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MEXT Scholarship 2015 (Research Students)

EUS0J

後輩
19 Jul 2013
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Hello to all, I'm starting this thread so we can all share experiences and knowledge about the Monbukagakusho Scholarship for Graduate Students (Research Students), I'm from Mexico and I intend to apply for the scholarship at the Japanese embassy in my country, I'll post in here the links that I've gathered with information regarding this scholarship that focus on graduate Students, most of them are experiences written by other people, and I think they could be very useful for everyone here. If this thread is repeated please tell me, or erase it.

Please note that none of this links and the comments on them belong to me, and I don't intend to get credit for them, I just wish to share them so we can all use them and help each other out, if by posting this links I may cause any kind of mishap, please forgive me, it's not intended to cause trouble:

Links in English:

Study In Japan Comprehensive Guide
Dave's Blog ? Going to Graduate School in Japan on a Monbush? Scholarship
How I got the Monbusho Research Scholarship (Part 1 of 4) | Lars Martinson: Cartoonist
With Love from Japan, Eustacia: For Monbukagakusho (MEXT) Scholars
How to get Monbukagakusho Scholarship | Urban User Experience and Interaction Design
Taiwan Pirate: Asian Art, Education, and Adventure: My MEXT Monbusho Study in Japan Scholarship Process Part I (postgraduate but still useful)
10 Biggest Japanese Universities Enrollment (using MEXT scholarship) | Dhresta's Corner

Links in Spanish:

Muere, Blogosfera: Beca Monbukagakusho (very useful)
BaJap?n: Las Dos Caras de la Moneda, Beca Monbukagakusho
Beca | ?Un mexicano en Jap?n! (for undergraduate, still useful)

Links that require payment:

Monbukagakusho Research Scholarship (2013-2014) Prep. Guide? eBook - GraduateInJapan.com

I've paid this one, is truly useful, but it's outdated (last version of the eBook is from 2010)
I hope you find this links useful, I certainly do, if you stumble across other sources, please share them, and for those who already got the scholarship share your experiences with us, it would be truly appreciate it.

Finally, let's start with questions and answers, we should be able to help each other if we make an effort, let's share, communicate and build connections so we can all get better chances on getting the scholarship.

Let's do our best!!!
 
great threat a lot of useful info here, i just have a simple question how do you know how many opened scholarships in your country.
 
great threat a lot of useful info here, i just have a simple question how do you know how many opened scholarships in your country.

You can't, there's no telling how many scholarships there are available, you can try to search on the MEXT-Japan homepage to see the total number of scholarships from last years, I do saw it once there, but I lost track of it, let me see if I could retrace it and post it here.

At any rate, you should try and ask at your local embassy, I did ask once and they told me that with each year it varies in function with the budget they get assigned.

Ask to your local embassy, if they don't give you an answer, contact people from your country (people who already obtained the scholarship) and aks them if they remember how many people got the scholarship when they applied.
 
You can't, there's no telling how many scholarships there are available, you can try to search on the MEXT-Japan homepage to see the total number of scholarships from last years, I do saw it once there, but I lost track of it, let me see if I could retrace it and post it here.

At any rate, you should try and ask at your local embassy, I did ask once and they told me that with each year it varies in function with the budget they get assigned.

Ask to your local embassy, if they don't give you an answer, contact people from your country (people who already obtained the scholarship) and aks them if they remember how many people got the scholarship when they applied.

OH seems right thanks for the answer
 
Hello! Thank you for making this thread. I am from Canada and I am also going to apply this year for the research monbusho. If I find any useful resources I'll post it here. :)
 
Hello! Thank you for making this thread. I am from Canada and I am also going to apply this year for the research monbusho. If I find any useful resources I'll post it here. :)

Thanks for the interest, it doesn't seem that this thread is getting much atention though, it would be cool if you can share your experience so far gathering information, maybe contacting potencial advisors and such, I'll do the same to add ideas to the thread.
 
If there's one piece of advice I'd give to anyone applying from Canada, its find and talk to your potential advisors early, ideally you'd want them to be willing to take you (Though just unofficially, nothing can be done officially until you have your conditional acceptance paperwork from passing the interview) before you go into the interview, so start looking after you pass the first stage and are invited to the interview.

Why? Because if their timing is the same as this year, then they will ask you to start formally contacting potential advisors right before the start of the Bon festival and the deadline is shortly after. AKA when everyone who decides to take vacation days will be off from.
 
Interesting. Do you know if professors will let you help them with their research even if you are not studying at their university. I am currently in Industry, but I would love to do do a side research project, even if I do not get accepted.
 
Interesting. Do you know if professors will let you help them with their research even if you are not studying at their university. I am currently in Industry, but I would love to do do a side research project, even if I do not get accepted.

I think it depends heavily on the specific professor and university. Honestly though, I believe its relatively easy for those in large western countries with a good academic university base to get in though. It seems there's quite a few spots reserved for these countries but few applicants comparatively.

I'm pretty sure my consulate alone had more spots available then some of the smaller eastern european or south-east asian countries.

If you have a well thought out plan and purpose for studying in Japan, show effort into making it work and are flexible with your plans you'll have a good shot at getting in from the US.
 
Hi. I have a question.

I have a bachelor and a diploma, but my diploma is totally unrelated to the field of my bachelor's degree. I'm just wondering, do you think I can do my master's degree in a field related to my diploma?
 
Hi. I have a question.

I have a bachelor and a diploma, but my diploma is totally unrelated to the field of my bachelor's degree. I'm just wondering, do you think I can do my master's degree in a field related to my diploma?

I guess you could do it, since you have a diploma on the field, although that would make more difficult, since other applicants will be applying for scholarship using their bachelor's degree and it'll just make it much more difficult to get it, this is one of the questions you should write down and directly ask to your embassy, or even submit it to MEXT Japan, please note that this is my rough guess, if you get an answer diferent than mine please share it
 
Hi Nar, thanks for your advice. I think I'll start contacting professors in May then.


Here are some blogs I found as well:

monbukagakusho – Well… It's Me

Dreaming a dream | From Japan's least visited

A Never Ending Dreams (窶督イ窶堙ーツ終窶板ケ窶堋オ窶堙遺?堋「): Why Monbusho-Kobe?

monbukagakusho | Before I Die

I was wondering what department and universities you guys are applying for?

Thanks for sharing these links any info is well received, my major is in computer science, and I would like to do research in something like "how can we translate or export technology from japan to Latin America" kind of topic, that's the rough and resumed translation at least, what about you?
 
My bachelor's is relatively unrelated to the master's degree I applied for (Computer Engineering and Neuroscience respectively). I did do undergraduate research in the field of my master's degree though and with just that I had absolutely no problem.

Though if the field you want is a really popular (or otherwise space limited) field then people with a bachelor's in the field may seem more attractive, but that's really up to the potential advisor and the admission committee for that university so its not bad if you have some attractive reason for going in the field (Did really well in your diploma courses, undergrad research, just really interested and enthusiastic etc...)
 
[MENTION=60708]EUS0J[/MENTION] - Oh! that's interesting! My major is International Relations and my research is about contemporary Japanese politics.

I was wondering for the Certificate of Health in the application, do we just print this out and bring it to our family doctor/ walk-in clinic? I know this is needed after passing the primary screening but it's never too early to be informed.
 
[MENTION=60708]EUS0J[/MENTION] - Oh! that's interesting! My major is International Relations and my research is about contemporary Japanese politics.

I was wondering for the Certificate of Health in the application, do we just print this out and bring it to our family doctor/ walk-in clinic? I know this is needed after passing the primary screening but it's never too early to be informed.

You need the Certificate of Health for the primary screening, and ya, just print it out and bring to your doctor, you'll need blood tests and x-rays done as well so it'll take at least 2 visits unless you happen to have recent comprehensive blood tests and chest x-rays on file.
 
You need the Certificate of Health for the primary screening, and ya, just print it out and bring to your doctor, you'll need blood tests and x-rays done as well so it'll take at least 2 visits unless you happen to have recent comprehensive blood tests and chest x-rays on file.

As I understand and recall from a previous meeting with the japanesse embasy in Mexico, the certificate of health will be deal with after you go trough the screening process, and the embassy will tell you where and when you should take the health examination
 
As I understand and recall from a previous meeting with the japanesse embasy in Mexico, the certificate of health will be deal with after you go trough the screening process, and the embassy will tell you where and when you should take the health examination

It may be different procedures for each country but the embassy (and consulates) in Canada requires you to send the Certificate of Health in the initial set of documents for the primary screening.
 
It may be different procedures for each country but the embassy (and consulates) in Canada requires you to send the Certificate of Health in the initial set of documents for the primary screening.

It seems like that, also I don't know if they do this in other countries, but here in Mexico there's a preliminary meeting where they try to resolve the most common doubts, so this thread should help to gather information and prepare some of these questions provided they do this kind of meeting at your respective country.
 
[MENTION=60851]nar[/MENTION] - I just re-read the guidelines and you were completely right! Thank you for pointing that out.
Better get those tests done soon.
 
I have a question for whoever is following this thread: Did any of you contacted your probable advisor before hand? do you let them know you where trying to get the monbukagakusho Scholarship and what did they tell you? and how was your approach? I did try to contact some advisors without too much luck, although one of them seemed interested in my research topic he wouldn't promise me anything regarding a letter of acceptance BEFORE applying for the scholarship.
 
I have a question for whoever is following this thread: Did any of you contacted your probable advisor before hand? do you let them know you where trying to get the monbukagakusho Scholarship and what did they tell you? and how was your approach? I did try to contact some advisors without too much luck, although one of them seemed interested in my research topic he wouldn't promise me anything regarding a letter of acceptance BEFORE applying for the scholarship.

Officially, one should not be contacting probable advisors until after the first screening, some advisors will hold steady to this rule, others are more flexible and it may indirectly tell you a bit about your potential advisors.

I mainly asked lightly about if advisors were potentially looking for more students, if they thought my research topic was suitable for their lab and such without asking for any commitment or promise about acceptance. The goal is not to get an acceptance in advance, but to simply get more guidance on choosing advisors and letting potential advisors know in advance that you may be sending a formal application in the future so they are expecting it and can make a decision with minimal delay (This is even more important if your applying in countries that require you to get an acceptance in early August, because this overlaps with the Bon Festival and lots of professors take vacation days during this period). Also going into the first selection interview with already a list of potential advisors and such is a big plus for the your chances in the interview.

Another of my fellow applicants took another approach in that they had contacts with professors in their specified field and had much better success in getting to know their potential advisors, one even helped them with refining their research proposal for the application.

Either way though we contacted our potential advisors after the first part of the first screening. That is after our initial applications were accepted and we were invited to an interview as we had enough of a time gap to comfortably do so. That may not be the case for every embassy's timeline though. You may find more advisors are open to discussion with you after you are already invited to the interview.
 
Hello everyone!

I also decided to apply to MEXT for the research non-degree program! I already am doing my Masters
at UCL in London so I would like to get some lab experience in Japan! I also started recently the digging info on the process. The
amount of which is rediculously massive but I guess its worth it! So I have questions I would like to ask but experiences (few so far) I would like to share.

To all of you that you are students/or leaving in another countrly like me (Greek national living in UK) the embassy in your countly of stay cannot help you! I called today the Japanese embassy in UK and they politely told me that there is nothing they can do and I need to apply from the Japanese embassy in Athens or whatever...Well although it does make sense It makes things even more complicated. I will be calling to find more info but I suppose just to apply I need to go back for the physical examination and pay flight tickets? Am I so wrong to find this rediculous? I hope I can get it done in the UK . In any case the procedure will definately be longer for me

I also wanted to ask If MEXT has an email adress? I have searched on their website like forever. I can find various email adresses, but only from different internal organizations-not specifically mext. They just have a japanese phone number.

Thanks for everything everyone is sharing it is truly incredibly helpful :D
 
Hello everyone!

I also decided to apply to MEXT for the research non-degree program! I already am doing my Masters
at UCL in London so I would like to get some lab experience in Japan! I also started recently the digging info on the process. The
amount of which is rediculously massive but I guess its worth it! So I have questions I would like to ask but experiences (few so far) I would like to share.

To all of you that you are students/or leaving in another countrly like me (Greek national living in UK) the embassy in your countly of stay cannot help you! I called today the Japanese embassy in UK and they politely told me that there is nothing they can do and I need to apply from the Japanese embassy in Athens or whatever...Well although it does make sense It makes things even more complicated. I will be calling to find more info but I suppose just to apply I need to go back for the physical examination and pay flight tickets? Am I so wrong to find this rediculous? I hope I can get it done in the UK . In any case the procedure will definately be longer for me

I also wanted to ask If MEXT has an email adress? I have searched on their website like forever. I can find various email adresses, but only from different internal organizations-not specifically mext. They just have a japanese phone number.

Thanks for everything everyone is sharing it is truly incredibly helpful :D

I knew someone who was in Japan for JET and applied to the embassy in Canada. He could do it as long as he had a Canadian address, mailed the appropriate documents and flew back for the interview/examination (and the flight I guess, but he can just decline it since he's already in Japan).
 
Hi everyone I'm from Mexico too. I have info about Monbukagakusho. In Mexico for undergratude studies are around 5 places, for japanese student studies are 5 too. For graduate are 12. I know this because i asked the head about how many posibilities Mexico has and those were the answers. Actually I'm applying to Japanese student studies and I'm so nervous, my exam and interview in in two days. I really apreciate you have this project because in Mexico no one has any idea how to apply to this scholarship.
Thwe next coments will be in Spanish in order to give more info for Latin America countries and Spain.
Bien chavos como mencione estoy aplicando a la beca y esa es la informaciテウn que yo tengo. Les doy los puntos breve de cada una aunque hare enfasis en la de perfeccionamiento del idioma japones, ya que es en la que menos informaciテウn hay en la red.
LICENCIATURA
Depende que quieras estudiar, si es ciencias naturales y exactas haras examen de matematicas fテコツ進ca biologテコ} quテコナ?ica inglテゥs y japonテゥs, deberテ。s reunir 220 pts para pasar a la etapa de entrevista (desconozco si siga siendo valido este puntaje), el examen de japonテゥs no tiene tanto peso como mate o fテコツ進ca. Es mejor que sepas japonテゥs en un nivel N4 para que sumes puntos a tu favor, el nivel de inglテゥs requierido es equivalente a un TOEFL 550pts. Una vez que pases los filtros de tu embajada deberas esperar la respuesta de MEXT. si eres aceptado vas a Japテウn a estudiar japonテゥs por 6 meses y presentar el examen de admision a la unviersidad que desees, si no lo pasas te regresas a tu paテコツ? asあ de simple.
MAESTRIA y DOCTORADO
Es en la que mテ。s info hay, asあ que no tiene caso que escriba sobre ella.
PERFECCIONAMIENTO DE JAPONES
Es la que estoy aplicando, espero me la den. Debes estar en la licenciatura a fuerza, nada de que cubrあ crテゥditos pero aテコn no me titulo, error frecuente de los aplicantes. Se requiere minimo el N3 para aplicar, no es necesario tener el comprobante oficial ya que a traves del examen que hace la embajada se dan cuenta del nivel, el examen de aテアos pasados estan para llorar, si eres fregonsisimo en japonテゥs espera un puntaje de entre 60 a 75 pts no mテ。s, si tienes el N3 espera entre 40 a 60. Si tienes nivel mテ。s abajo te recomiendo que si aplicas te pongas las pilas pues la gramatica del examen no es la tipica de que particula va sino es perrisima, las lecturas son de tres paginas completas con alrededor de conocimiento de entre 1000 a 1800 kanji, pero no te desamines si se le entiende a la idea principal. En cuanto al papeleo que es donde mテ。s tarde, al menos en Mテゥxico te piden la carta de recomendacion del director de la universidad, debes tener promedio minimo de 8.0 afortunadamente yo tengo 9.3 de la licenciatura =) me abre muchas posibilidades. debes hacer tu la traduccion de documentos, no vayas ni dos dias y mucho menos un dia antes de cerrar la convocatoria, porque siempre te regresan los papeles por cualquier cosa, y lo mテ。s importante, podras haber cumplido con la Embajada pero si no registras tu candidatura ante la SRE estas descalificado.
Si me dan la beca, prometo escribir un post a fondo en espaテアol, ingles y japones sobre el procedimiento. En verdad debes tener muchos meritos para aplicar, en mi caso me veo favorable por tener ya el certificado de ingles y japones. Ademas estudio Chino, hice investigacion para la UNAM (ahi estudio), etc. esas pequeテアas cosas te dan el plus.
Espero sirva mi aporte, solo se que Filipinos, Estadounidenses, Coreanos y Chinos tienen mas posibilidades que otros paises.

Olvide mencionar de LICENCIATURA
si tu area es ciencias sociales o humanidades
Haras unicamente Matematicas, Ingles y Japones, pero para este Japones tiene mucho peso, aunque no lo dicen, por lo que nuevamente les sugiero ir manejando nivel de N4, con ese basta para tener las respuestas bien, yo vi los examenes de aテアos pasados y bueno yo ya certifique N3 y ya empece a mejorar para N2, resolvi el examen y tuve 95% de las respuestas buenas de japones, osea hablamos de 95 pts de los 100, ahi ya llevas casi la mitad del puntaje solicitado, asあ que animense chavos.
MAtematicas es complicado, no es un nivel cualquiera, es mate como de licenciatura media en Mテゥxico, asあ que si planean aplicar haganlo con un aテアo o dos de anticipacion
 
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