This is my first post in this blog. As you can read from my description, I am a student of Aalto University School of Business. I am writing this in Tieto :D while I should prepare for my final thesis presentation coming up next Thursday *Panic* and I also should clean my flat also to terminate it :S *Panic 2* and I should pack my luggage to fly next 2 weeks *Panic 3*
However, I am still here writing this first post because why not :D and as a girl who lives very emotionally, when I catch the emotion and flow, it is the best to show it out right away or I will forget it.
The emotion here is the excitement of starting a lifetime trip. As a master student finalizing the stressful thesis, a trip to Japan is like a gap year holiday, preparing before jumping into nest 40 years working non-stop. Also, my job seeking journey so far has been horrible terrible, which is mostly because I am bashful and not confident enough during interviews, even though academically, I am sure I am not that bad :D. So an exchange time like this, I believe, can help me enhance my confidence and communication.
My thesis is written for an organization in Finland. I started writing in June and finished it last week. Two months of concentration has passed quite smoothly, although I was distracted by Pokemon Go and some Korean TV shows XD. Next week, I will present the thesis and hopefully, the supervisor will not find any terrible mistakes in my thesis! After that, it is time to go! Yeahh
I applied to Sophia University in Spring 2016 and got the acceptance from the coordinator in January. Before applying, I did not research much about the university as I was planning to somewhere else. As the matter of fact, Sophia was not my choice. The reason why I could not get to where I wanted was because I did not apply it early in my first year in Aalto, hence, the index in the second year is really not my side. Let's take an example.
I have GPA = 4,7 (that is the truth :) I am nerdy) but I have studied only 36 ECTS when I applied in the 3rd semester. As the result, my index was only 4,7 *36/3 = 56,4
Assume that A is in his first semester here with GPA only 3,5, studied 24 ECTS, his index is going to be 3,5*24/1 = 84 taddaa he ranks much higher than me even though her study is not as good, so he can get to the exchange place where she wants and I will go to less desired place. The competition is tough for second year student or students who studied slowly for GPA (like me) so please take a closer analysis and apply for exchange study early in the first year!
However, although I was disappointed because I cannot get to where I want, Tokyo is still very good, cannot complain. Thanks a lot to the coordinator, Minna, who tried to fit everybody to their desired places.
I did not want Tokyo that much in my first preferences because everybody knows that it is expensive, the most expensive city in the world. I really hesitated, my to-go or not-to-go decision drove me crazy for sometimes. Whenever I checked the housing price in Japan, I dont want to go. The cheapest house the university offers is around 40 000 yen (excluding utility and all kind of irrational cost like key cost :o and cleaning cost :o and greeting cost :ooo) which is around 400 euros per month. Even more outrageous than that, some of the dorms cost around 900 -1000 euros per month if we choose the option to eat inside the dorm for dinner and breakfast. 1000 euros is enough for me to live 2 months in Finland like a rich person seriously. At the same time, the number of paper I need to submit for the CoE procedure is very overloaded. I needed to submit a health cerificate with lungs X-ray (it is obligatory for everybody!), 3 paper forms, 2 recommendation letters and housing applications. These are even less than Keio University where you have to submit your bank statement and your parents income proof :D and THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING *Panic*
To gain the motivation to go to Japan, I went online and search google with keywords
"Sushi"
"Okinawa"
"Wagashi"
and "Sakura", these pictures in the Google search made me feel that Japan is the heaven on earth, especially, regarding cuisine haha XD. Sugoi de su ne ! (awesome, right?). So when you are tired of procedure to go to Japan and afraid of expense in Japan, you can do the same, lets see how it help you.
Bonus
here is the reasons to live in Tokyo:
https://tokyocheapo.com/lifestyle/top-reasons-to-live-in-tokyo/
http://travel.cnn.com/tokyo/visit/best-japan/worlds-greatest-city-50-reasons-why-tokyo-no-1-903662/
So do not hesitate when you have the opportunity to go to exchange, especially to Japan. I think that the expense is going to be more than you expect but the life time experience is going to worth it.
Goodluck! ^^
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