Note: On an alt account as I’m not terribly fond of putting PII on my main.
So, the situation. I am a current junior in high school in the US with a planned early graduation for 2024. I will be just barely 17 at that time. The colleges in my state are alright, but the only one that offers the specific major/concentration that I desire is of somewhat low educational quality in addition to being in a location that I dislike. Out of state is also not an option due to monetary concerns that likely would not be impacted by potential federal/school-specific aid.
More personally, I find the car-oriented culture of the US entirely displeasing, with only a handful of walkable cities and an even smaller portion of those that are affordable. Additionally, I find that living in a cold, snowy climate, one that is very much so not found in my state, is a non-negotiable. So, the plan is as follows.
I take a gap year after graduation, working as much as possible as to build a solid savings in addition to a modest inheritance from a deceased parent. I will also study Japanese between now and age 18 during that gap year, and though I don’t expect to reach N3 by the end of that period, I hope that my previous experience with learning a language to a conversational level will help the process proceed more smoothly and efficiently. After that, I plan to attend a two-year long university preparatory language school course in Sapporo and finally, attend Hokudai as an undergrad.
Monetarily, I feel as if this plan should work given the lower tuition for both institutions combined with a lower cost of living in Sapporo. My concerns would lie with the plunge needed to move abroad, in my opinion, taking such a plunge at an earlier age would be the least risky as, outside of family and friends, there are no roots I’ve set down here. On the same vein as the plunge concern, the lack of a support network also worries me slightly, though I feel as though the language school will provide aid in navigating the move.
Any and all thoughts on this would be appreciated. Thanks!
3 comments
I’m in Sapporo and, as an adult – not on student visa, attend a language school with people that are aiming for what you are, being here on a student visa to attend the two year course, then Hokudai. If you like, you can ask me about the city/language school/etc.
>I find the car-oriented culture of the US entirely displeasing
You’d need a car in the suburbs in Japan as well.
>I find that living in a cold, snowy climate, one that is very much so not found in my state, is a non-negotiable
Will you be ok with the lack of the kind of insulation common in the US?
>After that, I plan to attend a two-year long university preparatory language school course in Sapporo and finally, attend Hokudai as an undergrad.
That would make you two years behind your age group. What kind of career do you have in mind that is ok with older candidates?
Not that there is a problem with this but it really sounds like you are excluding things unnecessarily to further your mental reasoning of why you should move to Japan instead of stay in the US.
> is of somewhat low educational quality
If you are worried about education quality, you could most certainly get a better education in the US.
> car-oriented culture
As mentioned by others, depending on where you would ultimately live in Hokkaido, it is a very real possibility that life would still be inconvenient without a car.
> monetary concerns
If you are graduating a year early, I have zero doubt that you could get a decent scholarship package and most likely make the price difference between a school here and a school in the US relatively equivalent.
> living in a cold, snowy climate,
There are plenty of cold, snowy places outside of Japan.
> undergrad
I’m not well-versed in climatology, but I presume that you would need to pursue postgraduate studies as well to be relatively employable, ignoring the fact that I doubt such a niche focus is overly foreigner-friendly (in terms of employment) outside of academia.
> working as much as possible
Even if you work for an entire year at minimum wage back in the US, money will very likely be extremely tight depending on how large your inheritance is and if your parent is going to be supporting you. You’re probably looking at six years *at least* of essentially constantly being in the red even if you manage to work part-time while here due to the hours worked limit for student visa holders.
Not trying to discourage you, but I just hope that you realize that some of this reasoning doesn’t really make sense when broken down.