For applicants

Hi dear applicant!

This part of the website is just for you, so you do not have to write to us about each of your many questions. In these sections, you will find the most frequently asked questions. If your question is not here, do not hesitate to write to us at the e-mail address below.

Communication

This year, as before, the primary communication with us is conducted on two channels – a website with a log-in portal used for the passive exchange of information and mail discover@discover.sk used for active communication. You will find most of what you need or want to find out in these two places.

We know that no one will ask this question, but it is still essential. To better respond to your questions, we need to know what they are about from the beginning to divide them among ourselves. Besides, according to the individual categories’ frequency, we can determine whether it is necessary to clearly state some information.

What subject should I use for such and other questions?

Your subject does not have to consist only of a keyword, there may also be a supplement, but the basis is just that keyword.

For all questions regarding the application, session and changes, state “Academy” in the subject line of the e-mail.

  • Application assistance, evaluation, application deadlines and ambiguities
  • Arrivals and departures, courses, accommodation, transport, etc.
  • Examples
    • I do not understand the question in the application
    • Request to change personal information after submitting the application
    • Can I arrive later for the session? 

For all payment questions, please include “Payment” in the subject line of the e-mail.

  • Payment, cross-border payment system, maturity, etc.
  • E.g. my payment to be refunded, what should I do.

For all urgent questions regarding anything (even if it happens to be from the categories above), state “Urgent” in the subject line.

  • Application errors, delays, etc.
  • E.g. I forgot to pay on time, what should I do?

For all other questions regarding anything, state “Academy” in the subject line as well.

Nothing will happen, but it will take us longer to process your e-mail. You add a little work to us, because if the e-mail is not automatically sorted by subject, we have to do it manually. In the first e-mail, we receive from you (which will not follow our policy), we will remind you to follow our system.

Login

The key is to realise that this is nothing to be ashamed of. Try going through the web sections FAQ, For registered users, Application or write to someone you know from Discover, they will surely be happy to help you. If these options do not work, do not hesitate to write to us at discover@discover.sk, state “Academy” in the subject, and we will help you as much as we can.

Once the application has been successfully submitted, we will first check for missing information. Then we move it to evaluation. Two evaluators evaluate each application and assess only three questions in the second part. We consider applications anonymously. You will always find out the Decision on your application on the 15th day of the month after the application deadline (if you apply in February, you must wait until mid-March). 

The evaluators have the task of evaluating each question separately and do so independently of each other. As all questions are focused on you, the primary emphasis is placed on the ability to clarify your thoughts in written form and also on the ability to know how to define expectations or motivation in the first two cases. Therefore, our recommendation is simple – your answer should be honest and reasonably long. Abbreviation or breakdown takes away from the first aspect.

 

In Turnus D’s case (the international one), language skills are also assessed, so we recommend answering to such an extent that these skills can be demonstrated.

Finally, we want to point out that you don’t have to worry that your expectations don’t cover the whole of Discover. It is clear that we all see Discover differently, and the evaluators will take these views into account but not evaluate them. We want to meet you.

The international session is traditionally oversubcribed, and thus we give priority to some applicants based on:

  • nationality (ie. international students cannot attend any other session and our goal is 50% international students and 50% Czechs and Slovaks),
  • application scores (applications are graded anonymously),
  • whether the applicant has attended Discover and the international session before,
  • student’s motivation.

We also aim not to have too many students from one school, one city and give opportunities to students from state schools rather than private schools. 

No, we don’t evaluate the time of the submission within a month. On the other hand, it may happen that even if you have the best application possible, but you send it late, you will not get to your preferred session. People are selected for the session every month, and once we notify them that they will be part of the session, only they can change this fact (by not paying, moving to the secondary session etc.). Thus, the only important thing is to apply in the soonest application round possible – there are 4 of them.

You will get on a Wait list if your application is successful, but the session is full. The waiting list works by waiting for someone from the session to cancel/transfer(only Czech and Slovak students). In this case, you will take his/her place if you were the first in the Waiting list.Nevertheless, we do recommend rather choosing a session that is not full rather than adding yourself on the waitlist – only rarely people drop out and a spot will free for you. 

Note: The waiting list works dynamically. This means that once you have been in the first place, it may happen that someone will overtake you. This is because his/her application has a higher rating. Don’t worry, the time character is taken into account in this case, and if, for example, you are waiting from February, someone from May will hardly overtake you in it.

Unfortunately not, but if your application was not successful, you could try to apply again in the next application deadline. This also applies if we have accepted you but are listed on the Waiting list. For example, if you fail to be accepted in February, you can try again in March, April and May.

Warning: Evaluators will not know that you have to report more than once, so the evaluation will not be affected by this fact.

We are sorry that we were unable to answer your question. Write to us at discover@discover.sk and state “Academy” in the subject of the e-mail, and we will answer it as soon as possible.

Payments

When you send your application, you are not yet a participant, so we do not need payment from you. Payment information will be sent to you together with the Decision on your application in the e-mail, and you will also find it in your Log-in portal.

Payment instructions are sent together with the Decision on your application, which means on the 15th day of the month after the end of the application round. Unless otherwise stated, you then have time to pay until the end of the month. You will only find out whether your payment has arrived in the first half of the following month via the Log-In portal.

Example: Janka signed up in March. She is well aware that we will send her the Decision on her application in mid-April; therefore, she will wait. As soon as the Decision on her application is received on 15 April and Janka is accepted, she has time to send the payment to the given account until the end of April. Janka will send it the next day, but it doesn’t matter because the payments are not processed until the next month, in this case, in May. Janka knows this because she has read the FAQ and the For Registered section. Around mid-May, she will receive a notification on the Log-in portal that her payment has been paid; she will not receive any e-mail. If she did not send her payment or we did not register it yet, she would receive an email asking her to pay by the end of May. Otherwise, her application would be cancelled.

Please note: As a Student Care Team, we do not have access to the account, but we receive a list of payments received once a month. Therefore, if you want to find out if we are registering your payment, you must wait until the middle of the next month. We also cannot approve your payment based on the Payment Confirmation or your Account Statement. If your situation is urgent, we can try to find out this information sooner.

If you find out you cannot pay on time, let us know. If you forget to send the payment, do the same thing as we will never assume it.

If we do not receive payment from you on time and/or you will not inform us or ask us about re-scheduling your payment, your application will be declined and you will be unable to apply again.

You will find out the decision about your fee in the Decision on your application, and it will also contain information on the amount.

It is clear to us that a lot can change in those weeks. Therefore, first of all, we ask you to take into account that you will probably pay for Discover next month (at the time of writing the application). If your calculations fail, do not hesitate to write to us at discover@discover.sk and enter “Payment” in the subject line. We will attend to you as soon as possible.

Account number: 2665455121/1100 (Tatra banka)

Title: Slovak Debate Association

Address: Štúrova 3, 811 02 Bratislava, Slovak Republic

Bank branch address: Hodžovo námestie 3, 811 06 Bratislava

SWIFT (BIC): TATRSKBX

IBAN: SK40 1100 0000 0026 6545 5121

Message for recipient: “Discover 2022 Surname of the participant.”

Variable symbol: YYMMDD (participant’s date of birth)

Constant symbol: omit or 558

Bank charges: paid by the payer

You send the payment only after the approval of the application!

You must send the payment with a message to the recipient in the form of “Discover 2022 surname” (i.e. your surname). Otherwise, we may not register the fee has been paid or not.

We are sorry that we were unable to answer your question. Write to us at discover@discover.sk and state “Payment” in the email’s subject line, and we will answer it for you as soon as possible.

Changes

Yes! You can freely change your courses until the end of May as much as you want. It doesn’t matter that you talked about the other two in the application, you won’t have to add or write anything, you just need to exchange them in the Log-in portal. In case you have decided to exchange your course after May, you will have to write to us at discover@discover.sk and state in the subject “Academy” and state for which you would like to exchange them. However, we are afraid that we will not be able to do anything here after the end of June because then we have already finished the final division of students into individual courses.

We are very sorry about that. You have several options: if your problem is the financial situation, do not hesitate to write to us later with a request to reduce the fee, we will do what we can. If even that doesn’t help and you still need to cancel your participation, write to us at discover@discover.sk and introduce “Academy” to the subject.

We return the participation fee (if you have already paid) according to the date of cancellation of participation: until 31th of May 100%, one month before the session starts 50%, no less than five days before the start of the session 25% of its amount.

We are sorry that we were unable to answer your question. Write to us at discover@discover.sk and state “Academy” in the email’s subject line, and we will answer it for you as soon as possible.

Discover Summer Academy

All information about this section will be updated on an ongoing basis, as it would not be complete at this time. Therefore, watch this page regularly!

If you have any questions now, do not hesitate to write to us at discover@discover.sk and state “LAD” in the subject.

  • Arrivals and departures
  • Transport to Discover
  • What to bring
  • Registration form and other forms
  • Contact the coordinators