Considering a Nihon University exchange program...

[Kanchou]

Hi, first post. I've been interested in Japan for a while now, and I was considering going over there. I'm going into my Freshman year at college (Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama. Make fun of Alabama and you will be kanchou'd by hundreds of Japanese children. heheheh...), and my school has an exchange program with Nihon Daigaku in Tokyo. So I'm considering it for next year. They send over 40~ Japanese students from N.U. to my school, and we send about 2-3 to N.U.

It's for the Business school, and classes are offered in both Japanese and English (for the business classes, that is). Classes include Japanese economy, language, etc.

I think the program costs around $2200 a semester, and includes room/board, breakfast and dinner, and there are no class fees to pay.

I'd like to get your opinions on the program.

There's more info here: http://business.auburn.edu/intl/documents/nihon_university.pdf (I'm not sure if it's totally up to date)


PS, all 40 students are staying off-campus in the same place I'm staying.

[jingai]

I've never heard of it, but it might just be small. That price seems way low- Tokyo isn't China! Is that on top of money you pay to your American university?

[Kanchou]

I'm not sure. What the woman in charge of the international studies department (who was very excited, since 90% of the students who go anywhere choose Europe or Austrailia) said that you don't pay tuition to the school, and that you pay the school you go to (or something), but the PDF says that you don't pay Nihon University...

It's obviously a pretty small program, considering that this year, there were only 2 students in it from the US, although there were 40~ from Japan...

[ramchop]

(who was very excited, since 90% of the students who go anywhere choose Europe or Austrailia)

That's the key bit there. In programs like this I'm confident you'll be well looked after, but still make certain of it before you sign up.

From what I saw of the scholarship I'm on, 80% of foreign students in Japan come from China/Bangladesh/India... in the orientation, in a room of about 60 fellows only 1 was American. These things are an attempt to get some sort of interaction going with the outside world, and that's the reason it's not going to cost you an arm and a leg.

Good luck!

[Kanchou]

She says that I'm also very likely to get scholarships, because of the low numbers. And the Freeman ASIA scholarship covers a few thousand each semester!

I'm going to meet up with the man who runs the Nihon half (incoming) of the exchange program, and will probably be introduced to the students from Nihon, as well as the American students who went over there.

I'd like to take a Japanese test, just to see where I stand... I took some romaji-heavy online test, and I got something like 24 out of 200 questions... or something... meh. Not bad considering how much I've learned only from anime and the internet... heheheh.

[jingai]

Most students are from Bangladesh/India? Definitely not true anywhere I've been!!! Japanese universities and language schools tend to have nothing but Chinese/Taiwanese/Koreans. The few liberal arts schools with real exchange programs tend to have some rich Asians and the rest from the US and Western Europe. I've studied abroad twice and hung out with plent of gaijin studying in Japan.

A friend put together this helpful page
http://www.japannewbie.com/study.php

This page helped me decide where to go and gives good info: http://educationjapan.org/

[ramchop]

Most students are from Bangladesh/India? Definitely not true anywhere I've been!!!

Different program.

Language schools. From what I've heard a lot of these are used to get a visa, and the students use this visa to get into the country to get a job.

How many of the students you encounter have everything paid for? If they've got to fork out some of their own money it's not a surprise that you haven't met many from 3rd world countries.

In a fully paid up scholarship those with the talent will go to the best institute (generally America or Europe). After that it's down to money. Japan doesn't compete as well on this level as in the past (and the exchange rate is continuing to kill me). However if I came from a third world country (and Gai will say that I do) I could probably buy a couple of houses outright after a year or two in Japan.

[jingai]

Your talking about totally different classes of schools. As someone who went to a university and language school and spent time researching schools, I can tell you that there are places with a mixture of richer Asians and Westerners who actually want to learn. And then there are the disreputable places with 0% attendance rates catering to Chinese and others who just want to work. Sooner or later the government shuts some down, but more pop up. Maybe some reputable schools do a good job of outreach to South Asia, but I saw no evidence of this at my school or my friends' schools.

You do meet a greater geographic mix at universities- I met students from Africa, Indonesia, the Phillipines, etc who were there on scholarship. The other sticker is Japanese language ability, which strongly favors people from China and Korea over S. Asia, as they may already know some Japanese, it would be useful to them at home, and has some similarties with their own languages.

[Kanchou]

Hey, finally got my application finished today!

And to think it that to get from conception to application for the program it only took me... nearly seven months. Wooh!

Now I just have to cross my fingers for those scholarships...

[Kanchou]

Well, sheyit.

It's been a month and two days since I turned in my application and I haven't heard whether or not they've decided to make the effort to give me the stamp of approval and send a letter of acceptance yet.

They've told us that it's been busy with their graduations, so it might be another two weeks... arg.

Oh well, I guess not knowing is better than knowing I've been declined.

[Kanchou]

ehehehehehe...

They finally accepted me.

hurrah.

[Taro Toporific]

They finally accepted me.

Another downward spiral begins, ehehehehehe..

[Coomey]

Nice! My University has the same deal that yours does with Nihon Daigaku. I am currently studying here in Tokyo (mostly language) and am greatly enjoying it. The people in the International and Language divisions were extremely helpful when adjusting to life in Japan, and a lot of the students are more than happy to have an English/Japanese conversation for mutual benefit. Overall, it is a very good program for the cost.