MEXT Scholarship 2016 (Research)

[foxfault]

Thanks for your well-wishes everyone!

I won't be applying again next year, but I will be applying to Keio directly nevertheless and I'll be hoping to get a scholarship from the university itself (and if that doesn't work, then Japan is just not in the cards for me, unfortunately). That process doesn't start until September, though.

I just got info from embassy in my country stated that i passed the primary screening, but i have a same problem that you've mentioned before, i only choose one uni, cant speak japanese (yet) and i didnt fill anything except my name in japanese exam. But during the interview, i told them that now im studying japanese, and my preferred univ is the most suitable place to conduct my research. And then the japanese interviewer said that my research plan is very clear and he support that. Most likely ive got passed the primary screening because of my research plan IMHO.

One thing I've learned in the process is that the selection varies greatly from consulate to consulate/embassy to embassy. I didn't think my not knowing Japanese would hurt my chances, based on what I've read and based on experiences in this forum (and based on the application materials themselves). I chatted with the other applicants that came to the Houston consulate, though, and the consensus is that the person who got the scholarship got it because he was fluent in Japanese. It's definitely possible his research proposal was the strongest, too, but I'm fairly certain based on all of our experiences that my desire to go to a private university and only that university combined with no Japanese led the panelists to decide the fluent flexible-choices candidate would be the best option.

Just something to keep in mind for future applicants (and especially those applying at the Houston consulate -- they really value Japanese).

 

[bononogram]

Just received word that I have passed the interview/exam stage. Included in the email that arrived some 15 minutes ago was a scan of the letter to be posted today which included all the necessary documents for me to begin reaching out for letters of acceptance, etc. So excited!

This stage won't likely cause me any troubles as I have been in frequent contact with a leading scholar in my field for several months now and will be listing him as my first choice.

So excited - I just hope they remembered that I am going for October departure!!!

Best of luck everyone and let's be sure to stay in touch throughout the remaining stages of the selection process so as to help each other out and leave a good resource of info for others!!

 

[eiraku]

Just received word that I have passed the interview/exam stage. Included in the email that arrived some 15 minutes ago was a scan of the letter to be posted today which included all the necessary documents for me to begin reaching out for letters of acceptance, etc. So excited!

This stage won't likely cause me any troubles as I have been in frequent contact with a leading scholar in my field for several months now and will be listing him as my first choice.

So excited - I just hope they remembered that I am going for October departure!!!

Best of luck everyone and let's be sure to stay in touch throughout the remaining stages of the selection process so as to help each other out and leave a good resource of info for others!!

Wooohooo! Must be the magic popcorn I slipped into yours lol.

That said, congrats man. Hopefully I get good news soon too.... *prays while munching more popcorn*

 

[G.Fortin]

Just received word that I have passed the interview/exam stage. Included in the email that arrived some 15 minutes ago was a scan of the letter to be posted today which included all the necessary documents for me to begin reaching out for letters of acceptance, etc. So excited!

This stage won't likely cause me any troubles as I have been in frequent contact with a leading scholar in my field for several months now and will be listing him as my first choice.

So excited - I just hope they remembered that I am going for October departure!!!

Best of luck everyone and let's be sure to stay in touch throughout the remaining stages of the selection process so as to help each other out and leave a good resource of info for others!!

Congrats! I have also received word of passing the primary stage!! Hopefully it's a smooth sailing from here on.

Congrats again and best of luck to everyone still awaiting news!

 

[GAugust]

congrats @G.Fortin and @hojoojoh

 

[bononogram]

Congrats! I have also received word of passing the primary stage!! Hopefully it's a smooth sailing from here on.

Congrats again and best of luck to everyone still awaiting news!

Congratulations !! Have you thought about your three potential host institutions? Will you spend time as a RS or go straight into degree?

 

[G.Fortin]

Congratulations !! Have you thought about your three potential host institutions? Will you spend time as a RS or go straight into degree?

Yes I know exactly who to contact now, and I have already been unofficially accepted in the lab of one prof so far (just need to obtain the official Letter of Acceptance from the administration office to make sure the school accepts me as well - they have asked me to send them my original documents by mail, so currently in process of doing so. I will only have two options though for schools, but at least both are National Universities. I am planning on starting out as a research student first.

@hojoojoh , what about yourself?

 

[shiro11]

I know I'm kinda behind, but I finally got the email to do the exam next week haha :c applications started late here
they only said english test but I think I should prepare for the japanese one just in case

congrats to anyone so far

 

[Oblada]

Hello guys, I have just finished the interview.
So I would like to share a little about my experience.
Most of my questions are related to my field of study.
These are the questions.
1. explain about your study plan, (they said it wasn't clear)
2. Why did you choose these universities where there are other uni that are better than this
3. and the rest of the questions are related to my field of study.
hope this helps more or less. Good luck everyone.

 

[NumesSanguis]

Congratulations to the people here who passed the interview and for the people who didn't make it, I hope you find another way into Japan!

I just received news that I passed the interview So glad I passed

"With reference to your application for the Japanese Government (Monbukagakusho: MEXT) Scholarship Programme for 2016 (Research Students), I am pleased to inform you that you have been tentatively selected as a candidate, pending finalisation by Monbukagakusho in Japan ...
Please note that the final decision will be taken by Monbukagaksuho in Japan after which you will be informed accordingly."

A question about the next step:
In the instruction document send by post they state: "Passing Certificate of the Primary Screening (which must be submitted to the university of your choice in Japan no later than 31 August 2015)".
There is only 1 such Certificate included, this means you can only send your documents to 1 university? and therefore will receive 1 Letter of Provisional Acceptance? (not that I mind because I have a preference to Kyoto over Osaka).

 

[bononogram]

Congratulations to the people here who passed the interview and for the people who didn't make it, I hope you find another way into Japan!

I just received news that I passed the interview So glad I passed

"With reference to your application for the Japanese Government (Monbukagakusho: MEXT) Scholarship Programme for 2016 (Research Students), I am pleased to inform you that you have been tentatively selected as a candidate, pending finalisation by Monbukagakusho in Japan ...
Please note that the final decision will be taken by Monbukagaksuho in Japan after which you will be informed accordingly."

A question about the next step:
In the instruction document send by post they state: "Passing Certificate of the Primary Screening (which must be submitted to the university of your choice in Japan no later than 31 August 2015)".
There is only 1 such Certificate included, this means you can only send your documents to 1 university? and therefore will receive 1 Letter of Provisional Acceptance? (not that I mind because I have a preference to Kyoto over Osaka).

In mine it says to please make copies and send as needed.

Congrats!

 

[bononogram]

Yes I know exactly who to contact now, and I have already been unofficially accepted in the lab of one prof so far (just need to obtain the official Letter of Acceptance from the administration office to make sure the school accepts me as well - they have asked me to send them my original documents by mail, so currently in process of doing so. I will only have two options though for schools, but at least both are National Universities. I am planning on starting out as a research student first.

@hojoojoh , what about yourself?

Yes I have one national university as my top, with the prof interested and the LoA seemingly secured. In addition, I have at least one other national uni, along with one private as a third consideration. I plan to attain LoAs from all three just in case.

I am doing the RS period but the professor from my first choice just emailed me and expressed his desire for me to enter the degree programme. I don't wish to commit to that until at least a year after arrival - plus there are the exams to worry about! What I mean to say is I may not go into a degree programme at all .... if I am accepted into a good/funded PhD programme in North America by 2018 that is

 

[kishimi8]

Feeling really sad here, , can't seem to get any info from our embassy here, dropped my application for two weeks now still no feedback.
And I know of only one other person that applied in my country and neither has he also got any feedback.
Nigeria sucks.

 

[GAugust]

Hello,
What questions do professors usually ask at an interview with a MEXT applicant to get LoA?
Is there any one who had gone through these kind of interviews? Would you share your experience, please?

Thanks

 

[sarzamora]

Hello,
What questions do professors usually ask at an interview with a MEXT applicant to get LoA?
Is there any one who had gone through these kind of interviews? Would you share your experience, please?

Thanks

Hi

Well, for me, it was before the application even started but I did have an interview with the professor I wanted to work with. First, she asked me for letters of recommendation and then I had an interview. She asked me about myself and about what I have done/doing relating to my field and the such However, I think it really depends on the professor and many other factors!
I hope this helps!

 

[NumesSanguis]

Hello,
What questions do professors usually ask at an interview with a MEXT applicant to get LoA?
Is there any one who had gone through these kind of interviews? Would you share your experience, please?

Thanks

I was first thinking LoA? but then I realized it means Letter of Acceptance

The professor in Osaka assigned me topics for which I had 1 month the time to study and during the interview they tested how well I understood that material (at this time it was unrelated to MEXT thought).

For the professor in Kyoto I send a passionate email why I wanted to join his lab, and he replied with that he would accept me as a student if I passed the MEXT screening.

So indeed it really depends on the professor.

 

[NumesSanguis]

Regarding the Letter of Acceptance, has the 1st page to be filled in by yourself and the 2nd page by the professor or should you just send the empty Letter of Acceptance to your professor and let him/her fill it in?

 

[bononogram]

Regarding the Letter of Acceptance, has the 1st page to be filled in by yourself and the 2nd page by the professor or should you just send the empty Letter of Acceptance to your professor and let him/her fill it in?

As per my letter from the embassy/consulate-gen:

"Please complete the following steps:
1. Complete the upper left of the Letter of Provisional Acceptance Form.

• write your full name on line1
• write your nationality on line 2"

ompous:ompous:​

 

[NumesSanguis]

As per my letter from the embassy/consulate-gen:

"Please complete the following steps:
1. Complete the upper left of the Letter of Provisional Acceptance Form.

• write your full name on line1
• write your nationality on line 2"

ompous:ompous:​

Lol just that? not even University name, Department, Job title and Deparment Head? (just making sure )

Seems you've got a more informative instruction sheet

 

[naomi-san]

Thanks for your well-wishes everyone!
I won't be applying again next year, but I will be applying to Keio directly nevertheless and I'll be hoping to get a scholarship from the university itself (and if that doesn't work, then Japan is just not in the cards for me, unfortunately). That process doesn't start until September, though.

Heyy, are you going to apply directly to Keio KMD? I also want to apply to Keio SDM, quite different but still in design area. I also didn't pass the MEXT by embassy, I even didn't make it to passed the written test. I'm planning to apply the second period of application. My question is, how can we ask the graduate school to nominate us to MEXT? what are the qualifications to be nominated? any thoughts?

 

[vegeta]

I have passed the tests (research), tomorrow is the interview! the embassy called me today telling me the interview time has changed, I asked about its duration and they told me it is 10 minutes only! that is great!

It remains to be seen if the interview is in English or Arabic (I am from Jordan). I've seen the two interviewers the day I took the exams... One Japanese man and one Arab woman. They confirmed to me that the Japanese guy speaks Arabic fluently! So I thought it might be an Arabic interview... I don't really care that much as my English is good.

However, I am that much in speaking! because the lack of practice.

I will write a fully detailed post about the interview tomorrow... stay tuned!

 

[bononogram]

Good luck @vegeta

 

[NumesSanguis]

I have passed the tests (research), tomorrow is the interview! the embassy called me today telling me the interview time has changed, I asked about its duration and they told me it is 10 minutes only! that is great!

It remains to be seen if the interview is in English or Arabic (I am from Jordan). I've seen the two interviewers the day I took the exams... One Japanese man and one Arab woman. They confirmed to me that the Japanese guy speaks Arabic fluently! So I thought it might be an Arabic interview... I don't really care that much as my English is good.

However, I am that much in speaking! because the lack of practice.

I will write a fully detailed post about the interview tomorrow... stay tuned!

Good luck with your interview!
Even though if the Japanese person speaks fluent Arabic, it would be weird to not have the interview in English, because part of the goal of the interview would be to see if you can express your research to the people in Japan (which mostly don't speak Arabic ). Let us know what language the interview was and how it went, I'm curious ^_^

 

[cktan22]

Anyone know about the status in Malaysia? I have not received any feedback, probably I have failed in the interview.

 

[eiraku]

Anyone know about the status in Malaysia? I have not received any feedback, probably I have failed in the interview.

I haven't either actually - and every other Malaysian who posts in here it seems (as nobody has reported any news at all). I really do hope the Embassy folks decide to inform us whether or not we're successful. Being left hanging is just... extremely sad.

*anxiety level max... now munching on popcorn packaging*