Univ of Tokyo - Master’s Degree - Economics

Hi,

I am new to this forum and I was trying to find more information and insight with regards to Todai's International Program in Economics (UTIPE) which is offered entirely in English.

I found an old thread from 2012 and was hoping that some of you would be able to provide me with some guidance and advice as I am considering applying to this Master's program in the next months.

A little background:

I am Canadian and I have graduated from McGill University (generally considered with University of Toronto to be the best universities in Canada) with a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering (weak GPA of 3.2/4.0; to be honest Engineering was not my thing). I went on to complete an MBA a few years later (GPA of 3.9/4.3 with Finance Major GPA of 4.2/4.3) and received two scholarships.

I recently scored on the GRE a perfect score on the Quant portion (170) and 160 on the Verbal portion (85th percentile). I know that they do not accept the GMAT as a substitute to the GRE, but I scored 740 on that exam (97th percentile).

I also hold the CFA designation (Chartered Financial Analyst) and currently work in the Capital Markets group of one of the five largest Canadian banks.

I think that my background would generally be considered atypical for such an economics program that tilts more on the academic side, but I was wondering whether this would actually be perceived as negative by the Admissions Committee. As the school accepts only 10 students per year, does anybody have a sense of the level of competitiveness (I think my profile's major weakness is the undergrad GPA, although this was more than 10 years ago). If anybody could shed some light on North American candidates vs. rest of Asia candidates, that would be useful.

I have read that this program is heavy in maths (their website mentions Calculus and Linear Algebra and ideally some programming), but I was wondering how technical the program actually is (for example, compared to Electrical Engineering). I am more interested in acquiring a strong conceptual understanding of economics and finance rather than delving too much in mathematical derivations (I understand that this degree is technical, but I wanted to clarify that I was not interested in pursuing PhD studies subsequently).

My interest in this program is based on a few reasons: Today's strong reputation, my desire to work in finance in Asia afterwards (Singapore, HK, and less realistically Tokyo due to language barrier – I�fm starting to learn Japanese as I love the language so it would take a while), better comprehension of macroeconomics which is important in finance, and better understanding of Asian economies and dynamics.

Any insights or tips would be greatly appreciated. I'm not sure whether I'll get replies here specifically for this program, so I will post this on other forums too.

Thanks guys,

:)

Hi,

I strongly recommend you contact the university's secretary of the particular course directly and ask to introduce any professor or students there so that you can ask what you want to know. Such consultation prior to any application should be one of their services.

Good Luck !