Monbukagakusho Scholarship for Postgraduate!!

Hello...

After not signing in for quite a long time ..., I wish to congratulate all of you who got the embassy recommendation, especially to my friend, Nall-ohki ...

to cravy:
1) no, there are a few who actually enter directly, but if this the case, usually your professor will ask you to come earlier at your expenses to do the entrance examination ...
2) -
3) you should write something because this will show that you have done your research on japanese universities.. but as a word of caution, if you do not know why you choose tokyo/kyoto uni, and merely write this down because of your preference in high ranking universities, you might encounter some difficult questions in your interview...
4) I have not looked through this year application, so I don't know.. But I think copy n paste will not give a good impression of you in the eyes of the committee... I suggest at minimum, you shoud re-prase some of the content. A whole new different text would be better though ..
5) If you have no basic japanese language skills, I would suggest "research student".., that way, you will have more time to prepare yourself for real academic life in Japan...
6) do not worry about this... once you get the scholarship, and perform well academically.. your scholarship is secured until you finished research student and masteral/doctoral term

ok, goodluck to all of you... be patient and persistent at the same time!!!
 
Cravy,
As a research student, you are just doing research and not getting a degree for it. Mast/doc, you are an official graduate student trying to get a degree.

1. I heard, you can actually apply directly to graduate school and aim for a masters instead of being a research student first. But it is rarely done. Perhaps because most graduate schools require you to take entrance exams AT the university, which is a hassle if you dont live in japan. I think most people apply as research students first and apply for graduate school while they are in japan with the scholarship.

2. Whats an honors degree? I think, you can only apply for the Doctoral only if you have obtained a masters.

3. If you do not have a potential supervisor yet, it is okay to leave this blank. However, Im sure that providing a potential supervisor will give you a better "image" but it isnt necessary.

4. Is this the descriptive Field and study form? I think, in the application, you write briefly about it. And in this form, you write a very detail layout or plan on how you plan to approach your desired research.

5. If you want to enter as a research student, select research student. If you want to enter directly as a graduate student, select masters. etc.

6. After being under the scholarship as a research student, you can apply to extend your scholarship as a graduate student. I think most people approach graduate school this way.

FYI, I am apply in an american embassy. Our application process is a bit different from malaysia i think. We turn in a large application package first (application, study plan, medical certificate, transcript, graduation certificate, recommendation, Graduation thesis, etc.) then do the test and interview.
 
Thanks menrui and ilus, all of u r very helpful.
Need to start filling up the forms now. Still got many things dunno how to fill in. Hope that all of u will visit this forum frequently.

I just got a new job recently, so very busy everyday and seldom online. Really hope that I can finish all the thing in a week.

Thanks again.
 
To cravy,

In Japanese graduate schools, you are not allowed to skip masters before you do your doctors, even if you got a first class honour.

Most of the students will have to go through entrance examination and interview, before being accepted by the graduate school. In this case, I will suggest you to be a research student first, so that, if you are taking the April entrance, you might have 2 chances of taking up the entrance examination, for September/October, you will only have a chance.

I am not sure how will the MEXT scholarship do, supposing you are choosing to be a graduate student directly. Because almost all of the classes and 'semi's are conducted in Japanese, rather than English, I will suggest you to be a research student first. Plus, while you are in your 6 months Japanese course, you may be free to go for your researches in your graduate school. Once you are admitted into the graduate school, you can continue your research work.

I heard to qualified as Masters, in Engineering particularly, you will have to submit a certain number of papers before that. You might want to consider doing that during the time as a research student. Although being said that a masters will take up two years, you might need some time for your papers to be published. While it is not published, you are not considered as a master student. Same thing goes with the doctorate course.

Good luck to you!
 
ilus said:
Hello...
After not signing in for quite a long time ..., I wish to congratulate all of you who got the embassy recommendation, especially to my friend, Nall-ohki ...
Click to expand...

Hey ilus, you really haven't be around for a while, have you? Not that I should talk - I'm kind of a lurker myself.

Anyway, thanks for the congratulations, and I want to reiterate it with a big congratulations to everyone who got the recommendation.

To those who didn't make it this time - if you really want it, work hard and try again next year. I was where you are one year ago.
 
Filling in the application forms including study plan by writing?

Hi All,
I just found out about this forum and you guys have been posting some really helpful feedback. Thank you. I have a few questions regarding filling out the forms though. There are quite a number of them (feeling dizzy)--is everyone using a pen to write in or is there someone out there who actually know of a way to type / print in the fields? In my opinion, especially for the study plan section, it will be a lot easier for the review board members to read if it's typed/printed. What do you guys think? Also, when it mentions " photocopies", does it mean we need CERTIFIED copies for our degree certs?Many thanks to y'all in advance.:-)
 
^ i would definitely suggest you "type" as much as possible. Easier to read and looks more professional. My embassy supplied the forms as a 'word' file so I could type in it. If you have a PDF, you could use a simple PDF reader(like FoxIt Reader 2.3, use the typewriting tool) to add text to it. For the study plan section, you can type on the form or type it in 'words' and just attach it to the form.

Im assuming that you are just talking about the degree certificate? When I did my application, I had to turn in 1original, and 2copies. Obviously, im not going to give them my diploma. The guideline states:

"Note 5: The graduation certificate and the degree certificate obtained from the last university attended may be substituted for by a photocopy thereof provided that the copy is attested by the authorized person of the university. "

Going back to my university and getting someone to copy it would be a big hassle, so I gave my embassy a call. He said 3 photocopies is fine, and i just assumed i didnt need to certified it. So I turned in 3 photocopies.

In any case, please check with your embassy, or maybe someone else from malaysia has an answer for this.
 
Hi Menrui,

Yea, that's what I thought I'd do (typing) if the embassy had provided soft copies for download via the web. But in Malaysia, for those shortlisted for the interview round, we're all given hard copies. So that makes it a little tougher to go for the "typing" option DIRECTLY onto those pages since it's stated clearly on the letter that no amendment of the format of the form is allowed. Thanks for sharing your own experience though, really appreciate your fast response =D
 
hye everyone. hv been following this forum quite a while but this is my first time posting. hehe :p

JapanDream.. check page 21 of this forum. clockworkorange post something bout filling out the form. n yes, it wud be better if the embassy gave us the soft copy of the form instead of a hardcopy.
anyway, good luck! 👍
 
Hey guys,

To JapanDream,

I filled mine up using black ink. Of course, typing would be neater but i think they're reasonable ppl. so long as its neat, i think they'll accept it. After all, its really the content that matters rite?

Having said that, i agree with you about the study program section. what i'm thinking about doing is to write whatever i can on the form itself and type up the rest on extra sheets of paper. What do u guys think? Better yet, what are u guys planning to do with ur own application forms?

Question 2: Did anyone of u go to university to do ur degree directly after ur SPM? I remember during the test, Ms. Goh said that lower secondary would be SPM and upper secondary would be STPM or its equivalent. I did not take STPM or anything, i did my degree straightaway. So i don't know what to fill in for my upper secondary. Anyone who knows what to do?

Question 3: If anyone could help me, i'd like some guidance on how to fill in the form when it comes to our preferred universities. I do know which univerisity would be suitable for my research but i haven contacted the professor yet. I would actually prefer to do it after i pass the interview (i hope i do). Do i write down the name of the university neway? Or is it more advisable to leave the entire section blank?

Thanks for all the help. I need it!!!
 
^ my handwriting looks like chicken scratch.

I had a soft copy, so i just typed it on the form and attached any extra pages. Not to be rude, but I'm going to have to give a big NO to writing it and then typing it. Seriously, please don't do that haha. Type it all, or write it all. Typing would probably be the best idea since they will be reading alot.

#2 what is SPM? is that a malaysian thing?

#3 Letting the embassy know that you have put some consideration into which university and professor you want to study under is a plus+, of course. But, from what Ilus said above, they might ask you questions relating to your university or professor of choice. So, I probably wouldn't fill this out if you havent done some research and are not prepared to answer the question
 
Haha..no offense taken. I agree with you but I considered typing the extra sheets coz i've already filled up the form and well....my writing sucks.

Yup, SPM is a malaysian thing. Kinda equivalent to O-levels. STPM is equivalent to A-levels. I didn't take any A-levels or STPM. Right after my SPM i got into a university and just did one year of a preparatory course and then after that, did my degree. The preparatory course doesn't have any certificate. It just meant I took longer to finish my degree. Instead of the normal 4 years, i took 5 (1 year preparatory + 4 years degree).

Well, the thing is I do know why i wan to study there. It has the facilities. I'm a bit reluctant to email the professor though before i actually get the embassy recommendation. I can't help thinking that if the professor does reply my email and then i DUN get the embassy recommendation, he would have wasted his time. And if i dun get it this year, I plan to try again next year. Doesn't seem like a good idea to piss a professor off when u know u might contact him the next time.

And if this seems like a lot of negative thinking, well...I've always been the glass is half empty sorta person. :P Can't help it!!
 
Hello USM-ers,
I don;t if this is too late but about the transcripts thingy,
all you have to do is submit your Semgred as Kouki suggested.
That's what I did last year...
I went through all the trouble to get my Cangred and something else, I forgot what, (which was only in BM) translated and certified and I ended up wasting 30 minutes tearing them away before the interview because apparently they weren't needed...
You can still provide them with the latest results after you get your transcript.
Then again, you an always slrify with the embassy...

Anyways, good luck (^_^)
 
Hi kishimen,

May i know what sort of questions they usually ask?

And if u already contacted the relevant professors and filled the form with ur chosen universities when u went for interview?

Thanks for the help!!!
 
Wat should we fill in the 'prefer university' n professor section?
I only able to identify one potential supervisor but haven't contact him yet.
Can we juz put Uni tokyo, kyoto, and osaka......?

Should we use black or blue ink to fill in the form?

How should we type in the application form? anyone got an idea?
 
^ It is not necessary to to fill this section. If you have identified a potential supervisor but havent contacted him, assuming my application is the same as yours, you can circle "not yet acquired" under the 'acceptance' column. And then you need an excuse to write in the blank. A lot of universities require you to get the preliminary acceptance from MEXT before even attempting to apply so i thought this section was kind of weird. I wrote some thing like "MEXT preliminary acceptance is required before applying".

Hmmm, i wouldnt just write down the university name. you want to show them that you put some thought into it and writing down the name of a prestigious doesnt really show much. I myself, only researched 3 professor, without contacting them, and wrote them as potential supervisor. Again, they might ask you questions about your univ. and professor, so dont blindly write one down.

Black ink! OMG! Im freaking out!

How should you type? Umm, use a basic font(arial, new times roman, etc, 12pt). You probably have a hardcopy like every one else. If you do, just write neatly as you can. But for the study plan form, I would definitely type it.
 
clockworkorange said:
Hi kishimen,
May i know what sort of questions they usually ask?
And if u already contacted the relevant professors and filled the form with ur chosen universities when u went for interview?
Thanks for the help!!!
Click to expand...
Hi Clockworkorange,
Well, for me they asked my about my study plan and research topic because if you've seen my previous posts wayyyy back, I'm doing translation studies which a rare subject to pursue in Japan so they were asking me a lot about the feasibility and impact of the stuff I proposed to do.
I think they really just want to see you speak up because I understand that you can change topics after discussing with your supervisor there.
And again because mine is a rare field of study, I didn't manage to get any professors who were willing to supervise me:(
So I left it to Monbusho to select the uni and a supervisor for me 😌
P/S: Cravy, I think black pen is best :-)
 
Thanks kishimen, for ur help.

I'm nervous about the interview.

I identified only one university so far and one potential supervisor...i couldn't decide whether to include them in the application or not.

Another thing which i'm worried about is the thesis abstract which we're supposed to include. It says in the guidelines that they need 1 original and 4 copies. I only have my final year research project paper. What is an original exactly? Does it mean i print out my abstract and get my supervising lecturer to sign or something?

Thanks to anyone replying!!
 
hye everyone~

clockworkorange, ive asked miss Yin about the original copyof the abstract thesis and she said what we should do is print out the abstract n ask the supervising lecturer to sign it.
she also said to be careful when writing the university that u want to study because as menrui said, they might ask some questions about the universities and professors.

now my concern is that i will only start working 2 days befor the interview so should i write my current status as employed or unemployed? if i write it as employed they might ask questions about my job but by then, i'll be working for just 2 days n im afraid that i will have problems answering. well, my brother suggest me to put a date before i start working as the 'date of application". anyone can help me with this?
another thing, wat is the question for number 19 in the application form?
its written in nihonggo so i cant understad it. hehe..
thanks for the help people~
 
^ oh crap, I never thought of it that way! I just printed out my abstract and turned it in. Now I am a bit worried. But it doesnt say anywhere on the guidelines to have it certified...

Question #19 ask if you posses or have japanese nationality. I assume it meant if i have any japanese ancestry and such.
 
*on pins & needles*

Well, kinda. I wanted an email this morning saying "We got your proposal and we shite our pants. Can you fly in tomorrow?!" to brighten my day, but alas...

(They do send out emails for the interview, right?)
 
I will use black ballpen. Japanese are particular about this, according to my lecturer. Furthermore, the writing will be clearer if you are photocopying that.
 
Hi there,
this forum really helps! i'm confused about the application form . would someone please help me with this confusion?
1. for the aplication attachment, the field of study in japan and detailed field of study in japan, the space is so small. i wonder what should we write ? aren't we going to write it on the study program?
2. the space for field of specialization studied in the past is so small. should i just write the course i took. and that's all?

I've sent email to a japanese prof a few days ago... seemed like he is not going to reply me... this is tough... ganbate!
 
^#1. I think for the field of study on the application form, you could write like, the major or department that best suits your research. For me, i just wrote down "synthetic organic chemisty", simple as that. For detailed field of study. I summed up my research plan in 2 sentences. I just stated "what" im going to do, leaving out the how and why.

#2. I had a problem with this too. I'll just state what i did for this. I didnt want to just down my major, biochemistry, because maybe the reader wont know what biochemistry is or what type of courses i take within this major. So I briefly wrote down the types of classes that I've taken(biology, chemistry, physics, biochemistry). I also included that my major requires a handful of laboratory classes, which i think is a plus in for this scholarship.

Prof didnt email you back? Trust me, this is VERY common, so keep trying.
 

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