Monbukagakusho Scholarship for Postgraduate!!

[jim84]

My chosen Prof. informed me that a LOA was sent to me end of last week. It hasn't reached me yet (feels like its taking forever..). And the Embassy has informed me that they are posting my application forms to Japan today. They assured me that I need not worry because they can send the LOA to Japan on its own as soon as I receive it - but I am worried. I have every reason to worry, don't I?

If they say you don't have to worry then you don't have to.
It took about 10 days for postage to reach me last time. It may take longer to Malawi as it's further than M'sia from Japan i guess.

Hajime mashite
Minna san Douzo Yoroshiku.
I'm a newcomer from Indonesia and I am a candidate for MEXT Research Student 2010. I already got LOA from Nagoya Univ (Graduate School of Economics) and Kobe Univ.(Graduate Scholl of Business and Administration).
Waiting for your sharing. Thanks =)

Nothing to share. Just send them in and wait for the official letter next Feb.
There are tonnes of Indonesian students all around Japan, the same should apply to Kobe and Nagoya as well. Usually you guys will form your own Indonesian groups so your senpai will take good care of you. Needless to worry.

 

[gilmwa]

Ooilingfan
If it took ten days for postage to reach you then I was unjustified to worry. It has only been 6 days since the LOA was supposedly sent to me, hence I really have no reason to worry. Besides, I think its best not to assume that I will be confirmed by MEXT anyway (although menrui wrote somewhere that there is a 98% chance of confirmation).

 

[NeoXtremeX]

Congrats to wulanrahmadhany and gilmwa!

I just got accepted to Tohoku University myself. I am also waiting for replies from Keio, Waseda, Hitotsubashi, Handai and Meidai (nagoya univ). All in the economics department, so I hope I get to see you there gilmwa!

I want to thank everybody for their advice and consideration! You the best!

EDIT: I just got accepted to Osaka University (Handai). I want to scream in exciment!!!... but its night so I can't lol.

 

[gilmwa]

Congrats to you NeoXtremeX. Isn't it going to be a tough choice between Osaka and Tohoku? I am hoping to go to Gifu University (chemical engineering).

 

[menrui]

osaka horah~~~

anyways, if i were you, i would stop at 2 LoA. No more than 3. You will have to write apology letters and such. The profs, all of them, probably think you will definitely attend their university...

 

[ekoy]

CONGRATULATIONS to gilmwa and wulanrahmadhany!

I just got accepted into Osaka as well! Now, I'll have to decide between Kyushu and Osaka... *cries*

By the way, has anyone here thought of signing themselves into any Japanese Language courses in your home country? Well, at the very least, we do need some Japanese Language skills to maneuver around Japan on the first day ne?

To the Malaysian senpai(s) in Japan, it's almost Merdeka day - so Happy Merdeka!

 

[NeoXtremeX]

Euhm, I applied to 4 more universities. I thought it was like the american system where you applied to many schools, got into some, and then picked the best. The embassy recommended that, so that I had options.

What do you guys say?

To Ekoy: Yes I have! I even wrote in my study plan in my application hehe!

 

[jitney]

Euhm, I applied to 4 more universities. I thought it was like the american system where you applied to many schools, got into some, and then picked the best. The embassy recommended that, so that I had options.

What do you guys say?

To Ekoy: Yes I have! I even wrote in my study plan in my application hehe!

To NeoXtremeX:

How many schools and professors did you contact before you got your LoA?

I have contacted 3 schools and 7 professors so far and have only gotten 3 rejections from profs who say they can't take in anymore students.

 

[NeoXtremeX]

Hmm, let's see. I contacted 7 schools and over 30 professors. I have gotten 2 official Letter of Acceptance from Handai and tohokudai, which I seriously didn't expect, and a verbal letter of acceptance from Hiroshima University.

The reason I tried to contact so many professors was because a lot of economics professors do research on what I like. Furthermore, as time went by and i didn't get ANY response at all from my 3 original choices, I grew DESPERATE and expanded my search to other universities. In the end, I just applied through the center of international students/education for my 3 original choices. That was about a week ago and I am still waiting for a response from those. Finally, I guess I'd rather have an option of where to go rather than have mext pick for me. I dread the thought of being sent to hokkaido or to kyushu,.. no offense meant to those going though.

I guess that if i actually get accepted to more universities I'll have to write quite a few apology letters. I feel bad about it already.

I hope this was helpful.

 

[wenti07]

URGENT - Monbukagakusho Pledge to the Minister, 2006 and 2007

HEY! VERY URGENT: does anybody out there have the PLEDGE to the minister that we have to sign when we accept the monbukagakusho scholarship? I need the ones from 2006 and 2007. If anybody has a copy, could you please, please let me know? It's really urgent. Thanks so much!!!!

 

[jitney]

How is everyone doing in their quest of obtaining a Letter of Acceptance (LoA)?

So far its been harder that I thought. I have only gotten rejections from professors who say that their labs are all full and they have no more capacity to supervise anymore applicants.

For those who did manage to get a LoA, how did you find your professors?

Did you try to find profs whose labs had international students or had an English version of the lab's homepage?

 

[arap]

Hi all
It's been a while for me to visit this thread,
@jitney
For finding Professor, I used

http://read.jst.go.jp/index_e.html

sites and try searching based on my research theme, it will then list all of the names of Professors which after that I try to track them by putting their name on google and usually will take me to their respective Lab and their email to contact them...and voila !!!
well it does seem complicated but it works fine with me.

BTW It's not like I had no problem with my LoA, I had problem with one of my Professor due to misunderstanding, I don't know why but my Professor misunderstand me to apply as Phd student while I want to apply for master degree.

I had wrote e-mail to correct this but until now he didn't reply yet...I can only hope he doesn't get disappointed with this

 

[dalmatian]

heey

Ajay:


I'm going into bioengineering (I have an "Engineering for the Life Sciences" MEng) and I started writing to profs around the end of May. BUT I would recommend starting a little earlier - some of the professors I contacted suggested alternatives for funding so if you want to explore those, start early. Also.. sounds harsh but don't be discouraged from 'shopping around'. Look up the profs, read their papers. Spend time on it.. it's 2(+) years of your life!!

It's the blood tests that are killing me financially £100 for the chest xray, £200 for the blood tests.. and probs £85 for the medical >< that's like.. $650 USD? thats a lotta moolah for someone used to public health care T_T

Dalmatian:


thanks~ ^^ and good luck with yours! i'm sure you'll get in. I am getting a certificate of acceptance (it's in the post) from the school of engineering. They didn't mention anything about a meeting :s and they were pretty quick - I guess it depends on the faculty, and maybe how speedy your prof is with paperwork. Do you know when that meeting is? Let me know what the result is - maybe I'll be seeing you there?!

i'm gonna go off and sulk some more about the price of blood tests..
mwahz xx

hi ellefruit,

The result is out today. I am in ^^ Now I have to wait for the mail delivery of the certificate of acceptance. But actually, on the attachment form I put Todai as my 3rd University o__O I am wondering, will it matter for the final placement?

 

[dalmatian]

hi arap,
I hope everything will be fine. I think he will not be disappointed regarding the misunderstanding on the degree.

Actually when I tried to translate one of my LoA (I ask friend who understands Japanese), there is also misunderstanding because it is written that I've done similar research as I submitted to monbukagakusho o__O (I sent my CV, but never said that I've done similar research).

 

[arap]

Hi dalmatian,

It's been a while since the last time we talked, Congratulation for the acceptance in Todai and thank you for your concern regarding my problem.

Actually I already received the reply from my Professor and he said he don't mind it which greatly put my mind on a relief.

Anyway how about the other LoA besides Todai ? have you receive them ? or maybe you already submit them to the embassy ?
I already received the LoA from Waseda and Tsukuba, now I'm waiting for my final one from Shizudai. I will submit them to the embassy as soon as I have all three together

 

[dalmatian]

hi arap,

Thank you for the congratulate. I am glad everything is ok. I hope all of us can be granted the scholarship.

Yes, I have submitted 2 LoA (Tsukuba and Kyushu) to the Embassy. Actually I submitted the LoA as soon as I received it without waiting for other LoA. ^^

 

[Sorin86]

Hey

Hello , I am new on this forum (and from Romania) but after spending a few days reading some posts I figured out the main ideas and I have some questions i hope somebody will answer me.

1. How would you approach a profesor from a japanese university to ask him to be your supervisor? I dream about the "research student" scholarship and it would be kinda akward just to throw the glove from the first mail. "Hi, this is me...this is what I plan to do..
ehm...Will you be my research supervisor?"

2. I am currently in a master program in my home country and I'll graduate on july next year. I plan to submit my aplication for Monbusho on june (last month for submission). The problem is that all the graduation certificates are hold by my faculty and they will have those return to me a year after I graduate. I might ask for a certification that would replace those or a legalized copy(i guess this is the term) of them, but I don't know if that would be a solution accepted by the embassy.
Anyone knows a similar scenario?

3. I might sound lazy, but can anybody please post a link to the english tests of the previous years? Thank you

4. The 2 copies of the recommendation letters should be with the original in the same sealed envelope?

That's it for now and I hope that someone will answer at least some of the questions. Sorry for bothering you.

Bye

 

[SOLDIER1st]

Hi!

Just got the CoA for Todai's Graduate School of Information Science and Technology (Information Physics and Computing). Anyone else (probably) going to Todai next year? =). This was my first choice. Haven't got any more LoAs yet... Does someone know how to reach professors at Keio? It seems that e-mailing them is not a way to do it :S.

Congratz to everyone who got the CoA from Todai. For those who didn't get it, you have two more Unis to go! so cheer up! and besides, MEXT is King! and can put you in Todai even if they say no =P.

 

[nyfa]

@dalmatian,
Hellow senpai~, long time no talk, lol. Congratulations once again for Toudai! =D

@arap,
I hope you're fine. It's been a while since we last chatted. Glad to know that your professor doesn't mind about the misuderstanding .

@SOLDIER1st,
Congratulations! I also got a CoA from School of Information Science and Technology (Information and Communication Engineering). If we bump into each other next year, it would be great =D.

 

[dalmatian]

@nyfa and SOLDIER1st:
Hi and Congratulations for you too! ^^/
Seems that all of us are admitted to the same graduate school. If we are all granted the scholarship and the final placement is Toudai, then I think we could meet one another. ^^/ can't wait for the final results.

 

[ellefruit]

hey heys

congrats indeed to all you with LoAs/CoAs! Dalmatian: i'm sure putting them 3rd isnt a problem.

I got my toudai CoA a while back and sent it in to the embassy last week. At first they insisted I needed to get the LoA completed though.. is this going to be a problem? the CoA has no indication of proposed research, just the subject & supervisor, but when i asked if they'd also send me an LoA they said no, it's their "official policy" not to. The lady at the embassy then said, "ok well i'll send off your CoA and we'll see how it goes." How much like "fingers crossed!!" does that sound? i need something more definite!!

With regards to multiple LoAs.. I only applied for 1.
I contacted 2/3 profs prior to prelim. screening, then only my first choice after passing that. To be fair, he was pretty quick at responding, and positive, so I was lucky. But my dad happens to be a Prof in the UK, and he advised me not to contact other profs, seen as I had my first choice. Reckoned they might be pretty pissed after all that correspondence if you turned them down. But it sounds like most applicants have done so.. so maybe they're used to it. Thats my 2 cents worth anyhow.

 

[nyfa]

I got my toudai CoA a while back and sent it in to the embassy last week. At first they insisted I needed to get the LoA completed though.. is this going to be a problem? the CoA has no indication of proposed research, just the subject & supervisor, but when i asked if they'd also send me an LoA they said no, it's their "official policy" not to. The lady at the embassy then said, "ok well i'll send off your CoA and we'll see how it goes." How much like "fingers crossed!!" does that sound? i need something more definite!!

Hey ellefruit,

Now I'm a bit worried. I don't know how my embassy would react if they found out that I am only going to send CoA from Toudai to them.. But I suppose Toudai has been doing this kind of procedure for a long time and MEXT should aware of it, right?

 

[Ajay]

I also got positive replies from two professors from toudai, both are fairly interested in taking me (at least that is what I can make out of the emails). One of the is my first choice, other was from Graduate School of Info. Science. and. Tech (GSIST) who replied in early august. My first choice prof replied like at the end of the august after one month. As per the guidelines from the embassy here, I notified both of them about the fact that I am also applying to other profs as well in toudai. Finally the prof who is my first choice quickly sent me the letter of acceptance, at that time the date for 'second meeting' for finalizing the candidates in GSIST was not past, so I told about my decision to the prof there that I will be going with the first one to avoid any misunderstanding later and my application under him may be withdrawn. I did this as having two LOA from the profs from same univ isnt good as surely you wont be joining at least one of them. Though in this process I might have annoyed him as well, but then it I thought it may be worse if it happens later as right now he might have few more application which he may consider... Really, it is a bit troublesome job to get a letter of recommendation without offending a prof... Dunno what is the best strategy. One way is to apply in a serial order. Apply to one prof then wait for his reply if he rejects then apply to the next. This is though not best for us. Another trouble is that some (most?) times profs dont reply. My first choice prof replied after like one month. What did you folks do for this?

 

[NeoXtremeX]

Personally,

I applied to different schools and within those schools to different professors. Then I hoped for the best. Recently, I have been getting responses from the universities I applied to like Handai, Tohokudai, Meidai and Hitotsubashi. All have been positive so far, except for Hitotsubashi because I haven't gotten a definitive yes from them yet.

When I first started looking for supervisors, I sent ONE email to my first choice in Keio University. After a week and no response, I sent another more elaborate email and still I got no response. I then proceeded to call his office. He wasn't there either. Eventually, I gave up and tried emailing more professors within that deparment. NO RESPONSES after a week or so. By this time summer recess had begun so I my hopes for a response started to dwindle.

This is when I grew desperate and started to look at other universities for a similar professor. In the end, when I realized I had no choice, I mailed the application to the International Students department of each of my top 3 Universities. Like 3 days later, I started receiving letter of acceptance emails from the universities I mentioned earlier. It was my little what moment because the first 3 i mention (handai, tohokudai and meidai) were my backup and not in my preferences panel.

I guess that in the end, I will have to send a bunch of emails yet again to apologize. Again, I hope this was helpful.

 

[ellefruit]

Hey ellefruit,
Now I'm a bit worried. I don't know how my embassy would react if they found out that I am only going to send CoA from Toudai to them.. But I suppose Toudai has been doing this kind of procedure for a long time and MEXT should aware of it, right?

yah lol. I'm sure Tdai wouldnt send them out without checking that they would be acceptable.

I was thinking about my last comment and the replies and it occurred to me, I have no back up if Tokyo falls through?! Also from Ajay's post it sounds like the prof didnt mind so much that he'd applied elsewhere.. maybe this is all standard procedure. Plus, things are way different in the UK.. it just feels like a messy system. is that just me?

on another note: i'm struggling to find something to do until April T_T I didn't think I'd get the scholarship to be honest and I hadnt planned anything.. anyone else in the same boat?