University admissions in the previous season
As we look back at the last season’s situation surrounding foreign students’ university admissions in Japan, the number of those who took EJU decreased but there was not much change in the severe competition to enter popular high-level universities. Recently many of those top universities have tendency to put more emphasis on secondary screening process such as interviews, and in many cases they ask questions to test applicants’ eagerness toward study, sociality and life plans for their own future. That kind of questions are difficult to answer just by cramming for knowledge, they are to test whether applicants really recognize what study abroad experience means in their life and if they are seriously facing it or not.
At KCP, we put much emphasis in preparation for the interviews and secondary screenings and have been helping students enter top universities in Japan. There was also a case that one of our students could not score that high on EJU but got evaluated very high in the secondary screening process and got accepted by university that the student wanted to enter. This time some of those top universities just wrote “interview” on their application sheets as their secondary screening method and held very detailed interview that can be said as real “oral examinations”. This fact is also showing recent Japanese universities’ tendency to put much value in those secondary screenings.
Due to the general decrease in the number of foreign students entering Japanese language schools, it is expected that the number of those who will take EJU next season will be smaller than that of the previous season, but we believe that the top universities in Japan will maintain their current style in their entrance examination. They do not evaluate applicants who devoted in collecting knowledge on books. They expect new students to have their own thoughts and opinions toward things happening in the society by using knowledge they built up as base, and eventually create something we never had. The same thing, in another word “Globalization”, is expected toward Japanese higher education now, and that is a common / mandatory quality that is asked in both organization and people to be part of the current global society.
Graduate school admissions in the previous season
We see that most of those who successfully entered graduate schools in Japan this time were those who decided what to focus on and started their preparation in early stage.
Especially for graduate schools that have two entrance examinations in different times (such as one in September and another one in February for those who did not / could not pass the first one), those who were successful in entering those schools were mostly those who prepared with intension to pass the first test without thinking of the second chance in February.
Recently more and more graduate schools are putting much value on JLPT N1 certification or higher scores in EJU is increasing no matter of the department. Due to the reason it is strongly recommended that students take EJU in June for score of 260 or above and to take JLPT in July to pass N1 level for their goal to enter graduate schools in Japan.
EJU could be taken in November too, and JLPT could also be taken in December, but since there are schools that require application forms to be submitted before the results of those examinations in November or December come out, so it is wise to take those exams in earlier time of a year.
You cannot be too early to start the preparation for these higher educations, let’s start your preparation today!!
March 2012
Head of Graduate School Preparatory Program
Tomoyuki Kawashima