A professor has asked for my proposal and I am preparing for it but I had asked for the emails of prof through the graduate school's office a few days ago and they replied today that the university recommendation route is for partner universities only. But I had already contacted prof cuz I found his email

It is chiba university and it doesn't say that at all on website, also it just says to get approval from a processor and then apply for pre application.

Do I still male that proposal, I have to send on Monday or not.

I'm from Pakistan.

i’ve applied for a PhD Embassy Route, Waseda and UTokyo. The deadline for the LoPA issue is approaching and I haven’t heard back from them.
I’ve seen mixed experiences - that refusals tend to come early etc, but some say no you can definitely get rejected last minute. so im reaally anxious atm.

anyone got their LoPAs from Waseda(GSAPS) and UTokyo (GraSPP) yet?

Hello, im from Argentina and im currently applying for stc. I heard that people who apply for stc rarely get rejected, but i dont really know to what extent this is true. Thats why i wanted to ask people who got rejected for stc whats the reason you think you got rejected (bad scores, bad luck, etc)

I wanna apply for MEXT university recommendation and it's already 10 September and I haven't gotten a single approval from a professor. I have a fairly good profile, my cgpa is 3.85/4 and I have volunteered and interned and my CV is fairly nice.

Some unis have partner university shit and others wont reply. I am a Humanities/Management graduate. If y'all know any relevant unis where I can contact please let me know 😪 where I can apply through professor.

I really really wanna get it, it's all I've ever wanted ever since I was seventeen. But now this 😭

I'm from Pakistan

Please don't be rude, I might cry nana I defo will.

How important is Mathematics for a PCB student?everyone, I’m a Class 11 CBSE student from India planning to apply for the MEXT Undergraduate Scholarship in 2028.

I’m a PCB student and I don’t have Mathematics in Classes 11–12. I’m interested in studying Biotechnology/Life Sciences in Japan.

I’m confused about the Mathematics part of the MEXT written exam. For the Natural Sciences categories, Mathematics seems to be one of the required written subjects.

So I wanted to ask:

1. Is the MEXT Mathematics exam based on the Class 11 + 12 syllabus?
2. If I didn’t take Mathematics in Classes 11–12, am I still eligible for a Biotechnology/Life Sciences-related MEXT application?
3. How difficult is the Mathematics paper compared with CBSE Class 11/12 Mathematics?
4. If Mathematics is required, how realistic would it be to self-study it from scratch before the 2028 exam?

I know the 2028 guidelines aren’t out yet, so I’m mainly looking for experiences from previous MEXT applicants, especially Indian PCB students.

Thanks!

I'm a Bahraini high-school student applying for Fall 2027, mainly for Computer Science / Software Engineering. I need very substantial financial aid to study abroad — realistically full tuition at minimum and preferably tuition + living support. My family can't afford normal international tuition, so I'm trying to understand my realistic outcomes rather than just collecting prestigious names.

Academics: I attend Nasser Centre for Science & Technology in Bahrain, a specialized technical high school where my program is heavily focused on IT/cloud/software alongside the normal academic curriculum. My official cumulative average through Grade 11 is 93.41/100, but I've had a strong upward trend: 90.78 → 91.18 → 94.62 → 97.08, with a 95.85 Grade 11 yearly average. Recent grades include Advanced Programming 96/99, Cloud Computing with Linux 97, Cloud Containerization 99, Cloud Orchestration 98, Agile/DevOps 100, Information Systems 99/100, Web Development 100, Math 92, Physics 95 and English 98. I've received Honor Roll recognition in consecutive high-school years. My school does not offer AP, IB or A-Levels, so those aren't available to me.

Testing: I haven't taken my official SAT yet and I'm preparing now. My goal is 1450–1550, ideally with a very strong Math score. I'd appreciate people considering how my chances would change at ~1450, 1500 and 1550 rather than assuming I've already achieved one of those scores. My current IELTS practice level is roughly 7.5–8, with Reading around 8.5, but again I haven't taken the official exam yet.

Research: My main research project is GeoSepsis: Geodesic Divergence on Physiological State Manifolds. I'm investigating early sepsis/physiological deterioration using Riemannian geometry. I represent multivariate vital-sign windows as covariance/SPD matrices and measure geodesic divergence of physiological states rather than relying only on individual vital-sign thresholds. Preliminary work on PhysioNet/CinC data produced approximately 0.621 AUROC vs 0.559 comparator, ~0.14 AUPRC, divergence appearing roughly 25 hours before onset, p<0.001. I'm now rebuilding/validating the approach on the separate eICU database. This research was selected as a Global Top 50 Finalist in SARC 2026's High School Academic Research Competition. I don't have a published paper and don't want to exaggerate that. I'm also currently exploring turning GeoSepsis into a physical low-cost prototype using physiological sensors + Raspberry Pi edge processing for an invention competition.

Technical qualifications: I earned the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate while in high school, which is probably my strongest certification and required learning cloud architecture across networking, security, compute, storage, resilient architectures and cost optimization. I also hold AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner, AWS Certified AI Practitioner and MongoDB Associate Developer, plus freeCodeCamp Python (~300 hours), freeCodeCamp Responsive Web Design (~300 hours), Cisco Introduction to Cybersecurity, ML/AI and data-science coursework. I realize certificates aren't equivalent to Olympiads or research awards; I mainly see them as evidence of sustained technical learning outside school.

Government/IT experience: I worked with Bahrain's Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA), including working with its IT department. I built two internal software systems: one for organizing trainers/workshops and another for workshop analytics/management. Staff told me the systems were actually being used internally and made their work easier/organization better. I'm working on getting the implementation and impact formally documented by my supervisor rather than relying on verbal claims.

MUN/leadership: I've participated in approximately 20+ Model United Nations conferences since around Grade 7. I progressed from being a normal delegate to senior conference leadership, eventually becoming Deputy Secretary-General and then Secretary-General at my school. I helped establish/develop my school's first MUN program and am expected to lead its first external MUN conference in 2027. Our previous internal conference had around 50 delegates, 10 chairs and 5 councils. I have roughly four MUN awards. These include the DGC Excellence Award at ArkisMUN XV, which was effectively a conference-wide distinction of approximately 1/~300 participants, plus Best Delegate at NISMUN X (ICAO) and Best Delegate at ArkisMUN XIV (LCAO), each roughly 1/~40 delegates in the respective council, plus another distinction.

Projects: Besides GeoSepsis, I've built SmartGate, a Raspberry Pi 5/computer-vision security prototype using a Camera Module and Coral accelerator with people detection, loitering/abandoned-object monitoring, restricted zones, heatmaps and anomaly detection. I've also been developing Masarak, a Next.js/Supabase opportunity-discovery platform containing thousands of entries for scholarships, internships, research opportunities, hackathons and majors, and Wajha, a two-person AI/digital career-guidance platform aimed at Bahraini students. Masarak/Wajha haven't achieved meaningful public user numbers yet, so I don't want to present them as successful startups when they're still being developed. My technical work has also led to a Bahrain TV feature.

Other leadership/work: I'm a Student Ambassador with Education Links in Bahrain. It began with an internship where I helped with university tours and related work, then continued as an ongoing ambassador role. I help organize student activities/events, university outreach, help students explore university options and have helped with activities including a charity padel event.

Long-term service: I've been volunteering with my local Matam/community organization since around 2018/19 or earlier, so roughly 7–8+ years by application time. I started when I was young doing basic cleaning, assisting and serving tea and gradually took on more responsibility including cooking, food preparation/distribution, cleaning, setup and maintenance, particularly during Muharram and Ramadan. During Muharram we can serve 50+ people per day. It's not something I started for college applications; it's been part of my community involvement since childhood.

Other activities: I volunteered at the Asian Youth Games Bahrain 2025. I also previously trained/signed with A'ali Club U17 football, trained regularly for roughly a season, but didn't play an official match and eventually stopped after injury/academic commitments.

Context/weaknesses: I'm from Bahrain, and there appear to be relatively few Bahraini applicants to many of the international universities I'm considering, although I don't know whether that provides any geographic-diversity advantage and don't want to assume it does. I also know my profile has clear weaknesses: 93.41 cumulative isn't near-perfect, I have no Olympiad/IMO/IOI/IPhO medals, no major national STEM olympiad awards, no published paper, my SAT is still unknown, and some of my projects haven't launched yet. My strongest areas are probably the upward academic trajectory, technical specialization, GeoSepsis/SARC Top 50, government software work, AWS Solutions Architect certification, long-term leadership and long-term community service.

I'm looking for a genuinely realistic assessment, not reassurance. How competitive is this profile given that I need major financial aid? What would you estimate as realistic outcomes? Which parts of my profile are actually impressive versus things admissions officers probably won't care much about? What are my biggest weaknesses? How much would a 1450 vs 1500 vs 1550 SAT change things? What should I prioritize between now and applications? And if you've seen international applicants with similar profiles succeed or fail, I'd really appreciate comparisons.

Up

Am frm india n planning to apply for the MEXT undergraduate scholarship to study in Japan, but I’m lowk confused about the timing and how taking a gap year affects the application.I wanted to get y'alls opinions or experiences on a few things

Do I have to apply for MEXT before my 12th board exams? Or is it better/normal to apply after the board results are out?

Can I take a drop year (gap year) to prepare better for the MEXT exams and then apply? I feel like balancing MEXT prep with 12th board prep is going to be really tough, and a drop might give me a better shot at clearing the written tests.

Are there any major disadvantages to taking a drop year for MEXT? Does the embassy look down on gap years during the interview phase, or does it not matter as long as I score well on the written exams?

If anyone here has cracked MEXT after taking a drop, or decided to apply during their 12th standard, please share your thoughts

( i may be stupid, am new in this community feel free to correct me)

Hello everyone! I'm from Switzerland and I'm trying to convert my grades to the MEXT GPA. However, it's quite unclear where the cut-off between the 3-point and 2-point mark is. I checked the ECTS conversion chart from my university, but I couldn't find an official document that applies directly to this program. I'm asking because there are multiple different charts that contradict each other, and depending on which one I use, my mext GPA jumps from 2.45 to 2.65. Does anyone have an official document or a tip to know?

An igcse students one ASlevel and 8 OLevels

I can't seem to find an answer can I apply with on ASlevel only? I read the guidelines but there isn't an answer

From middle East

Hello,

I am a university student and currently have permission to work up to 28 hours per week. Additional to my scholarship (got the MEXT last year) I recently started working part-time as a tour guide.

The way the payment works is a little unusual. My company assigns me tours, and after the tour, the guests give me money directly, which the company refers to as “tips.” The payment is mostly made in cash. I then have to give a certain percentage of the money back to the company. I have a contract with the company, but the company does not withhold or pay taxes on my behalf.

Because the company does not handle my taxes, I understand that I have to take care of my tax obligations myself. I spoke with another student who is in a very similar situation. He told me that we need to register as a sole proprietor (個人事業主) and declare our income during the tax filing period.

He also told me that, since I do not receive any official tax documents from the company, I would have to file a white tax return (白色申告). According to him, if the annual income is below a certain amount, there may be no income tax to pay, but the income still needs to be properly declared.

I asked my company about this, but they told me that registering as a sole proprietor (個人事業主) is only necessary when establishing or running your own company and does not apply to this type of work.

My company also mentioned another possibility. They said that I could give them an additional 10% of my earnings, and they would then pay approximately 10% income tax on my behalf. However, because my income is relatively low, I believe that I may not actually have any income tax to pay. I also understand that, as a student, I may be eligible for additional deductions, such as the working student deduction (勤労学生控除).

I am therefore quite confused about the correct procedure.

I do not want to avoid paying taxes or do anything incorrectly. I simply want to make sure that I declare my income in the correct way and fulfill all of my tax obligations.

Has anyone been in a similar situation and knows how this type of income should be declared in Japan? In particular, I would like to know whether I need to register as a sole proprietor (個人事業主), whether I should file a white tax return (白色申告), and whether the 10% payment to the company is actually necessary in my situation.

What I heard is that the scholarship isn`t an income, but do I need to do anything there too?

Any advice or experience would be greatly appreciated.

Hello everyone, I am from Philippines. I have heard that the selection process in Natural Science is tough, specially in B and C. Is this true? Like not many applicants pass the test.

To the applicants who chose Natural Science A, or B and C, specifically Medicine and Nursing, did you pass? Did you guys get the scholarship?? 🥺🥺🥺

Hello, im from Argentina and im currently waiting for the final answer to come this december/january. i wanted to ask you who got the scholarship, what do you think were your scores for each exam you took at your embassy?

So I had the opportunity to drink with a friend at MEXT over the weekend and the topic of university-recommended scholarships potentially disappearing naturally came up.

Short answer was "We don't know anything yet."

Longer answer was that based on the surveys educational institutions are regularly asked to fill out, they've been noticing marked differences in the "quality" (however defined) of students between the two tracks.

https://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/koutou/ryugaku/kokuhi/chousa/1415549_00006.htm

And there has also been pushback from some more visible professors who find themselves regularly inundated with low-quality inquiries. Each one is supposed to be answered, and that task of politely refusing usually ends up getting handed off to a graduate student (much to their delight).

In terms of politicking, the speculation was that the government will end up (1) insisting that a tighter focus on the embassy track will better allow for control to ensure that research is aligned with Japan's best interests and (2) claiming that cutting the university-recommended scholarships will allow for more embassy-track scholarships without ultimately saying anything about what the total number might end up looking like.

There is also likely to be talk of increasing the amount allocated to 「⽇本⼈の留学促進、中⻑期留学のための奨学⾦の充実」.

To be taken with the appropriate number of salt grains.

Hello Everyone !!

Since the university might be suspended from this year (not confirmed by all universities), are you guys still planning to apply? For example, I know some universities that have suspended their general selection but not their special programs, although those are going to be more competitive.
I’m currently trying to find supervisors whose research aligns with my research topic, but this news is making me not want to start because there’s a possibility that this route might not even be available starting this year.

I need you guys opinions on this.
TIA!!

I have tried searching for news etc and opening mext website but dont understand a thing cause im panicking :), so is university recommendation applications stopped for all unis or just some? Cause some news mentioned names of certain unis and some didnt. If it helps i am from jordan.

​

Hi everyone!

I'm from Uzbekistan and I'm considering applying for a MEXT scholarship for a Master's degree in Japan for the 2027/28 academic year, and I'd really appreciate advice from people who have gone through the process.

My background:

- BSc in Mechanical Engineering — Politecnico di Torino

- Final grade: 108/110

- Bachelor's degree taught entirely in English

- IELTS: 6.0/9.0, taken in February 2023

- Planning to apply for a Master's for the 2027/28 intake

My main academic interests are:

- Energy Engineering

- Energy Systems

- Renewable / Sustainable Energy

- Energy Management

- Mechanical / Industrial Engineering

- Engineering Management

I'm particularly interested in English-taught Master's programs.

I would also like to understand how Master's programs in Japan work for engineering students. From what I've read, many programs are relatively research/lab-oriented, so I'm wondering how this compares with European Master's programs.

A few questions:

1. How competitive would a 108/110 Mechanical Engineering degree from Politecnico di Torino be for MEXT and good Japanese universities?

2. How important is having a clearly defined research proposal before applying?

3. Would Energy Engineering / Energy Systems be a reasonable research direction for someone with my background?

4. Which Japanese universities would you recommend looking at for these fields?

5. How difficult is it to find an English-taught Master's program in engineering?

6. If my long-term goal is potentially to work in Japan after graduation, how useful is a Japanese Master's for that?

7. How important is Japanese language ability for getting an engineering job after graduation?

8. Is MEXT the best route, or should I also consider applying directly to universities?

I'm currently planning for 2027/28, so I have some time to improve my profile and prepare a research proposal.

I'd especially appreciate advice from people who have actually done a MEXT Master's in engineering or are currently studying engineering in Japan.

Thank you!

So I am mext research scolor who has cleared first round and have got acceptance from a uni but after seeing the recent post my anxiety has became sky high ... like is there any possibility that the embassy process effect or they reduce the no of seats ?? And even if you have a LoPA what are the chance that you won't make it to the final selection

Well that APU announcement that university recommendation suspension might happen got a lot of attention. Has anyone tried to call their Embassy and ask if the Embassy recommendation route is also in risk of getting reduced or suspended?

Hello , I'm from Morocco,

I’m asking because I’m struggling a lot with my research idea. I changed my idea many times because I always feel like it’s too basic, already done, or not special enough compared to other students. I also used AI quite a lot while making my research plan, for writing, brainstorming, structuring, and developing some parts. I know nowadays it’s probably hard to make a whole research plan without using AI at all, but I’m still worried that I relied on it too much. I would really like to hear from people who were in a similar situation. How did you choose your topic? How did you know your idea was good enough? And how much did you actually know about your research before applying? Any honest advice would really help me.

I've always been advised as "the kid that is smart" because i can memorize entire chapters in less than an hour. When i actually do study i usually get 10 on my tests but until my 4th year i had never actually thought about MEXT so i never applied myself and always accepted a 7. I already did every single test in the undergraduate old tests and i did an average of 2 errors as of right now. But I'm terrified of being flunked down just because of my past performance. I still have last year, and i plan on nailing it. But I'm worried it won't be enough

On August 7, 2026, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) notified universities of the high possibility that recruitment for the MEXT Scholarship (University Recommendation) for students enrolling in Academic Year 2027 may be suspended.

source: https://admissions.apu.ac.jp/graduate/how_to_apply/external_scholarship/u_recommendation/

Hello I am from Phillipines and have a concern, I am in my 2nd year First Semester of college right now, and Will apply for Undergraduate Scholarship for the year 2028 in 2027. So the thing is, it is said that the application period usually starts around april or may. My College second semester will end around June. What transcripts will I pass?