Upgrading to Full Year Status

As a disclaimer, I would simply like to mention that this post is mostly for information purposes only, as I have decided against taking this route. However, as I have seemed to have fished out all information possible, I would like to make sure it doesn't go completely for naught.
Upgrading to full year status, extending my term from Fall 2009 to Full year 2009-2010 in Tokyo was essentially as easy as just mentioning something. I asked Beth Eustis if I could upgrade and she basically told me to send her an email from my college saying it was fine and then she would upgrade me. The upgrade itself took about a week, mostly because it took 3 days or so for my school to get back to IES. In this time, though, I did a lot of thinking. First off, I had almost made the decision from my gut to upgrade to the entire year, barely thinking it out at all. I had the opportunity to sit and think-- did I want to be essentially stranded in Japan from December 20th until March 25th with no guarenteed housing or cash flow? No, I decided, there were too many potential problems.
Even though my visa would be fine during this time, I would most likely need to get special permission to work during this time. Furthermore, even though I was staying in a homestay, they would have no obligation to the program to keep me and, thus, I would have no idea if I should continue to stay and bum off of them during this time or if I would need to somehow arrange to live somewhere for four months. The only other option would be to return to the States during this time and get a job, if only for a little while. However, roundtrip airfare would cost at least $1200 and I had no interest in returning to find a job in my small hometown in the very off season. So, I thought, how does one avoid this gap? IES Nagoya.
I emailed Beth concerning admission to Nanzan, to which she replied the following:

You may indeed apply to the Nagoya program for Spring 2010 if you wish, but please know that you would not receive an admission decision from Nanzan University until about halfway through the fall semester. You would also have to return to the US during your semester break to get a new visa for the spring program since Nanzan’s Certificate of Eligibility (required for the visa) would not be issued until late fall. You can if you wish call the Japanese consulate now and explain that you are considering doing two different programs in Japan fall and spring, affiliated with two different universities and issuing two different Certificates of Eligiility. Ask if there is any way you could extend your fall semester visa once you are in Japan. I am not sure that they will do this but you can ask. Otherwise you would need to be back in the US in December to get your visa for Nagoya.

If you do decide to apply for Nagoya, please let me know because there is an extensive supplemental application required by Nanzan that we will need to mail to you. It is due back to us no later than August 3, 2009. Since this program fills early it is a good idea to submit the application well before the deadline.

Personally, I am pleased with coming back to UofR for the Spring semester, but I thought I would provide this information for those interested.

Introduction and Acceptance

Hello, my name is Kara Finley and I'm a sophomore at the University of Rochester with a Japanese major, a Mathematics minor, and , hopefully, a Comparative Literature minor with a focus in German literature. I hope to keep this blog for not only my family and friends to keep up with my experiences, but to also serve as an information source to individuals interested in taking the IES Tokyo Language Intensive Program at Meikai University in Urayasu, Tokyo and as a further source for Vegetarians in Tokyo. Obviously, I won't be able to address the latter until I am in Tokyo.

Application Process

My school is actually a partner of IES, so my application went through more than smoothly. At the U of R, anyway, I had to submit a proposal for Study Abroad by early February and wait a few days for the go ahead from my school. After getting this, I proceeded to fill out the very simple application (not even an essay involved) and was reminded very often by IES what was missing from my file. Apart for the application, which I filled out online, I had to send in a letter from my Japanese Professor detailing my Japanese proficiency, a recommendation from the Study Abroad office saying I was permitted by the school to go, and a copy of my transcripts. Due to random beaucracy (I was a day late on my tuition payment for February), my transcripts were held until I completed the March payment. As soon as these were released and recieved by IES Chicago, I got an acceptance e-mail.
In addition to the forms I had to fill out, my mother apparently had to fill out a waiver and an agreement that she was letting me study abroad, as well as an emergency contact sheet. Funny how even though I'm an adult, legally my school sees to it that I have my parent's permission before I leave, but my mom told me it was because I'm still listed as an dependent on her taxes. At the end of the day, that makes a lot of sense, I suppose. Still, IES doesn't seem to mind if you do not wish for your parents to recieve certain information, as I'll detail later.

Post-Acceptance

I received my email of acceptance to the program on Friday, March 13 at 11:00 pm EST. Interesting, I suppose, that it was allegedly sent by my IES Adviser Beth Eustis in Boston, but, I suppose it could have technically been from Japan...? I guess it doesn't really matter. Haha. I was told I had until April 3rd to accept my...er...acceptance by simply filling out a form on the IES website (if I did not attend a partner school, I would have needed to submit a $500 deposit by that date. Partner schools pay the deposit for you but if you withdraw, you have to fork the cash over to the school).
To tell the truth, when I received my email, I was a little iffy on whether or not I wanted to go. Sure, I was about 90% sure that I wanted to be in Tokyo next semester, but there was still a little bit of doubt in my mind. So, I waited and thought about it over the weekend and on my way back home from Spring Break. I finally decided and submitted my acceptance form on Tuesday and started going through the other forms, which show up under the "admitted Students" section on the IES website.

Forms
I actually found somethings about the forms very interesting. One thing I didn't realize is how many I had to send in- a housing form, a language placement form, an arrival form, a bank form, an immunization form, a physical report, a Certificate of Eligibility, a Passport form, a Waiver, a Field Placement Form, and a Digital Headshot. About half of these you can submit online, but the other half are mailed in. The most interesting things I found about the forms are:

• By June 1st, you must submit a letter showing you have at least 6,000 USD in your bank account.
• If you have 2+ Years of Japanese, almost everything has to be filled out in Japanese, including your resume
• Unless you go with Independent Housing, there will be a curfew, either 11pm, 12pm, or undetermined.
  
• You have to have your physical at most 6 months before departure
• When it comes to the visa, they do most of the dirty work for you.
  
• You are strongly advised to arrive on the program start date due to Visa dates. EXACTLY on it.
• You are not allowed to add/drop courses after the start of the semester.

So, I went through and filled out what I could ( I was slightly limited, as I have misplaced my passport. Ugh.)

Service at IES
So, I had a few questions, as I was considering staying for the entire year (I haven't decided as of this post) and I contacted IES directly. My adviser didn't pick up when I called (about 1 pm on Tuesday), so I left her a voicemail and sent her an e-mail. Practically within 5 minutes, she got back to me and answered my questions. I was floored.
What floored me even more, though, was a call at 9pm last night from IES Tokyo themselves, congratulating me on my acceptance and asking if I had any questions. I, sadly, didn't, but was very impressed with their dedication to customer satisfaction. They encouraged me to get a hold of them if I came across any problems and I thanked them profusely.

I am truly looking forward to my year in Japan, being in the care of IES.