A Blog about Education Abroad

Category: Independent Summer School

  • Benjamin attends the System Dynamics Summer School at MIT, USA

    Benjamin attends the System Dynamics Summer School at MIT, USA

    Preparations for departure:

    The American visa is publicized as one of the hardest to acquire. Given the lengthy online application form that ought to be completed, such proclamations may contain some truth. Completing the online application form might take three hours if diligence (which is very necessary) is to be employed. Once the online visa application is completed; the next phase is booking appointment (online) to attend an interview at the embassy/consulate. There are three centers in South Africa, and the consulate in Cape Town is the closest venue in the Western Cape for interview. Usually, the nearest time-lapse between interview booking date and attendance is about three weeks to one month. This varies depending on the consulate´s backlog.

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  • Eileen at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand

    Eileen at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand

    Pre-departure:

    Planning my Thailand elective was by far one of the most challenging things I have had to do. I had decided at the end of last year already that I wanted to do my 5th year elective in Thailand so that gave me a nice head start. A friend of mine who was planning on doing his elective in Thailand too, suggested a university that we could apply to. So, we decided to do our elective at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. The hospital was established in 1947 and consists of 21 medical departments. There are 1500 beds, 409 physicians and 1177 nurses. Our decision though was mainly based on the fact that the hospital is located in Bangkok, meaning most of the people we would encounter would be able to understand some basic English and so communication would not be a huge obstacle.

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  • Matt at Stanford University, USA

    Matt at Stanford University, USA

    Pre-departure:

    Once I had accepted my admission offer to Stanford, everything went by fairly quickly. Stanford provided a detailed checklist of all the things that needed to be sorted before I arrived. The list didn’t seem to end.

    The preparations needed for a two and a half month trip overseas are enormous, especially if you are travelling alone. Luckily, my accommodation and food was already all sorted as it was provided by Stanford University (at a pretty hefty fee). The only things left were the flights and the visa.

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