The Rationale

Many other applicants would say that being accepted into the IISMA program has been a long-term goal of theirs. Consequently, they'd also say that their planning and preparation to be accepted go a long way back, up to a year or even two years before they got in. Those kinds of applicants, in my opinion, are the ideal applicants that people should look up to and strive for. Unfortunately, I don't necessarily belong in that group.

Origin

I am aware of the IISMA program ever since I first got into college. Back then, I knew about the program from several online posts that came across my timeline. But I didn't actually get a clear understanding of how the program works, I only knew then that it's an exchange program for a semester that is available for Indonesian college students in their later college years. That's all. However, from that limited information there was a desire implanted (this choice of word is pretentious, but there's a reason for that) in me to be one of its awardees. I told my parents about the program and how in my later college years I would go abroad should I be accepted. Thankfully, they were very open and supportive to the idea. They were also very proud of me for taking the initiative for wanting to be a part of IISMA.

In the Background for Long

But that's about it. The thought of IISMA just kinda faded into the background as I had other things and agenda to focus on. That's not to say I never thought about it. I think there's actually quite a few moment where it kinda popped back in and shaped some of my actions:

• I think I did my first and subsequent MUNs (see all about that here) partially due to an IG reels I saw early in my first year that mentioned doing MUNs as one of the strategy to get accepted (I don't know how accurate that was, I just went along with it).

• I got my passport extended back in the middle of 2022 with the sole reason of preparing for IISMA.

• At the start of my 2nd semester, I joined an organization called TanyaKating, where there were Kak Alifia Ilmi, awardee of IISMA 2021 to UPenn.

• The previous secretary general and deputy secretary general of Ganesha MUN Club (a student club in ITB that is focused on MUN) before I was part of its BoD was an IISMA 2023 awardee. They departed shortly after stepping down from their position in GMUNC.

• At one point in the middle of my 5th semester I had a small talk with an acquaintance who said that they had been preparing for their IELTS for months (this was kind of a wake up call).

But again, that's about it. Despite all of the above, IISMA was not at the forefront of my mind for most of my college life.

Thanks Mom!

It was not until a random day in the middle of my 5th semester finals that my mom (whom I owe a lot of things to, including this one) told me about this post from ITB International Relations Office. The post said that students who will be applying for IISMA must first register themselves to the IRO. In true ITB fashion, the post was posted in the middle of finals and the registration deadline was also during the finals. One of the document that, on the surface, must be submitted for the registration to IRO was EPT (English Proficiency Test). I promptly became panicked and almost decided to not apply for IISMA because there was no way I could get an EPT done in the middle of finals.

Thankfully, after calling up the IRO, the EPT was not really required right then and there. IRO allowed IISMA applicants to submit their EPT at a later date, 10th of January. This relatively short deadline will be the source of the problem in the next entry of this journal. But at least for now, I registered myself to ITB IRO, the first step out of the long journey that is to come.

Takeaway

I think my experience that I have told thus far, how something as eventful as an application to IISMA was not at the top of my mind all throughout college and how that caught me with my pants down at the end of my 5th semester, only further cements one of my biggest regret of college: a lack of long-term planning. It wasn't until the start of the fourth semester that I had a remotely tangible plan of what I'm going to do and what I'll accomplish. Even then, the plan that I created was a short-term plan because it only covered the 4th semester. I made another plan for my 5th semester that was a lot more tangible and detailed compared to the 4th, but it also only covered the 5th semester. Most notably, it didn't mention IISMA anywhere in there. This lack of long-term planning culminated in my aforementioned unpreparedness when applying for IISMA.

If I were to do college all over again, the biggest thing that I would do differently would be that. I would have made a plan that covered the entirety of college, containing any and all of the organizations that I want to be a part of, the achievements I want to reach, the goal of each semester, and so on and so forth.

If I were to do my IISMA application all over again, I'd have prepared for my IELTS as far back as the latter half of the 4th semester and taken the test somewhere in my 5th semester. Afterwards, I would go straight into doing my essay and even doing some mock interviews.