Every year since 1988 young Europeans have been able to have the summer of their lives. All the unforgettable experiences, positive emotions, gained skills, amazing memories and discovered places are possible because of Summer University project, the oldest and probably the brightest project of AEGEE.
This time it is also more possible than ever, so we decided to gather some pieces of advice for you to have the Summer of Your life.
1- Become an AEGEEan. It may sound too obvious, especially for oldies, but this is a fact! Not only because AEGEE is exactly the place where magic (read=what you need in your life right now) happens, but because without the login and password of AEGEE Intranet system you cannot log in to the official website of the project.
2- Go to the official website and check it out, focus on the available destinations for this appealing SUmmer. Here is the link to the list of SUs, but apart from that there is a lot of useful information like discovering the application procedure and general F.A.Q.. Choose the Summer University of your dreams! You just need to listen to yourself and also to play around with the website. It is possible to use different filters – therefore you can sort SUs by topics, dates, prices, type of SU and search by literally everything! So if you come from Italy and you are tired of beaches, interested in countries of vikings, have exams in June and plan to attend the concert of your favorite band in the beginning of August, then your best choice would be SU “Searching for the Nordic Smile”. I searched it “by anything” – it is shown on screen. 
After trying out various search options you should find quite some SUs of your interest. Mark them as favorites for easier observation – you just need to be logged in as it is shown on the screen. You can also browse them as kind of the tiles with pictures or in the table.
3- Prove that you are special – this is essential in writing your motivation. Write something that will attract your best organisers – it needs to be quite relevant to the topic, show your personality and be catchy. Use something which suits you best – write a letter, make a video or photo collage, prepare presentation or use infographic services. You may sing a song or write a diary of how you have been already preparing to the SU all this time. You may tell a personal story or just express your genuine interest to go to this SU. There are no limits to your creativity: we believe you will SUcceed!
4- Apply! Be sure you do it a couple of days before the deadline – it would be very sad to deal with problems of the server, which might not get your application in case of too many people applying. You have to choose from up to three Summer Universities in order of preference and write separate motivation letter for each. If you select only one SU, your motivation letter will go directly to this SU in the preselection stage and it doesn’t matter if this SU has received 30 or 300 applications. On the other hand, if you have selected more than one SU in order of preference, your motivation letter will go to the SU where you will have more chances to get chosen.
5- Check if you need a visa. An essential step to traveling somewhere is visa. Most EU citizens don’t need visas to most countries, however, there are some exceptions as well. This is a very responsible step, arranging documents on time to avoid disappointment.
6- Wait for preselection results – 4th of May the latest. The preselection process will be made automatically by a computer (no human intervention! don’t ask us!) upon the following criteria to make a balanced SU: gender, age, nationality and antenna.
7- Wait for the selection results – 15th of May the latest. You will get a letter to the mail address indicated in your application, don’t forget to check it regularly!
8- Communicate with your best organisers about further steps of having the Summer of Your Life or wait for an Open Call. This year, in case they appear, they will be opened to everyone, so even if you forgot to apply before the deadline or joined AEGEE afterwards, you still have some chances. Although, you must be ready that your dream-SU will be already full, which also doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to enjoy and be amazed – sometimes destiny knows better what we need!
9- Plan your way to and from SU… or don’t do it. As a person, who required visa on my first adorable SU I had return tickets and was happy with this confidence (I was also lucky to buy them with 50% discount which also shows how good is to plan in advance). But a couple of days before the end of the SU my awesome friend from AEGEE-Eindhoven invited me to go to Florence together, saying that she didn’t have return tickets back home. It amazed me so much, of course I easily got excited about this potentially best ending of the SU ever, but for me it was difficult to manage the way back home. So she hitchhiked to Budapest and she went to Sziget festival.
10- Get ready for the SU according to the organisers’ instructions: look at what to take, what not to take, be sure you have amazing outfits for every party and something to proudly represent the country you come from during European night!
11- Enjoy your SU, people, atmosphere, places and workshops! Don’t be critical and remember that everything depends on you, your mood and attitude. Everything is arranged by young Europeans for young Europeans, so accept some small mistakes and just feel lucky to be a participant of your SU!
12- Get back home and remember this amazing trip forever! Don’t forget to fill in evaluations and share your excitement with everyone.
13- Bonus point – come to Autumn Agora Chişinău in October – the place for the biggest reunion and AEGEE-spirit!
14- Plan the next SUmmer of your life!
As it is said in our official video made by Ralitsa Mikhaylova, if you need a little push – find your SU and apply on aegee.org/su till 25th of April!
Written by Yevgeniya Gagarkina, PR responsible of SUCT 2015-2016