Comments on: On Getting Into the JET Program, Part 2: What does JET want?

By: owwls

owwls — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 17:01:23 +0000

Hm, if you wrote about it as an upward trajectory – explaining that you are working harder now, have learned lessons, kept at it, etc, it might help. It’s hard to say, but good luck!

By: misshowk

misshowk — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 16:51:11 +0000

My biggest concern at the moment is how my gpa will be viewed. I also go to a good, but not so prestigious school in Vermont (UVM). But, I had a rough transfer, which significantly impacted my gpa, which was a 3.6. Since then, I’ve raised it to a 2.42, which isn’t great, but a significant improvement considering how low it was. I have one year left, so there’s still time to improve my score. However, it won’t be fully restored to what it was before I transferred.

By: NJ

NJ — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 00:21:52 +0000

I’m an ex-JET and now president of the local JETAA, by virtue of which I sit on the local interview panel for prospective JETs. Your succinct (and, as always, wittily incisive!) synopsis of the interview criteria is pretty much spot-on. If you’ve made it past the initial paper screening, you don’t have to worry too much about your academic scores and stats. We are judging you as a _person_. Scary, huh? You basically just (!) need to show that you are flexible, open-minded, reliable, have some relevant future goals, and have some understanding of what will be required of you as a representative of your country in a professional environment (even taking into account ESID!). Although there are significant subjective elements to the judging, everyone vying for the same positions (i.e., those leaving from any one particular departure location, because you are not compared with applicants from other locations) are subject to those same subjective criteria (at least from my experince) – which I guess makes them objective.

By: meirelav

meirelav — Thu, 24 Oct 2013 17:28:52 +0000

Thank you so much for these JET program posts!! I’m still about a year and a half away from college graduation, but JET is what I’d like to do for a few years once I do graduate, so these posts (and your whole blog, really) are quite invaluable to me. Looking forward to the next post!