Hi everyone, I'm want to study at the Graduate School of Information of Waseda University in Kitakyushu in the fall semester next year, and I'm looking for information from past students or students who will be studying this fall regarding arrival for exchange students.
Specifically, I would really like to know when are exchange students told to come to Japan. I know that the courses are listed as starting in the beginning of October and that there might be some sort of orientation week before that, but is attending that mandatory, do they even have that for all schools? Are the arrival and dorm attribution dates flexible by any margin? As I see, many universities in Japan have this kind of fog surrounding this topic.
I have written an email to the university itself, but did not get anything close to a precise answer. All they essentially told me was that there may or may not be some orientation before the start of the courses.
The reasons for this kind of communication is extremely unclear to me, I mean they are an academic institution and should have stable plans into the future and it's not like the start of a semester is something unexpected for them, or that they are at any risk of bankruptcy by next fall.
The thing is, that I have to do an internship next year starting in April, and in Europe where I live many companies search for interns with 6 months availability. Thus, arriving in October/ late September instead of early/mid September would significantly increase the pool of available positions, including those at my dream companies 😉
I would be leaving during the second year of my Master's degree and would also like to know how would a 1 year long exchange translate to the japanese academic calendar. Since the academic year there starts in the spring, would that mean that I would be "pushed back" and staying for their second (fall) semester of the first year and for the first (spring) semester of the second year of Masters? Or is a year long exchange not possible at all if you leave during the last year of your Masters degree at your home uni?
Any and all information and advice that you have pertaining to the study abroad experience at Waseda or in Japan in general especially in regards to this type of administrative things would be a great help! Thank you! 🙂
by Sassaglas