After going through the hoops of the internal Student Exchange Programme (SEP) selection in NUS and accepting the internal offer, you can do nothing but wait for further instructions from NUS’ International Relations Office (IRO). Generally, after the faculty has selected you to go for SEP, the university office needs to submit your name to the partner university before you start on the partner university’s application process.
Since the university has hundreds of names to process and submit to many different partner universities, this process can take some time. The office will start nominating students to partner universities whose exchange application deadline is earliest so that the students have ample time to submit any supporting details needed.
For Yonsei University, the application for their Study Abroad @ Yonsei (SAY) programme is between September to October and March to April for the Spring and Fall semester respectively. My friends (who are going to Yonsei too) and I only received further instructions early April, 3 weeks before the deadline of application. The office gave us a link to the application portal via email (you won’t be able to see this portal from Yonsei’s website) for us to finish the application process and gave us 1.5 weeks to submit all the hardcopy materials (refer to next segment) to the office.
What you’ll need for SAY application
To be uploaded online (no hard copy needed):
1. 3.5 x 4.5 cm photo
This photo will be used for your student ID card that will be issued by Yonsei. There are several strict requirements to the photo. So do check the image below (taken from the application portal) to see if your photo meets their requirements.
This photo can also be used to register for your “Alien Registration Card” when you arrive in Seoul – remember to crop it to 3×4 cm and print 2 copies for this card.
2. Study Plan
This isn’t a study plan per se because there isn’t part where they ask you which modules you plan to take in Yonsei. It is rather similar to the statement of purpose we needed to write when we apply for SEP through OPAS (Find out what OPAS is here). However, instead of typing it onto the application portal directly, you’ll need to download the Study Plan document from the portal, type in your answers there and reupload the filled file to the portal.
There were 4 questions in the Study Plan document that we had to answer (at least during our application round)
- What is the purpose of your application to Yonsei University?
- What is the major you want to study at Yonsei University and why?
- Please explain and describe your aptitudes, hobbies, and philosophy of life
- Please summarize your academic achievements (Educational Background)
3. Proof of medical insurance
To be uploaded online AND to submit in hard copy:
1. Official University Transcript
Please note that this is not the unofficial transcript that you can download from MyISIS. The official transcript has similar contents to the unofficial one but it is printed on some fancy paper and signed by NUS Registrar office.
You will need to order it to be printed here. It takes at most 4 working days for it to be printed and you will need to pay $5.35 per copy (done online). You can either collect it at the Student Service Center (SSC) at Yusuf Ishak House (YIH) or you can ask for it to be delivered by mail (this will take longer).
Once you collected your official transcript, scan it and upload the image or pdf to the SAY application portal and submit the original document to the BBA SEP coordinator together with the next item before the stipulated deadline.
2. Photocopy of your passport
This document is the simplest to prepare. Just photocopy the first page of your passport (the information page) and you’re done!
What happens next?
