Having found this new scholarship that I am considering applying to has made me reflect more upon the time I applied for my scholarship for going to Japan, as well as on the people who recieved this scholarship and who abused it.
I go to an international university program right now and there are so many people here from so many different countries, which is amazing. But it made me realize something: Many people that come here from a different country to study, aren't very good students.
Don't get me wrong, most of them are great, but there is still a noticable amount of people that aren't doing a good enough job.
Of course it's the same with the Swedish people, many of the Swedes in my class also slack off and don't study. But it's not as big of a deal for them. They are not paying anything for their university education, and if they would fail they could just take a short trip home to live with their parents again.
For international students, things are a bit different, which lead me to believe that they might take school more seriously. But no, they don't.
And the more I think about it, the more I realize it was just the same in Japan, with scholarship students none the less!
It has made me realize that not everyone is fit for studying abroad, and I would like people to really look into themselves before making such a big decision.
Are you really fit to study abroad? Let's see.
If you are planning on applying for a scholarship in Japan or anywhere else, or just want to study abroad using your own money, or your parents money, please consider these things.
When you fail a test, who do you blame?
Do you blame yourself for not studying enough, or for studying the wrong things etc? Or do you blame the teachers, the way the test or course was structured? Maybe a mix of both?
If you have ever failed a test think back to your reaction. Who was to blame for your failure?
If you happen to have failed tests on several occasions, and you do not feel that you are to blame in any more most of those occasions, you probably shouldn't study abroad.
Trust me, if you fail a test, most of the time (though not always of course!), it is almost entirely your fault, and if you cannot accept that and learn from your mistakes and work harder you probably shouldn't make any big decisions about your education that might affect you badly in the long run.
I've noticed that many people in my class constantly put blame on bad teachers, badly structured tests, badly structured courses, etc. And to some extent they can be right, but never to the full extent. Plus, after all their complaining about everyone else, they still never even mention what they could've done better themselves.
Constantly blaming your bad luck on others is just going to make you miserable, and will not help you with your studying.
How are your group work skills?
Personally, I am not a fan of group work, mainly because before university I was always the one doing all the work in the group works we had.
My naive self thought university would be different, and that everyone would be great team members, but it really isn't different at all (which I already talked about in another post).
One difference though is that in university you can have a whole course revolving around group work, and if you don't do your part, your team members will hopefully rat you out to the teachers (righfully so, in my opinion) and you might fail the course, if it turns out that you were riding on the backs of your team members the whole way.
Failing courses can get you kicked out of your program, and thus all your time and effort (and maybe even money), will have been wasted.
How well can you deal with disappointment?
Many of my fellow scholarship students came to Japan with hopes that were way too high for reality, so when things didn't go their way, they just quit.
I am pretty sure I've talked about it already, but at my first school there was a guy in my class who always skipped class, and my teacher had to call him several times a day to pester him to come. He did move on to university in the end, only for the same story to get repeated there. Granted, he wasn't a scholarship student, and might just have been forced to Japan by his parents.
Another story of a girl who was a scholarship student and already 100% fluent in Japanese: She got through the language school that they forced her to attend even if she didn't need to. She didn't attend classes very often of course.
Soon after she started her new school she flat out quit because she didn't want to move to Kyoto, and so on.
The worst story though if that of another scholarship student. This person attended the same school as me, but a year below. But she stopped coming to school for over a month, and therefore was no longer eligible to recieve her monthly payment to live on. But even before she lost it, she had stopped paying the rent for her apartment, so her roommate was left to pay it all on her own.
I do not know what happened to her in the end. But if she were to continue this behaviour she would not only lose her scholarship, she would also get kicked out of school and thus the country. And because she failed to pay rent, maybe even worse things could happen.
I think many people who want to study abroad have these grand expectations of how it's going to be, and when it turns out that it honestly kind of sucks sometimes, they just break down and quit and do not take responsibility for the position they've put themselves in.
What is your real purpose for applying for a scholarship?
Are you really a good student? I am not asking if you have straight A's or anything, I just want to know if you do your best. Do you put school first? Would you rather spend time on writing a good assignment, and handing it in on time. Or do you only study last minute for a test? Write assignments right before deadline?
Would you skip classes to do something more fun? Would you arrive late to class because you just don't really care that much?
Do you even really want to study? Or is your main goal to come to another country to travel around, and live off of free money?
I'm not saying it's wrong to want free money, or to want to travel and have fun rather than attend some boring class. But when you are a scholarship student you have to take responsibility, because you are first and foremost a student. And someone somewhere believed so much in you that they decided to spend all this money on you.
Don't let it go to waste.
In Japan, and I know in many other countries too, coming to class on time is very important. Even coming just a few minutes late can affect your grades.
Even so, my first year in Japan I was the only one in my class with perfect attendance. And most of us lived in the dorms which were connected to the school!
Being late, to me, is disrespectful, especially if it literally takes you 30 seconds to get to class.
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Well there you have it. Another rant. Take it with a grain of salt, I guess. I am not saying you shouldn't study abroad if you ever failed a test (or even many), but if you constantly keep failing, and don't even learn from your mistakes, well...
TL:DR(?)
The main thing is to be a responsible person, a person that cares about not letting yourself or others down. A person that can be relied upon, by teachers as well as other students. You don't need straight A's in school to achieve these things.
But then again, straight A's don't make things any worse either, right? ;) (Man, I wish I could get straight A's too..)
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