Preparations in January - Course selection and finances

Hello dear readers,

as promised, here is my latest update and the good news first: The registration is finally open! After several inquiries at the international office, I have already been nominated. I have requested my transcript of records from our secretary (a big thank you to Mrs. Gawron for the quick help and sending it to me). My medical history has been certified/signed by the doctor. Unfortunately, I am still missing my language certificate, as my last name was misspelled on version 1. And for those who know the Americans, they know that this can lead to big problems (there are some funny stories from acquaintances). That's why I immediately requested a new one. I still need to scan my passport at home. And then the only things missing are the 2 topics that I wanted to focus on today anyway: The financial documents and the course request form.

Let's start with the courses first. The document that needs to be filled out looks like the attached. I have already entered my courses here.

What is interesting here? First of all, the credits. I need at least 20.5 ECTS points and ideally have to take 4 courses in my field of study. One in Economics, one in Logistics, one in Quantitative Business Administration (so math or finance) and one in Management Business Administration (employee management, etc.). Since it is not to be expected that I will get my priority 1 courses, I entered 10 courses right away. Let's see if that works. Unfortunately, you only find out during Welcome Week in Mississippi. So the Learning Agreement for the recognition of my courses in Germany may have to be adjusted spontaneously, but this has been clarified with Mr. Wander, my program manager.

What else is interesting? It is already noted on the form that as a Bachelor student (Undergraduate), you have to choose courses with numbers between 100-499 and not courses with 500+, as these are intended for Master's programs. In the fall semester, you have to choose at least 4 courses, which fits very well with my plan.

To find the courses, I clicked my way through the Ole Miss homepage and looked for any courses that fit into one of the 4 categories and sound interesting. Yippie, the first time choosing courses myself that are not predetermined :) Then I looked at the course numbers and quickly realized that I had chosen many Master's courses... Of course, that's not good, I'm not that far yet. So I deleted these courses from my list and selected the most interesting ones from the remaining ones. After prioritizing, I filled out the document and I'm done :) Now let's wait and see if I can get into any of the courses.

The second part today is about financial planning and the documents for this. As everyone can imagine, a semester abroad is quite expensive. My first calculation stated:

Accommodation $2,400.00 = €2,149.64

Tuition Fee $3,950.00 = €3,537.95

International Student Fee $100.00 = €89.57

Application Fee $50.00 = €44.78

Literature $600.00 = €537.41

Health Insurance $770.00 = €689.68

Food €1,800.00

Travel €2,500.00

Flight €1,000.00

SEVIS Charge $180.00 = €161.22

Visa Fee $160.00 = €143.31

Season Ticket $115.00 = €103.00

So a total of €12,756.57. Quite a large sum of money. And travel expenses as well as the flight price are also estimates. After reading a few reports, I found out that there is the possibility of organizing the same accommodation yourself and thus saving money. Furthermore, it seems that it is also possible to take out foreign health insurance in Germany in advance. Both are currently being clarified, but are currently failing due to the email processing time in the USA. For the accommodation (University Trails), I need two (in numbers: 2!!!) months for my first email. Of course, I immediately replied, as only one of my 3 questions was answered, and now I'm waiting again for 1.5 months... Wow...

And the health insurance also fails because I am still missing some information here.... Well, it's still a while away. If all this works out, I can reduce the total costs to approximately €11,616.35. That's still over €1,000 and a lot of money. What is also interesting: an expensive student fee, the high costs for literature, and the cheap prices for students for the football season tickets :)

Since the university is aware that this entails a significant financial burden on the students, proof of financial ability is required. Both from yourself and from the supporters (sponsors, parents, or others). This document can be issued by your bank, which is not a problem for me (my mother works there - convenient, right?). So this point on the document list is quickly ticked off.

So that's it from me. You can look forward to the next blog entry at the end of March. Hopefully with more information on application, current planning status, and more.

Many greetings (still from Fischen)

Franz