MEXT Scholarship for Postgraduate 2011: General Discussions.

[prettybunny]

Haiz i just feel that 1 month is too short for us to get LOA.
imagine we have to wait for those professors to reply (during their summer holiday somemore!)
we have to send the passing cert to them, wait for the LOA to reach our country
then post back to embassy
i still cant imagine how could all these things be done within one month
just postage will cost us a lot of time!

 

[PoopyPants]

All this loa talk has got me nervous, I already was accepted by a prof prior to the preliminary selection so ill be getting my loa soon. But because of this I only have 1 prefrence university. Do u guys suggest I get more loas? Ive also already submitted my application.

 

[kellylen]

I know having a month or so to obtain a LOA sounds daunting guys but it is possible, in fact it is so possible that u guys have to believe in that..all those past MEXT scholars did it and so will u guys..just take it as one of the early hurdles in this very long journey...if u guys think this sounds impossible and daunting, trust me there wil be so many bigger hurdles once u guys are here..just be strong and push ahead...

 

[mirimon]

Hey guys!
I've just been reading though all this Loa stuff. It seems like I've got the same problems as everyone does and I'm still very excited but on the other hand really scared of no being able to secure a LoA. Furthermore I think it's really really confusing with Loa and entrance admission because I'd like to enter a PhD program directly...
A Prof from Kyoto University wrote me that he'll fill in the LoA for me and I will have to sit the exams to enter the Uni next year. I've chosen in all forms of the application that I'd like to enter a PhD program- is it ok if I 'only' get a LoA?
Furthermore he only wanted to get the certificate that I've passed the primary screening as a pdf- he didn't want anything else and he hasn't answered anything after I sent him the document. I told him that I'd need the LoA in September the latest (our deadline to submit the LoA to the embassy is 'beginning of october' so there is still plenty of time. But they also stated that unis only accept applications till Aug. 31 -is this true? I guess so...)
And I got a problem- my Uni here is so bad when it comes to student-services... I wrote them 2 times to please put the recommendation form in an envelope and sign over the seal. The only thing I got is the form scanned by email. It's got a stamp on it but if I print it it's not the original stamp. Should I just hand it in like this?
Plus I asked them 3 times to please send me a certificate that I'll graduate in Oct- got it only in German till now- no response to my emails... this uni is so demanding and they don't support you at all...
And the doc I went to didn't fill in the 'Urinanalysis- should I just hand in the health examination incomplete?
I haven't got much time left- we need to hand all the forms in by Aug 12....
Thanks a lot for your opinions in advance! Hope to see you in Japan next year

I don't know if it's okay or not, but why are you so eager to enter directly the PhD program? My prof told me that he thought it was better to enter first as a Research Student, then pass the exam for PhD and then concentrate on this. Don't get me wrong, I know it's a question of time, but personally I think we will be so busy doing paer stuff, getting to know people and the like, that I wil be glad if I don't have to concentrate too much on my studies. And also it's about learning the language and experiencing the culture, right?
About your other problems:
I advise that you should go directly to the student service. It's time-consuming, but I did that myself, with all the document, already translated into English, and asked them to stamp that. You may need even more time when writing emails.
My prof also forgot to sign, but hell, at least there are two stamps on the envelope, I'll send it like that and then they can complain. About the urinanalysis, can't you just go to the doctor again and insist that he or she writes anything? If you are healthy, there should be a - on all points, right?
I know you might be busy, but better go directly and sort that things out then have the stress afterwards, I think.

 

[jackyoboy]

I just got the mail, it's a double letter, one indicating i passed and the other stating otherwise :? i almost crapped my pants out since i've done most of the document preperations. Called up Ms. Yin for conformation and she said she made a mistake about the rejection letter. What a relief!
imagine how much suffering i was in for the past one hour

 

[ijulia]

Thanks for the answer mirimon!

Ah- I think that's absolutely true what you are writing about the research student status- I only thought about the time till now... Thanks for pointing this out!!!

With the uni- there is no student service at my uni. My department got 4 secretaries and thats it. Its a really small uni, there are only 30 students in my course... The other problem is that I am not there till next week... and my doc is on holidays for two weeks.

Well, I think I'll just go there next week... And go to another doc for the health thing.

 

[flidar]

I just got the mail, it's a double letter, one indicating i passed and the other stating otherwise :? i almost crapped my pants out since i've done most of the document preperations. Called up Ms. Yin for conformation and she said she made a mistake about the rejection letter. What a relief!
imagine how much suffering i was in for the past one hour

Haha, sounds like an exciting experience for you...

 

[hhe]

Yup that's what I did...sent to both office and professor but no response from both sides till I called the office. I picked up the documents myself last week. There's an official letter inside stating that we've passed the interview, 3 passing certificates and 3 copies of Letter of Acceptance.
>jophillia
No doubt this is nerve wrecking!!

just got it!thanks BLURcheryl
hey, i am having some problem here.... what if my requests are sent to different professorS in a same university?
do i have to send multiple email to the same department?
and what if I got accepted by all the professors at one time?

 

[ykk]

Hello everybody!
I've got some news. Not good news but no bad news either.
I was selected as an alternate. Yep, if someone dies I can take his/her place

If someone has ever been in that situation please let me know your experience. I'm kind of depressed because the odds of someone finally not going to Japan are quite low but that's the best they could offer me.

I keep asking myself why they don't like me!
I have 3 emails from professors from different Universities that are willing to welcome me in their labs in case I go... I just can't understand why they don't like me.


Ok, now I'm depressed again

 

[akaitsume1]

Hello everybody!
I've got some news. Not good news but no bad news either.
I was selected as an alternate. Yep, if someone dies I can take his/her place
If someone has ever been in that situation please let me know your experience. I'm kind of depressed because the odds of someone finally not going to Japan are quite low but that's the best they could offer me.
I keep asking myself why they don't like me!
I have 3 emails from professors from different Universities that are willing to welcome me in their labs in case I go... I just can't understand why they don't like me.
Ok, now I'm depressed again

Aw, man... I was really rooting for you. T_T After this much work, you definitely deserved it. *hugs* Any thoughts to applying to the schools first and trying university recommendation? Have you tried other scholarships?

 

[ykk]

I should try through University recommendation but I dodn't know that chance existed until Mozda brought that up.
OMG what should I do! I'm so desperated!
I'll write to the professors that said they would be my supervisors, this battle is not over!!!

I haven't tried other scholarship. I want to get this one, I want to go to Japan only :sorry:

 

[hhe]

Haiz i just feel that 1 month is too short for us to get LOA.
imagine we have to wait for those professors to reply (during their summer holiday somemore!)
we have to send the passing cert to them, wait for the LOA to reach our country
then post back to embassy
i still cant imagine how could all these things be done within one month
just postage will cost us a lot of time!

yea, it's a lil bit rushy i thought

i received quick reply from a professor, but it's was a negative reply, stating my background isn't suitable for his research studies..
but always look on the bright side, i think i gott a be more detail about my research in e cover letter..

 

[mozda]

keep pushing people!
aw ykk alternate? actually i remember i was reading a post from some guy who was alternate too, and he was going to Japan in the end, i can't find that post now to see what was his situation...

 

[prettybunny]

hi all, i faced problem again..
finally a prof from Tokyo Medical and Dental Uni agreed to write me a LOA
Do i also need to apply for admission of their research student program?
Do I have to settle the admission procedures before they issue me an LOA?

 

[ijulia]

Hi all!

A prof from Kyoto uni also agreed to write me a LoA. The only thing he needed was a pdf of the certificate that I have passed the primary screening. He told me he'll send it to me by Aug. 14 (dont know if by email or by post...).

So prettybunny. maybe I'm wrong but i think as long as you get a LoA its ok. If I got it right the Loa is just a 'tentative acceptment', so it's not definite anyway...

The question I got is did you guys state 3 Unis of your choice in the Application Form Attachment?
My plan was to only write Kyoto Uni as 1st choice and leave 2nd and 3rd choice blank. Altought I am trying to get 1 or 2 more LoAs... (because I really want to go to Kyoto Uni and if Mext places me in another one I don't really have preferences...)

All the best!

 

[PeterSimon]

BTW, I made that mistake of writing 3 universities in the application form before contacting the professors there. Some of them refused, so I found other places. Is it a problem if I possibly submit LOAs from universities I have not written in the application form?

 

[akaitsume1]

@prettybunny No, you don't need to do anything else. Just submit the LOA to your embassy and sit back and wait for February. Lol.

@PeterSimon I asked the embassy the same question last year, and they said it was ok. You can always double check with your own, though.

 

[ykk]

keep pushing people!
aw ykk alternate? actually i remember i was reading a post from some guy who was alternate too, and he was going to Japan in the end, i can't find that post now to see what was his situation...

Yeah! sorry I didn't have time to send you a PM :sorry:
I think I cant apply through University recommendation if I'm an alternate candidate, right? ☝
The lady from the embassy told me that they will send "my papers" to Japan along with the finalist's... what does that mean?:?
Anyway, I'm paying a visit to the embassy on monday with my mum, I'm handing in some copies of the mails from the professors from japan.
God, the last time I asked my mother to go with me somewhere I was about 8 years old... I'm so scared about how all of this is going to turn out that I needed some backup

 

[mozda]

i think that means if MEXT turns down some candidate you're taking his/her place, all you can do is wait (i know that's the hardest part)...when you will know?
no, you can't apply if you're in process for one already, but if you will know before December (most of Uni's have that deadline) then you can, but i hope you will get it this time so you won't need to apply for Uni recommendation!

oh it's good to have a backup!!

 

[seacrac]

What are the chances of getting to a private university?

I am wondering how high is the chances that MEXT will grant us the scholarship to go to a private university? After searching high and low for a suitable supervisor, I finally found one that is perfectly align with my research goals. Alas, he is from Ritsumeikan, a private university! I don't know about the chances that MEXT will let me go to that university. Is it lower than if I applied to national university, or is it that much lower? I believe I have high chance for a LOA if I apply for a national university, but the research field won't be what I really wants. If I only put one LOA and it is from Ritsumeikan, will it be very risky business? Any previous scholar that can advise on this?

 

[akaitsume1]

I am wondering how high is the chances that MEXT will grant us the scholarship to go to a private university? After searching high and low for a suitable supervisor, I finally found one that is perfectly align with my research goals. Alas, he is from Ritsumeikan, a private university! I don't know about the chances that MEXT will let me go to that university. Is it lower than if I applied to national university, or is it that much lower? I believe I have high chance for a LOA if I apply for a national university, but the research field won't be what I really wants. If I only put one LOA and it is from Ritsumeikan, will it be very risky business? Any previous scholar that can advise on this?

In the end, I only put in one LOA for Keio, which is private, and it was fine. They make a fuss about it, but I haven't seen anyone run into trouble because they chose a private university. ^_^

 

[seacrac]

In the end, I only put in one LOA for Keio, which is private, and it was fine. They make a fuss about it, but I haven't seen anyone run into trouble because they chose a private university. ^_^

Wow, that's great to hear. However, is it possible that MEXT will reject one's application because of the research field? My case is like this:

I wanted to do research in Japan in the field of Artificial Intelligence, and passed the MEXT interview with it. However, there are a lot of field of applications for Artificial Intelligence (digital signal processing, robotics, optimization etc). I believe if I put one of the common ones, I will be able to obtain an LOA and get the scholarship without much problem.

However, I have one field of application that I have particular interest in, and that is Artificial Intelligence in Digital Entertainment, such as Video Games. So far I check, only a supervisor in a private university do research about it.

Is there a chance that MEXT knows about my research topic, and decided that it isn't an "impactful" enough field to do the research on, and reject my application even though I have the LOA?

 

[akaitsume1]

Wow, that's great to hear. However, is it possible that MEXT will reject one's application because of the research field? My case is like this:
I wanted to do research in Japan in the field of Artificial Intelligence, and passed the MEXT interview with it. However, there are a lot of field of applications for Artificial Intelligence (digital signal processing, robotics, optimization etc). I believe if I put one of the common ones, I will be able to obtain an LOA and get the scholarship without much problem.
However, I have one field of application that I have particular interest in, and that is Artificial Intelligence in Video Games. So far I check, only a supervisor in a private university do research about it.
Is there a chance that MEXT knows about my research topic, and decided that "AI in video games" isn't an "impactful" enough field to do the research on, and reject my application even though I have the LOA?

No, they've already heard all they needed to from the embassy to know you're a worthy scholar, and an loa proves that they won't waste the money they set aside for you. They don't reassess your proposal. The only people you had to convince were the embassy and your potential supervisor. ^_^

 

[seacrac]

No, they've already heard all they needed to from the embassy to know you're a worthy scholar, and an loa proves that they won't waste the money they set aside for you. They don't reassess your proposal. The only people you had to convince were the embassy and your potential supervisor. ^_^

Reading your post really reassures me alot. Thanks . If that's the case, then it means that we are assure to get the scholarship once we get the LOAs?. Then why do they have to make us go through all the uncertainties about it, and wait till January next year for the final confirmation? Would have prefer that they tell us right away after we passed the interview

 

[nyfa]

If that's the case, then it means that we are assure to get the scholarship once we get the LOAs?.

Actually, there were some cases where despite having LoA, MEXT will reject a candidate. It happened with this year's batch in my country. One person with two LoAs, and MEXT didn't grant her the scholarship in the end. Embassy had no answer for her, cause it all comes back to MEXT for the final decision.

It's a rare case though.