Help in filling up the field of study >_<

arcane · 22 May 2014

Hello everyone I hope you're all doing fine
So i decided to apply to the MEXT scholarship
Right now i'm an undergraduate student in electrical & electronic engineering and i want to get a master's degree from a japense university
what i'm interested in is either biomedical engineering or robotics or artificial intelligence (I know very different ) but it seems my first current field doesn't allow me to do any of this or that i'm missing something in my search
so now i want to fill up that form but i can't seem to figure out what research theme cause i really don't have any currently and i'll be taking one when I start my studies so how am I gonna fill up that form
hope someone can help me make sense out of this mess

mesolithic · 22 May 2014

arcane said:
Hello everyone I hope you're all doing fine
So i decided to apply to the MEXT scholarship
Right now i'm an undergraduate student in electrical & electronic engineering and i want to get a master's degree from a japense university
what i'm interested in is either biomedical engineering or robotics or artificial intelligence (I know very different ) but it seems my first current field doesn't allow me to do any of this or that i'm missing something in my search
so now i want to fill up that form but i can't seem to figure out what research theme cause i really don't have any currently and i'll be taking one when I start my studies so how am I gonna fill up that form
hope someone can help me make sense out of this mess

If you are applying for the research student scholarship (MEXT), you WILL need to supply a write-up/proposal for your intended research.

I'm gonna quote myself cos I've typed this quite a number of times:

My 2 cents worth. The MEXT RS Scholarship via Embassy Recommendation is technically a non-graduating programme. I.e. you are supposed to be a research student and do research till the 1.5/2 years are up. So for the initial research proposal, you should be writing based on your planned research work AS A RESEARCH STUDENT. It should be somewhat detailed and show that you know what you are in for (include things like a research timeline). In my opinion, the easiest way is to connect your planned research with your previous research work (e.g. bachelor's or master's thesis). It would help also to supply a list of publications (conferences, journals, etc...) if you have any.

Of course, most people who get the RS eventually jump over to do a Master's or PhD. This will require a new proposal to MEXT for a scholarship extension to cover your postgrad programme (don't worry about it now, when the time comes, your department will tell you the procedure). Usually, you will enter the course 6 months into your RS period (possibly requiring an entrance exam). From then on, you are no longer a research student but a full-fledged doctoral/masters student.

As you have mentioned, you don't have immediate experience in research for your desired field of study. At the postgrad level, you are expected to come up with your own research topics (whether or not your prof will say yes is another question). Perhaps, what you could do is to find some links between your current major and intended research. E.g. programming skills.

Okay... too long for a forum post. read this instead haha Guide to entering a postgrad program in a Japanese university

arcane · 23 May 2014

thanks for your reply one question came to my mind
won't I be a master's student directly when i'm accepted ?
I mean i don't want to go there on the basis of being a research student. I want to follow my studies there directly to master's degree
is it possible?

mesolithic · 23 May 2014

arcane said:
thanks for your reply one question came to my mind
won't I be a master's student directly when i'm accepted ?
I mean i don't want to go there on the basis of being a research student. I want to follow my studies there directly to master's degree
is it possible?

The research student scholarship gives you the status of a research student. You can try to enrol in a master's programme immediately after arriving in Japan, but will be subjected to an entrance exam. It is also unlikely to be immediate because the examination period will be over. Hence, most RS students take the exams about 4 months into their RS stint, and enter a master's/phd in their 6th month.

let me quote you from the RS Scholarship document:

(5) If a grantee desires to move on to a regular course for a degree from a Research Student (non-degree) course, or to a doctoral course from a master's course or a professional graduate course, he/she needs to take an entrance examination provided by the relevant university and pass it. To continue receiving the MEXT scholarship after advancing to a higher level, the grantee must undergo another screening examination and be awarded an extension of the scholarship. (See 3.(2).)

mesolithic · 23 May 2014

for posterity, i've written an FAQ for the RS scholarship on my blog.

FAQ: Monbukagakusho (MEXT) Research Student Scholarship | Tokyo From The Inside

kokwai4869 · 23 May 2014

mesolithic said:
for posterity, i've written an FAQ for the RS scholarship on my blog.

FAQ: Monbukagakusho (MEXT) Research Student Scholarship | Tokyo From The Inside

Thank you for the blog that you have made. It's really informative and useful, the information have been stated clearly and understandable. Here i have one question and hope that you can at least help answering it.

Let's say if we have passed the first screening process(Written and Interview) and received an email from the consulate to look for a professor to request for a LOA, since this process falls on the "nomination to Tokyo HQ", how high is the percentage of getting the scholarship upon this level? As i have seen from some websites that those who got nominated through embassy of japan have a higher chances of getting selected, i remembered that i have seen it from some random post and forgotten where was it. Please correct me if i'm wrong in this and hope that you're able to give your kind opinion to support or to clear my doubts. ^^ thanks in advance

mesolithic · 24 May 2014

Thanks!

In all honesty, there's no way to know.

BUT... my answer would be your chances are pretty darn high. The first round of MEXT paper screening is the difficult one. After you have gotten the approval from a professor (and hence his department and the university), it is very unlikely that you will get turned down. I've been hanging around the mext scholarship online communities for a while and haven't heard of anyone who got rejected after the LoA. The 2nd screening seems more of a formality than anything else. At least for my country, I spoke with the officer in the embassy and she said the same thing.

Pretty much back when i got my LoA, i was already doing research on apartments in Japan! haha.

kokwai4869 · 24 May 2014

mesolithic said:
Thanks!

In all honesty, there's no way to know.

BUT... my answer would be your chances are pretty darn high. The first round of MEXT paper screening is the difficult one. After you have gotten the approval from a professor (and hence his department and the university), it is very unlikely that you will get turned down. I've been hanging around the mext scholarship online communities for a while and haven't heard of anyone who got rejected after the LoA. The 2nd screening seems more of a formality than anything else. At least for my country, I spoke with the officer in the embassy and she said the same thing.

Pretty much back when i got my LoA, i was already doing research on apartments in Japan! haha.

Thank you for your another great and kind input.

Yea, you're right, i have tried the past year papers and most of the questions are confusing and nothing lesser than an intermediate level of english. I hope this would not be too far for an inquiry, do you have any tips to be shared to us (juniors) to ace these papers? ^^
Once again, thank you for all the information that you've shared here or from your blog^^.

arcane · 28 May 2014

few days left and I still didn't write a word can anyone provide me with what he wrote at least to serve me as an example >_<

quizer · 6 Jun 2014

For entering Master's degree directly, you may want to look at your university of interest whether they offer the program or not. In my case I applied for International Graduate Program (A) at Tokyo Institute of Technology which MEXT scholarship is also provided and my status will be Master's degree student.

For the research proposal, I suggest you grab a bunch of papers of your interested field and get the idea of what kind of research you want to do in Japan. I think it would require nothing more than a standard academic writing structure. (at least that what I did)

Good luck !

Help in filling up the field of study >_<

arcane

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