TiTech IGP Questions

[thepie]

I've only started working on it for a couple of months; I mainly spent time studying Japanese last semester. I took the intensive course and it was indeed helpful to enjoy the life here.

I was accepted to a dorm but it was hell too far from Ookayama so I declined the offer. I rented an apartment myself near the campus though. However, probably you should just live in the dorm for the first year, to save money and to save yourself from the trouble of apartment hunting in Japan. I think there's a dorm in Aobadai where you can live more than one year but the distance is far, and the price is not cheaper than a regular apartment. Normally it takes 40min-1hour to go from the dorm (any dorm) to Ookayama - and if you take the intensive Japanese course, you'll have to be at school by 9AM, quite an ordeal indeed.

You're a MEXT recipient so you don't need guarantor or Certificate of Eligibility at all. The visa process is very smooth since the embassy gives A LOT of priority to MEXT recipients lol

 

[FullM3taL]

Hey thepie, could you tell me the acceptance rate of the University nominees of MEXT scholarship? Do all students that are recommended by the Universities get the scholarship? Also, how does the University system work in Japan? Is there much load on students?

 

[frna]

I was pondering over whether to stay at the dorm or rent something myself. I think I'll stay at the dorm because I fear that I might get too isolated if I live on my own right away. How big is your place and how much do you pay if I may ask?

 

[thepie]

@FullMet3l: I've answered this questions many times. It's very very rare to be declined MEXT at this point.
@frna: in case of dorms you typically share kitchen and bath with other people so it's easier to socialize. My place is 50,000 yen, 18m2 exl. utilities. Btw, at the beginning you'll get very cheap dorm, costs only about 20-30,000/a month, but you'll have to move out these cheap dorms after one year . Other dorms are from 45000 to 50000, similar to a regular apartment, but without key money (like a gift to the landlord) and agency's fee (I bargained my way out of the key money and deposit fee though ). The total money for entry is typically 1 month rent + 1 month agency fee + 1 month deposit + 1 key money. You can research it more on the net about Japan's apartment renting system.

However, I recommend you find an apartment near the school rather than living in a dorm far away by saving up with cheap dorm after the first year. From the second year, the dorm options are not much cheaper than renting a room near school, albeit the low entrance fee. Moreover, commuting from those dorms to central Tokyo is quite a hassle , which is a very big disadvantage in my opinion

 

[frna]

A yeah I read about their renting system before.
That being said, I'm surprised you negotiated yourself out of those fees. What did you argue with? That you are a student and thus dont have much money but that at the same time the govt is backing you monthly?
Dont these fees fall away if you use tokodai's renting assistance?

Id love to find something similar to.you.

 

[thepie]

Yes Tokodai indeed has some apartment for direct recommendation for students, but those are more expensive than regular apartment. All of my friends found apartments from real estate agents near the schools, not directly from the school. I just asked the real state agent if there is any apartment at a reasonable entry price, so he made some phone call and asked the landlord directly to remove those fees for me. Anyway, I had to visit many agents, even checking their website. But if you ever plan to find an apartment on the web, avoiding Japanese real estate websites. There're so many "hidden fees" such as key changing, guarantor fee and so on. My case, I went to a real state agent near school and talked to them directly, giving them my price range and let them do the job .

One more thing is the furniture. If you can wait until the end of March, there're a lot of people moving out in Tokyo so they typically give their stuffs at a nominal price (since throwing trash in Japan is rather expensive, about 50-60USD for a refrigerator alone. You can find such people on craigslist.jp - but not all of them are honests dealer so beware . Save you a lot on furniture and household equipment.

 

[frna]

Cool!
Great infos right here, I think what I'll do is, I'll stay at the dorm first year and during that time try to setup something reasonable for the second year. I hope there are 1 year leases though, I heard that's another thing that makes it harder to find something.

So you spent your first semester mainly taking classes and taking intensive Japanese? Did your advisor suggest that or how did that go?
In my proposal I included a timeplan that started working/researching the proposed topic right away... just wondering I guess this will be individual to every advisor.

Getting more and more excited here

 

[thepie]

if you can start learning Japanese right now, do it. Maybe you'll be able to skip to the intensive course level 2, after which you can talk about daily stuffs without much problem (at least it works for me). You have to get permission from your advisor, and the class start from 9AM so it's quite tough when you live in a dorm 40 minutes away, and have to take densely packed trains to school (you know Japanese trains in the morning!). But I don't think your advisor will put too much pressure on you, and the courses here are rather relaxing so you'll do fine. And having Japanese ability is a very big plus for living here, and after the course (level B is like Intermediate 1), you can improve it further by taking higher level courses. However, if you can't get to the level 2 but have to take the level 1 intensive, it's still not bad but not very beneficial.

I spent the first semester mainly doing background research and learning Japanese, but mainly because I didn't form any concrete plan for my research yet. In your case, I think you'll do fine.

Oh btw, the textbook for level 1 is Minna no Nihongo 1 and 2, and level 2 is Minnano Nihongo 2, from lesson 26 and an Intermediate textbook. If you can finish Minna no Nihongo 1 before coming here, it's gonna be fine . I studied it myself and still made it (though I could barely speak anything at all when I entered the school :-/)

 

[frna]

cool, yea I've been taking a basic Japanese course for a while, we use a similar book to minna so I think I can work through that during the summer on my own easily.

I was wondering something else though: Do you have to pay tuition fees from your 150k monthly scholarship funds? Or do they free you of that and you basically have 150k for rent + utilities + food?

I'm really unsure of what to do regarding place... maybe I should rent out like you did, it would probably be less stressful daily and stuff.
May I ask when you departed for Japan and where did you stay from your arrival -> your place? Also how long did it take you to find your place?

 

[thepie]

cool, yea I've been taking a basic Japanese course for a while, we use a similar book to minna so I think I can work through that during the summer on my own easily.
I was wondering something else though: Do you have to pay tuition fees from your 150k monthly scholarship funds? Or do they free you of that and you basically have 150k for rent + utilities + food?
I'm really unsure of what to do regarding place... maybe I should rent out like you did, it would probably be less stressful daily and stuff.
May I ask when you departed for Japan and where did you stay from your arrival -> your place? Also how long did it take you to find your place?

MEXT scholarship covers all school-related fees (admission fee and tuition fee for example ). The only thing you need to do is to apply for the Visa, everything else is already arranged for you. This is a very big benefit compared to other scholarships.

I stayed at my friend's place before moving into the current apartment. you can find some shared guesthouse for short term stay easily if you want. After settling down you can start looking for an apartment. I spent several days looking at website without ,much success, then I talked to some real estate agents. It took me only an afternoon to find my apartment. there are not too many houses near school that can fit your criteria, you know.

 

[frna]

Hey thepie,
I just realized I've made a pretty big mistake. In my "Expected Graduation" document I specified July as my Graduation date (month only) but that is actually just the time where I'll hand in all my passed courses. It takes my University 4 weeks to issue me the actual title/certificate ...
I've just read that failing to graduate by the specified time leads to revoking of the scholarship.

Applicant, who is "expected to graduate" to satisfy one of the qualification requirements and was selected subject to such condition being duly met, will have his/her selection cancelled if he/she fails to graduate by the specified date.

Just wanted to ask you how exactly the MEXT procedure is. Are they announcing that you got selected via e-mail/mail and then what? When do I actually have to apply for Visa and is that also when MEXT is going to check my graduation certificate?
I'll try to speak to my University and beg them to hand me the certificate before end of July but I'm worried as hell now ~

 

[thepie]

Hey thepie,
I just realized I've made a pretty big mistake. In my "Expected Graduation" document I specified July as my Graduation date (month only) but that is actually just the time where I'll hand in all my passed courses. It takes my University 4 weeks to issue me the actual title/certificate ...
I've just read that failing to graduate by the specified time leads to revoking of the scholarship.



Just wanted to ask you how exactly the MEXT procedure is. Are they announcing that you got selected via e-mail/mail and then what? When do I actually have to apply for Visa and is that also when MEXT is going to check my graduation certificate?
I'll try to speak to my University and beg them to hand me the certificate before end of July but I'm worried as hell now ~

You'll have to submit your graduation certificate and full transcript only at the time of admission, i.e. October. So you don't have to worry about that. As long as you graduate before October, that should be fine.

And by "specified time", I think the document means September (as far as I remember).

 

[frna]

Oh that would be a great relief.
What about applying for visa? When did you do that? Do I need my certificate there?

Thanks man

 

[thepie]

Oh that would be a great relief.
What about applying for visa? When did you do that? Do I need my certificate there?

Thanks man

It typically takes only 1 week for the visa, plus you'll have to wait for the papers to arrive, probably in August. So people often do it near the end of August. I think you'll probably need your certificate for the visa, but I'm not so sure. You can check on the website of the Japanese embassy in your country

 

[frna]

Hey thepie, just wanted to thank you again! I don't think I could have done it without you.

Omg so excited that I got selected for mext.

 

[thepie]

Congrats! And brace yourself to learn Japanese

 

[frna]

Yeah lol, there's a lot to do before October.
Right now I'm still focusing on my studies, but once thats done summer will be all about Japanese and finding a place to stay and figuring all the stuff out I need etc

 

[frna]

hey thepie me again,
I'm currently wondering about renting. I decided I want to rent straight away and not stay in a dorm. So my plan is to arrive in Japan as soon as possible (probably around mid september) and stay in a guesthouse until I find a place.

Could you give me the name/address of the real estate agency you went to? That'd be really really helpful. I've been searching online on homes.co.jp and I've found some decent (albeit expensive) places near campus. I was just looking through them to get a sense of what to look for.

Also I was wondering about a guarantor. Did the University co-sign for you or how did you do that? Are they even doing that if you're not using their renting service?

Lastly I wanted to ask about building structure: Most houses I've seen had wooden structure. I've seen only one that was reinforced concrete. I heard wooden is bad for two reasons: walls of paper - you hear everying, and fire during earthquakes. Any idea about that?

Thanks!

 

[thepie]

First off, don't bother searching on the net. They only have expensive apartments and the cheap ones are basically the baits to lure customers. I wasted a week with them to no avails (at that time I wasn't confident enough to speak to a real estate agency but afterwards I tried anyway). And a lot of them passes apartment from this agency to another, in a kinda shared database... So you know, all the middleman's money.
Rooms around Oookayama area typically cost about 50-60,000yen, depending on the types (mansion type, with concrete structures, costs around 70,000). But September is not the high season so the price may be more reasonable than April. Anyway, you should talk directly to the real estate agency, visit the room first before making any decision. I don't have the address of my real estate agency but it's right in front of the school so you'll probably talk to them during your search anyway . Real estate business here is a tricky thing (I can rant about this for hours) and you should do transactions directly anyway.

About the guarantor, the university will co-sign with you if you apply for a disaster insurance for 8,000yen/2 years. But not all landlords accept this type of insurance, and many real estate companies require you to pay them guarantor fees so they will be your guarantor, and it costs like half a rent, much more expensive than the university choice. My real estate agency, however, spent time to explain this university guarantor thing to my landlord, and it's not very common unless the landlord's dealt with foreign students before.

About building structure, yes, wooden ones tend to have sound problems, but that depends on the walls rather than the building structure. Some apartments have very thin wall, but some others are fine. Fire is not a big issue here since you have the insurance, and wooden ones are typically more affordable than steel structured ones. You can check when you look for an apartment about such problems anyway.

 

[frna]

Hey thepie, another silly question here:
What kind of photos (dimensions) did you bring along? I was under the impression that I need 25x30 for the student id and 30x40 for the residence card. Anything else?

Do I need anything for the language course?

Thanks in advance.

 

[thepie]

I think I brought also 40x50, but I can't remember using them.

About the language course, you may wanna check it out: Japanese classes

If you've finished Minna No Nihongo 1, then I'd really recommend you taking the intensive class B. It goes really fast and you can reach pre-intermediate after the course.

 

[frna]

Cool, ty.

Are you taking the classes with credits or without?

 

[thepie]

Cool, ty.

Are you taking the classes with credits or without?

I started with Intensive B (I self-studied before). The class was without credit. Last semester I had one class with credit and another without credit though. Feels good to be Intermediate level

 

[frna]

AW: TiTech IGP Questions

Envy! I hope I'll get there
I haven't had the chance to start the book but I finished a similar one. I'll just take the placement test to see which level to start on.

I hope my advisor is okay with me taking this class, we have lab meetings every Monday and Thursday afternoon from what I understood...

 

[nguyencq]

Hello, I am Cao,
I will apply for MEXT scholarship to study at TiTech of 2013.
Congratulation to frna and FullMet3l for your getting this Scholarship, thanks to Thepie for your sharing experience.
I have some issue, please help me. There are many forms that I dont know how to fill in. And also, I am not sure that my Research plan, Research proposal is fine. I would like to look at yours as my reference. Could you please send me your application documents. my email: [email protected]
Thank you very much.