Applying for MEXT scholarship in 2 years - what do I need to know?

Heya.

I am currently at high school but hoping to get granted MEXT undergraduate scholarship in two years time.

How did the tests go? I've been looking at maths, english and japanese. Maths is pretty tough but I have a good background in it so I hope I'm going to tackle it well. Are you absolutely advised to do all the tasks or you can slip by with doing only a few? Question applies to all of tests.

What about the CV? Does it make much of a difference?
What about the interviews? Who's interviewing? What's it about? Any trick questions?

I want to do design at university.

So, if I was to say that I want to do design, could you please suggest me the top Japanese uni's for design?

I've read somewhere, I think it was an info sheet from MEXT, that it's usually difficult to place students intending to study visual arts. Does this hamper my chances? Do I have a better chance with pursuing engineering at uni? How about doing two courses at the university?

I found a list here: nigelward.com/top30.html
which is apparently pretty subjective as there aren't any referrers.

I've managed to find only a few unis which offer design and variations of it as a base course. Those are: Kyushu university, Tokyo University of Technology, Waseda uni, Tsukuba, Nagoya city uni and Tokyo Nationa Universitiy of Fine Arts.

Any other?

Please answer my questions. I know there's loads of them but I've pursued my dream of going to Japan to educate since childhood and I could really use the help of experienced people who went through it.


Sincerely,

ultima

There appears to be a gentleman who is studying game design in Japan, at a school called HAL:
http://kotaku.com/346388/wanna-study-game-design-in-japan-heres-how
HAL is not really a regular university though, it's a senmon-gakko (tech training school). MEXT probably would not send you there on the undergrad scholarship, and I'm not sure if they would or not under the senshu-gakko scholarship (but in that one, you wouldn't get to pick your school, they assign you to one).

My recommendation to you would be to shoot for computer science or engineering as a field of study, it's more practical and robust, and you could pick up the skills to do game design on the side at least.

Just my two cents.

thanks for your reply mate, but that's exactly what I don't want to do which I've described in the previous post. HAL I know of and and as I've said I don't want to do CAD in game design plus it's a senmon gakko which MEXT scholarship doesn't apply to.

So let's say I deleted game design entry that from my previous post and left only design. Where'd I get to.

Thx for 2 cents

Hi Ultima,

I've applied this year for graduate studies so i have little direct experience with exams for undergraduate. From a friend of mine who applied for undergraduate i know that is better to answer ALL the questions even if you take a guess. You might guess right. for example she also done one of the test for Japanese language although she is quite a beginner.

The English test is the most simple one in my opinion. for some reason the tests look slightly more difficult then the example they gave on JASSO site. I look with her over the exercises and I think is nothing over the level of high school but I guess the difficulties is perceived different from country to country. We don't have to many optionals in high school so we are pretty much stuck with math, physiques and chemistry no matter what we want to study after.

On the interview are usually 3 people. I think the most important think is that they see you willing to study in Japan. My friend also got questions about hobbies, why she wants to study in Japan, her plans for the future, her activities as a volunteer and about a part time job she had . I think the question adapt depending of the cv and the person they speak to.
I think the CV matters more for graduate students than undergraduate. Nobody is expecting an 19 year old high school student to have great experience in anything. But if you have some activities as a volunteer or a part time job you should say especially if is something related with what you want to study.

I hope it helps a little.

thank you very much, akita, for your reply. It was very helpful to find out some details about the interview and overall experience of scholarship entry.

I hope you'll get your wings and fly to Japan, as we all do.

Yeah, I've seen the english test. It's a child's play, well probably because I am studying in England. It requires some knowledge of English customs and sayings fitting the occasion. I don't think it's hard although there'r some traps.

I know how you've felt in high school, being stuck with all the sciences. Well, uni is where we grow to our full potential I hope.

Can I get some more profound info regarding the scholarship? I am referring to the tests, some particular info about the interview, post-award procedures and more importantly the choice of university.
Do you happen to have any more info

Thanks, I'm waiting for the official answer of the Embassy now.

If you study in England i don't think you will have a problem concerning English.
But still you should be careful. Usually people mistake in simple things.
About the other tests i can't help you to much as a graduate it was not necessary for me to pass them. I had to do a research project.
You have one hour for each test so you should not lose time with questions or problems you don't know the answer. Let them for the last minute and if you can't figure out an answer just guess. From what I saw there is math, physiques and biology of high school. So nothing for olimpics or staff like that. You could use you high school course book to prepare. Maybe your Croatian books will be better. From what I could see in the Balkans, south-east Europe, Russia we start to do some things earlier so the course books might contain more information. Well this is a personal observation you should know better.

In my case i needed to personally contact an university and ask for a letter of acceptance but you won't need to do that. undergraduate who don't speak Japanese do a year of Japanese in Japan and then are place in an university according to their choices but also according to the results of Japanese tests. I hear that some university may ask you to give some other entrance exams too. Where you do your Japanese courses it seams is up to them. At list the undergraduate Romanians couldn't chose the city or stuff like that. I'm assuming is similar everywhere.


The main thing in the interview is seams to be your reasons for wanting to study in japan. I guess they don't want to chose someone that later might change his mind. Well they ask me about my research program also but it won't be your case. I get also a question like what club I will want to join there. It seams in japan being in a club is important for your social life, integration and so on. Do a research about their educational system, way of life and universities. It's good to know a number of universities that have your field of study. Be ready to explain why you want to study there and what you want to do in the future.

After graduation i thing is up to you what you will do. It seams you can continue your studies with a master there if the teachers accept to give you a recommendation for receiving Monbusho for master also.

I don't think your field of study will make you chances smaller if you have very good results to the test and interview. I know graduate Romanians that got there to study some very particular things in physique that you wont find in every university so i assume it's not a selection criteria.

One thing you must also consider . As a undergraduate is much more difficult to get the scholarship because the number of scholarships is somewhere between 400 and something for everybody. For graduate are about 4000 and something. From what I saw the country you come for might be helpful. It seams they prefer people from what they consider developing countries. Also consider that many of this scholarships go to Asian countries.

Be prepare to wait a lot till you have an answer. I've waited 7 month now and still I'm waiting.