Application Manual for International Baccalaureate Applications

Transcription

1 Application Manual for International Baccalaureate Applications How to get started? Go to the main UWC Belgium IB application page The main access page to apply for an International Baccalaureate with UWC Belgium is (which redirects to When you go to this page, you land on the login page. When you first access the page, you don t have a username yet, so the first thing you need to do is to create a user account. In order to do this, click on Click here to get registered. Provide your contact data for registration When you click on the link, the application takes you to the registration page. This page requests basic information about you. The first part lets you choose a username and a password that you will be using to log on to the system. Choose any username you like - the easiest is to just use your name. You can not use dots ( points ) though, only lower case letters, numbers and underscores are allowed. If the username already 1

2 exists, the system will warn you. Also choose a password and repeat it. The password may contain any character you like. Take note of your password so that you will be able to log on. After that, you need to provide information about your nationality. You need to provide your name, gender, birth date and place, as well as your nationality. Finally, you need to provide your contact data. You need to provide at least one phone number, either a landline or a mobile phone. Your address is crucial as well, because all communication will go through the address you specify. Make sure you have no spelling mistakes in it. Once you click on Submit, your data will be saved and you are redirected to another page, which will remind you that you need to verify your address. Confirm your address Check the inbox of the address you provided. You should have received an with the subject Confirm your address to start the UWC IB application process. 2

3 In the text of the , click on click here to verify your address. This takes you back to the login page, and you are now ready to start filling out your student application form. The IB application form dashboard In order to successfully submit your application to participate in the UWC International Baccalaureate, you need to provide the following information: Fill out Section I with personal info Fill out Section II with information related to your academic performance Fill out Section III about your motivation and views to participate in the IB experience Upload a scan of your passport Upload a scan of your last school report Upload a scan of your penultimate school report Furthermore, you also have to request parental consent from both parents (in Section I) and three teacher recommendations (Section V). It is only when all these requisites have been received that your application will be taken into account for the selection process. To make it really easy for you, the application provides a dashboard which shows the current status of submissions. It displays all information that has been saved so far, gives you the opportunity to send reminder s, and also gives the full overview of all pending tasks. However, when you begin, no information is present yet, so the application provides you with a link to Section I to get started. 3

4 After filling out sections I to III, the application will give you an overview that will be discussed later in this text. Section I Personal Info When you registered your username, you already provided basic information. Section I retrieves this information - allowing you to edit it if necessary - and furthermore asks you about your parents and your knowledge of languages. The first section about personal information is already mostly filled out. You also need to confirm that you have had residence in Belgium for the last five years. If that is not the case, you cannot apply with UWC Belgium, unless you have had residence for the last three years and went to school in Belgium. Visit the UWC Belgium website for more information about eligibility criteria. In your application you will need to upload a copy of your passport. Specifically, you won t be able to submit this section as long as you don t upload the passport. You can however leave that for later and fill out the other information first. 4

5 Address and contact data are likewise repeated from the user registration form, so that you can edit this info if you have made mistakes earlier on. Then you need to provide information about your legal guardians (often your parents). In order to submit you need to have parental consent of both your parents. UWC requests this because there are stringent international travel laws that prohibit international travel of minors if there is no explicit consent of both parents. An exception can only be made if there is only one guardian because a parent has died. the system only requires one legal guardian to give parental consent. In that case, 5

6 Again, make sure that there are no spelling mistakes in the addresses of your parents, because if you five the wrong address, they will not be able to fill out their parental consent form. Also for parents it is necessary to provide at least one phone number, either a land line or a mobile phone. Finally, you need to indicate your knowledge of languages. In order to save the first section of your application, you click on the button Save before Submitting. When you click on this button, s will be sent automatically to both legal guardians requesting them to fill out the parental consent form. If some information is lacking, the system will inform you by displaying a warning, otherwise you will be redirected to your dashboard. 6

7 Now the dashboard displays in its normal layout: An overview of what has been saved already A section to send reminders A list with pending tasks Notice that you can now go back to section I to edit and/or submit, or go to Sections II or III. also go to the other sections by clicking in the menu on the top of the page. You can Section II Schools and Education This section deals with everything that has to do with your school. First of all you need to provide information about your current school. For submission of Section II, quite a lot of information is needed, but you can go ahead and save the section bit by bit while you gather all needed information. All that is strictly needed for saving section II is the information about your current school as well as the information about your disciplinary record. It is however in your own interest to have all information ready, saved and submitted in your own interest. 7

8 Make sure your revise the start date, because it is important that the information you provide to UWC is accurate. If you have attended more than one school for your secondary, you should provide information about your previous school as well. This is obligatory if you have not been in your current school throughout secondary. Next you need to provide information about your grades. You do not have to fill it out at once if you do not have all your report cards near, but you will have to register your results in order to submit Section II. 8

9 You need to provide grades for all years. The grade can either be a percentage or a letter grade. Normally it will be one of the two, in the example image above the hypothetical situation that the grading change in the third year is shown as an example. Next is your academic program. You do not have to fill out your results at once, and you can skip this step initially. For submission, however, you will need to provide your results for at least 6 and at most 14 subjects so that we get an idea of your general academic performance. Notice that these results do not have to be the ones of your upcoming session. Take the results of the last report card that you have at hand (which you will have to upload in the next step anyway). If you have more than 14 subjects, choose the most relevant ones. 9

10 To apply for the IB application, UWC also needs your report card of June of the previous school year. If you do not have scanned files of your school reports yet, you can proceed with the saving of Section II, but you won t be able to submit without providing the reports. The next question asks about your disciplinary record. If you have never been suspended, expelled or under probation, you can just say no. If however you have had disciplinary measures applied to you, it is required to be honest and open about this. Provision of incorrect information in the submission leads to an automatic disqualification. Finally, you need to request three teachers to provide you with recommendations. This section is not required for saving, so you can save section II without requesting teacher recommendations as long as you don t submit. This is because we want to avoid that you go writing down all the answers and then cannot save because you don t know which teachers you want to ask for recommendations, or because you don t have their contact data. 10

11 After you save, you can continue to submit. It s a good strategy to wait with submitting until you are sure your teachers have received your recommendation and have agreed to fill it out. If you don t submit, your application will not be evaluated, if you submit too early, you will no longer be able to make changes to your form. In order to submit, simply click on Edit or Submit Section II in your dashboard. The application will also warn you if there is still information missing. If all required information is present, the form will be submitted when you click on Submit. The dashboard now changes again: 11

12 As section II has been submitted, it can no longer be edited, but you can still see what you submitted. Also, you can download a pdf of the from you submitted, and have a look at the June report you uploaded. Section III Motivation The third and final section that you as a student need to fill out allows you to express your own views. Eleven questions need to be answered. An answer can be no longer than 400 words. If you have already written 400 words, the application will prevent you from writing more. You can save section III after each answer, there is no need to fill them out all while working on it. For submission however, you need to have answered all questions. When you start writing, in the upper right corner of your answer appears how many words have been written and how many are left (until 400). While it is not necessary to write the full 400 words, it is best that you give a clear and thorough, albeit concise answer. As in the other two sections, first you need to save the section, and then you can submit it. 12

13 Some final remarks The submission deadline You can see the number of days until the submission deadline at the top left of your application. Although UWC Belgium monitors the status of the IB applications, the responsibility for the timely submission of the application is your responsibility. Please plan ahead, follow up with parents and teachers and ensure that your application is both balanced and complete. Remember : - The save button only saves your changes in your file but does not submit them to the selection committee. - When a section is complete, push the submit button to send this section to the selection committee. - Make sure all your sections are submitted before the deadline. 13