Preparing application materials needs a lot of energy.
Especially if you are not good at paying attention to details and organizing
things, this is going to be the first hurdle you need to clear to make
your study abroad successful.
But you are not the only one who are having hard time.
Just make sure that you finish them one by one.
Here are the basic materials that you would be requested from your prospect
schools.
I listed them in the order of time and energy needed to complete the form.
Material 1: Recommendation
This is the only material you cannot prepare by yourself...which means
you should let it have a good time allowance.
I reccommend you get contact with your recommender at the earliest stage.
He or she might be gone for months or too busy to have time for you.
As recommendation letters are not one of the application materials for
Japanese universities, I didn't know who to ask for my recommendation.
I was like, should I call the professor from my undergraduate? But it's
been more than 2 years since I graduated, plus, I was not one of the good
students...
If you are not sure if the professor remembers you, you can prepare an
outline that you can bring to your professor. That makes it easier for
the professor to do the work.
And don't worry, I know some people who hadn't been in contact with thier professors for more than 10 years when they asked them for the recommendation letter.
Whether it is professor or your boss that you are getting your recommendation from, it is better to be a person who knows you better, than a person in higher position.
There are some website that talks about writing a recommendation letter.
A Bank statement is required for international student to certify that
you have enough money to do your study in the school.
Usually, at least in Japan, banks can issue youa bank statement in Einglish
within 5 working days, but I recommend you to check with your bank. It
cost me about 500 yen (about 4 dollars) or something to have one issued.
Usually, you are requested to hand in another letter that prove your financial
resource (it's called "Confidential Finantial Form" atHPU). If
the school does not provide you with a form, you may just type in the necessary
information using Microsoft Word or something, and it would do.
Material 2: Bank Statement
It may depend on your school, but in my case, I had to mail them my photo
ID, my name, department, meajor, year of graduation, year of enrollment,
and student number. Then they could send me back the official transcript
in English.
The transcrips should be sealed when they get to the admission office.
Some schools require the transcripts to be sent directly from your highschool
or university.
Material 3: Transcript from your highschool or undergraduate
I recommend you to take the test at least 1 year before the time you are
planning to start your study. Now computer tests are available, so you
can know your score on the spot, however, note that it takes 3 to 4 weeks
for the official score report to get to your prospect university.
http://www.toefl.org/
TOEFL official website
http://www.gre.org/splash.html
GRE official website
Material 4: TOEFL (and GRE) scores
Material 5: Statement of purpose
Material 6: Application form
Maybe this is the first form that many people complete, but this is the
most easiest form to complete.
I couldn't find any difficulty in completing the application forms.
