Searching for a School
Tuesday February 12 2008In the past month I’ve been searching and contacting any graduate school that had a Computer Science Major in Japan. So far only a few schools seems to be accessible for me, even fewer offers lessons in English (which is kinda secondary right now as long as they accept a foreign student that speaks very little japanese), and even fewer again that have entrance examinations in english or none at all.
Here is a list of schools I’ve contacted or will contact soon : (if you are an alumni or a professor or a staff member, orif you have contacts, friends, acquaintances, ex-lovers, neighboors that works in those university please send me a message or comment here I’ll contact you back, I really need help and recommendations).
- University of Tokyo
- Keio University
- Kyushu University
- Kyoto University
- Osaka University
- Tokyo Institute of Technology
- Tohoku university
- Nagoya University
- Hokkaido University
- Tokyo University of Science
- Niigata University
- Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology
- Kumamoto University
- Tokushima University
- Osaka Prefectural University
- Gifu University
- Yokohama National University
- Shizuoka University of Science & Technology
Please read on it gets better and better.
It takes time to write to all of those school, every homepage I visit lack some informations (like application deadlines, list of subjects to be taken, examinations procedure, etc) but none lack the same details as the last one; therefore I’ve to write a custom letters to every school I’m interested in. Why would you need to make going to study in Japan so difficult?
Now to the “interesting part” : scholarships. In two/three words : “I am pour.”; I can’t really ask my parents to pay a 5000$ per year (that’s for public schools, I’ve eliminated privates schools from my list until I find some good funding), and it will be extremely hard to work part-time and study to get a Master’s degree, I’ll need to try eventually, but it would be better to not have to think “Will I’ve enough for an onigiri tomorow?” every single day, right? What would be best would be to get the MEXT scholarship (a.k.a Monbgakusho’s Scholarship) but I’ll need to study one more year in France to get a Master 1 level qualification and then apply to enter a school in Japan in April 2010 (if everything goes well), things would be easier if I could apply in Italy, unfortunately I decided to keep the French nationality when I was 18.
Plan B : My last hope, get accepted quickly in a Japanese school, and then apply to as many scholarships that I can (even the MEXT one this time as a University recommendation student) and hope to get one, or I’ll have to prostitute myself or go back and study in France (where fees are 150$ per years). That’s what I’ll try do do, I have to, or get a part-time jobs that really pays well.
Really I’m getting insane, only today I contacted (by phone) the Japanese embassy in Paris, the Japanese embassy in Rome, the Japanese consulate in Milan, the Foreign Affairs ministry of Italy and two private institutes, only to learn that I won’t be able to apply for the MEXT scholarships (that Master 1 thingy I mentioned earlier with me being French) and that even if I could I wouldn’t be able to attend graduate schools before April 2010!!!! As an Embassy recommendation student that is. I still need to get visa infos, to get infos for grad. schools in France too (we don’t call them grad. schools there anyway), I need to know where I would sleep, which of my friends I could crash at during the entrance exams, or will I’ve to spend money on hotels?
So … please HELP ME!!!! If you can HELP ME or at least cheer me up, or just send me money or just sympathize … that would make my days. Do you know anything else I should do or ask, and to who should I ask it? Really, if I ever become rich I’ll open some bad-ass institutions to help people go study wherever they want, with infos all over the places and scholarships you could buy a Ferrari every months with.
My original plan was to enter a school in Tokyo and live in an apart in Ikebukuro (now you understand the picture that top my blog … it’s Ikebukuro station, a view from the bridge on top of it at least) but it seems that neither Tokyo U., TiTech, nor Tokyo U. of Science wants me (until next year) … maybe got a last chance with Tokyo U. of Agriculture and Technology?
Yeah, who would want of a 25 yrs old guy that speaks 4 languages (Fr, It, Eng, Jp), who’s athletic (yeah, rite!), and a handsome fella’ (my mum wrote this last part), can learn from a book any subject in less than 48 hrs, and that can pass exams-he-had-to-teach-himself-the-subjects-because-he-couldn’t-go-to-lectures with top marks (well 30/30 is top marks … is 29/30 too?)? Sure my accademic record isn’t elite-like, but hey! Try to study science subjects in Italy! It’s chaos!
But, I won’t spit on Kyushu, Niigata, Hokkaido or Tokushima, those Universities sounds great too … If I could get in Yokohama I know someone I could go drink with LOL … Roar - a.k.a Rex Chesney - get ready!!!!
I suck so much at Japanese geography that I don’t even know if I contacted a Univ. near Shizuoka (it should be the Kyushu one right?),Robert-Gilles, where should I apply to get to follow you in your gourmet’s excursions? BTW do you know any universities?
Birth Date : 18th November 1982
Wow, sounds stressful! good luck!
The only foreign students I’ve met in Japan were studying English.
I’ve heard a lot of international students go to Sofia University but I don’t know if they have a computer course.
Hey, I just typed: scholarship Japanese university, into Google and lots of information came up. I expect you did that, though.
yeah … but too much informations is sometime a bad thing … I learned that the only reliable sources for scholarships is http://www.jasso.go.jp or http://www.studyjapan.go.jp as they are more or less government operated.
So far it seems i’ll apply at Hokkaido and Kyushu University, I’ll have to be in Japan in August then.
Roar you know you could apply for a scholarship if u decided to enter a Japanese Language institute …. you should try it. Somes pay 200.000¥ per months, the Monbusho (MEXT) pays 170k … that’s quite some money don’t you think?
It’s incredible the quantity of schools or institutions that offers scholarships for Computer Science students and yet don’t have a homepage or an email address!!! Have to send letters (50 letters italy to japan isn’t cheap believe me).
Wow, tempting. Maybe I should try to get a scholarship to study Japanese if they give me 200,000 a month! That’s not much less than what I already get. (I could make up the difference with private lessons.)
I think Kyushu or Hokkaido would both be interesting places to live.
I heard the food and beverage are topnotch in Hokkaido. Plus I like snow! I would’ve liked to go to Kyoto U. ’cause they have a good American Football team. But Hokkaido got the Hokkaido’s Greens !!! cool huh? I don’t know if I could have enough courage to admit I trained with the Greens.
The catch with scholarships is that you can’t earn more than a certain amount of money, or more than a certain quantity of hours (usually a bit less than a normal 50% part-time job). Plus you have to prove you get good grades (so you’ve to study).
You can say : “I’m researching the booze effect on Japanese society.” and then define the booze effect as a new socio-economic factor in the evolution of society. I’m sure there is a foundation or two with a scholarship for you.
Listen,
How about just coming over and working here for like 6 months or a year. Then you can a lot more investigating in person, especially all the places around Kanto. 6 months to a year off of studying won’t hurt you, I should think.
And, I want to be invited along on this night of boozing with Mr. Chesney and friends!
LOL, I’d like that too. But I got my parents telling me that I’m already 25 years old and that it took me too much time to complete a Bachelor Degree in CS and a pseudo-degree in Japanese (I graduated from high-school when I was 17 years old ). I think they are partly right too. I’d like to help them buy their house soon too (My dad is turning 60 in Sept. 2009).
If no Masters courses in France and Japan wants me I’ll take the JET program opportunity and work a little bit while trying to find something CS related in Japan.
6 months is a lot of time for me LOL.
I want to go boozing too you know … actually I can’t wait.
You can have everything you want; you’ve just gotta take it.
Not much better than a summertime drinking binge in Japan; something to think about.
While Tokyo, Kyoto, and Tohoku are considered the top three schools, I am strangely partial to Nagoya. Maybe because the Linguistics grads I met all seem nice and professional.
You might want to check out the Ministry of Education scholarships. If you can get hooked up with one of those, you are in pretty good shape.
Hey Bikkuri, long time no read.
If I could get the MEXT scholarships that would open a LOT of doors. Basically once you are accepted for that scholarship you can get accepted anywhere on Ministry Recommendation.
But I need one more year of studies in France (I’m french) to be able to apply so I’ll have to wait at least april 2010 to start studying in Japan, While I planned to finish for 2010.