Higher education in USA after Japanese high school?

8 comments

1. If you’re an American citizen, no TOEFL required, just take SAT/ACT and submit other required materials. I was out of state, went straight after high school. If applying for top schools, acceptance rates are significantly lower applying from overseas than applying domestically. Good luck.

2. All my schooling (except study abroad) was in the US, but I can tell you the requirements listed on my university’s website.

   My university lists either TEOFL or IELTS as a requirement. Looks like they also require either ACT or SAT score.

3. Im currently going to college in the State so I think I can answer few question.
   1. I were able to get accepted to college in the US right after graduating high school but due to Covid, my school moved to online studying. I didnt really like studying online with 13 hours different so I defer and took a gap year.
   2. Unless you are LPR or US citizen, I dont think you can the in state tuition as an international student. But if you are LPR or US citizen, its will depend on the state but most will require you to live there from 1-3 years before getting in state tuition.
   3. Required English proficiency test are usually TOEFL around 80-90 and IELTS around 6.5-7.
   Let me know if you have any other question.

4. I know of a two cases of japanese students enrolling in community colleges, CC. One of these was at a CC (parkland, if you’re interested) in the city where I had gone to uni (U-ILL). He had a great time, and the influence/flavoring of the big uni on town life made it a great choice.

   It may not be important, but CC are cheap, too.

5. Depending on school and program, a minimum TOEFL of 450, more often 550-600+ is required. Some schools will accept students with lower scores than those, putting them in intensive English classes and requiring the student to reach those scores within 6 mo or a year.

   Some schools have also started accepting TOEIC.

   If you have a relative you can live with, community college courses are available. Take them to brush up on your English, if necessary, and to establish residency in that state (overseas student tuition is incredibly expensive compared to in-state.

   Many of these may be accepted as college credit when applying to university in a year or two, at a much lower cost for your first 2 years than the average college tuition.

6. Each state has rules for residency if you’re thinking about public schools mainly. Length of time and amount of “proof” required. You should follow the rules, but if you read the rules for establishing residency, it’s not that hard to do it “more efficiently”. Especially if you have family living in the targeted area.

   Good way to get into preferred college you want to is apply to the community college in their system. Then transfer over and sophomore / Junior year once a large number of prerequisite courses are taken. Threshold to get into community colleges is so much lower than large 4 year universities and so much cheaper.

   But if you have lots of money, it’s easier to apply as an international student as they pay the highest tuition. Most universities unless they have an endowment are struggling with enrollment. So someone who pays 2 and 1/2 to three times tuition is very valuable to a school.

7. One of my kids stayed with my family in the US for a year and a half to gain residency. She went to a US high school after graduating from a Japanese high school. No TOEFL, only SAT.

8. Make sure to have a contingency plan and also sign up for tests in Japan
   They can always go abroad during their uni year as foreign exchange
   Having native level English skills while being Japanese is one of the strongest weapon they can have in Japan