japandream,
the time zone difference in the US its like +14hours. some times i stayed up till 4am just to exchange email.
Anyways, I think its better if i didnt reveal the university haha. but i will let you know that it is not one of the imperial universities. He says its one of the top10 univ in Japan. According to my research its not, and my other professor is from Osaka U(rank#3 i think).
He doesnt have a webpage, and he told me that he has alot of foreign students in his lab, so i should "fit in".
I am considering him... that is, after my first 2 options.
I dont need to contact him, he will contact me. This are my favorite 2 lines i say to him:
"Thank you, I will take it into consideration"
"The final decision of which univ i am place under is up to MEXT"
akward~~ maybe its a result of "rikei banare". science students are declining so the prof are forced to seek more students haha.
Nall-ohki, congrats. We may be able to meet up depending on where you go.
ooilingfan,I have heard uni profs are quite positive with MEXT candidates as there are advantages of recruiting MEXT scholars.
reputation wise, more positive exposure to the government, a recognition of credibility, increase chances of securing grants, etc, including saving some money, as i think most private students will ask for some kind of sponsorship from the prof, hence eating into their grants (just like malaysian uni, where we always hunt for rich profs, and rich profs are rich cause the govt gave them more money to encourage postgraduate enrolment).
It's just like an incentive to them. However, there are also other reasons like getting foreign talents into their team, etc etc.
So, it's not a surprise some profs like to take in more MEXT candidates. Anyway, that's just a joint opinion of some seniors and mine. Not an absolute reference and correct me if i'm wrong.
Plenty go to private. I am heading off to Waseda (private) in just over a week. I think far more public schools have an official partnership with MEXT, but there are privates that do as well...
oolingfan: I and a couple of others are special cases. This April, 12 scholarships became available for Americans who had been on the JET program, so I applied then, had my interview in April, found out I had the embassy nomination in early may, got the letter of acceptance from my school in June, got the defininite OK from MEXT in late July, then was placed at my first choice school in mid August.
For normal applicants, that process will be much more spread out.
The program I am entering starts its academic schedule earlier than most schools in Japan, so I will be heading over in early september. It looks like I will have a couple of weeks to get set up, register for classes, etc, before classes start.
Alooohaaa Minna-san
I have a question...!
if one gets a LOA from different Univs, How the hell should one pick up the right one (or is it the embassy or MEXT) and how Should one appologise to the others (than the one selected), and are they not gonna be pissed of because of all the trouble caused?
Got my 2nd LOA today! Will be submitting them to the embassy tomorrow and that's it. Pure waiting until next year. Shall concentrate on my job for now... don't know if I can. Haha.. My mind is filled with me flying off to Japan next April.Really hope to see you all there!! And would really like to thank everybody here for the great input. Wouldn't be able to get this far without the great help from all.....