I’m an American graduating from university this May. Japan is one of the three countries I would like to live in (Netherlands, Japan, or Denmark).
I was a pretty good student for my first two years, earned A’s and B’s, did a summer internship, did undergraduate research for a year in cancer biology until Covid lockdowns shut down my university. I took a year off from university during the Covid-era and focused on making money. That focus on making money carried over to when I returned to university (last year) and my grades suffered (I failed pretty much every general education class because I didn’t do any work in them and got C’s in my major classes. For non-Americans, General Education classes are required courses which are unrelated to your major of study.) and now my GPA is below 3.0, the baseline to getting into most graduate schools. In the U.S., I do believe it is possible to take graduate-level courses as a non-degree seeking student in order to prove you’re capable of a graduate program. From what I have read online about Japanese graduate schools, the case is more of you applying to a specific laboratory/professor/PI to take in rather than applying to the graduate school/program itself. I’ve also read that Japan does not care about GPA and would prefer to see GRE scores and their own standardized tests the universities administer. How difficult is it to get into a university in Japan for a masters in a scientific field?
P.S. I do have a good amount of money from crypto gains and I can effectively cover my living expenses for the foreseeable future if I live modestly (Rent, Food, and some disposable income every month). I also minored in Japanese.
1 comment
>I’ve also read that Japan does not care about GPA and would prefer to see GRE scores and their own standardized tests the universities administer.
There’s no equivalent to the GRE in Japan. Maybe some international-directed programs use something like this
Instead, each department makes its own exam and tests people to have them get in, but there’s often no objective passing criteria.
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> How difficult is it to get into a university in Japan for a masters in a scientific field?
in general not that hard, but with two qualifications:
1. most people who do an MS do so at the same institution where they did their undergraduate degree.
2. some of the best places might be competitive.
>it is possible to take graduate-level courses as a non-degree seeking student in order to prove you’re capable of a graduate program.
Yes, this is called being a *kenkyuusei* (ç ”ç©¶ç”Ÿ). But it’s more so that you pay money to be there and then you try to pass the entrance exam.