• 22218 - Microeconomics
• 22240 - Marketing Management
• 22250 - Financial Management
• 10145 - Tennis
• 10504 - Korean Ceramics I
• 34012 - Business Writing
• 34120 - Basic Painting
• 34613 - Organization Theory and Development
• 34618 - Foundations for Business English
• 35674 - International Political Economy
• 35688 - International Business Law
• 35981 - English Composition
• 36003 - Introduction to International Politics
• 36004 - Introduction to International Business
• 36134 - Principles of Economics
• 36178 - International Marketing
• 36402 - Public International Law
• 36789 - International Law and Global Society
• 37412 - Introduction to Programming
• 37431 - Culture of Everyday Life in Modern Korea

I know this list seems really long, but this is for two semesters since I'm applying for the academic year. Also, they say that you should pick more classes than you will take as schedules change and classes get dropped.

But anyways, these are classes that I thought were interesting and should have the credits transferred to FHSU. Plus some of these are required for my degree anyways so I have to take them no matter what.