Hi everyone,
In this blog, I will talk about the process of applying to the City University of Hong Kong.
1. Go through the MIX program application
This is the first step of starting your journey as an exchange student. You may go to the link: https://manoa.hawaii.edu/mix/outbound/apply/. Please watch out for the application open date for your preferred semester abroad and complete every part of the application correctly. Please allow yourself enough time to ask for a letter of recommendation from one of your professors, as the recommender can often be occupied with other matters. I finished my application when it opened up on the MIX website, so I did not need to deal with it during the regular semester.
2. Receive the nomination email from MIX
The MIX program will review every applicant's application after the submission deadline. Once MIX has approved your application, they will email you, notifying you of your admission into the MIX program in the next semester. From there, you will need to follow all the instructions sent by Kathy, the program coordinator, to submit additional materials to remain an eligible member of the MIX program. I will talk about these materials in the next few bullets.
3. Complete the MIX nomination form and the pre-departure courses on Canvas; attend the welcome orientation meeting
The very first thing after being accepted into the MIX program is that you must fill out and submit the MIX nomination form to confirm your intent to study abroad. In addition, you must also finish the assigned pre-departure courses on Canvas that will inform you about academics, immigration, money, health, safety, sending secondary applications to partner universities, etc. To successfully finish these courses, you must score high on the quizzes available under each module. Once you complete the nomination form and the pre-departure courses, you will receive a Zoom link to attend the welcome online orientation meeting. This is an opportunity to get to know each other and whom you will be studying abroad with at the same host university. In this meeting, Kathy will go over further details regarding the remaining tasks you must accomplish and their respective deadlines.
4. Complete the waiver, health insurance, and health history and clearance forms; fill out the secondary application to partner universities
Between the orientation meeting and the end of the semester, you should have about two and a half months to complete the waiver form, which releases UH Manoa of the responsibility for any unfavorable events that might be happening to an outbound exchange student; health insurance form, which the MIX program will use to help you purchase travel insurance from TW Lord Insurance Company; and the health history and clearance forms, which you will need to bring to your healthcare provider to seek his/her signature to ensure you are vaccinated and healthy before traveling. Please keep in mind that the travel insurance for TW Lord has increased from $1/day to $1.38/day. After purchasing the insurance, you should receive a PDF version of the insurance policy from Kathy Tran, the MIX Program coordinator. You might also need to send a copy of the policy to the host university.
In the meantime, you should receive another email from Kathy containing the link to apply for the host university that is either the first or second choice on your MIX program application. There is a deadline to apply for the host university, so I suggest you start working on it as early as possible. That way, you will give yourself enough time to gather all the necessary materials (ex., passport photos, transcript (Transcripts must be ordered on the National Student Clearinghouse Transcript Ordering service website.), letter of recommendation, etc.). In rare cases, if you want to change to another host university due to legitimate reasons, you should let Kathy know immediately so that she can contact her counterpart from that university and see if it is still possible for you to switch to applying for that university instead. In the City University of Hong Kong, the admission decision should arrive in your mailbox around the second week of June if you plan to study abroad for the fall semester. Do not forget to send a copy of the secondary application to Kathy for documentation.
5. Apply for visa and student housing; Register for regular courses on Star; Submit learning agreement form
After finishing my application to the City University of Hong Kong, I filled out my visa application forms to the best of my ability while attaching a copy of every required document. The forms to fill out are the "Visa Sponsorship & Payment Form" and "Application for Entry for Study in Hong Kong." If you are a People's Republic of China citizen, you will also print and complete a declaration form. The form will allow you to indicate your method of entry into Hong Kong and your acknowledgment of leaving Hong Kong upon the end of the study abroad period. Applying for a visa costs HK$600, and you must mail the materials to CityU. You should receive your Hong Kong visa by either the end of July or the beginning of August if you study abroad for the fall semester. Note: applying for a visa can take several months, so I advise you to start the process as soon as possible.
Student housing is another aspect that you should take care of after the secondary and visa applications. The student housing is straightforward and should take less than five minutes to complete. The decision for the student housing should come at around the same time as the admission decision. If you are offered student housing, you can start choosing your preferred residence halls, pairing up with a roommate (this requires you to look for a roommate on your own), and making a room payment. Most people will have double rooms that cost around HK$10850. I paid the housing-related fees to CityU via WeChat pay.
Last, you will submit a learning agreement form to Kathy that lists the potential courses you might take at the host university and their equivalents at Shidler College of Business. Once you finish the form, you will send it to the academic advisor for him/her to agree and sign. This form is to help you figure out the courses you should select at the host university so that by taking these courses, you will have a higher chance of successfully transferring the course credits from the host university back to Shidler College of Business.
These are the five major components of the studying abroad application process up until this point. I will start working on purchasing the flight tickets in the next few days. I will revise this blog if I have any new updates.
Thank you,
Zenan
Comentarios