Finally after what feels like years, we get to apply for housing! (Sorry for the excitement ;))

If you haven’t read my post about the two on-campus accommodation in Yonsei University for Exchange Students, you can find it here.

Some time after you are accepted into the programme from Yonsei, the coordinator will start to send you regular updates and reminders about the next stages of preparing for departure. The next step that you will need to do after receiving your admission package from your school is to apply for housing.

Application Schedule

The application is open on different days for different semesters. You can find every important date regarding the housing application here. For my semester in 2016, the application starts on the 10th of June. Regardless of the date, the application always starts at 10AM Korean time  – just take note of the time difference between your country and Korea 🙂

Before Application Day

Be sure to make a housing application account first before the application day opens. You can sign up through the housing portal. Signing up for an account the day before makes the application process itself really fast on the actual day.

This is important especially if you really want a spot in the dorms because applications are accepted on a first-come-first serve basis. Furthermore, there are only a limited number of rooms. With over 600 exchange students each semester, the last thing you want to do is to sign up for the room late.

To sign up for an account, you’ll need to create an 4-12 character ID (mixture of numbers and alphabets) and password. You will also be asked to enter your “student ID number”, or enter your “admission number(SAY******)”. Your admission number is available in the admission notification email or your Letter of Acceptance in the admission packet. The other details are pretty straight forward.

Application Tips

If you are like me and you’re still confused on which building you want to apply to even on the day of application, you can abandon your application and make a new application to swap buildings. However, I suggest swapping out as soon as possible. Remember, you want to try to apply for housing as close to the application start time as possible.

As you can see, I had quite a hard time choosing where I want to stay. I abandoned two of my applications. But really, something to take note of is the “Housing application number” column. My theory is that the last 3 digits show how many applications have been submitted ahead of you and even though I submitted my third and final application on the first day (at around 1PM Korean Time), my application number was already 592 :o.

The point is, if you want to secure a spot, make your final decision as soon as possible 🙂

After a long debate with myself, I eventually decided to go with International House because:
1. It is cheaper
2. There is a mini refrigerator inside the room so I don’t need to worry about my food being stolen + I get to bring back any kind of food and drink I want 😉
3. I do not need to buy toiletries nor clean the toilet (saving me more money and time)

Application Results

Although there are two dates to the results update in the housing schedule (find the link to it above), my application results only came out on the second date stated at 6pm Korea Time. There was no email sent out when the results came out so you’ll just need to remember to check your account to see the “Status” of your application.

If you are offered a place, your status will be changed to “Pass”. I have no idea what the status will be like if you are not, but I guess if its anything else but a “Pass” then that means you may not be offered?

The not-so-good thing about the status is that it is not really self-explanatory. I was quite confused about what “Pass” meant when I first saw it. I assumed that it meant I was offered because when I clicked on the application number on the main page, it brought me to the details of my application where I could see how much I needed to pay and to where do I transfer the money to.

Payment

Whichever hostel you choose to go to, when you are offered a place, you’ll need to transfer the money to Yonsei within the given timeline in the schedule. They will also send you an email reminder about it together with check-in information (Another reason why I can be sure that “Pass” meant I was offered LOL).