registering for EJU outside Japan/ general college admission questions

[jittedude]

I want to register for the EJU but I will be unable to
actually be in Japan during the application period.
I read on JASSO's website that you need an address in
Japan to register for the EJU.

Does anybody here know how I could register for the EJU w/o living
in Japan? Is there somebody offering a service, or something?

Also, second question....
I've heard that college admission depends primarily on your scores
on an entrance exam. My grades were bad in high school (currently 18), but I think I can pass the entrance exams to a Japanese university. I saw on various university's websites that they want their students to have graduated from high school, but I saw no mention of grades in high school mattering.

Does anybody here know if admissions at Tokyo University/ Tokyo Institute of technology care about high school grades?

[pipokun]

Both universities require a copy of high school transcript and EJU scores.
The 2nd selection
Tokyo U=>Essay in Japanese and interview in Japanese
Tokyo Tech=>Math/Physics/Chemistry/English/Japanese exams and interview

The prep school, Yozemi/Yoyogi Seminar, gives you what the 2nd exam is like, though it is the 2nd exam for Japanese students.
Math/Physics/Chemistry/English
http://www.yozemi.ac.jp/NYUSHI/sokuho/recent/tokyokogyo/zenki/index.html

On your way to find someone who helps you with the EJU in Japan, it is an idea to apply to the MEXT scholarship as well.

6. UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT SCHOLARSHIP
http://www.ny.us.emb-japan.go.jp/en/h/06.html

Following is the time-line of last year's selection, but I suppose it may be similar this year.
APPLICATION DEADLINE: August 1, 2008
EXAMINATION AND INTERVIEW: August 11-12, 2008
...
(4) Academic transcript for the past 3 years
(5) Recommendation from the principal or the adviser of the last school attended
...

[jittedude]

pipokun, thanks for your reply; I've got some more questions::

1. High school grades: I know that most Japanese colleges want a high-school transcript
as part of admission papers. I've heard that admissions is determined entirely by a tests/interview, and that grades in high school don't matter.

Can anyone confirm or deny if this is generally true, or true for the colleges mentioned above?

2. College:
I haven't been to college yet, but since even if I pass the test
in June, I won't be able to enroll in a Japanese university until 2010,
I'd like to attend a college in the United States between then and now.
I don't expect the credits to transfer, I just want to move out of my parents
home and have something to do.
Does anybody here know if I'll be breaking any rules by applying to enter university as
a new student to a Japanese university, when I've (hypothetically) already been in college for a semester? to enroll in a Japanese university until 2010,
I'd like to attend a college in the United States between then and now.
I don't expect the credits to transfer, I just want to move out of my parents
home and have something to do.

[Charles Barkley]

If you know you won't be able to transfer credits, why do you want to go to college for a year as opposed to find a job, travel, etc?


pipokun, thanks for your reply; I've got some more questions::

1. High school grades: I know that most Japanese colleges want a high-school transcript
as part of admission papers. I've heard that admissions is determined entirely by a tests/interview, and that grades in high school don't matter.

Can anyone confirm or deny if this is generally true, or true for the colleges mentioned above?

2. College:
I haven't been to college yet, but since even if I pass the test
in June, I won't be able to enroll in a Japanese university until 2010,
I'd like to attend a college in the United States between then and now.
I don't expect the credits to transfer, I just want to move out of my parents
home and have something to do.
Does anybody here know if I'll be breaking any rules by applying to enter university as
a new student to a Japanese university, when I've (hypothetically) already been in college for a semester? to enroll in a Japanese university until 2010,
I'd like to attend a college in the United States between then and now.
I don't expect the credits to transfer, I just want to move out of my parents
home and have something to do.

[jittedude]

A lot of my friends are going to the college I'd like to attend for a little while,
and I spoke with a professor there about working part-time as a research
assistant in a bioinformatics lab. It'll still be expensive, but while I'd prefer to start at a
university in Japan ASAP, if I can't I feel like I could get more done at a university here in the states, than working on my own in Japan.

[menrui]

I think your theory could be true to a degree for Japanese students... but i don't know how they judge foreign students exactly.

Does it have to be Tokyo uinv. or Tokyo institute of Tech. ? Those are like, rank #1 & #3 in Japan correct? It's difficult for Japanese students as it is, so it must be really hard for a foreign student to enter. I'm not saying you shouldn't try for them, but if you really want to go to Japan, why not apply for an easier(backup) university too?

Also, I don't think you will be breaking any rules as you are not receiving financial aid. As long as you are paying for everything, they won't care.

[A7mouse]

Hey,
Well, I have some good news for you--they don't care about your high school grades. I dropped out of high school in the U.S. and got my GED. I haven't been asked once where my high school grades are or WHY I dropped out, though every time I submit an application I go to the school so I can explain what the GED is, because they become very confused otherwise. By the time I dropped out I probably had around 1.3gpa or so.

Acceptance for foreigners into Japanese universities GENERALLY relies on 3 things:
(0) EJU scores (All that matters is that you have the minimum required score for each subject, though some universities may consider it more closely. Minimum is usuall 219 for Japanese, though sometimes 280.)
(1) Timed short essay (often 400-800 letters in 60mins, some universities require 1000, 1600 letters)
(2) Interview (sometimes in a group, sometimes individual, they ask you why you want to enter that department of that university, why you came to japan, among other very general questions, they may ask you to explain something scientifically if you're applying to a science department)

Financial capability to pay for university and living expenses in Japan are obvious and go without saying.

In addition, a few rare schools will ask you to submit any standardized test
scores generally required for admission to universities in your home country (SAT, ACT scores for the U.S.). Other schools will require you to take the university's own written exam.

I didn't apply for any national universities, though (the math and science requirements were a little out of reach for me), so I cant advise you too much there. I IMAGINE Tokyo University will pay a little more attention to everything, including grades.

What is it that you want to study in Japan? I, or someone else around here, may be able to recommend some universities noted for that field.

If you're going to apply to universities for 2010 admissions, make sure you take the June (july?) 2009 EJU and the October 2009 EJU. This means I hope you're already fluent in Japanese. If you haven't had many in-depth conversations about the economy in Japanese, and your reading list is shy of a half-a-dozen non-fiction books (in Japanese), you may want to set your aim for coming to a Japanese language school in October 2009, and entering university in April 2011.

Most foreigners who enter Japanese universities (mostly Chinese and Korean) attend a Japanese language school in Japan for 2 years first. If you're already somewhere around JLPT level 2, you can do a 1 year course. If you can do JLPT level 3 or so, you can do a 1.5 year course. (You dont have to actually take the exam, but you have to have that ability. Some language schools may ask you for the JLPT certification if you haven't taken X hours of formal classes--though you could lie and say you took Japanese at your high school and they would never know it, they're not going to call your high school.)

The October route, might be a good option as it would allow you to move out of your parents sooner but avoid the costs associated with doing a semester at uni in the States and getting an apartment and everything there ;). (The intially costs getting set up when you come over to Japan are quite high, as I'm sure you've already been told many many times. Reikin, shikikin, hoshonin daikou, adds up fast.)

While I did find that everyone was very welcoming to an American applicant, and I imagine I receive some benefit from being American, interviewers and university staff were all VERY skeptical that I could understand, read and write Japanese. I believe this works against you if you are poor at speaking, but works for you if you can awe them with your articulate Japanese speech. (In other words, if you can speak well, they assume you study hard so you can read kanji as well, if you speak poorly, they assume you probably can't read kanji either).

I wrote a rather large pdf pamphlet on Japanese University entrance exams a while back, I'll have to find where I uploaded it to. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask. My internet access is a little sporadic, but I should be online for a couple days. You can also email me personally, if you like, i.r.cool at gmail dot com.

Hope to see you here someday,
Chris

[ghostbuster]

Hello,
Im planning to further my study in Japan. The problem is, i can go to class to study, before take EJU.
Do you know where can i find partime or online learning?


Any ideas...