Scholarship questions for studying in Japan

[Milos]

Hey everyone,

I'm planning on going to study in Japan for a year starting September 2009 (that would be my 4th year, I'm in 3rd right now), but I would probably need to get a scholarship to afford to do that. My school (in Canada) is a partner university to around 10 universities in Japan, and right now as far as I know Waseda seems to be my first choice.

Now I've heard about the JASSO scholarship, but I can't find the information I need on it. Does anyone know what they look at when deciding who gets them? I heard its mostly grades, but I'd like to know which grades they look at. Like do they look at all my university grades to date, just my university grades this year, or just the university grades for this one term before the application? Since I'm doing a bit worse for this term I'm not too sure if I'd be able to get it. Also, I haven't taken any Japanese courses yet, but I am registered in an intensive course next term - will this affect my chances of getting the scholarship? Also, does anyone know around what grades you need to get the scholarship? And if I apply to a less competitive school than Waseda, would that increase my chances of getting the JASSO scholarship?

The only other scholarship I've heard of is the MEXT one, but from what I understand that's only for students who are fully attending a Japanese university, not just going on exchange for a year. Are there any other scholarships I should know about?

As you can see, this whole scholarship thing is confusing for me. Thanks for any help.

[Kirirao]

JASSO? They take a look at all your grades and your attendance rate. The requirement says like 50% of the total subject that you took must be A(優), and your total attendance rate must be more then 90%, to apply. I only got 1 B(良) grade. I didn't even got it 3 consecutive times even after the 2nd and 3rd semester I got all A. heh. tough competition. That B is haunting me, or maybe I'm just unlucky. Gave up and went for PT job.


And if I apply to a less competitive school than Waseda, would that increase my chances of getting the JASSO scholarship?

no. The scholarship is not given x num of student for each university. its x num of student for all the university.

Give it a try, probably exchange student and students that are already here are put in a separate pool. So you chance might be higher then you think.

non jasso scholarship for exchange student
http://www.jasso.go.jp/study_j/documents/scholarships07_e07.pdf

[dblbstrd]

I got the JASSO scholarship as an undergrad for a 10-month exchange program, and from what I had heard, each school on the Japanese side that participates in it has a certain number allocated for each year (one of my professors was complaining that if we didn't have enough students and stuff, they might not get as many scholarships the next year). There were not even enough people to fill all the slots at my school that year, so we all got them no problem.

I was applying during my freshman year, and had all As at the time I applied, which I suppose might've looked ok, but I don't think it mattered that much.
As far as Japanese, we had a couple of absolute beginners in my program. I think it's more about having interest than experience, in that department.