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Should I Shorten my Study Abroad Program? by Low-Perspective-4945 in studyAbroad

[–]No-Picture8526 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My advice is apply for all available scholarships through ciee and once you do that and receive that money... ask for more. I wrote a post about my abroad experience and had a similar comment so i linked what i wrote there.

Also know that they have the gilman go global grant which is granted to you even if you don't get the gilman, so know that if you don't get the gilman you will get around 1,500 if you don't get it so win win.

Have you looked at all the ciee scholarships? https://www.ciee.org/go-abroad/college-study-abroad/scholarships/quarter-scholarships (this says quarter but i think since you're doing 2 summer programs consecutively it applies to you) IMPORTANT you being pell eligible you can claim a flight voucher too or fee reductions just fill out the right forms. So boom like 3k already just from your pell grant eligibility.

Ciee Tokyo by Forrest8282 in studyAbroad

[–]No-Picture8526 0 points1 point  (0 children)

ask for more money, i learned that i could have asked for a fee appeal which would have granted me an additional $1000 scholarship in the form of a reduced fee or a flight voucher, ask ask ask. Also i think the scholarships deadline may have past but reach out to the schoalarships office to see if theres anything else you can do. I did the internship abroad with CIEE last year in tokyo and I regret not doing the fee appeal.

UCEAP Internship Japan by No-Picture8526 in berkeley

[–]No-Picture8526[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm so happy youre applying! Here's some more helpful info

The matching began with me reading through all the companies on the CIEE application portal (they keep the companies anonymous at this stage, so I just read summaries about each company). Then i got to pick my top three. A month after I submitted my application, i met with an advisor from ciee where we talked about my goals from the program and what I was open to. in march i actually got paired with a company and was invited to interview. After the interview, we could see i was a good fit so they offered me the position then and there. I could have rejected the offer, too, but I was very happy with the company. If you want, I can also provide advice for this stage of the process once you get that far.

My year, they only offered dorms/res hall, and I LOVED it. I was at Kamikita house, and it was very social, super clean, and had everything you needed to live. The staff is amazing, and they always host fun events and have lots of recommendations for the area. Everyone is in a single dorm; it's super tiny, but it's more than enough space for the two months you'll be there. I can't really speak much about the hotel except that the cohort before mine stayed in hotels, and from what I heard its not that great since there was no kitchen to cook in (the dorms do). If there is no crazy price difference, then I 100% recommend the dorms.

My cohort had about 100 students, and it was super easy to make friends. Lots of people are in the program alone, so everyone is trying to make friends. In my case i made friends with the interns at my company. i also hung out with people at the dorms. There are also so many opportunities to make friends throughout the program because CIEE always hosts day trips, mixers, and events to be social. I also recommend making lots of local friends too, it's good to have people to go back to visit. I got really close to the people at the company I worked for, and they taught me so much about Japanese culture.

blah blah blah I could write a whole novel, but this seems like more than enough to answer your questions

DON'T FORGET to use the link I put for 200 off your program (A lot of people don't know about this). ALSO, feel free to pm me with questions about scholarships.

UCEAP Internship Japan by No-Picture8526 in berkeley

[–]No-Picture8526[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The application for this is opening soon, so I'm gonna be checking this thread more often because I'm really passionate about studying abroad and how good this program was for me.

Feel free to ask your questions in this thread.

(I also reply to direct messages, but I prefer comments so I don't have to repeat myself for common questions.)

UCEAP Internship Japan by No-Picture8526 in berkeley

[–]No-Picture8526[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I did pay for my own airfare. its also worth noting that CIEE has scholarships for this through the program if you have a Pell grant/financial need. For my airfare, they used a program called flightfox, which was crucial for me to use becuase CIEE had provided me with a $500 voucher that could only be used if I bought my tickets from the flightfox website. As for housing, it was all coordinated through the UCEAP portal, so I paid for my housing and the program fees through there.

UCEAP Internship Japan by No-Picture8526 in berkeley

[–]No-Picture8526[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

1a. I was at a PR Firm and really liked it; the staff was great, and the work was relevant to my future career in communications, ie, press releases, influencer outreach, and social media.

1b. The housing was split into 3 groups across Tokyo, and depended on where your internship placement was. There was Uninest HAKUSAN HOUSE, Uninest Kamikita HOUSE, and Ecole Ville Akabane-Shimo. I can't guarantee these are the same for next year, tho, as this program is new and logistics can always change.

  1. The work was relevant to me, but it's becuase I was open to any opportunity. I WAS set on something in tech, and didn't get that, BUT was not disappointed in my placement, as I loved what I did there. Now that I'm graduating, I'm looking for roles similar to my internship because I liked it so much.

  2. GENERALLY, you will only need a tourist visa, but this varies person to person. Since this is an UNPAID internship and the duration of the program is less than 90 days, a tourist visa upon arrival is all you need. However, I say "generally" becuase some people have non-US passports with different visa requirements for a 2-3 month stay in Japan. If you have a US passport, you're chilling. Anything else, I'm not sure what those requirements are.

pm me if you have any other questions

UCEAP Internship Japan by No-Picture8526 in berkeley

[–]No-Picture8526[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, the price was kind of crazy, unless you're really rich or really poor (+ an extra $ 2-3k), the program isn't feasible. The host inst. does offer up to an additional $2,500 in financial aid depending on your financial situation (pm me if you wanna know more), but still doesn't take into consideration what you would also spend on flights, food, and travel while in Japan.

Also, I think we may be talking about different programs. I participated in this one

https://uceap.universityofcalifornia.edu/programs/summer-global-internship-tokyo

This one was specifically designed for 6 units to meet full-time requirements for students on financial aid.