Applying for a master's at Kyushu University - a couple of questions

[1amadalina]

I am from Romania, and this summer I will have my BA in International Relations. I am thinking of applying for a Master's degree at Kyushu University's Graduate School of Social and Cultural Studies. But this raises an entire series of problems/questions.
1. Since my mother tongue isn't English, and, as far as i've seen, TOEFL, TOEIC or IELTS are required in order to apply, I was wondering whether the CAE (the Cambridge Certificate of Advanced English) is a possible alternative. Currently, it is my only language test.
2. The majority of graduate schools in Japan require 16 years of school education if the students come from abroad. My case is of having only 15, since in Europe, under the Bologna system, the bachelor's degree lasts for 3 years. Is this an impediment?
P.S.: The master's degree I have in mind is in English, because my knowledge of Japanese is subpar.

 

[Mike Cash]

I wish you all the best, but I must ask....Have you tried asking these questions directly of Kyushu University?

 

[1amadalina]

No, actually I haven't yet. I was hoping to see if there were others in my situation, and that's because, from what i've seen, both the 16-years rule and the omission of CAE from the list of language tests accepted are appear on the sites of most of the Japanese Universities I am interested in. I was wondering how flexible the "rules" are from an unofficial point of view.
Of course I will contact Kyushu eventually

 

[tktwo]

well... maybe I'm wrong

but from what I remember, you can study in any university with 15 years of education IF you show the necessary documents to the ministry of education of japan. And they should give you some kind of confirmation or certificate that you'll use in the admission process of your desired university.


Sure... there're some university (usually private) that already accept students with 15 year of education outside of Japan.

 

[zeeeeeeek]

they dont Accept SAT exams there?

 

[Glenski]

I have to agree with Mike here. The place to ask is the uni itself. Don't try relying on what others have done. I think that if you explain why you are a year short (seems legitimate to me), perhaps they will bend the rules. After all, unis these days are hurting for money, so tuition from abroad is very welcome as long as you can meet other requirements.

As far as a CAT vs. TOEFL goes, they may be more stringent about that, but ask!

 

[Scalemx]

I study at said graduate school of said university at the moment. I do not, however study the English course. The required level of English is, as far as I know well below what you have, so there will be no need to study English. However if they need a certain score from a certain test, I guess the only thing you can do is ask them if they accept other test scores. If they do not, you better just take a test.
About the amount of study years, I think you just need to certify that you have a bachelor's or an equivalent of 16 years of study. I think none of the things are very problematic. You can contact the graduate school directly (In English it is not a problem) or the supervising professor. Is it Hall or am I mistaken?
Even though you do not need it for the program, I would suggest to you that you study all Japanese that you can. It will help you during paperwork and to find friends and so on. Good luck, maybe see you one day.