The hard (and the sometimes even fun) part begins

Sometimes it’s hard not to be frustrated when you work really hard for something and life still makes you constantly jump through hoops. So, as a friend recently advised, it is important to “keep the main things the main things”. In the course of an application process (or so many other countless things in life) that means not forgetting about your goal. From my own experience (applying for a study abroad program, which is still not over yet – yay!), I know how hard it is. Think back to when it all began and how excited you were.

I still remember how it was. My university’s information meeting about studying abroad stoked my wanderlust. This was one and a half years ago, and I thought I had plenty of time. However, I could hardly wait to leave Austria for my chosen university and I started to daydream. Checking out university websites numerous times, using a picture of one of those universities as my desktop background, checking out the dorms and courses and imagining myself wandering around the university campus were all part of my daydreaming.

Fast-forward to one year later: fall of 2009. I finally started applying – actively. I managed to gather quite a bit of information about the different programs that there are: ISEP, the “normal” exchange student program, Erasmus (not really an option for me), and the Fulbright Program (ditto). After considering all my options and with the help of pro and con lists, I decided to apply for a “normal” exchange program for studies overseas. Okay, so I knew what I wanted to do and where I wanted to do it. But what was the next step?

The information meeting I mentioned before and the University of Salzburg website helped me locate the coordinators for the two universities I was most interested in. And of course I arranged a meeting as soon as possible. With my first choice, let’s call it “The-one-that-shall-remain-nameless”, it was not a big problem. Soon I was sitting face to face with the coordinator and this person (to stay gender neutral) answered all my questions and gave me some advice about how to proceed. My second choice, let’s call it “The-one-that-will-hopefully-work-out”, would already make me jump through a hoop. The problem was that the coordinator for this university retired at the end of last year, i.e. 2009, but apparently had already retired from checking and answering e-mails a while before that. In the end, according to my mantra that I mentioned in my first post, things worked out and I met with the future coordinator who I kind of already knew.

The next step for me was to put together all the necessary application documents.

Sorry guys, time is up for today.  

Yours truly,

Lemon

PS: Don’t you all just love cliffhangers?