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Questions regarding universities 2015/7/3 22:05
I'm in my last year of high school, and am considering to apply a scholarship and study in Japan ~2 years after I'm finished (mainly to polish my japanese as much as possible).

I have several questions :

1. Most universities I've checked in USA, UK and the such require you to have around 3 A-level subjects which differ from each degree in order to be eligible to apply. Do Japanese universities have similar requirements, or do the requirements just need me to take EJU, their entrance examinations and 12 years of education, allowing me to drop my A levels? What if I have a scholarship? I've checked and some universities do (waseda), while others don't have any information related to it.

2. I've heard that there is some sort of limit on the number of students accepted into universities, is this true?

3. I've also heard that Japanese universities, unlike USA/UK's, do not include homeworks in a student's grades, and that all you need is just to attend classes. True? (I heard this from someone around 30 years old, so times may have changed)

4. Does anyone know any university in Japan that specialises/ranked quite high in life sciences (Biology, zoology, etc)?

Sorry for asking a lot, and thank you for taking your time to read this.
by saxonmish (guest)  

Re: Questions regarding universities 2015/7/4 07:53
1. The entrance examination is vary depending on faculties and universities but majority of universities require a written essay and interview as well as Japanese language test or JLPT results and one of biology, chemistry or physics test for science and engineering students.

2. The majority of university do not set how many foreign students they accept, they just put a few or some. This is because the university accepts foreign students if he/she has a good academic background and dedicate universities's reputation. They don't accept students who have poor academic results.

3. University students don't normally have daily home works but they have research assignments every 2-4 weeks interval and short test sometimes.

4. University of Tokyo or Kyoto University have both good reputation in biology and zoology for post graduate courses.
by tokyo friend 48 rate this post as useful

Re: Questions regarding universities 2015/7/4 18:51
Speaking as a biologist and a university teacher, then I would suggest that studying biology in Japanese is completely pointless.

No major scientific journal publishes in Japanese. Science is done in English. So, better to study in English.

If you want to study in Japanese, you'd need near native level Japanese ability before you enter university. Probably, that means 2 years of language school - maybe costing 20,000 pounds or so. Then 4 years of university.

I would suggest, if you want to study biology in Japan, that you go with an English program. You'll be taught Japanese at the same time, so should be fluent by the time you graduate (http://www.uni.international.mext.go.jp/ ).
by Dainichi Heater rate this post as useful

Re: Questions regarding universities 2015/7/5 00:28
Thanks for the answers!

In response to Dainichi Heater, I would like to ask some questions.

What do you think of doing masters and phd in biology in Japan (studying in english programmes)? How much better is it for me to go study somewhere else outside of Japan, taking into account that I like the Japanese lifestyle?
by saxonmish (guest) rate this post as useful

Re: Questions regarding universities 2015/7/5 09:34
I think if you're going to a good English program in Japan, then you'll have no problem going for a master's of PhD either in or out of Japan.

My own student, who graduated this year, applied to 8 master's programs globally (US, UK, Poland, Japan), and was accepted to them all. So, there's no reason to not study in Japan, but I just would advise you that there's no reason to learn biology in Japanese if you intend to become a researcher - you'll basically be taught a whole bunch of Japanese terms which you'll never need professionally.
by Dainichi Heater rate this post as useful

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