In order to apply for a place in a Summer University you must be a member of AEGEE-Burgos and be up to date with your payments. If you are not a member yet, click here to find out how to become one.
The process for leaving SU is as follows:
1. Choice of SUs and application.
2. Pre-selection.
3. Selection.
1- Choice of SUs and application.
You will have to choose between 1 and 3 Summer Universities in order of preference. Subsequently, you will be pre-selected for one of the three, i.e. you will only apply for a place in one of them (it will be the one where you have the best chances of being accepted according to the number of applications, nationalities that have applied, gender balance…).
If you are clear that you want to go to a particular SU, you can choose only that one, so that you are sure to be shortlisted there, regardless of your chances of being accepted.
IMPORTANT: You must order the applications by preference. Put the SUs you like the most in front.
It is possible to see how many applications each SU has, as the information is updated daily. To do this, click here (the link may not work until the application period opens). Please note that the fewer applications an SU has, the easier it will be to be accepted, as you will have less “competition”.
Once you are clear about which ones you like the most, take your time to write the motivation letter(s). It is best to open a separate document and write them calmly. This ensures that your work is not lost if the internet crashes.
Motivation letter:
You have to write a letter for each place you choose (in the application process you will have to mark three places, in order of preference). In the letter you have to introduce yourself and explain why you want to participate in that Summer University. You have to write the letter in English, unless you know the language of the country you are going to, in which case you can write it in that language (German, French… Ukrainian?).
The letter will be the means by which the organisers, once shortlisted, will accept you or not, so be original. Think that the people reading the letter will be young people like you, so be fun, don’t be too serious! A three-line letter is a sure rejection, and a two-page letter is a sure rejection. Writing badly in English is no excuse – the person reading the letter may know even less English than you do. Work on a letter of at least 100 words.
That you will buy them a round if they choose you, that you will dance the macarena (it is not strictly necessary to fall into stereotypes…), that you are capable of partying until 6 o’clock and then be up at 8 o’clock to go and see the Parthenon, that you are very outgoing and love meeting people, mention something about their country that you really like, say something in their language: that’s selling yourself well!
Application form:
Once you have written your motivation letter(s), it is time to complete the application form. To do this you must log in to the Summer Universities website with your username and password (the one sent to you when you became a member). The form can be found in the section “Applicants > Fill in Application Form”.
2- Pre-selection.
The shortlisting system chooses one of your options (one, and only one). In particular, choose the one in which you are most likely to be accepted.
In an SU, you want as much heterogeneity as possible, so the more different you are from others, the more likely you are to be accepted:
Filter by SU preference: Here it matters the order of the SUs you have ordered, the first one will get more points than the second one, and the second one will get more points than the third one.
Filtering by gender: In an SU, you want half of the participants to be of one gender and half of the other. So if you are a boy and more boys than girls have applied for the SU, boys will have a lower score than girls.
Filter by age: We try to have people of all ages, so if there are a lot of people of your age you will have less points than if there are few.
Filter by nationality: The aim is to form a group with as wide a range of nationalities as possible. Therefore, if there are many more Spaniards than French, the French will have more points than the Spaniards.
Filtering by number of applications: Those who apply to an SU that is in low demand will score higher than those who apply to an SU that is in high demand.
Once you have been shortlisted for an SU, your application will be sent to the organisers and the selection process will begin.
3-Selection:
During the selection process, the organisers of the SU in which you have been shortlisted will read your motivation letter and on this basis will tell you if you have been ACCEPTED, if you are on the WAITING LIST, or if your application has been REJECTED. This is expected to be published in mid-May (we will be giving news about deadlines and other relevant information).
If you are classified as:
Accepted: pack your bags because you are in, the organisers will soon contact you to confirm that you accept the place (either by paying a part or by sending a copy of the flight tickets).
Waiting list: there are always cancellations, so if you are on the waiting list you will have to wait a while to see if any of those accepted turn down their place, then the organisers will accept people from their waiting list.
Rejected: unfortunately you have not been accepted. You will not be able to participate in this SU, but don’t worry, because you still have …. OPEN CALLS!
OPEN CALLS
Although there are more applications than places, there are always SUs where there are still places available; as soon as this happens, the organisers will send out an “Open Call” letting you know that they have places available. In that case, you will receive an email saying “The SU of Chuchurrián launches an open call looking for ‘x’ participants, are you interested?
Here the chances of being accepted are high, as they need participants to complete the group, and the sooner the better. So they will select the fastest ones as long as they don’t break up the group.
Open call considerations:
Only those who have been rejected can apply for the open calls. So if you are on the waiting list and don’t have much hope of being accepted, contact the organisers and ask them to reject you, so that you can apply for the open calls.
It is possible that you are rejected by an SU and then you see that the same SU launches an open call. Surely you will say, how is it possible that they reject me and then they have places left over? That’s because there can be cases where applications are very unbalanced. Imagine that in the SU in which you have been pre-selected, 80 Spaniards and 10 other nationalities aspire to 25 places. They are not going to accept more than 15 Spaniards, so they will accept a few and launch an Open Call looking for people of other nationalities.
YOU ARE READY TO HAVE THE BEST SUMMER OF YOUR LIFE!