MEXT Scholarship for Postgraduate 2011: General Discussions.

[qwie]

Basically, no rules dictates on how many pages that you need to write, just make sure that you write your research objective and methodology as clear as possible. In my case, last year, I wrote 3 pages long while some of my friends only did 2 or 1 page.
For the past year question...hmm...I don't really know perhaps you still need to wait until written exam date is announced, in my case, when embassy told me about my exam date, 2009 question was already posted on studyjapan.org sites.
Again, wish you all the best

OIC..i guess it needs about 10-15 pages..wuhuuu
Regarding exam date, embassy has already announced the exam date. They emailed me on 7th April and informed that the exam date is on 9 May..but there's still no past year questions for 2010...upps, wait..

when embassy told me about my exam date, 2009 question was already posted

it that 2009 question is the latest one?
are you mean that 'Qualifying Examinations for Applicants for Japanese Government (Monbukagakusho) Scholarships 2009' is the latest one?

 

[qwie]

Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
I still have not heard from the Embassy yet regarding my application.

why don't you call them and ask about your application status? just make confirmation.
Anyway, happy to hear your background is electrical & electronic eng; same with me actually , so we can talk more on this topic rite?

 

[qwie]

窶堙坂?堋ｶ窶堙溪?堙懌?堋ｵ窶堙?！
First ever attempt,
only found out about MEXT last year~ and it was too late to apply for this year's; but will just give it a go for 2011.
Seems very hard, but I guess it's time to move out from my comfort zone,
besides been wanting to find an opportunity to study in Japan for a long time.
So def. will give it a go!
I am intending to apply for sth. related to life-science, because that's my field.
And def. am interested in University of Tokyo and Kyoto, but of course I understand they're super hard to get into. Because Uni. of Tokyo's Life Science is not only world-renown, so I'm assuming that they should be better at English. It's not entirely that ideal to learn all those fanciful terms in Life Science all over again, when I could barely rmb them in English (slash Latin ).
I know quite a lot of ppl in this forum are from humanities/art/engineer, but anyone applying/applied previous actually from Life Sciences?! (or medical related field?)
For those who've applied to a Science-related subject (i.e doesn't exactly need to be in Life Science), what kind of advice or opinions would you share when approaching a prof./how to choose? Thank You so much! 窶堋?窶堙ｨ窶堋ｪ窶堙??堋､ﾂ！ﾂ！ﾂ！
窶堙ｦ窶堙ｫ窶堋ｵ窶堋ｭ窶堙仰〜

yup lalagirlgb! it is good to make early preparation for next year application. Hope your early preparation will give you chance to enter Uni. of Tokyo soon

 

[qwie]

ykk,
I'm follower of MEXT Scholarship for Postgraduate 2010: General Discussions. since few months ago and if I'm not mistaken you are the one who didn't sign the application form right?

 

[apnea]

why don't you call them and ask about your application status? just make confirmation.
Anyway, happy to hear your background is electrical & electronic eng; same with me actually , so we can talk more on this topic rite?

Yeah I will if I don't hear anything by next week. Ah great, so you're an EEE graduate as well. Yeah if I do get in, hopefully I can secure a spot in either Tokyo or Kyoto University.

Btw why are you worried about the proposal? Do you need to prepare one? I thought all is completed alongside the application form?

I would think so if you're seeking for a supervisor but isn't that in the later stages?

 

[infokill]

Quick question for all the artist/graphic artist out there that have applied.
When submitting your portfolio of work, do they give it back to you?
My portfolio cost a lot to make, i would want it back after lol.

 

[qwie]

I've just received an official letter from Japan Embassy notified that I'm eligible to take the written exam.

apnea, actually I just concern whether we need to prepare another one (more details version of proposal) to be sent to supervisor..or just send the one which we sent to embassy? for sure this will be conducted in later stages (if pass the interview), but since I've already contact the supervisor and he's very positive about my interest, I'm just thinking it would be okay if I just send my research proposal to him, but if I fail to get the scholarship (really scared ), I still can tell the professor politely that I didn't get the scholarship, no loss right?

 

[lalagirlgb]

yup lalagirlgb! it is good to make early preparation for next year application. Hope your early preparation will give you chance to enter Uni. of Tokyo soon

sorry for the wrong wording...:sorry:
I actually meant I am gonna apply THIS year for next year´s scholarship.
UK´s apps just opened~ but I won't do it till my exams are over.
it should still give me half a month to do the apps, which should hopefully be sufficient.

Even though the UK embassy says that you don't need to contact anyone until you've got the letter of acceptance, it seems to me that we should be getting contacts with profs. before we even make our apps., is this true?
or is it still ok if I ask around after I make my apps in prep. for my interview (if fortunately I get into that round?)

Of course I will try my best to show my initiative, def. need to practice my Japanese as well. Seems like the exam has gone a lot harder last year, since 2009 seems reasonable to me.:?

Anyone applying for life sciences here?!?!?!?!?!

 

[akaitsume1]

はじめまして！
First ever attempt,
only found out about MEXT last year~ and it was too late to apply for this year's; but will just give it a go for 2011.
Seems very hard, but I guess it's time to move out from my comfort zone,
besides been wanting to find an opportunity to study in Japan for a long time.
So def. will give it a go!
I am intending to apply for sth. related to life-science, because that's my field.
And def. am interested in University of Tokyo and Kyoto, but of course I understand they're super hard to get into. Because Uni. of Tokyo's Life Science is not only world-renown, so I'm assuming that they should be better at English. It's not entirely that ideal to learn all those fanciful terms in Life Science all over again, when I could barely rmb them in English (slash Latin ).
I know quite a lot of ppl in this forum are from humanities/art/engineer, but anyone applying/applied previous actually from Life Sciences?! (or medical related field?)
For those who've applied to a Science-related subject (i.e doesn't exactly need to be in Life Science), what kind of advice or opinions would you share when approaching a prof./how to choose? Thank You so much! ありがとう！！！
よろしくね～

Well, I'm doing biology/behavior, so you can definitely get the scholarship for life sciences, hahaha. Tokyo U will definitely have a lot of English-speakers, although I'm not sure they have a master's/doctorate program in English for science (then again, I haven't looked that hard for it, so I very well could be wrong). Relearning scientific words in Japanese really. really. stinks. Hahaha. I'm sure you can do it, though. ^_^

Edit: And yes, I'd recommend contacting a professor beforehand. If you can go into the interview saying that you have professors interested in taking you on, it looks really good. It means you'll have less work to do when/if you get recommended.

 

[apnea]

I've just received an official letter from Japan Embassy notified that I'm eligible to take the written exam.

apnea, actually I just concern whether we need to prepare another one (more details version of proposal) to be sent to supervisor..or just send the one which we sent to embassy? for sure this will be conducted in later stages (if pass the interview), but since I've already contact the supervisor and he's very positive about my interest, I'm just thinking it would be okay if I just send my research proposal to him, but if I fail to get the scholarship (really scared ), I still can tell the professor politely that I didn't get the scholarship, no loss right?

Ic. I was wondering why you were on it considering the forms have been sent almost a month ago now. Yeah I'm waiting for the official letter as well. I am rather surprised I haven't heard from them yet. Yeah it is a good idea though to get in touch with a potential supervisor as it might smooth things out if you do indeed pass the written examination + interview. Anyhow, shall see, if I do pass the interview or even be invited to do the exam first before contacting any potential supervisors.

 

[qwie]

akaitsume1, you got the idea thanks
apnea, hope to hear good news from you next week

 

[lalagirlgb]

Well, I'm doing biology/behavior, so you can definitely get the scholarship for life sciences, hahaha. Tokyo U will definitely have a lot of English-speakers, although I'm not sure they have a master's/doctorate program in English for science (then again, I haven't looked that hard for it, so I very well could be wrong). Relearning scientific words in Japanese really. really. stinks. Hahaha. I'm sure you can do it, though. ^_^

Edit: And yes, I'd recommend contacting a professor beforehand. If you can go into the interview saying that you have professors interested in taking you on, it looks really good. It means you'll have less work to do when/if you get recommended.

Thank you akitsume-san!
Would you mind telling me whereabout are you doing your course atm?
It would be great to do it in English, not simply because it "stinks" to re-learn all those terms in Japanese, but at the same time, it would be "translatable" to my future research career.

I was looking through Osaka University as well. Their website seems a lot more searching-friendly that Toudai

 

[akaitsume1]

Thank you akitsume-san!
Would you mind telling me whereabout are you doing your course atm?
It would be great to do it in English, not simply because it "stinks" to re-learn all those terms in Japanese, but at the same time, it would be "translatable" to my future research career.
I was looking through Osaka University as well. Their website seems a lot more searching-friendly that Toudai

I'm doing my research at Keio at the moment, and although it's not a perfect fit, my supervisor's primary research theme is almost exactly what I've wanted to do. I know next to nothing about Osaka U, and I can't give much advice without knowing what aspect of Life Sciences you'd like to go into. Um... Hokkaido U has a great life sciences/biology program, and I heard that Okayama University is great for it, too.

Haha. As far as translating goes, I just spent the last week translating my research plan into Japanese for the seminar I'm taking. All that new vocab at once was pretty hard to swallow, especially since I then had to present it and try and make people with no background in it understand it. But, well, that's what I get for picking Japanese birds to study. XD What were you planning to do with your research?

 

[apnea]

apnea, hope to hear good news from you next week

I hope so too! Thanks!

 

[volume09]

Hello everyone,

I'm planning for a masters in Japan. Currently I'm a 3rd year of university (out of 4) - computer science. I'm to graduate in June, 2011.

My question is, should I apply for MEXT 2011 or MEXT 2012 ?
As I understand there are two "starting points" for schools in Japan, the April and the October. It would be ideal if I could get in, in the October 2011 right after I graduate.

 

[arap]

are you mean that 'Qualifying Examinations for Applicants for Japanese Government (Monbukagakusho) Scholarships 2009' is the latest one?

For this year, 2010 question and answer should be the latest one, which as far as I know hasn't appear yet in the net.

 

[lalagirlgb]

I'm doing my research at Keio at the moment, and although it's not a perfect fit, my supervisor's primary research theme is almost exactly what I've wanted to do. I know next to nothing about Osaka U, and I can't give much advice without knowing what aspect of Life Sciences you'd like to go into. Um... Hokkaido U has a great life sciences/biology program, and I heard that Okayama University is great for it, too.

Haha. As far as translating goes, I just spent the last week translating my research plan into Japanese for the seminar I'm taking. All that new vocab at once was pretty hard to swallow, especially since I then had to present it and try and make people with no background in it understand it. But, well, that's what I get for picking Japanese birds to study. XD What were you planning to do with your research?

I really am awed (and grateful) when I found this forum, everyone is so prompt and generous with their answers to ppl who they don't know!!! 感謝してます！

I am hoping to do sth. to do with neuroscience/pharmacology and disease-related(?). Although I haven't actually got a "exact idea" on what things to research, so I've just have been clicking on each prof's publications and see whether their past work sound like the stuffs I'm doing/want to do.

Of course I am very flexible, because I know it's hard to first of all find a prof who's willing to supervise even if my Japanese is so mediocre. So I'm open to changes! Changes can be

Just another extra Q (I apologise for this bombardment, but everything seems so exciting!!!): how's the lab environment in Japan? or at least in Keio? (I heard that the Japanese research are slightly different from the west) is the support good for you to settle down? I presume you'll have to speak in Japanese all the times? And I was just thinking... of taking a masters back at home, and here we don't finish till next Sept. Would you recommend it's better to do a full 2 years? or 18-months is simply too short?

 

[mitch2526]

obtaining admission

Hello everyone!

Good luck to all of us applying for 2011.

I have a question, when we write for the part where we state whether we obtained admission or not, I have only emailed them, and well, the one in charge, not yet the prof, replied, can that be considered as "acquiring"?

And also, if by some chance, none of the 3 unis accepted me (hopefully not) and I got admission from somewhere else not on the list, would I be able to get in that kind university?

Anyway, I'm interested in Japanese Studies and Japanese Linguistics.

Anyone who can recommend unis (and profs or programs?) for research? Hoping to get into masters later.

Btw, I have other questions. We have 3 universities we write on the application right? But if we get embassy recommendation, are we able to contact other universities not on our list? Thank you very much!!

 

[hexa]

Hi guys,

I am bit confused in filling the section "Present field of study". I know that i have to write about the my current education background. But the problem is, i don't know how much the detail to write in this section. For example, i am a computer science student with focus on software designing and software engineering. What detail i have to put in these section. I think if i put all the technical detail, the committee will throw away my application :'( :'( :'(

So, come on guys, successfull candidates, please share what you write in the section "present field of study". I think this will be useful info for all of us.

 

[ralukchris]

Good luck to all

Hi guys, although in my country, Romania the application session hasn't started yet, I thought I'd be prepared for this, so I've been reading the last year's thread, and now I've moved onto this one.
Is there anyone here applying for an architecture scholarship? I have some questions regarding the way I have to fill in the "studies" section of the application form?
1. Field of specialization studied in the past ﾂ（Be as detailed and specific as possible.)
My field of specialization is general architecture...i can't be more specific than that, since we studied in school all kind of things, from history of architecture to aesthetics..so I'm kind of confused...
2. I don't know about other architecture schools, but in my case, i had a graduation project instead of a thesis...should i attach the project to the application? An here, I have one more question: my graduation project has nothing to do with what i want to research now, although of course, both are related to architecture. The project's theme was a racecourse in my hometown, but now i want to research about the architecture in Japanese households, since theoretically, as an architect, I am still researching in my field...
If anyone has the slightest piece of advice, I would be very grateful!

 

[hexa]

Hi guys, although in my country, Romania the application session hasn't started yet, I thought I'd be prepared for this, so I've been reading the last year's thread, and now I've moved onto this one.
Is there anyone here applying for an architecture scholarship? I have some questions regarding the way I have to fill in the "studies" section of the application form?
1. Field of specialization studied in the past ﾂ（Be as detailed and specific as possible.)
My field of specialization is general architecture...i can't be more specific than that, since we studied in school all kind of things, from history of architecture to aesthetics..so I'm kind of confused...
If anyone has the slightest piece of advice, I would be very grateful!

We're on the same boat mate.... confused in that section. hahaha. i'm still googling and continue to asking candidate getting the scholarship. Please let me know if u have found the answer. good luck for all of us.... :

 

[ralukchris]

ﾂ＾ﾂ＾

haha, glad to hear I'm not alone..
I'll try ask at the embassy, but since they haven't been moving at all on that website of theirs, I guess I just have to wait until we get the "green sign" for applying...

Meanwhile I'm preparing a webpage for my research plan to impress the professors (it's really convenient to send them an email and say "for more details about the research i want to conduct, please see this webpage " instead of attaching files to the email, which i heard it's not a "to do" thing, since it will fill their inbox very fast)

 

[qwie]

Hello everyone,
I'm planning for a masters in Japan. Currently I'm a 3rd year of university (out of 4) - computer science. I'm to graduate in June, 2011.
My question is, should I apply for MEXT 2011 or MEXT 2012 ?
As I understand there are two "starting points" for schools in Japan, the April and the October. It would be ideal if I could get in, in the October 2011 right after I graduate.

Hi volume09! you make the planning and it was so good to take early action. I think it would be okay to apply for October intake if you don't mind to further your study straight away after degree level

For this year, 2010 question and answer should be the latest one, which as far as I know hasn't appear yet in the net.

That's what i meant...emm..you have any idea when it is will be there? thanks anyway for the clarification

 

[qwie]

Hi guys,

I am bit confused in filling the section "Present field of study". I know that i have to write about the my current education background. But the problem is, i don't know how much the detail to write in this section. For example, i am a computer science student with focus on software designing and software engineering. What detail i have to put in these section. I think if i put all the technical detail, the committee will throw away my application :'( :'( :'(

So, come on guys, successfull candidates, please share what you write in the section "present field of study". I think this will be useful info for all of us.

hi heza! for me myself, i've just stated the course name and major also. eg: Electrical Engineering major in communication electronic

 

[akaitsume1]

Hello everyone!

Good luck to all of us applying for 2011.

I have a question, when we write for the part where we state whether we obtained admission or not, I have only emailed them, and well, the one in charge, not yet the prof, replied, can that be considered as "acquiring"?

And also, if by some chance, none of the 3 unis accepted me (hopefully not) and I got admission from somewhere else not on the list, would I be able to get in that kind university?

Anyway, I'm interested in Japanese Studies and Japanese Linguistics.

Anyone who can recommend unis (and profs or programs?) for research? Hoping to get into masters later.

Btw, I have other questions. We have 3 universities we write on the application right? But if we get embassy recommendation, are we able to contact other universities not on our list? Thank you very much!!

"Already acquired acceptance" means that you literally have a letter of acceptance from that university saying that you're going to be a student there. An official document. Although having someone say, "ok, you can come if it all works out" looks great on your application, it's not the same thing.

Yes, you can go to someplace not within your three top choices. Basically, if you get the recommendation, they'll give you three blank copies of your "letter of acceptance," which you mail off to the professor/school of choice. They kind of expect those to be your top three choices, because if you get all three letters back, they try to place you according to the rank you put down. If you choose a different one, you'll have to tell them it's your new first choice. And yes, if you get turned down by all three, MEXT will find you a school to go to, so you don't have to worry.


As for everyone asking about "Present field of study," I was really confused about that, too. If you're talking about the one on the same document where you write out your research plan, I used that basically as my way of telling them what relevant stuff I've done in the past that qualifies me for the research I want to do. On the document where you only get a line, I just wrote what my majors were.