Monbusho Scholarship Problem

[wenling]

Studying in Japan looks fun and all when you are looking at it from within your native country.
However the experience may differ with individuals... some was just fantastic, others are struggling...

I was awarded with Monbusho scholarship for a period of 2 years from 2008 to 2010 as a research student preparing to enter into PhD programme in a Japanese private university.
I did not have any prior Japanese language ability so I want through an intensive basic Japanese language for 3 months and later prepared for the PhD entrance exam into my faculty.
Before coming to Japan, I have exchange email with my soon-to-be academic supervisor and he told me that it was OK to write my PhD dissertation in English, thus, giving me an impression that core PhD classes would somehow be in English as well. I was also informed that PhD entrance exam and interview will be in English.
With that in mind, I came over to Japan and sat for my PhD entrance exam.
To my surprise, when I sat for the PhD entrance exam, the instructions are in English while the exam questions in Japanese and they request candidate to write answers in English or Japanese... so you may guess how I fare...
The interview was a shock to me as well... I sat in front of a panel of 5 Professors and only 2 understand English... worse still, the lead Professor claimed that my research work was useless eventhough my academic advisor has already look through it beforehand... the rest of the Professors just sit there and give me some weird or funny look...
In the end, I was informed that I did not make pass the exam because my English proficiency was low eventhough I have a TOEFL IBT score of 105.
I was told to wait 1 more year to try again for the entrance exam... apparently, the faculty I try to enter only has 1 intake per year for foreign students and it was always held in November.
Another thing was the PhD core classes... apparently there was none and according to the norm, PhD students have to attend Master Degree or Undergraduate classes to earn the necessary credits for graduating other than your PhD dissertation... and you may have guess... all the Master Degree and Undergraduate classes are conducted in Japanese... can you imagine just how useless I felt... sitting there like zombie and wasting my time not understanding a thing of what was being taught on the board.

Due to the unexpected and dire situation, I decided to try some other Japanese university and inform my supervisor about it.
As you probably would have know, he was not happy and not helpful in recommending me to any universities.
He told me to find on my own and he is not assisting me in writing recommendation letter or anything.
That was the beginning of me being put into a freezer storage and other kinds of problems started to crop up.

But, I went ahead enquiring and sending in my application.
As I started looking quite late, I miss the Spring deadline and was aiming for the entrance exams in Autumn for next year Spring intake in 2010.
Then, I was informed by the International Center that if I enter into PhD programme in 2010, my scholarship will be withdrawn because the intake was not within the 2 year period given by MEXT. The period given was April 2008 to Mac 2010. Spring intake starts in April 2010.
So, they advice me to do a Master Degree either in the same faculty or a different faculty.
Of course I have to select a different faculty that is English friendly.
According to the officer from the International Center, if I was successful in my enrollment into another faculty or university, MEXT would have to evaluate again and decide whether to continue awarding me the scholarship for the Master Degree programme.
Furthermore, if I were to decide to continue on to PhD level, it may be impossible because I have already used up 2 years as a research student said the officer.

My questions are:

(1) Is it still worth it to take the risk to continue applying Master Degree with the possibility that the scholarship might be withdrawn?

(2) If I was to apply for an inter-faculty transfer, will my former academic advisor be influential in trying to discredit my application to another faculty?

(3) Does any one of you knows of the success rate in retaining the scholarship after you went through an inter-faculty transfer or moved on to a new university? Any helpful tips to keep in mind?

(4) Has anyone went through 2 years of research student, 2 years of Master and 3 years of PhD under Monbusho? Everyone that I know seem to only go through 1/2 to 1 year of research student and on into their desired programme. Will Monbusho decide to impose any restriction when I do intend to apply for PhD later on?

All advices is appreciated. Thank you.

[jj-peasuke]

Studying in Japan looks fun and all when you are looking at it from within your native country.
However the experience may differ with individuals... some was just fantastic, others are struggling...

I was awarded with Monbusho scholarship for a period of 2 years from 2008 to 2010 as a research student preparing to enter into PhD programme in a Japanese private university.
I did not have any prior Japanese language ability so I want through an intensive basic Japanese language for 3 months and later prepared for the PhD entrance exam into my faculty.
Before coming to Japan, I have exchange email with my soon-to-be academic supervisor and he told me that it was OK to write my PhD dissertation in English, thus, giving me an impression that core PhD classes would somehow be in English as well. I was also informed that PhD entrance exam and interview will be in English.
With that in mind, I came over to Japan and sat for my PhD entrance exam.
To my surprise, when I sat for the PhD entrance exam, the instructions are in English while the exam questions in Japanese and they request candidate to write answers in English or Japanese... so you may guess how I fare...
The interview was a shock to me as well... I sat in front of a panel of 5 Professors and only 2 understand English... worse still, the lead Professor claimed that my research work was useless eventhough my academic advisor has already look through it beforehand... the rest of the Professors just sit there and give me some weird or funny look...
In the end, I was informed that I did not make pass the exam because my English proficiency was low eventhough I have a TOEFL IBT score of 105.
I was told to wait 1 more year to try again for the entrance exam... apparently, the faculty I try to enter only has 1 intake per year for foreign students and it was always held in November.
Another thing was the PhD core classes... apparently there was none and according to the norm, PhD students have to attend Master Degree or Undergraduate classes to earn the necessary credits for graduating other than your PhD dissertation... and you may have guess... all the Master Degree and Undergraduate classes are conducted in Japanese... can you imagine just how useless I felt... sitting there like zombie and wasting my time not understanding a thing of what was being taught on the board.

Due to the unexpected and dire situation, I decided to try some other Japanese university and inform my supervisor about it.
As you probably would have know, he was not happy and not helpful in recommending me to any universities.
He told me to find on my own and he is not assisting me in writing recommendation letter or anything.
That was the beginning of me being put into a freezer storage and other kinds of problems started to crop up.

But, I went ahead enquiring and sending in my application.
As I started looking quite late, I miss the Spring deadline and was aiming for the entrance exams in Autumn for next year Spring intake in 2010.
Then, I was informed by the International Center that if I enter into PhD programme in 2010, my scholarship will be withdrawn because the intake was not within the 2 year period given by MEXT. The period given was April 2008 to Mac 2010. Spring intake starts in April 2010.
So, they advice me to do a Master Degree either in the same faculty or a different faculty.
Of course I have to select a different faculty that is English friendly.
According to the officer from the International Center, if I was successful in my enrollment into another faculty or university, MEXT would have to evaluate again and decide whether to continue awarding me the scholarship for the Master Degree programme.
Furthermore, if I were to decide to continue on to PhD level, it may be impossible because I have already used up 2 years as a research student said the officer.

My questions are:

(1) Is it still worth it to take the risk to continue applying Master Degree with the possibility that the scholarship might be withdrawn?

(2) If I was to apply for an inter-faculty transfer, will my former academic advisor be influential in trying to discredit my application to another faculty?

(3) Does any one of you knows of the success rate in retaining the scholarship after you went through an inter-faculty transfer or moved on to a new university? Any helpful tips to keep in mind?

(4) Has anyone went through 2 years of research student, 2 years of Master and 3 years of PhD under Monbusho? Everyone that I know seem to only go through 1/2 to 1 year of research student and on into their desired programme. Will Monbusho decide to impose any restriction when I do intend to apply for PhD later on?

All advices is appreciated. Thank you.



Look for another PhD program, in another uni.
Any other effort wil be futile.

[Trichophyton-in-my-pants]

Hate to break it to you but 105 in TOEFL IBT is pretty bad for an academic.

[arin]

'' JLPT lvl 1 and higher '' is the minimum requirement to be able to study in a Japanese university.
You will be treated just like every other normal Japanese student.

[wenling]

So, based on the advice I get,

(1) TOEFL IBT 105/120 is not good enough to do academic studies... so what is "good" enough?

(2) Even for PhD programme, foreign students must have JLPT Level 1... so you are saying that all 100,000+ foreign students that come to Japan for a wide variety of courses possessed JLPT Level 1? Then, why did MEXT select me in the first place caused I did fill up the form saying I have no prior Japanese language ability. So, MEXT just overlooked my application?

(3) To seek out other universities for PhD programme and any other "effort" will be "futile"... can you please elaborate on what "effort" and "futile" means?

Thanks for the really "constructive" advices.

Can anyone else give me some other advices?

[Xentropa]

'' JLPT lvl 1 and higher '' is the minimum requirement to be able to study in a Japanese university.
You will be treated just like every other normal Japanese student.

Incorrect.

[jj-peasuke]

So, based on the advice I get,

(1) TOEFL IBT 105/120 is not good enough to do academic studies... so what is "good" enough?

(2) Even for PhD programme, foreign students must have JLPT Level 1... so you are saying that all 100,000+ foreign students that come to Japan for a wide variety of courses possessed JLPT Level 1? Then, why did MEXT select me in the first place caused I did fill up the form saying I have no prior Japanese language ability. So, MEXT just overlooked my application?

(3) To seek out other universities for PhD programme and any other "effort" will be "futile"... can you please elaborate on what "effort" and "futile" means?

Thanks for the really "constructive" advices.

Can anyone else give me some other advices?



next time don:t ask for advise then.

no wonder you are having problems at uni.

cry baby cry...

[Trichophyton-in-my-pants]

So, based on the advice I get,

(1) TOEFL IBT 105/120 is not good enough to do academic studies... so what is "good" enough?

(2) Even for PhD programme, foreign students must have JLPT Level 1... so you are saying that all 100,000+ foreign students that come to Japan for a wide variety of courses possessed JLPT Level 1? Then, why did MEXT select me in the first place caused I did fill up the form saying I have no prior Japanese language ability. So, MEXT just overlooked my application?

(3) To seek out other universities for PhD programme and any other "effort" will be "futile"... can you please elaborate on what "effort" and "futile" means?

Thanks for the really "constructive" advices.

Can anyone else give me some other advices?

(1) I said 105 is pretty bad, and I stick to my argument. AFAIK the minimum for TOEFL IBT in some institutes is 100, which basically requires you to do extremely bad (considering how this particular joke for a test is scored).

(2) JLPT 1 or higher is very good reguirement for most fields. Can you imagine studying, let's say sociology, in Japanese without JLPT 1 level skills? MEXT on the other hand has nothing to do with individual curriculums, and the universities are sure as hell not going to change them for the odd foreign student.

(3) He's being sarcastic, and meaning that your underlying problem is your lack of language skill, leading to the assumption that you think that the grass is greener on the other side. "I can't hack the Japanese classes here so let me try and change schools, in Japan".

My advice to you, learn the language.

[wenling]

I do not mean to insult anyone here but I do appreciate when forum users will be kind enough to elaborate on their comments instead of just giving one liner sentences.
When someone is seeking help (either you or me), wouldn't it be best when some experts do explain it why certain ways or methods is the best solution?
Again I do not mean to create a fight or insulting anyone... the purpose I put up my post is to get some advices and perspectives from people who have gone through similar process or experience it themselves.

So, according to "Trichophyton-in-my-pants" explanation,

(1) My TOEFL score is bad and my language skills is not good enough to do academic studies not even in Australia, UK or America.

(2) Since my Japanese language is pretty much the basic level, I should not have accepted MEXT Scholarship in the first place unless I have JLPT 1.

(3) So, changing universities or faculties in Japan is a "no-no" because all Japanese universities teach in Japanese language. I should just return home if I cannot learn the language fast enough to be able to comprehend Japanese language for academic levels.

Thank you for all your advices.
I understand now that I should not be here and I should just return home since I could not comprehend Japanese language for academic levels.
And I also realised that my English language ability is so bad that I should not pursue PhD anymore. I should start working now.
I will inform MEXT about my decision to return home since it was a mistake for sending me to Japan to do PhD programme.

Once again, thank you for all your kind advices.
I must stress that I do not mean to insult anyone but just to get some other perspectives from all the experts here in the forum.
Thank you "Trichophyton-in-my-pants" for your patience in explaining it to me.
I now know the truth and will leave Japan soon.

Please forgive me if I have hurt anyone feelings because it was not intentional.
I will not waste anymore of the forum users precious time with this problem.

Thank you for being patient with me.
I wish all of you the best in all your undertakings and have a nice summer holidays.

[Since1990]

Please forgive me if I have hurt anyone feelings because it was not intentional.



Got hurt feelings? You're not the only one...

Have a listen to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lg51dzWHJE

[Trichophyton-in-my-pants]

Again, it's about the realities. I could say to you that yeah 105 in TOEFL is pretty good to make you feel better, but that is not really the problem. Why I mentioned it is that I know how the test is, and I know how they score the thing, AND you mentioned it as a defensive act (and I'm an ___).

I could also say to you that yes, you can pursue a degree and have a smooth sailing with zero Japanese skill in a japanese university. That, however, would not be true. The amount of Japanese you need in a university depends largely on your field and faculty. In some cases you can do with everyday conversation levels, in some, like law for example, you really need to have close to JLPT 1 level to even function properly. If you are in computers or related it's not that important since the lingua franca is in fact English. If you do something else I am quite frankly amazed that you would even think that you can do it with zero language ability. It is after all, Japan.

Of course you are free to look for another university, but that does not mean that the grass is greener on the other side. Again depending on your field you would probably face the same problems in the new university. I don't know squat about how MEXT works, but my gut tells me that changing universities after a year or so is not well received.

To me the gaijin-flu attitude (I'm coining a new term here) of thinking that the Japanese environment is magically going to adapt to you is raising some red flags. If you're not in an English speaking country, it is pretty much given that you need some amount of language ability to function. Again, it's all about the realities.

[Xentropa]

My experience with graduate school in Japan.

1.) Getting accepted is 95% determined by your relation with your professor or research advisor. As long as he/she says yes, and you can provide the administrative documents regarding your academic history, then pretty much nothing else matters. You can even bomb the entrance exam for all they care.

2.) Getting a scholarship is much easier if you have been accepted or if your school can vouch to the scholarship program of your strengths.

3.) I don't know if scholarship is really required that much, school here is incredibly cheap compared to UCLA which is where I went to.

4.) Science programs do not require mastery of any language, just fluency in either English or Japanese. I wasn't required to take JLPT, TOEFL, GRE and actually I was even exempted from the entrance exam. This is NOT the case with non science programs. Business, Law and everything else requires no enlish and full mastery of Japanese.

5.) PhD isn't ever worth doing if you don't plan on becoming a college professor.

Ultimately get a good relation with your professor and research advisor. He/she will be able to answer any questions you have regarding schools and scholarship. Very rarely will you be able to find accurate non anecdotal instructions on the Japanese school systems online. The way things work in this system is kinda on a case by case basis.

[kurogane]

Out of curiosity, Xenotropa, was it your mastery of Japanese that got you into the programme?

I assume it wasn't your English abilities, though for a non-native speaker you seem competent.

[Xentropa]

Out of curiosity, Xenotropa, was it your mastery of Japanese that got you into the programme?

I assume it wasn't your English abilities, though for a non-native speaker you seem competent.

No, primarily it was the research I did in UCLA that got me in. I majored in Physics and I showed the professor my research reports as well as some academic history and employment history and he was impressed enough by it to let me in.

[jj-peasuke]

Look for another PhD program, in another uni.
Any other effort wil be futile.

OK. I will elaborate. But the fact you don:t get the message inbetween lines, actually means you will
find my advise pointless.


-Look for another PhD program, in another uni.

I meant, Look for another PhD program, in another uni.

-Any other effort wil be futile.

I mean, any other effort in order to try fixing your current situation at your current uni is futile.
it is not a matter of language abilities, what are you talking about? it is not about a system.
you simply can:t come along with your prof, for whatever reason (you overreact,as seen in your comments?,
you are a moron, what do i know?)... maybe your hard skills, maybe your soft skills, maybe your
deodorant... who cares? the situation won:t be fixed unless you move on to another uni.

UNLESS, big UNLESS, this is just cry baby cry, and the situation is not that bad, and you just got
upset with your prof because he told you you are not THAT smart (which may happen, because even though
many people will say level is low here at unis in some fields... some other believe that and come over
thinking they discovered the p$nnis-enlargement vacuum principal... and, guess what, they look like
idiots, but they may not be...)....

so, if it is a serious problem. move on.
if not, cool a bit.

in any case, the mere fact that a stranger had to explain you this in a forum... man... that says it all.

[wenling]

Thank you "Xentropa" and "Trichophyton-in-my-pants" for your elaborate explanations and advices.
I really appreciate it.

I now see my own flaw and mistake in coming over to Japan.
With my low language skills in Japanese and English plus my inferior academic abilities, I should not think of furthering my studies in any foreign countries but just stay back in my home country and work as a salarymen (my former job).
I realised that Japan belong to good and motivated people like all of you.

Like "jj peasuke" said earlier, I should not have asked for advices since I deserve to be in this predicament for not being able to see into myself that I will not be able to compete in an international environment.
I am very sorry to have troubled all of you and wasted too much of your time.

Again, I want to stress that I sincerely do not mean to offend anyone.
All of you are in the top echelon of the society and I hope you could forgive a small timer like me for asking unintelligent questions.

Thanks for sharing your advices and informations.

Sorry for the inconvenience but can the moderators please close this thread.

Thank you.

[jj-peasuke]

Thank you "Xentropa" and "Trichophyton-in-my-pants" for your elaborate explanations and advices.
I really appreciate it.

I now see my own flaw and mistake in coming over to Japan.
With my low language skills in Japanese and English plus my inferior academic abilities, I should not think of furthering my studies in any foreign countries but just stay back in my home country and work as a salarymen (my former job).
I realised that Japan belong to good and motivated people like all of you.

Like "jj peasuke" said earlier, I should not have asked for advices since I deserve to be in this predicament for not being able to see into myself that I will not be able to compete in an international environment.
I am very sorry to have troubled all of you and wasted too much of your time.

Again, I want to stress that I sincerely do not mean to offend anyone.
All of you are in the top echelon of the society and I hope you could forgive a small timer like me for asking unintelligent questions.

Thanks for sharing your advices and informations.

Sorry for the inconvenience but can the moderators please close this thread.

Thank you.

man, you have an attitude here...

[kurogane]

man, you have an attitude here...


Really???????

I thought the OP had finally awoken to the fact that he really is a dumbass.............................

I will say this, though: Japanese profs and the university power structures seem much, much harsher on Monbusho recipient non-native English speakers than they do on the rest of us.


Of course, the fact that some of them are also presumptuous dumbasss cvntfarts that can barely order lunch in English can't help.

And don't get me started on those Turks......................

What I want to know is why nobody ever has the guts to firebomb the principal's office over this sort of stuff???

That would be cool......................................

[arin]

What I want to know is why nobody ever has the guts to firebomb the principal's office over this sort of stuff???

Maybe because it is not illegal to kick someone out they dont like ?

or

Maybe because they have the power to take away everything they gave you which once belonged to them?

[Iftikhar]

I think you can come out of the problem !

In Japan there are some nice universities in Tokyo, Yokohama, Chiba where the entrance exam and studies are in English.

I suggest you to spare some time .... go to these universities and try to find your country fellows ..... you have to spend 2 or 3 weeks

your country fellows may be helpfull in communicating with professor ......first dont ask for Schlorship ... just get admission ...

In almost all good universities there are lot of schlorships for the self supported students ...and also you can get a fee concession .. In the mean while you can get a part time work permission ..... it is now allowed for self supported students ....

register yourself with foreign students recruiting companies like "Top Career 2010" you will hopefully get a job .....

spport yourself for six months .... I think you can ....
Normally first year in universities remain cool .... so you can adjust yourself .....

please try ...you can pass this difficult time .....

Dont loose heart ......


I feel you can slove it ..... if you feel i can help ... please PM me ... I will try my best .... I already done it for another fellow ......

[alex_ccc]

according to my information most of the students that come with the MEXT scholarship don't have japanese language skills. Depending on your university, your faculty and your professor the japanese requirement can be "fixed".

I know there are many universities where your studies can be done in english without problem, actually for the phd is normally no problem because the amount of class to be taken is minimal.

As an example hokkaido university has many programs english only, not only that but in my experience most of the foreign students actually study and work in english not japanese (even if they arent in english programs). If you are pursuing an engineering mayor I would recomend you to visit the Hokkaido University e3 program.

It seems to me that your situation is quite unusual. And I feel sorry for your situation.

Ps. I wont comment but be careful with the information you have gotten in this site from other users. It seems to me that it can be misleading and not true.
Ganbatte!
Alex

[drew1996]

I know I'm digging up an old thread here, but this a perfect example of the problem with this forum. I know people love to flame others on forums and dish out on people they think are stupid but this is just ugly. This person came here asking for help, which is one of the great things about forums especially for people in a foreign country but some of you people treated the person like crap. You question this persons attitude? Take a look at yourself why don't you.

I am a lurker on this forum, I hadn't actually signed up because I found almost all of the answers I was looking for by searching the forums here, as such it is clearly a great resource. So many times I have been searching on here and read negative comments and masses of attitude though and as much as most forums have this sort of attitude from a couple of surly posters it seems like it is way more common in this forum.

I just hope this person didn't give up and go home because of the surly comments of a few people who need to get out more often.

To the rest of the posters in here who positively contribute, I love your work, thanks for the info!

[xHime]

@drew1996: People did help. You just don't like that they didn't coddle and sugar-coat and lie. Tough.

Just reading the OP you can tell this person's English is too poor for PhD studies in English. No concept of grammar whatsoever and even the vocabulary is shaky. Why bother learning Japanese through an intensive course and going to Japan when you haven't even mastered English and you want to earn a PhD through an English-speaking school?

[teoporta]

(1) I said 105 is pretty bad, and I stick to my argument. AFAIK the minimum for TOEFL IBT in some institutes is 100, which basically requires you to do extremely bad (considering how this particular joke for a test is scored).

(2) JLPT 1 or higher is very good reguirement for most fields. Can you imagine studying, let's say sociology, in Japanese without JLPT 1 level skills? MEXT on the other hand has nothing to do with individual curriculums, and the universities are sure as hell not going to change them for the odd foreign student.

(3) He's being sarcastic, and meaning that your underlying problem is your lack of language skill, leading to the assumption that you think that the grass is greener on the other side. "I can't hack the Japanese classes here so let me try and change schools, in Japan".

My advice to you, learn the language.

I'm in a Japanese University, and i have everything in english. Often professors cannot speak well. As you may notice, I'm not native english speaker, and my TOEFL ibt score is 106 (pretty much the same as him).
People with 105 TOEFL ibt can enter into the faculty of law in Cambridge (UK), so i guess it's not a bad score, even though the examination itself is a joke.

I can understand every single little thing that happened to him, and i guess there's little he could do.
Good luck anyway ^^