ACCEPTANCE

Finally! I received my admittance notification from Waseda. My adviser was abroad around the same time I was (from late May to early June), so she was still shifting through the massive amount of work and e-mails that had accumulated. She forwarded the e-mail to me Monday afternoon and I've been working logistics ever since. While my notification was a week and a half late, it all worked out in the end! Whew. 

It was not actually a PHYSICAL package. Waseda simply e-mailed my adviser the necessary information and she forwarded it to me. It's hinted (not even stated directly) that there will be another packet coming in early July.

Waseda sent me three sheets, each detailing something slightly different. The first is a form about the "Housing & Arrival Questionnaire". Essentially, they ask you questions about your flight and the housing you want. Your choices are dormitory, living with family/private apartment, share house through their company or homestay. The homestay only applies to those in the SILS program. If you chose dormitory housing, you have to answer more questions, but these are lifestyle based so they know where to place you. I chose a private apartment, but I'm staying at a guest house through a separate company. The only share house option was their private company, but I might have made a mistake. I'll work it out later. Also - if you decide to live in the dorms, there is free airport pick-up.

 Please note that I had a lot of difficulty filling out this form. Despite turning off all the security features in Mozilla Firefox, the page still wouldn't load for me. I then switched to Internet Explorer and finally, after some tweaking of the security features, I was able to get the application to accept my form.


The second sheet details pre-departure preparations. The first step is obtaining your VISA. In early July, Waseda will send your university your COE (Certificate of Eligibility). You must then mail the COE and your passport to the nearest Japanese Embassy. This step makes me uncomfortable, so I think I'll see if I can't take my passport to the embassy myself. I live close enough. It then details other things to consider and such, but I won't go into them here.

The final sheet is your orientation schedule. I have to be in Japan on the 5th of September for the first of a series of orientations. The first orientation goes over mandatory things like your VISA, insurance, and foreigner registration card. It goes from 9:00 to 5:00, includes a tour of the campus and lunch. The second orientation is for dormitory students only - there is a group visit to the Shinjuku city office to submit the forms given for the National Health Insurance and your Foreigner Registration Card. On the 14th of September is the mandatory general orientation for IJLP students, which details school life. On the 19th of September is the mandatory academic orientation for the IJLP students. I assume this orientation is the one where you register for classes. Extra information will be posted at the end of August, so check back at the link indicated. On September 21st, your student ID card will be issued. The last three entries on the schedule are groups of dates for registration periods. I assume this will also be explained at the orientation.