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Monbukagakusho Scholarship for Postgraduate!!

Those stats are most of the time unofficial info. Please do not rely heavily on them, nor take them as your absolute reference/prediction. The person who posted it shall not be held responsible if it's inaccurate. We actually have no authority to disclose such info, but we did it out of courtesy to let help fellow applicants gauge their application status. Please do not make a big deal out of it nor start panicking.
Just do the best you can during the application and let fate takes its course.
 
Alright, alright. Easy there. I wasn't planning to hold anyone accountable. I was just curious. I thought maybe I'd missed a website through some epic fail web searching. Sorry for the mixup.
 
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Few threads ago, someone mentioned if you were not able to get an acceptance from any prof/university after passing the first interview, the gov't (mext? or embassy?) will find you a prof/uni.
I'm just wondering if anyone has been placed through this method? How often does this happen? It just seems to me that if you cannot get a LoA on your own, very likely you will be rejected? Purely my assumption, so can anyone back me up? haha.
 

Please read Section 6 of the Official Guidelines: Placement and Research Guidance at University.
At the end of the day, you'll realise that almost 90% of what you need to know has been clearly stated on the 4-page guidelines. That is the official guidelines used by your respective embassies and MEXT Japan. Unless advised otherwise by your embassy (as in the case of the english/japanese written exam), you should heed the advise of the guidelines closely.

To further answer your question. Say, you've tried all the best you could, sent emails to 50 or more professors but still hasn't gotten any positive replies, your embassy might ask you to write a letter on why you are unable to secure the LoA, they will still submit everything to MEXT Japan for reviewing (even without LoA, but they will have to explain your case). In this case, i'm not sure whether your embassy will choose to put you as a substitute instead (do check with them).
BUT, as mentioned in the guidelines, MEXT will try to place you in the Universities of your choice, should that fail, they will again TRY to place you in other universities NOT in your preference. If all should fail within the available time, you will not be selected as a grantee.

In short, to make sure nothing bad happens, by hook or by crook, get at least one LoA.
 
Hey thanks for the headsup. Ya I've actually read that guideline at least 10 times in the past few years haha. It shows how quickly I forget.
I do remember reading the MEXT will try to place you in cases of not being able to find a prof/uni. But my question is that this is just what the guideline says, i was just curious if this has ever happened before. Then again, those who can pass the first interview, almost always possess enough qualification to find a prof on their own anyway.

Which just randomly reminded me of another curious question i always had: MEXT scholarship is mostly by embassy recommendation, but I understand there's another method of recommendation by your university. What happens in that case? Just say you did obtain a recommendation from your graduating university. Do you still go through interview? Or you go straight into finding a prof and get placed?

Arigatou!!!!
 
>north
There were some earlier posts in this thread (somewhere in the 50-page range?) where two applicants who received the recommendation didn't manage to get LoA's. Both were placed in a university by MEXT, though it was clearly a nail-biting experience for both of them. So yes, it's happened before. Try your best, but if you absolutely can't get it, it's not game over! :box:

I have no idea how exactly the University recommendation works. I've heard of some students going through interviews with the university itself (the one you want to go to, not the one you're graduating from), but I have no idea if they're interviewed again by the embassy...
 
>akaitsume

thanks for the info! i'll TRY to dig through the 50 page range. hopefully I'll find it. it just amazes me how you actually remember. sugoi!
 
>north
That's because I happened to stumble across those posts last night. It was either in the 50s or the 60s, I think. I doubt you really need to go slogging through it all.
 

University Recommendation can be both an easier or more difficult pathway.
If you have attended Japanese Universities before, or joined some short courses, student exchange programs whereby you have professors in Japan who know you very well, then you can opt for University Recommendation. It is more direct, and almost guaranteed if your supervisor backs you up.
The process is the same except it skips the embassy recommendation part (written exam and interview) and goes straight to the university acceptance. Some Uni may require an interview. If you have no previous ties with any university or supervisors in Japan prior to your application, University Recommendation is not the right way to apply.
 
ya after posting that question, i realized the whole time i had a misunderstood take on this university recommendation. I always thought it's your OWN university recommending you to a japanese university ><. Never mind

and akaitsume..i've been digging through the past post..still no luck...><

EDIT: FOUND IT....i see....he actually got placed by MEXT in kyoto university. WOW....
 
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there are many successful cases of applicants who didn't manage to get LoA
there's a student who was rejected by the University of her choice to obtain an LoA, however, MEXT managed to persuade that University to accept her in the end. Which is amazing. Though it is presumed that MEXT takes the best effort to put recommended candidates into Universities of choice, it should not be taken for granted.
Right now, since you still have time, try to focus on searching a Uni placement with all your effort rather than thinking of the possibility of failing to obtain one. You have until September to do so.
Do try your best, it's much more secured. Gambatte kudasai.
 
hai! ganbari masu! demo, I'm actually applying in 2010 hehehe still a year and bit more to go. ><
 
well, good for you to have enough info so early.
Hence you have no reason to not find a good placement in the university of your choice. =)
In fact, since you got so much time, if you are really serious in applying, I would suggest you start 'shopping' around Japanese universities right now. If you're lucky, you might find some conference, short term student exchange program, lecture visits, seminars, academic camps etc. Those are usually sponsored. Hence you will have the opportunity to visit Japan, meet your future potential supervisor beforehand and perhaps, stand a chance to request a university recommendation if you establish good ties with the faculty. There are actually many opportunities to do academic visits to Japan, unfortunately I don't have much info on that (i only heard many of my fellow coursemates have actually visited Japan long before coming for actual postgraduate programs). Feel free to explore.
 
Trying to find (current) email contacts for professors is proving difficult. I've asked the international centre of the uni nicely, and they are helping me out.
I was gonna ask, in your experience everybody, did most professors at least reply to your email (even if it was a no)? I'm sort of getting discouraged...
 

From my own experience and that of my friend, 70% of the time there's no reply at all.
 
While I've not received the nomination yet, the professors I contacted have been pretty responsive (and positive). My guess is that it helps alot if you have the recommendation of someone he knows, or read through his research papers so that there is some connection you can bring up.

Or it may be what some of them said, your mails might have been filtered into the spam folder....?
 
Wheeeeee! Got some useful addresses! I always forget how far asking nicely can get you.

Thanks ooilingfan - I have approached 3 people so far, so with those odds I should look forward to one reply! Woo hoo! (ha ha, I'm trying to see the positive)

clipvain - That's great that you have had good responses. I have been very focussed the past few days on writing personalised emails, so hopefully my luck will be as good as yours.

In other good news - "Good luck with your application for the Monbukagakusho (MEXT) scholarship! Best regards, KMD Office" Wow, that's so nice!!! What a good end to my working day after a lousy start.

Hope all the rest of you guys are getting along well too! Has everybody nearly finished interviews?
 

I've had lousy starts to my days most of the time haha... Wish for something like this in my mailbox sometime next week hee...

Interview tomorrow, so wish me luck guys!
 
all the best
Just be confident and show a lot of enthusiasm and passion about Japan culture and stuff
 
Good luck clipvain! I'll be looking forward to hearing how you go!


Heyyyy, I got an email back! And a potential supervisor! WOOHOO! I hope my good luck spreads to everyone else today!
 
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Thanks ooilingfan & Rica!!
I sure hope everything goes well tomorrow!
And will keep your advice in mind ooilingfan! ありがとう～～

Rica, seems like things are starting to look better with the weekends coming huh? =)
 
Good luck in your interview clipvain!

haha... Rica, I'd love to have some of your luck as well!
 
ekoy said:
Good luck in your interview clipvain!

haha... Rica, I'd love to have some of your luck as well!
Click to expand...

thanks thanks! will keep everyone informed, even if i eventually flunk the entire thing =P
all the best to my neighbours who are in process of getting ur advisor!
 
Rica said:
Good luck clipvain! I'll be looking forward to hearing how you go!


Heyyyy, I got an email back! And a potential supervisor! WOOHOO! I hope my good luck spreads to everyone else today!
Click to expand...


Rica!!! You sure have some good luck there! I've just received an email from a potential supervisor as well! XD
 
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