About ISEP

I guess I should update my progress of ISEP here, as a reference for those interested and also my personal refresh.

Before I start, I want to mention that without passion and determination, applying ISEP will be very suffer as it involve a lot of parties and need to refer a lot of people, need to do a lot of documentation task and emails. Lots of student give up half way just because the procedure is too hectic and the process is too long. The price you pay is also big, you need to mentally prepare that you might need to extend sem in some rare cases. Not only during application, when you come back to UPSI, you still have a lots of cleaning to do, transfer credits and so on. You have to be very independent as most of the problems you face when applying you need to settle on your own. Although we will receive some scholarship there, either it is in voucher form, invoice form, or bank in, we still need to invest money before going there (unless you are not going to their winter season). Because my tern will go at Jan-May, so it is still winter. We need to buy winter clothing and it is not cheap in Malaysia. Seniors suggest e to buy at Family Bundle in Ampang, but they went to US, mine is Finland, a lot more colder than US, so I choose to refer my senior that went to Finland, and he suggested Universal Traveller(UT) and Sox World. I personally suggest you to buy from UT too if you have the budget (Or Winter Times, more expensive!), but if don't have, maybe can try Uniqlo or Terranova. For clothing, I spend almost a thousand. Think carefully before apply. Yet, ISEP really brings benefits and it is very shame if we don't apply.

This is how the ISEP page looks like. To sign in, click the "log in" at upper right, or directly go to sat.isep.org

So first let me brief a bit what is ISEP. ISEP is acronym for International Student Exchange Program, as it's name says the function so I just skip it. ISEP is not the only organization that serves exchange student, but also include ERASMUS and so on. Something that UPSI student should cherish, UPSI is the one and only one Malaysia's institute that participate in ISEP. In the other word, only UPSI student can apply for ISEP (hurray!) Yet, before you apply make sure to ask your dean / KJ as they might forbid you for applying...(especially education program) The website: http://isepstudyabroad.org   or   http://sat.isep.org

To apply ISEP, First you need to be sem 2, and you need to attend a taklimat held by bahagian akademik 3 every sem. The venue will be inform once you email to the person-in-charge for registration. Timetable will be announce at upsi portal, so stay alert! When you attend the taklimat, person-in-charge will teach you all the steps and open an ISEP account for you, which you will frequently visit and fill in the document needed in the account.

As i mention first, documentation process takes a long time. I just briefly explain a bit here, the rest when you attend taklimat you will know all.

After log in, this is what you will see

There are six section you need to fill in, and each section will have sub-section.

1) Participant Profile
- Biographical Information (name, gender, address, citizenship)
- Dependents ( just select "NO" if you don't have a child)
- Emergency Contact
- Academic Information (Your major, minor, expected graduation date, list of classes taken, terms for ISEP and so on)
- Terms and Condition ( look thru it before accept)

2) Host Request List
For this process, you need to filter all the universities available for UPSI and email them one by one to get the information about the list of benefits they give, qualification to apply and so on. Some university / country need certain language requirement such as Australia, England... they need TOEFL or IELTS. Japan or Germany, France, Spain they need their language level certificate. Be patient when gathering the information as this process will take most of the sem (almost one sem). Fill in at least 10 institute. Mostly go to US, or Korea.

3) Course Request List
This process you need to contact their academic department / education service or whatever they called that in charge for academic part. You need to ask them the course syllabus (UPSI called it RI). Even though the subject you take have the same name with subject in UPSI, but sometimes the syllabus is not same, this will cause problem when you come back, maybe you cannot transfer credits. This step is very crucial as you need to print out the RI and meet your Ketua Jabatan (KJ) and ask them whether you can take this subject or not. If can, ask them to sign on the RI if they agree you can take the subject as an evidence. (sometimes they quite forgetful). Fill in the courses you want to take at every institute you apply just now.

4) Documentation
- Language Proficiency (you need to interview at UPSI by TESL lecturer to test your english ability to speak with confident and grammatically correct)
- Personal Statement (you need to write an essay with 300-350 words. This is the question I get, maybe they won't change question?  "ISEP is unique because it offers the opportunity for full immersion in the host culture. However, it is your responsibility to make the most of this experience. Introduce yourself and explain your academic goals for studying abroad and for integrating into the host culture. What specific situations from your past (i.e., coursework, job experience, travel, intercultural experience) have helped you prepare to accomplish these goals?")
- Academic Reference (you need to find a lecturer that is at least Dr title to be your academic reference, or we called it PA - Penasihat Akademik. They will received an email to rate you. Remember to find somebody that is quick and not lazy... they need to upload one document, if they did not upload, you will not be accept by the ISEP)
- Passport (upload your passport pdf of the identification page. If you don't have a passport yet, just check the box indicate that you are processing)
- Transcript (latest final result)
- Additional Information (no need)

5) Coordinator Reference
(no need, not your job)

6) Application Fee
(no need)

This is just the first step. When all these settle, and you shall get an answer from ISEP at the first few weeks of next semester. Then you can proceed to the second step. You need to fill in the form that person-in-charge email you so that academic there can help you to buy insurances. The university that accept you will contact you soon. There is the time where you can ask question about the institute, academic and so on. You will have a guidelines (or maybe not) that teach you how to apply visa.

You will start to settle things such as your housing there, bank, visa, at that semester. The rest I will share later in my own experience post.

The benefits of applying ISEP are, it actually opens your eyes that let you see how good is other countries in academic area. You can compare between two countries, having vacation while studying where your housing and meals are provided (in other word, free!). You can meet new friends that have different language, skin, hair and races. You do not need to pay for the tuition fee there, UPSI will pay for you, and all you need to do is pay the tuition fee at UPSI (around RM1500 per sem that we need to pay every sem). UPSI will pay for your VISA, passport and flight ticket too, You just need to pay for your own personal expenses such as vacation, transport fee, books and so on. While there are cons too. Like my case, I am going to Finland which is an Europe country, that the education system is totally different. It is hard to transfer credits and I might not even transfer one of them, so I am at high risk of extend sem, but I think it does not bother me much as the experience itself worth a lot. Not to mention the time consuming procedure, when you come back UPSI still got a lot of things to settle, sometimes it might drag until sem 8 also haven't settle. Even though you do not need to pay much. but if you go to Spring term, you still need to buy winter cloths as January still consider winter if you go to western country. Europe country even worst as like Finland 365 days are cold, January can reach -30. Winter cloths not cheap in Malaysia... in Universal Traveller, one coat alone cost you about RM300 cheapest.