I-20, Letter of Acceptance, and Passport (with Visa inside)

Selamat anda telah diterima di salah satu universitas di AS! Now what?

Memang proses pendaftaran sekolah di AS boleh dibilang cukup panjang, diperlukan waktu beberapa lama dari mulai mengambil ujian-ujian seperti TOEFL, GRE, dan GMAT sampai anda menerima jawaban dari sekolah-sekolah yang anda telah apply.

Pada kasus saya, boleh dibilang hampir 12 bulan dari saya mengambil ujian TOEFL pada bulan Agustus 2009 sampai saya menerima jawaban dari sekolah di bulan Juni 2010.

Anyway, it’s all worth it. Dan sekarang proses selanjutnya sudah menunggu, yaitu mendapatkan visa student untuk masuk ke AS.

Visa? Cara Dapetinnya Gimana?

Untuk memasuki sebuah negara, pada umumnya kita memerlukan visa yang akan dicap di paspor kita. Tanpa visa, anda tidak bisa memasuki suatu negara.

Bila anda sudah diterima oleh sebuah sekolah di Amerika, maka anda perlu menanyakan kepada mereka kapan mereka akan mengirimkan I-20 kepada anda. Sebelum anda bertanya apa itu I-20, saya akan jelaskan terlebih dahulu.

I-20 adalah sebuah surat yang menyatakan bahwa anda telah diterima di sebuah universitas di Amerika. Surat ini akan berisi nama anda, nama sekolah anda, dan biaya yang diperlukan untuk sekolah di sekolah tersebut selama satu tahun.

Biasanya perlu satu atau dua minggu lagi sampai anda mendapatkan I-20 dari sekolah. Coba tanyakan apakah ada syarat yang anda perlu lakukan untuk mendapatkan I-20 tersebut. Mungkin anda perlu mengirimkan syarat-syarat yang belum terpenuhi sebelumnya.

Apa Hubungannya I-20 Sama Visa?

Surat I-20 inilah yang akan anda gunakan untuk meminta visa student dari Embassy AS di Indonesia. Tanpa surat ini, anda tidak bisa mengisi form pendaftaran visa.

Surat ini sangat penting, jadi pastikan anda menjaganya baik-baik. Bahkan sampai anda tiba di AS nanti, surat ini pun tetap akan digunakan.

Sip, Saya Sudah Dapat I-20 Dari Sekolah Saya!

Ok, langkah berikutnya adalah anda perlu mengisi form permohonan visa AS di Indonesia. Form ini tersedia online, anda bisa mulai mengisinya disini:

https://ceac.state.gov/genniv/

Form tersebut memiliki beberapa halaman dan banyak kolom yang anda perlu isi, jadi anda memerlukan waktu yang banyak untuk melengkapinya. Tapi bila anda tidak bisa melengkapinya dalam satu kali sesi anda tetap bisa menyimpan data-data yang anda sudah isi ke sebuah file. Simpan file tersebut dan anda bisa melanjutkannya di lain waktu.

Anda juga perlu mengupload pas foto ke form tersebut. Pas foto yang diperlukan adalah pas foto yang sesuai dengan standar yang sudah ditentukan oleh AS, yaitu background putih, ukuran 2″x2″, dan aturan-aturan lainnya.

Beberapa studio foto di Jakarta biasanya mengiklankan bahwa mereka sudah piawai untuk membuat pas foto untuk keperluan visa AS. Saya sendiri membuat pas foto saya di Fuji Film Plaza Senayan lantai basement (dekat Hero). Studio-studio foto lainnya anda bisa temukan  di jalan Sabang.

Untuk informasi mengenai requirement foto, silahkan baca link berikut:

http://jakarta.usembassy.gov/niv_photo_rqmts.html

Fiuuh.. Akhirnya Selesai Isi Form Dan Upload Foto. Terus Apa Lagi?

Jangan lupa untuk mencetak confirmation sheet setelah anda selesai mengisi form permohonan visa. Jadi ada dua dokumen yang anda perlu cetak, yang pertama adalah confirmation sheet, dan yang kedua adalah form yang berisi data-data yang anda telah masukkan.

Confirmation sheet ini sangat penting karena bila anda tidak membawanya saat memohon visa nanti, anda akan disuruh pulang dan kembali bila sudah memilikinya (ini terjadi kepada orang yang mengantri di depan saya, setelah 1 jam lebih mengantri).

Setelah mencetak dokumen-dokumen yang saya sebutkan di atas, maka anda siap untuk pergi ke Embassy. Mulai bulan Juli 2010, Embassy AS di Jakarta memiliki Student Visa Program (SVP) yang adalah berita sangat baik bagi murid-murid yang akan bersekolah di AS. Jadi anda tidak perlu membuat schedule terlebih dahulu seperti proses permohonan visa turis. Anda cukup datang hari Senin, pukul 07.00 – 09.00 ke Embassy AS di Jakarta (saya kurang tahu untuk kebijakan Konsuler AS di Surabaya).

Sedikit tips, ada baiknya anda datang pukul 06.00 atau kurang ke Embassy. Karena mulai pukul tersebut, anda boleh percaya atau tidak, sudah ada orang yang mengantri di Embassy AS.

Hmm.. Ada Tips Apa Saja Yang Perlu Dipersiapkan?

Yang jelas anda harus membawa dokumen-dokumen berikut:
1. Paspor
2. I-20
3. Sevis Fee Receipt
4. Confirmation Sheet
5. Duit ($140)

Sevis Fee Receipt? Apaan Tuch?

Oh iya, satu lagi biaya yang anda perlu keluarkan (banyak ya..?) sebelum anda datang ke embassy adalah membayar Sevis Fee. Sevis Fee ini semacam proses registrasi anda sebagai murid internasional di Departement of Home Security AS. Anda perlu membayar $200 terlebih dahulu melalui internet dan mencetak kuitansinya untuk dibawa saat memohon visa.

Bagaimana dengan surat Bank?

Apabila anda bisa membawanya, tidak ada salahnya anda membawa surat Bank yang menyatakan anda memiliki sumber dana untuk sekolah di AS. Pada saat saya interview, saya tidak ditanya sama sekali tentang surat Bank, tapi saya dengar orang lain yang diintervew ada yang ditanyakan. Jadi mungkin lebih baik anda membawa surat bank untuk berjaga-jaga.

Seperti Apa Interviewnya Nanti?

Persiapkan diri anda untuk visa interview. Biasanya anda akan ditanya pertanyaan-pertanyaan mudah seperti kenapa anda ingin sekolah di AS? Jurusan apa yang anda ambil? Apa pekerjaan anda sekarang? Siapa yang akan membiayai sekolah anda?

Jangan gugup, persiapkan diri anda sebaik-baiknya berbicara bahasa Inggris karena anda akan diinterview oleh orang Amerika, bukan orang Indonesia.

Setelah interview maka anda akan mendapatkan kertas kecil yang berisi tanggal kapan anda bisa mengambil paspor anda beserta visa studentnya.

Doakan Saya Kawan!

Tenang saja, bila anda sudah mendapatkan I-20, anda sudah memiliki kemungkinan besar untuk mendapatkan visa student, walaupun tidak pasti 100%. Selamat mengapply visa teman dan God bless!

*Untuk informasi-informasi tambahan, ada baiknya anda membaca-baca terlebih dahulu tulisan-tulisan yang ada di website Embassy AS di Indonesia:

US Embassy Jakarta
http://jakarta.usembassy.gov/index.html

US Consulate Surabaya
http://surabaya.usconsulate.gov/

Welcome to the social networking age! Oh yes, everything in the internet nowadays must carry that word ’social’ or they will be so outdated, or so 2009 as they say it.. In recent years the internet has become so accessible to all people, people no longer need a computer to exist in the internet. They can make their presence by their cellular phones, be it the iPhone, Blackberry, or even any humble Nokia 1210 series.

It is no coincidence also that the biggest name in the social networking world now is.. yes, you know I was going to say it, Facebook! (Sorry Twitter..)

Facebook trend seems to sweep the whole world, more than anything ever in the world of internet. MySpace and Friendster are still there, kicking around, but everyday more and more are switching to Facebook because all of their friends did earlier.

I got to admit I was underestimating Facebook two years ago (that was 2008). I signed up because my friend already signed up to it. In 2009 I got more active in the Facebook, checking it everyday but never participate much. In 2010, I spent my time more in Facebook than checking my email.

Why? Because it keeps on improving its features and those features makes people spent more and more time in Facebook. For example, in 2008 Facebook didn’t have the chat feature. There was also few applications, if anything useful. But it is really the goal of Mark Zuckerberg, the young genius behind the Facebook, to make people spent their online time in Facebook and not needing to browse to other websites. Sounds impossible? Well, let’s just see it two years from now.

Anyway, enough for the presentation of what I know about Facebook, now what are the things that you must know that Facebook can do for your church.

1. Reaching The Youth

You heard me saying that more and more people are spending their time in Facebook, and you should use it for your church advantage. Radio and Television stations all know about this secret, if you are having people’s attention, you have the power.

The fact is more and more youth are using internet, and more and more time they spend in Facebook. You’ve got to use this to reach them. You have the greater chance to get their attention now using Facebook than using radio or TV (unless it’s national TV of course).

Still don’t get what I meant? Here’s the step by step:
1. If your church doesn’t have a Facebook page, go create one.. now.
2. If your church doesn’t have a Facebook group, login to that account or your account and create one.. now.
3. Add as a Friend all the youth people in your church that exist in Facebook, and add all also the adults so they don’t’ get mad (just kidding..).
4. Try post an invitation that you are going to held a free lunch this coming Sunday in your house and see what happens.

Here’s my guarantee: If no one replies to your invitation, I will pay for the free lunch. (I’m not serious, you know it).

2. Increase The Non-Sabbath Interaction

Here’s a little problem with SDA youth communication channel; they only runs on Sabbath. Don’t believe me? Try to volunteer to help the youth leader this term and you will believe me in less than few weeks.

It’s really a classic story, you talk to your church friends about the plan that you are going to have next Sabbath, and you guys have divided the responsibilities and everything looks good until the next Sabbath you find out that no one has done anything.

Why? Because for the whole week none of you know what other’s are doing or maybe everyone forgets what they should do.

But like I’ve told you before, it’s so 2009 man! If your friends are in Facebook, high chance is they will check their Facebook at least once a day. You can send them message or even chat with them whenever they are online, or you can also post message on their wall to get their attention.

What if they are not checking their Facebook that often? Don’t worry, all the notifications from Facebook will be sent to their email address. It simply increase the chance they will get the message compared to the traditional method of emailing them only.

3. Maintain The Ties

However beautiful time we have with our fellow brothers and sisters in the church, at one point in our life we must go somewhere else for school, job, marriage, or whatever reasons.

Keeping the communication is important because it gives us a stronger sense of family and we might help each other in time of needs. With Facebook you can easily check what’s going on in the lives of your previous church members so you always have something to talk about, use this for your advantage.

You can even check how they look now and where they have been from the photos with their name tagged.

For example, from a Facebook status or Photos you know that a previous church member who moved to a new place two years ago just got married last Sunday. You can easily send her a congratulation message and share about what’s going on for the previous two years.

4. Have The Always Updated Contact Information

If you ever tried to create a church member database you know one thing for sure; having it updated is a lot harder than having it created. People change their cell phone numbers, email, or addresses. It’s not like few decades ago where people usually change their contact information once every several years.

Nowadays people change their cellphone number or email addresses often, and you may not always know this before you need it.

Here’s the good news, people update their own contact information on Facebook,  you don’t even need to do the job.

Even if they don’t, you still contact them through Facebook with the advantages explained in the point number two above.

To be Continued…

All right, those are the four things that you can use for your church advantage. I was planning to include the things that Facebook cannot do for your church but it seems that it will be too long for a single blog post, so check out next time for the part 2 of this post for the list of things that unfortunately Facebook cannot help you with.

As always, if you have any comment, ideas, or even better, experiences, about using Facebook for your church advantage, please leave your comment here.

Melanjuti blog post saya yang sebelumnya, di blog post kali ini saya akan menuliskan proses-proses selanjutnya yang akan anda perlu lakukan setelah selesai dengan test-test seperti TOEFL, GRE, atau GMAT.

Tenang saja, boleh dibilang anda sudah setengah jalan dari requirement-requirement yang diperlukan untuk mendaftar ke sekolah di AS. Tetapi jangan lupa, masih ada beberapa hal yang anda perlu lakukan.

Mendaftar di Universitas-Universitas Yang Anda Tuju

Adalah sangat lumrah untuk mendaftar di lebih dari satu sekolah, karena selalu ada kemungkinan untuk ditolak, dan saya yakin anda tidak ingin anda tidak jadi sekolah karena anda ditolak dari satu-satunya sekolah yang anda daftar.

Paling tidak pilihlah tiga (3) sekolah dari daftar ranking sekolah yang anda bisa lihat di US News (baca post sebelumnya).

Cara milihnya gimana?

Ok, ada rule of thumb untuk memilih sekolah. Pertama pilih sekolah terbaik yang anda inginkan (pilihan ambisius). Harvard misalnya.

Kemudian pilihlah sekolah yang anda punya chance masuk tapi tidak terlalu pasti (moderate).

Dan untuk yang terakhir, mungkin anda sudah menebaknya, yaitu pilihlah sekolah yang anda punya kesempatan hampir 100% untuk diterima (safe).

Boleh lebih dari tiga?

Silahkan, dan mungkin akan lebih baik untuk mempertinggi kemungkinan anda untuk segera bersekolah. Contohnya, saya kemarin mendaftar di lima (5) sekolah dan diterima di dua sekolah. Satu dari kategori moderate, dan satu dari kategori safe.

Kalau begitu kenapa gak daftar ke sepuluh sekolah aja?

Hahaha! Boleh-boleh saja, tidak ada yang melarang anda mendaftar ke sepuluh (10) sekolah. Teman saya dari India melakukannya, dia mendaftar ke sepuluh sekolah.

Hanya perlu diingat, untuk tiap sekolah anda harus mengirimkan syarat-syarat lainnya seperti:
1. Nilai TOEFL
2. Nilai GRE/GMAT
3. Transkrip dan atau Diploma
4. Rekomendasi (3)
5. Statement of Purpose (Essay)

Nah, selain akan menguras waktu dan tenaga anda, tentu saja mengirimkan syarat-syarat ini memerlukan biaya yang tidak murah. Belum lagi biaya pendaftaran dari tiap-tiap sekolah yang normalnya sekitar $100 – 200.

Maka dari itu ada baiknya anda memilih sekitar 3 – 5 sekolah agar tidak mengeluarkan biaya yang terlalu mahal. Yang penting anda memiliki kepastian untuk bersekolah sesuai jadwal yang anda inginkan.

Beres! Saya sudah memilih paling tidak 3 sekolah, lalu apa?

Sekarang pergilah ke website dari sekolah-sekolah tersebut. Bila anda memilih sekolah-sekolah itu dari website US News, maka biasanya ada link yang diberikan untuk website dari sekolah tersebut, dan mungkin lebih spesifik lagi, departement dari jurusan yang anda inginkan.

Dari website-website ini anda akan menemukan requirement-requirement yang diperlukan dari sekolah tersebut, biasanya mereka akan meminta kelima hal yang saya sudah sebutkan di atas. Tetapi ada kemungkinan juga beberapa sekolah tertentu memiliki syarat yang lain yang anda perlu penuhi.

Baca baik-baik website sekolah-sekolah ini dan kontak mereka melalui email bila perlu bila ada hal-hal yang anda masih kurang mengerti.

Satu hal penting lainnya adalah catat tanggal deadline pendaftaran dari sekolah-sekolah ini. Bila sudah lewat maka anda tidak lagi bisa mendaftar di sekolah tersebut.

Sedikit catatan tentang semester sekolah di Amerika, ada dua semester dalam kalender sekolah, yaitu Fall dan Spring. Fall semester mulai akhir bulan Agustus atau awal September saat mulai musim gugur. Spring semester mulai pada bulan Februari. Pada umumnya banyak murid baru masuk pada Fall semester dibanding pada Spring semester.

Biasanya sekolah favorit akan memiliki tanggal deadline yang lebih cepat dibanding sekolah-sekolah lainnya.

Bila anda sudah mengirimkan semua syarat-syarat di atas tepat waktu, maka yang anda bisa lakukan berikutnya adalah menunggu jawaban dari sekolah-sekolah yang anda daftar.

Berapa lama hasilnya?

Sekali lagi, tiap sekolah akan mengirimkan informasi kepada anda melalui email ataupun surat mengenai diterima atau tidaknya anda. Lama waktunya berbeda-beda untuk tiap sekolah, anda bisa baca kembali di website masing-masing sekolah.

Seperti biasa, silahkan berikan comment di bawah bila anda memiliki pertanyaan tentang proses pendaftaran sekolah-sekolah di US.

Selamat mendaftar ke sekolah yang anda inginkan dan sukses!

*Ini tulisan request teman kerja saya di Bali Camp, semoga bisa berguna juga buat yang lain.

Jadi sekarang anda tertarik untuk melanjutkan studi anda ke luar negeri, lebih spesifiknya ke Amerika Serikat (AS atau US), dan anda sedang mencari-cari informasi bagaimana caranya. Saya harap tulisan saya ini bisa membantu anda untuk mendapatkan sekolah yang anda inginkan.

Bila anda mencari informasi tentang bagaimana caranya mencari beasiswa mungkin tulisan saya ini tidak bisa terlalu membantu karena saya tidak tahu caranya juga. Tapi bila anda mencari hal-hal apa saya yg secara general anda perlu ketahui sebagai syarat untuk diterima di universitas di US, anda sedang membaca tulisan yg sangat tepat.

Cukup Basa-Basinya, Gimana Caranya?

Sip, anda tidak suka basa-basi, demikian juga dengan saya. Jadi saya langsung kasih tahu saja modal utama yang anda perlukan untuk sekolah di US:

“Kemauan yang kuat!”

Untuk melanjutkan sekolah dimanapun sebetulnya diperlukan kemauan yang kuat, tapi akan lebih diperlukan lagi bila anda ingin sekolah di luar negeri, karena panjangnya proses-proses yg seseorang harus tempuh untuk sampai diterima di sebuah sekolah.

Sejujurnya sih, modal utama yg diperlukan adalah uang, tapi setelah saya pikir-pikir, dengan kemauan yang kuat seseorang bisa mendapatkan uang yg diperlukan. Sedangkan dengan uang yg banyak belum tentu orang itu bisa mendapatkan kemauan yang kuat.

Saya sudah punya tekad kuat mau sekolah, terus mulai dari mana?

Nah, berikutnya yang anda perlukan adalah informasi, bukan hanya sekedar informasi apa saja, tapi informasi yang tepat dan akurat. Udah kayak iklan surat kabar aja ya? Tapi begitulah, ini jaman informasi kawan! Dengan informasi yang tepat seseorang bisa lebih berhasil dari orang yang lain.

Dimana anda bisa cari informasi? Kalau anda sedang membaca tulisan saya ini di blog saya (www.djitz.com) berarti anda sudah berada di tempat yang tepat untuk mencari informasi, yaitu di internet.

Terus apa lagi?

Sekarang let’s get serious!

1. Jurusan

Apakah anda sudah putuskan anda akan mengambil jurusan apa? Pastikan anda sudah bulat dengan jurusan yang akan anda tempuh nantinya, jangan setengah-setengah. Sekolah yang bagus hanya akan menerima murid-murid yang sudah memiliki tujuan untuk mengambil jurusan apa dan mengapa.

Contohnya, saya mengambil jurusan Master of Computer Science. Saya dari dulu sangat tertarik dengan komputer dan menikmati membuat program-program di komputer. Saya telah bekerja sebagai programmer selama lebih dari dua tahun dan dengan mengambil studi S2 di bidang computer science maka saya akan semakin mendapatkan ilmu yang saya butuhkan dalam karir profesional saya.

2. Sekolah

Sekarang anda sudah tahu jurusan yang anda akan ambil dan sekarang anda belum tahu akan sekolah dimana. Tentu saja, ada ribuan sekolah di Amerika tapi yang terutama sekarang adalah yang manaaaa???

Untung saja kita berada di jaman informasi dan informasi tentang ranking sebuah sekolah di US mudah didapatkan secara online. Biasanya majalah-majalah akan membuat ranking tahunan, tetapi majalah yang paling terkenal adalah US News.

Silahkan klik link US News di atas dan pilih Best Colleges bila anda mencari sekolah S1, atau Graduate Schools bila anda mencari S2.

Contoh lagi, saya sudah tahu saya akan mengambil Master of Computer Science tapi saya belum tahu akan mengambilnya di sekolah yang mana. Maka saya membuka US News, lalu Graduate Schools, lalu Science, dan akhirnya Computer Science.

Nah, maka akan ada list sekolah-sekolah terbaik di US berdasarkan peringkat yang dilakukan oleh US News. Anda akan melihat sekolah-sekolah seperti Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Stanford, UC Berkeley dan seterusnya.

Masih bingung juga? Pasti..! Karena bagaimana kita tahu kita bisa diterima di sekolah yang mana? Sejujurnya kita tidak akan pernah pasti tahu sampai kita menerima surat diterima atau ditolak.. tapi untuk sementara kita lanjut dulu ke hal berikutnya.

3. TOEFL

Nah ini dia.. test yang sangat terkenal dari jaman dahulu kala. TOEFL adalah test bahasa Inggris (ya iya laaah…) yang pasti anda perlukan bila anda akan bersekolah di Amerika.

Seperti apa testnya? Tolong diingat saya sering mendengar orang-orang bertanya kepada saya apakah nilai TOEFL saya di atas 500 atau 600. Lalu saya jawab hmm.. maaf ya tapi nilai TOEFL saya cuma 111. Maka saya akan melihat wajah bingung mereka.

TOEFL itu memang dulu highest scorenya 677. Itu dulu waktu masih pakai kertas. Sekarang TOEFL itu sudah berubah dua kali wujudnya. Yang pertama menjadi CBT (Computer Based Test) dan semenjak tahun 2005 menjadi iBT (Internet Based Test).

Jadi ada empat jenis TOEFL:
1. TOEFL PBT (Paper Based Test)
2. TOEFL CBT (Computer Based Test)
3. TOEFL iBT (Internet Based Test)
4. TOEFL Institutional

Ok, TOEFL CBT sudah punah, jadi tidak ada lagi. Sekarang yang tersisa tinggal tiga jenis TOEFL. TOEFL yang diakui international sekarang adalah PBT dan iBT. TOEFL Institutional adalah TOEFL yang dilaksanakan oleh institusi lain, bukan ETS (pembuat test TOEFL).

TOEFL PBT masih ada tapi sudah jarang sekali, dan tidak akan dilaksanakan bila tidak ada keperluan khusus, misalnya di daerah tersebut tidak ada internet.

Range nilai TOEFL PBT adalah 310 – 677, sedangkan range nilai TOEFL iBT adalah 0 – 120. Kebanyakan universitas akan meminta nilai iBT anda paling tidak di atas 90.

Ok, saya akan belajar TOEFL nanti saja, apa lagi?

4. GRE dan GMAT

Selamat, anda tidak merasa kesulitan menghadapi test TOEFL. Selamat datang di tantangan berikutnya!

Bila anda akan mengambil jurusan MBA, maka anda akan diminta untuk mengambil test GMAT terlebih dahulu. Sedangkan untuk jurusan S2 lainnya, biasanya anda akan diminta untuk mengambil test GRE.

Jadi apa maksudnya dengan dua test ini? Sebetulnya kedua test ini sangat mirip satu dengan yang lain. Saya tahu karena saya sudah mengambil kedua test ini. Pada intinya, GRE dan GMAT akan lebih lanjut mengetest kemampuan berpikir anda.

Ada tiga bagian utama dari GMAT dan GRE:
1. Matematika
2. Bahasa Inggris
3. Essay

Highest score:
GMAT – 800
GRE – Quantitative (Math) – 800
Verbal (Bhs Inggris) – 800
Total – 1600

Saya tidak akan membahas panjang lebar tentang kedua test ini disini karena akan panjang dan lebar sekali. Tapi ingat, kedua test ini bisa menjadi salah satu faktor utama dalam menentukan sekolah nanti. Mengapa? Karena ini satu-satunya cara objective anda mengetahuin anda memiliki kemungkinan untuk diterima di sekolah apa.

Banyak sekolah tidak menuliskan berapa minimum nilai GMAT dan GRE yang diperlukan, tapi bukan berarti mereka tidak melihat nilai-nilai ini.

Contohnya, University of Texas at Dallas menyebutkan bahwa untuk program Master of Computer Science, minimum nilai GRE adalah 500 utk verbal, 700 utk Quantitative, dan 4 untuk essay.

Sedangkan Harvard tidak mencantumkannya.

Sekian informasi tentang GRE dan GMAT, sekarang ke faktor berikutnya.

5. UANG

Jujur aja, ini bisa jadi faktor penentu juga, karena semakin bagus sebuah sekolah maka akan semakin mahal uang sekolahnya. Agak berbeda dengan di Indonesia, sekolah-sekolah di Amerika tidak meminta uang pembangunan yang mahal, tapi memang uang sekolahnya sendiri sudah mahal.

Sedikit informasi, negara bagian tempat sekolah juga akan menentukan biaya hidup yang anda perlukan nantinya. Beberapa negara bagian seperti Texas biaya hidupnya tidak terlalu mahal karena harga-harga makanan disana lebih murah di negara bagian lain seperti Massachusetts.

Tapi lebih nanti saja pikirkan soal uang ini. Seperti kata pepatah, bila ada kemauan, maka ada jalan! Setuju?

Binguung.. Terus mesti mulai dari mana nih sekarang?

Masih bingung juga? Ikuti saja dulu hal-hal yang sudah saya sebutkan di atas. Saya akan ulangi sekali lagi:

1. Ketahui jurusan yang anda inginkan
2. Cari sekolah-sekolah yg anda inginkan (minimal 3)
3. Siap-siap ambil test TOEFL dan GRE atau GMAT

Ada pertanyaan? Silahkan tulis comment di bawah atau email saya (tridjito (at) yahoo (dot) com).

Though not as famous as the other part of Bali, the west side of Bali has a lot of things you can’t find in other side of Bali. Last week, me and other 19 of my work colleagues decided to explore this side for two days and we can’t be happier during the journey.

We started from Denpasar, visited Bunut Bolong (Pekutatan), stopped at Pura Rambut Siwi, stayed at Gilimanuk, snorkled and get sunburned at Menjangan Island, slapped by Ayam Betutu of Men Tempeh, and went back to Denpasar.

Want more of the details, read on…

Day 01

14:30 (Denpasar)

Cost:
Rp 175,000 (rent one Toyota Avanza car)
Rp 150,000 (full tank of gasoline)

Yay.. It’s time to go! Three cars, 20 people, 19 insane psychos (I’m the only normal person), zero bug, and one destination, journey to the west.

16:20 (Bunut Bolong)

Cost:
Rp 0.0

If you think you can only find this kind of view in Sequoia Park, United States, think again.. Bali own one too and you can only find it here at Bunut Bolong.

Actually it’s not only a single tree, but consist of several banyan trees joined into a giant tree.

It’s 11 km from the main road going to Gilimanuk, and I believe it worth the trip.

17:42 (Pura Rambut Siwi)

Cost :
Rp 2,000 (Parking fee for a car)

Unfortunately we arrived sort of late at this Pura so we can only took few pictures and did not manage (or allowed to) enter the pura to take more pictures inside.

The Pura directly face the sea and you might get a wonderful shots here though the sand is kinda dark.

20:00 (Gilimanuk)

Cost :
Rp 70,000 (1 ayam betutu + 1 basket of rice at Warung Ayam Betutu Bu Lina)
Rp 65,000 – 75,000 (1 room at Hotel Lestari)

Finally, exhausted and hungry, we arrived at Gilimanuk, the most famous port city in Bali. We tried to have supper at the famous ‘Warung Men Tempeh’ that serves a very hot and spicy Ayam Betutu, unfortunately it was already closed.
But someone points us to the other warung that serves Ayam Betutu nearby (Warung Ayam Betutu Bu Lina), and we ate there.

On Gilimanuk, we stayed at Hotel Lestari, just beside the main road. The rate is friendly enough for us. The cheapest room start at Rp65,000 and Rp75,000 per night for 3-4 number of people in our case. Now, that’s a bargain..

Day 02

10:00 (Going to Menjangan Island, Labuhan Lalang)

Cost:
Rp 330,000 (1 boat to Menjangan Island)
Rp  75,000 (1 tour guide fee)
Rp  30,000 (1 set of snorkle and goggle)

After a good breakfast at the warung Mbak Nur nearby the hotel and several happy pictures, we are good to go to the Menjangan Island. So be prepare reindeers, we are going to getcha… Hohoho…

10:30 (Menjangan Island)

Here we are at the Menjangan Island. Unfortunately I got no underwater camera to take underwater pictures but just trust me, it worth to go there. Just find 9 of your friends to share the boat fare, and have your way to one of the best sixteen underwater location in Indonesia (I don’t made it up, check National Geographic Traveller vol.1 no.3 2009).

Sadly because we didn’t go explore the island, we didn’t see any of the Menjangan though people says there are 400 of them in the island. Maybe we’ll see you the other time Rudolf.

15:30 (Gilimanuk – Warung Men Tempeh)

Cost:
Rp 110,000 (1 ayam betutu + 1 basket of rice)

Back to Gilimanuk to tried the Warung Men Tempeh. Ok chicks, no more hiding this time, come to daddy…

16:30 (Going back to Denpasar)

After we settled our business with the six Ayam Betutu, we are ready to go back to Denpasar. And of course, we don’t forget to get some more happy pictures in front of Warung Men Tempeh.

20:00 (Arrived at Denpasar)

After three and a half hour of non-stop riding, we finally arrived at Denpasar.

So that’s all our adventure for two days exploring the west side of Bali. Passing through a giant tree at Bunut Bolong, seeing the beauty of Menjangan Island corals and fishes, and get kissed by several very hot chicks (a well cooked Ayam Betutu Men Tempeh) were really unique experiences you can only find at West Bali.

In the end, just like visa advertisement says….

Total cost per person in this journey: ~ Rp 230,000
Number of chicken executed for our meals: 12
Total happiness and fun: priceless

What is TextMate?

TextMate is a text editor software exclusive to Mac.

“.. TextMate has been referred to as the culmination of Emacs and OS X and has resulted in countless requests for both a Windows and Linux port, but TextMate remains exclusive for the Mac..”

It is the editor that David Heinemeier Hansson, the creator of framework Ruby on Rails(RoR) use in his RoR video tutorials.

Maybe it’s a great editor I don’t know, cause I don’t have a Mac. Yet, I really love the syntax colors it uses on one of its theme.

Please Pimp My JDeveloper!

I know I will never able to use the TextMate until I have a Mac, but I think I can have this colorful syntax as JDeveloper, like most other text editor, allows me to change its syntax color from the dull white background to something funky like this.

So what do you think about it? I know you want it…..

I want it!!! How?

Off course there is the hard way and the easy way.

First, let’s do it the hard way.

Steps:

1. Open your JDev, go to Tools > Preferences
2. On the left, expand the Code Editor tree and click on Syntax Color
3. There you go, custom the colors all you want there.

“Whaatt???? Are you kidding me? There are so many elements to custom!!
I don’t even know what the colors are?”

Oh yeah the colors, here you go..

“Dude, this is like a torture, I can spend my time for something better than this… Checking my facebook perhaps..”

I know you will said so, and that’s why I said that was the hard way. The easy way is to use the styles
that I already custom in my JDeveloper.

These are the steps for the easy way:

1. Download this file dtcache.xml
2. Close your JDev
3. JDev on Windows, locate this folder: [JDev installation folder]/jdev/system/oracle.ide.10.1.3.42.70 (*the numbers may differ. On Linux, locate this directory: /home/[username]/jdevhome/system/oracle.ide.10.1.3.42.70
4. Copy the dt-cache.xml you downloaded to the folder to replace your dt-cache.xml file (you might want to backup it first)
5. Open your JDev, go to Tools > Preferences
6. On the left, expand the Code Editor tree and click on Syntax Color
7. On the middle bottom, you’ll find Scheme dropdown menu
8. Choose the TextMate v0.6, then click OK
9. There you have it, JDev pimped with TextMate look

I know this won’t make the JDev runs more stable, but I guess this will make coding time more fun.

Ok, if you ever visit the company website of Bali Camp, you might have several questions in mind such as:
- Is this really an office?
- Where are the offices, I only see huts?
- I thought Bali is all beach, why it’s like all mountain and valley in the picture?
- Where in Bali is it located?

Unfortunately I cannot answer all the questions this time but the last one.

Bali Camp is located at the heart of the island of Bali. Specifically, it’s located in Desa Pacung, Kecamatan Baturiti, Kabupaten Tabanan, propinsi Bali.

How to get there?

From Denpasar take the main road going north to Singaraja, also known as the Jl. Raya Denpasar Singaraja. It takes more or less an hour from Denpasar to reach Baturiti, you will pass through many lush green rice fields and coconut trees as you leave the busy, fast moving life in Denpasar.

The beautiful office of Bali Camp is unseen from the main road so you have to pay attention to your left as you enter the Desa Pacung. As a guide, you are already near Bali Camp if you have encounter the Pacung Hotel and Restaurant (also known as Hotel Saranam). About 250m further you will see the Bali Camp office entrance as the Bali Camp sign written in a large stone welcomes you.

The mountainous area you see in the picture is located at a height of +876m with an everage temperature of 22 degrees centigrade. Cool enough to make anyone chill, especially in July and August, when temperature is at its lowest according to the locals.

A half hour ride further you will reach Bedugul with its famous Lake Beratan at +1401m.

If you have time to pass by, do so and you will understand why people awe when they come to the legendary Bali Camp office in Pacung.

Once again, the Bali Camp Pacung adresss is:

Jl. Raya Pacung No.32A
Baturiti, Tabanan
Bali 82191

Oh yeah, the huts and the hotel-like building are the offices..

Pastor Ginduk from Flickr by caB.jm’s photostream

I know that a position as Sabbath School group discussion leader is one of the unwanted position in some Adventist church. You got to come early and face a bunch of people who never study their Sabbath School lessons. Help!

Do it wrongly and you got a dull and boring SS discussion… And that was the case with my church youth SS group discussion few years ago.

I tried several ways on how to improve the live of our youth SS discussion. Some works, some don’t, but in the process I learned several things that I believe are essential to improve a SS group discussion.

In this post I want to share to you some of the things that work in my church.

1. Small is Beautiful (and Circle Formation is Advantageous)

When it comes to the size of SS discussion, I prefer a small size of 4-6 person. Why? Because it encourage everyone to speak.

Smaller size means that less number of eye contact and since what refrain most of the people to speak is fear of rejection, the small size becomes your advantage to make everyone speak.

For any new SS group leader I encourage you to try this as this also will build your confidence as you try to lead more and more number of people.

There are some cases where you cannot force this idea of small group discussion size, but you can have a list of question and divide the group to discuss the questions seperately.

If possible, also create the group discussion in a circle form. It will make everyone sees everyone and also encourage a live group discussion. I believe this is one of the critical factor for encouraging everyone to speak too.

Most of Sabbath School group discussion I know is setup similar to a class room where the SS group leader stands in front of several rows of pew. It’s not so hard to guess who do all the talking in this kind of setup.

2. Get Prepared

Preparation is what a SS group leader should do every week. As SS group leader you should read your Sabbath School lessons everyday, period. You cannot skim read the lessons on Friday night and hope everything will be allright the next morning. It doesn’t work that way.

Your group will easily notice whenever you lack of preparation. Those of you who have experience it, you know what I’m talking about.

3. Choose The Proper Weapons

If preparation guarantees you ready for the discussion, choosing the right materials guarantees you to have a great discussion. Although we believe in “Bible and Bible alone”, preparing with the right materials broaden your mind of what the lesson could lead to.

You can refer to my earlier post “Djitz Sabbath School Stack” to see my list of weapons before leading the SS discussion on Sabbath.

4. Pray

Pray in your heart before you read your Bible and SS lessons, and before you go to Church on Sabbath, and pray together before you start your SS group discussion. There is no such thing as too much prayer.

I learned my lesson when one of my youngest student in AY reminded me that we didn’t pray before we start the Pathfinder lesson.

(Wait a second, are we talking about AY or SS?)

The point is, you can forget anything in this tips but never forget to pray to God that He will lead you as you lead the discussion.

5. Ask Questions

SS group leader should not do all the talk, for it won’t be a discussion.
Besides your goal here is to make everyone thinks and talks (if possible) so go ahead, prepare some questions before you start the SS discussion and asks for everyone’s opinion appropriately.

SS lesson has some good questions you can easily ask. Most of the resources in my Sabbath School Stack will also give you some more good questions. You even may also ask some of your personal questions sometimes.

Here’s how I do the discussion:

First, I present the lesson title, have people read the texts and I explain briefly what the lesson of that particular day is all about.

Then I ask the group about the question that I have prepared in relation with the lesson.

Let the discussion flow from there, but keep it under the lesson context.

6. You Don’t Know Everything, Don’t Act As If You Do

Face it, nobody knows everything about Bible, not even your Pastor, so why should you act like you do?

Humbleness is one important characteristic for a SS discussion leader. However much resources you have read prior to the SS discussion you will never know all the questions that your group will ask.

Rather than trying to be the know it all, why not ask everyone’s opinion of the matter? You will be surprised on how much actually we can learn from everyone.

7. Smile

Don’t smile only to the cute girl (or guy) in the group, but smile generously to everyone in the group. People don’t go to church to see people frown, they go to church to feel how everyone is happy in the Sabbath day.

I believe Jesus must have smiled a lot during Sabbath when He was in this Earth.

I usually smile whenever I don’t know an answer. I smile whenever anyone try to tell me I’m dead wrong.

Control yourself and your words, don’t let emotion takes control when you lead a SS discussion. Keep smiling.

Conclusion

Believe me, becoming a Sabbath School group discussion leader is one of the most interesting responsibility in a church. When else you have the chance to talk and discuss about Bible with a group of people? You will also meet so many different types of people with their different understanding and perceptions.

Simply put, if you are one of the person who likes to meet different types of people, you’ll love it.

Moreover, a Sabbath School group discussion leader bears a heavy responsibility of leading the group to Jesus, the main reason of the Sabbath worship itself. Never take it for granted.

If you have some other tips that you can share here, please write them in the comment section.

God bless your Sabbath School discussion brothers and sisters!

Many people asked me questions of:
- how to start blogging,
- where I bought the .com address,
- how much I paid for it,
- where I hosted my blog,
- and all blogging related questions.

It’s not that I don’t want to answer them, but following the programmer’s main philosophy, “Don’t Repeat Yourself – DRY”, I decided to answer all of the questions here.

Be reminded that this is may not be a best blogging practice nor the only way to blog. I just want to share on how I blog and the tools I use.

Let’s rolll….

1. Blog Software

Blogging software maybe the most important tool a blogger need. Without this, I think there will be no blog. The blog software I chose is, you guess it, wordpress.

It’s a beautiful software that is being developed by open source community at a very fast speed, making it better and better on its releases.

It also has a lot of free plugins and templates, two other most important things that I really consider when choosing the software.

2. Domain name (.com, .org, etc)

So you want to get serious in blogging and want your name.com as the blog address. Having a domain name really makes your blog looks professional and sets you apart from other blogger who use their name.blogger.com or their name.wordpress.com.

Fortunately, buying a domain name is also as simple as it can be nowadays. First check the availability of the domain name you want. If it is still avaialable, go buy it immediately before someone else do.

You can buy domain name from pasarweb.com, kotahosting.com, or andalan.net for around Rp100,000 for one year. Don’t forget to extend the domain after it expires.

3. Hosting

Ofcourse when you decide to have your own domain name.com you need to have a hosting server to put your blog. Actually this part is quite the techie part compared to the two previous things to do.

Yet don’t worry, life has been very kind to us till now, and hosting your own blog is not expensive nowadays. In fact, djitz.com is hosted in a free hosting server, courtesy of 000webhost.com.

So far I recommended 000webhost.com to everyone who ask me about what is the best hosting server. It has cPanel just as all other paid hosting server has, and it has Wordpress as part of its fantastico wizard install. Trust me, this saves you great deal of time installing wordpress if you are a newbie.

Keep in mind to regularly backup your blog website and database however. Because 000webhost.com is a free hosting server, I don’t think you can complain much whenever their server gets into trouble, something that actually happened only once so far during my one year hosting term there.

It All Ends Here..

So yeah, those are the three most frequently asked questions about starting to blog like me. If you are totally new to blogging, I recommend you to at least try blogging in wordpress.com before setting up blog with your own name.com. At least get familiar with the software Wordpress, that I believe is the gold standard software for blogging.

Happy blogging fellas!

cause you got no choice..

productivity with crashes

JDev consumes RAMs

To everyone, please be aware that the tampering is only a joke, and it’s really a good one that make me smile everytime I run my JDeveloper 10.

To create your own version of splash screen, just edit the file splash.gif in jdev/bin directory inside the extracted JDeveloper directory.