From what I’ve heard, a Japanese masters program seem to be very focused on self study and research.
Is there a standardized exam of sorts to weed out students who are not prepared for research tasks? For instance, something like the US GRE exam. Or is it on a university by university basis?
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Most schools will have a direct line to their graduate school office where you can ask for your specific program. Given the wide range of schools, departments, and programs, there’s no single answer here.
Some schools and programs even require reaching out to their office prior to any real application for a preliminary review.
Every school is different. I’m doing a PhD but I know master’s students are required to take an entrance exam (of your chosen field in English or Japanese) and earn 30 credits in classes over 2 years (1 class is given over two terms so it’s 2 credits, which makes 15 classes in total). Compared to this, PhD students are only required to earn 16 credits over 3 years, so it’s more focused on independent research which is standard.
There is no standardized tests like GRE, GMAT, LSAT that applies to all Japanesw Universities. Each school has its own entrance examination process. I don’t know if it is still the case now but when I was a grad student, we had to contact a professor first, discuss your research plan, and then he/she would recommend you to take the entrance exam.
As others have said, everything will depend on the university.
For mid-level public schools, unless the program is particularly popular, it is difficult not to be accepted as a Ma student as it means delivering very few classes for the same tuition as undergrads.
In our case the test is internal to the faculty, and primarily used to rank students for deciding which lab gets dibs on the best ones. The higher you score, the more likely you can join the lab you want.
Depends on the year, but few are rejected completely.
We have a significant drop out rate though. 20% or so don’t make it to their second year.