I am a high school student who has just graduated from a top high school in my country (I’m from Asia). I am also the only student applying to Kyoto iUP through my high school recommendation.
Let me explain the phrase “high school recommendation”. In early August, our high school announced that they would make a list of students who have just graduated/are expected to graduate, having excellent achievements in both academic life and extracurricular activities. The deadline for the list was August 12.
After the deadline of about four days (I don’t know whether my school did any additional screening or something like that), a teacher, who is in charge of contacting Kyodai, gave me a message. She said that I was the only student in my school that she sent information & profile to Kyodai. I have wondered if there was anything special about this kind of “high school recommendation”, because this year is the first time I know about this kind of application. When I asked her, she answered, “This is our school’s **privilege** to recommend our students for Kyoto iUP.” There was a word in my native language, which was the one she used with the word “privilege”, that I can’t find an exact English translation of; however, it’s sort of “a privilege to recommend students for Kyoto iUP without screening procedures.”
As I said at first, my school is one of the best high schools in my country; Kyodai even does PR in our school. However, when I looked for more information, I just found what they’ve written on their Japanese website:
優秀な留学生を積極的に獲得するため、世界各国のトップ高校をメインに広報・リクルート活動を展開しています。これらの高校から優秀な学生が毎年入学する質保証を伴うリクルート・選抜の仕組みを構築することを目指しています。
As far as I know, until 2021, Kyodai had just done PR things (広報) at several top high schools all around the world, but リクルート活動 (recruitment activity) at those schools seems to be the first time in 2022. I wonder whether you have heard or known about this kind of “high school recommendation”? If you have, please let me know! Thank you so much!