Basics:
The inconveniences with mailing documents physically are that there are lots of steps and procedures in mailing it physically. You will have to print out documents with your counselor and put it in a sealed envelope together. You can’t do this by yourself – you must do it together with your counselor to avoid chances for fabrication of materials. You are also required to fill in the shipment order manually. (Writing down the address for university and for YCIS.)
Important advice
Personal Statement
Every single university requires personal statement. The amount of personal statement varies from school to school. For example, one of Waseda university’s department requires maximum 400 words, but another department requires around 1000 words. For Keio University, they do not have a specific word count, but it requires 2 to 4 pages of personal statement no matter it is singe spaced or double spaced. The main topic for personal statement is similar. From my experience, I mainly discussed about why I am interested in this university with this specific subject. Besides, the university wants to listen your opinion what you want to learn and achieve in the university. Also, it requires to show that your vision and future after you graduate the university. It does not need to be specific but try to give some brief vision of your life after graduation. However, another university require a brief introduction of myself apart from personal statement itself and a brief description of a topic that I was interested in last year.
Requirement for Predicted Grades, Transcript and exams
Again, it also varies from university to university. Mostly, all school-published documents such as transcript, IB predicted grades, transcript, certificate of graduation and school profile will be prepared by school counsellor. For this part, you do not need to worry about. However, one thing that you need to worry is to check the school official website and admission guide carefully. This is because some universities require students and their high school to submit some school documents in designated form. From my experience, I realised that there is a designated IB predicted grade and certificate of graduation for Keio university right before I mail all of my documents through DHL. Hence, I requested my counsellor to rewrite those documents in their designated forms. Such numerical data is important when you apply Japanese university. It does not mean that other CAS activities are negligible.
- -If you expect UCAS or commonapp, there is no such integrated system in Japanese university application. You will submit your application to every single school that you are applying.
- -There’s no limit to the number of Japanese universities you can apply to. However, majority of them require separate personal statement that is specific to the school, where you explain why you want to study that specific major/course at that specific university.
- -Unlike other universities in the US and the UK, you are submitting your application to the department not the school admission center. This means that each department has their own admission center, and they will receive your application. In other words, you can apply same school twice by applying different department. For example, I have applied two different majors in Waseda, but their application system functions separately, so you can treat them as separate school.
- -Commonly your application is submitted to each university’s official websites. Also, very often, physically mailing some of the documents to Japan is required. You will mail documents with your counselor in a sealed envelope; you cannot mail it by yourself as there’s risks of submitting fake documents.
The inconveniences with mailing documents physically are that there are lots of steps and procedures in mailing it physically. You will have to print out documents with your counselor and put it in a sealed envelope together. You can’t do this by yourself – you must do it together with your counselor to avoid chances for fabrication of materials. You are also required to fill in the shipment order manually. (Writing down the address for university and for YCIS.)
- -Essentially your application consists of your grades (transcript, exams and predicted grades), your personal statement (Word count varies depending on each school, in majority of the cases it’s around 2000 +) and reference letter(s). School-issued documents (school profile, letter of recommendation, IB predicted grades, school transcript and certificate of graduation) will be uploaded by you and your university counsellor.
- -Unlike universities in the USA, Japanese universities primarily look at your academic capabilities and it is essential that you are able to fully demonstrate this throughout your application (However, this does not mean that exceptional extracurricular activities make no contribution during the application process.)
Important advice
- -Maintain good relationships with your teachers. When you apply to universities in Japan, most of universities will require letter of recommendation in their designated forms. So, you might need to ask letter of recommendation for several times, which may stress the teacher.
- -Start EARLY. Many of the Japanese universities have separate application periods. (e.g. Keio university has 3 application periods throughout the year). However, this does not mean that you can wait until the very last minute; the chances of getting an offer if you apply to first application period can be slightly higher than applying to the third one. Also, it’s important to note that many Japanese universities offer a second chance; if rejected for your first application, you can apply again during the second application period, for a different major. Therefore, if you are certain that you want to study in Japan, make sure you start your application early. (The first application period can start as early as September, October).
- -RESEARCH thoroughly! Application to Japanese universities are extremely complicated compared to the UK or Canada. Many documents such as copy of passport page, external tests result such as IELTS, transcripts, specific forms provided by the universities may be required. Also, many Japanese schools such as Waseda university, require very specific teacher recommendation letter, where forms must be downloaded from their official websites and teachers must fill the forms out. Or, for Keio university, teachers are required to create an online account on the website to fill out the form. All this information varies depending on which school you apply to and when you apply. Therefore, it is extremely important to go to their official websites and go through their instruction pages for application process of IB students.
- -Compared to UK universities, Japanese universities have much less subject specific requirements. However, if you are aiming for the rather competitive schools, it is important that you check their subject requirements before applying. (At 2020, Tokyo universities only offer two types of majors for IB students, and they both require very specific subject combinations). You can find all the information on each universities’ official websites and admission guide booklet that every single university publish.
- -Make sure you manage your time very well; This is extremely important as mailing documents to Japan can take few days or even longer, and application period can be short. If your documents do not arrive at the university before the deadline, your application will not be considered, no matter what the reason for your delay is. Therefore, I suggest that minus one week than the application deadline because that last one week will be used for shipping time. Although it might take less than one week, one week is the safest time.
- -Read the admission guide booklet carefully. It is your bible when you apply Japanese university because you must follow their admission guide booklet. It contains most of information that you need when you apply. If you still do not have a clear idea on what you are doing, you can just directly email to admission office centre. Furthermore, some universities in Japan will require some documents in designated forms. For example, Sophia university requires your letter of recommendation, IB predicted grades and certificate of expected graduation in their designated forms.
- -Doublecheck and triplecheck. When you physically mail your documents to the university, you must check that you have prepared all documents with correct form.
- -Some universities such as Waseda university may require you to pay part of the school fee when you accept their offers; in 2020, the amount required was roughly 50000 RMB.
- The acceptance rate varies a lot each year, depending on the majors. If you are interested, you can go to each universities’ official website to check if they publish any data from previous years. However, I feel like the acceptance rate vary a lot every year depending on the number of applicants, and also many Japanese universities don’t publish them. Thus, acceptance rate shouldn’t be the most important factor that you consider when choosing your courses/universities.
Personal Statement
Every single university requires personal statement. The amount of personal statement varies from school to school. For example, one of Waseda university’s department requires maximum 400 words, but another department requires around 1000 words. For Keio University, they do not have a specific word count, but it requires 2 to 4 pages of personal statement no matter it is singe spaced or double spaced. The main topic for personal statement is similar. From my experience, I mainly discussed about why I am interested in this university with this specific subject. Besides, the university wants to listen your opinion what you want to learn and achieve in the university. Also, it requires to show that your vision and future after you graduate the university. It does not need to be specific but try to give some brief vision of your life after graduation. However, another university require a brief introduction of myself apart from personal statement itself and a brief description of a topic that I was interested in last year.
Requirement for Predicted Grades, Transcript and exams
Again, it also varies from university to university. Mostly, all school-published documents such as transcript, IB predicted grades, transcript, certificate of graduation and school profile will be prepared by school counsellor. For this part, you do not need to worry about. However, one thing that you need to worry is to check the school official website and admission guide carefully. This is because some universities require students and their high school to submit some school documents in designated form. From my experience, I realised that there is a designated IB predicted grade and certificate of graduation for Keio university right before I mail all of my documents through DHL. Hence, I requested my counsellor to rewrite those documents in their designated forms. Such numerical data is important when you apply Japanese university. It does not mean that other CAS activities are negligible.