Applying for and obtaining the Letter of Provisional Acceptance is the last part of the Embassy-Recommended MEXT Scholarship Application Process that you actively participate in.
Read the Updated Article for the 2022/2023 Cycle
This article is now out of date and the dates, in particular, are from a previous year. Please find the new version, Embassy Recommended MEXT Scholarship 2022/2023: How to Get a Letter of Provisional Acceptance, here!
Congratulations on Passing the Embassy’s Primary Screening!
If you want to learn more about how to choose the best university and professor for you, as well as how to reach out to professors for a Letter of Provisional Acceptance, I go into much more detail in How to Find Your Best Degree Program and Advisor for the MEXT Scholarship.
In fact, almost all applicants who pass the Primary Screening and obtain at least one Letter of Provisional Acceptance (LoPA) from one university in Japan, end up receiving the MEXT Scholarship. The good news is that the screening to get a LoPA is significantly less competitive than the Embassy’s Primary Screening and, as long as you avoid the major causes for rejection that I discuss below, you should have no problems at this stage.
If you haven’t passed the Primary Screening yet, you can find my guides to applying for the Embassy Recommended MEXT Scholarship, the Embassy Interview, and identifying professors and universities in Japan on the MEXT Scholarship Information Page!
Note: The only time I have heard of applicants being rejected for the scholarship after passing the Primary Screening and obtaining a LoPA was in the 2019/2020 application cycle, when MEXT had a budget crunch and had to reduce the number of scholarships after the primary screening was already in progress or over in some countries. I do not expect that situation to happen again.
So, what do you need to know about getting that letter of acceptance? Let’s get started.
Note: This Article is About the Application Process in 2021
If you are applying in 2021 for the MEXT Scholarship to begin in 2022, then this article is for you. If you are reading in a future year, be aware that there could be changes to some of the processes and deadlines that I discuss below, but the general idea should remain the same!
Three Ways to FAIL to Get a Letter of Provisional Acceptance
Let’s get this out of the way first. There are three, avoidable ways to get rejected by a university. Almost every LoPA rejection I have seen was for one of these causes.
- Missing the Deadline: As of the 2021/2022 Embassy Recommended MEXT Scholarship Application Cycle (which occurs in 2021), the deadline to apply to universities for an LoPA is Friday, August 27, 2021 (Japan time). If you do not have your application completely submitted by that time, you’re out. Be aware of time differences and don’t wait until the last minute. An application that hits the Japanese university’s inbox at 1:00 am on August 28 is not going to be accepted, even if it was still August 27 where you are.
You also want to avoid the possibility that your email isn’t delivered at all because it is too large or the university’s inbox is full. Submit it as early as you can!
- Not Having the Language Ability: For some reason, every year I hear about applicants applying to programs that are taught only in Japanese who have no Japanese language ability. Of course, they are all rejected. You need to have the requisite language ability as of the time you apply for the LoPA or you don’t have a chance. MEXT does offer a 1-semester intensive Japanese language program on arrival for Scholarship recipients, but this is not designed to teach you academic Japanese or give you enough ability to study in the language. It is designed for surviving day-to-day life. So, do not think that you can apply to a Japanese-taught program and brush up your language skills later.
This is an easily avoidable problem if you followed my advice in my article about how to find universities and professors in Japan.
- Applying to a University Where No Professor Can Supervise Your Research: This was probably the single-most common reason for rejections at my former university. The rejection letters would say, “Great student, great research plan, but we don’t have anyone doing research in that field that can supervise you.”
This is mostly avoidable if you follow the advice in the article I listed above and my book, How to Find Your Best Degree Program and Advisor for the MEXT Scholarship. The only part that is beyond your control is retirements and personnel changes. That’s one of the strongest arguments for trying to get in touch with prospective professors in advance.
If you can avoid those three pitfalls, you should have no problems securing two Letters of Provisional Acceptance. Here is the process you need to follow to make sure you get everything done.
Choosing Your Universities
By this point, you should already have selected up to three universities and professors that you want to apply to. If not, I have another guide to help you locate universities and professors in your field of study.
If you have already been in contact with the professors for networking, that is to your advantage, but even if you have tried to contact the professors and gotten no response, do not let that hold you back. Many universities will not respond at all until after you have passed the Primary Screening – it’s nothing personal. In fact, it might just be university policy!
Changing the Universities on your Placement Preference Form
If you have a list of universities and professors but want to change it from the information you entered on the Placement Preference Form, that should still be possible. This might be the case if you found a better university/professor after submitting your Placement Preference Form, or if the universities on your list reject your application and you need an alternative.
To find out for sure about changing the universities on your list, you should contact the Japanese embassy or consulate where you applied for more details on their policies. Usually, you will have to submit the Placement Preference Form again after acquiring the Letters of Provisional Acceptance and, at that time, you will have to make sure that the universities on that list are all universities that have offered you a Letter of Provisional Acceptance (or are still processing your request, but have not rejected your request outright). So, most applicants have to change the list on their form.
Deadlines
Applying to Universities for a Letter of Provisional Acceptance
After you have passed the primary screening and received your documents back, as well as the Passing Certificate of the Primary Screening from the Japanese Embassy or Consulate, you should contact two universities in Japan that you want to apply to immediately!
The deadline to contact universities to request a Letter of Provisional Acceptance for the 2021/2022 scholarship application cycle is Friday, August 27, 2021 Japan Time. MEXT has instructed all universities in Japan that they are to refuse any applicant that contacts them on or after August 28. Keep in mind that Japan is ahead of most countries in terms of time zones. Do not wait until the last day! An emailed application sent on the 27th in your time zone that arrives after midnight in Japan will not be accepted.
If you are sending your application by email, that message is likely to have several large attachments, so there is a chance that your application email might not be delivered. It could look like spam, be filtered because it is too large, or it could be rejected because the recipient’s email inbox is too full to accept it. If that happens, you might never know that your application didn’t arrive. When applying by email, I recommend sending two emails: The first one with no attachments that states your intent to apply and informs the university/professor that you will send a follow-up email immediately with the attachments, and the second one with the actual application materials attached. That way, even if the attachment email doesn’t get through for some reason, the first message should arrive and they will know that you have tried to apply.
How Long Does it Take to Get a Letter of Provisional Acceptance?
August 27, 2021 is your deadline to contact the universities. It is not the deadline for universities to issue the Letter of Provisional Acceptance. MEXT specifically says that applicants must not urge universities to issue letters quickly.
MEXT has instructed universities to reply to applicants with the final results within approximately one month of receiving the request. This is not an immediate process and you should not expect instant results. Make sure you submit your application to the university and give them enough time (at least a month) to process it, make their decision, and issue the letter.
Do not start insistently contacting the university if they don’t send you a letter right away. That is not going to get you a positive response. However, if a month has passed since you contacted the university and you have not heard back from them, or if your deadline to submit the Letter of Provisional Acceptance to your embassy/consulate is approaching, then it is OK to contact them and politely ask about the status.
Keep in mind that it might take a few days before universities can get to your email. Universities will also be extremely busy processing applications right around the deadline, so expect delays in replies at that time, too. In some cases, I have also heard of universities that do not acknowledge receipt of your application and do not send any reply until they have made their final decision.
Submitting Letters of Provisional Acceptance to Your Embassy/Consulate
Each embassy or consulate will set the deadline for you to submit your Letters of Acceptance and final Placement Preference Form, so please refer to the embassy or consulate where you applied for their submission deadlines.
How Many Universities to Contact
According to the application guidelines, you may contact a maximum of two universities at one time to request a Letter of Provisional Acceptance. This is a change from the past, when you were allowed to have three or more Letters of Acceptance, so if you see any articles (including on this site) saying that three or four letters is OK, it’s old!
Even though you will likely have three universities in your Placement Preference Form, you can still only contact two at one time. (In past years, it was three, but this changed in 2020!) If one of the two universities you contact rejects your application and it is still before the deadline, then you can contact an alternate, but you should never have more than two active applications at any time and you should not obtain more than two Letters of Provisional Acceptance.
Applying for a Letter of Acceptance: How to Apply
MEXT’s instructions say to contact the division of international student affairs at the university where you intend to apply, first. However, I recommend that your first step should be to check the university’s website to see if they have instructions posted for Embassy-Recommended MEXT Scholarship applicants. The best way I have found to do this is to search Google for your university name and the words “Embassy MEXT”. For example “University of Tokyo Embassy MEXT.”
You may find that the universities do ask you to contact a faculty member as part of your application. In that case follow the university’s instructions.
I tried this researching the application process at 7 different universities using the Google method above and in almost every case, the top result was the page with the instructions on how to apply for a letter of acceptance.
Despite MEXT’s instructions that applicants should contact the international offices at their target universities, you can see from the list below that the actual practice can vary significantly from university to university.
Just for reference, the universities I tried and their results were as follows:
- University of Tokyo: Contact the administrative office of the graduate school where you want to enroll (not your prospective advisor).
- Tohoku University: Contact the instructor directly. If you cannot find their contact information, then contact the administrative office of their graduate school.
- Kyoto University: Contact the Admissions Assistance Office to apply for permission to contact the professor and, once approved, contact the professor directly.
- Osaka University: Recommended to contact the professor in advance to inquire about possibility of acceptance, but the official application should be made by emailing the required documents to the International Student Affairs Division.
- Waseda University: Complete their online form and upload the documents directly
- Keio University: Complete their online form and upload the documents directly
*Note: Apparently, their online application includes a question about whether or not you have contacted your desired advisor for informal acceptance, and if you have not, they will not issue the Letter of Provisional Acceptance. - Ritsumeikan University: Submit application to the International Center
If the university does not offer specific instructions on their website, your embassy or consulate should have a list of staff members responsible for accepting MEXT scholarship applications at various Japanese universities. If you already know which universities you want to contact (see my article on how to identify the best Japanese universities and professors for your field of study, then the embassy staff may be able to help you.
Applying for a Letter of Acceptance: What to Send
If you found the website with the Letter of Acceptance application procedures for your university, you should have seen a list of required documents there. Follow those guidelines instead of the instructions below, as they may contain additional requirements that you do not want to miss. The information I have provided below is from the MEXT guidelines, so it is more general.
You will be sending all of your application documents by email attachment to the university or uploading them directly, depending on the instructions. MEXT also says that you can send the documents by post, if you have trouble submitting them electronically, but in that case, make sure that you contact the university first and communicate with them about your submission plan. You will also have to submit your application even earlier in this case, since the mailed documents would need to arrive at the university before the deadline.
As mentioned above, when sending your documents by email, I recommend that you do not attach them all in your first message. Your application document scans may have a very large file size and many university email accounts in Japan have size limits or attachment size limits. If your attachments exceed the limit, your mail will not be delivered. So, you want to contact the university first to let them know to expect your application. A text-only email should not have any problems with size limit filters!
Before sending your documents, you should reach out to the office or professor you have identified, let them know that you plan to apply and that you will send your application documents in a subsequent email. You do not need to wait for a reply to your first message.
I recommend that you scan all of your documents together in a single pdf file. This is easy enough to do if you have a scanner available and you can even scan documents as a pdf from a smartphone using the free Adobe Scan app. There is no excuse for sending your documents as individual jpeg files for each page. That makes it very difficult for the university to process your application and will put them in a bad mood before they even begin to review the contents of your file. Don’t do it!
In order to request a Letter of Acceptance from a university, you are required to send the university the following documents. These should be the documents that you submitted to the embassy and had returned to you after the primary screening and should be stamped by the embassy. You cannot replace the contents of any of these forms between submitting them to the embassy and sending them to universities.
- Application Form
- Field of Study and Research Program Plan
- Certified grade transcript for each academic year
- Graduation certificate or degree certificate of the last university attended
- Recommendation letter from the president/dean or the advisor of the last university attended or the university currently attending
- Abstracts of theses (only if submitted to the diplomatic mission)
- Certificate of language proficiency (only if submitted to the diplomatic mission)
- Recommendation letter from the present employer (only if submitted to the diplomatic mission)
- Photograph(s) showing applicant’s own works of art or a digitally recorded media of musical performance (only if submitted to the diplomatic mission)
- Copy of a passing Certificate of the First Screening issued by the diplomatic mission
Notice that the Placement Preference Form and Medical Certificate are not on that list! Per the application guidelines, you are not to send those documents to the universities. Furthermore, universities have been instructed that they cannot request those documents from you.
If a university requests that you send either of those documents, politely tell them that your instructions from MEXT were that you are not allowed to submit them to universities. You can send them a link to the application guidelines in Japanese saying so as well. Here is that link:
https://www.studyinjapan.go.jp/en/_mt/2021/04/2022_Guidelines_Research_J.pdf
The university may also ask you to submit additional documentation. As long as it is not the Placement Preference Form or Medical Certificate, then you are required to submit it. That includes submitting language proficiency certificates, other test scores, etc., regardless of whether you had previously submitted them to the embassy or consulate.
Things to Check in Your Letter of Provisional Acceptance
Arrival Date
There are a few things you will want to pay particular attention to in your Letter of Provisional Acceptance. The first is your date of arrival. In the Application Form, you had a chance to say whether you prefer to arrive in the April or September/October semester. When the university issues your Letter of Provisional Acceptance, it will include their decision on when you should arrive. In principle, it is not possible to change that date from what is written in the Letter of Provisional Acceptance, so make sure the date in that letter works for you.
Enrollment Status
The second thing to check is your status. In your application form, you had the opportunity to fill in whether you wanted to arrive as a research student or a degree-seeking student (in the master’s, doctoral, or professional program).
In order for the university to issue you a letter of acceptance as a degree-seeking student, you would have had to have passed their entrance examination prior to them issuing the letter. Unless the university considers a screening of your application documents to be a sufficient entrance exam, the chances are high that you would not have passed it yet. In that case, the university would issue you a letter of an acceptance as a research student.
This can change!
The university will have 2 opportunities later to “upgrade” you to a degree-seeking student before your arrival:
- During the placement phase: After you submit your Letters of Acceptance and final Placement Preference Form to the Embassy, MEXT will conduct a secondary screening of your application. After that secondary screening, MEXT will contact the universities on your Placement Preference Form one-by-one to ask them to accept you. If you have passed the university’s entrance exam in the meantime, then when the university replies to MEXT to confirm that they will accept you, they can change your category at that time to degree-seeking student.
- Upon arrival in Japan: If the university agrees to accept your placement as a research student, but you then pass their entrance exam prior to arriving in Japan, then the university can send a notice of change of status and change of scholarship payment period to MEXT and you would be able to start as a degree-seeking student immediately on arrival in Japan.
If you do end up arriving in Japan and starting as a research student, there is no problem with that course of action, either. You will have the opportunity to take the entrance exam while in Japan and apply for an extension of your scholarship to cover the full degree program. Unless you are in a hurry to graduate for a particular reason, I recommend starting as a research student as possible, as it will give you an extra semester (or more) to get used to studying in Japan and to start taking courses and starting your research.
Japanese Language Preparatory Education
The final thing to check is whether or not the university plans to assign you to the Japanese language program. In general, they will send you to that program if you are studying in English and need to learn some basic Japanese to survive daily life. If your Japanese is already good enough that you can study for a degree in Japanese, you will most likely not be sent to the Japanese language program.
If you are starting in the Japanese language preparatory education program, you will be a research student (non-degree student) for the duration of that program, even if you applied to start directly with the degree program.
I recommend that you make a copy of each of your Letters of Provisional Acceptance prior to submitting them, so that you can refer back to the contents later.
Submitting Your Letters of Provisional Acceptance and Placement Preference Form to the Embassy
MEXT requires that you turn in every Letter of Provisional Acceptance that you receive to the Embassy and that you list those universities in your placement preference form. It used to not be mandatory, so you might see comments from past students that they applied for more Letters than they turned in at the end. That is no longer allowed. Submitting fewer letters would constitute lying on your application and could result in your being rejected.
Each embassy or consulate controls its own deadline for when you should submit Letters of Provisional Acceptance, so be sure to consult with them. MEXT has asked universities to return letters of acceptance within one month of the application, so the embassies’ deadlines should not be earlier than that, but there are always miscommunications between the two. There is no substitute for checking directly on your own!
*In the past, MEXT required universities to produce Letters of Acceptance within a month. This is no longer a requirement, but your local Embassy might think that it is and set their deadline accordingly. If your embassy has given you a deadline, it is not rude to provide that information to the university, provided you are not being rude or demanding when you address them.
When you submit your Letters of Provisional Acceptance, you will also likely have to submit an updated Placement Preference Form. You are not allowed to list universities on your final Placement Preference Form that refused to issue you a Letter of Provisional Acceptance. You are, however, allowed to list universities that have not yet replied to you as well as those that have issued you a Letter of Provisional Acceptance (even if the hardcopy of that document has not yet arrived). You should also be able to re-order your university preferences at this point, but that is also something you should confirm with the embassy.
Since 2020, it is now mandatory to list all universities that have issued you a Letter of Provisional Acceptance. The old tactic of acquiring emergency back-up Letters of Acceptance but only submitting the one letter from your first-choice school is no longer allowed.
Since you are only allowed to acquire two Letters of Provisional Acceptance, but can submit up to three university names on your Placement Preference Form, you can include the names of universities that you didn’t apply to for Letters of Provisional Acceptance. (If every university you applied to rejected your application and you have no letters, you can still fill in the names of three universities, as long as they are not ones that rejected you. Even without a Letter of Provisional Acceptance, MEXT will try to place you at one of them.)
Secondary Screening and University Placement
Once you have submitted the Letters of Provisional Acceptance and the final Placement Preference Form, the application process is essentially over for you. All you have left to do is wait for your placement assignment, sometime between November to February.
Prior to 2019, I had never heard of an applicant getting rejected for the scholarship after passing the Primary Screening and submitting at least one Letter of Provisional Acceptance. However, in 2019, it did happen to several people that I heard from. In that year, it seems that MEXT reduced the number of places available to each country during the Primary Screening. Some countries seemed to have gotten the information in time and reduced the number of students who passed that screening, but others did not, so the applicants were eliminated during the Secondary Screening to get down to the required number. In this case, the applicants heard back after MEXT’s Secondary Screening process and before the University Placement Process, so they got their replies much earlier than the successful applicants.
Once thing that all of the applicants I heard from had in common was that they had all left the Japanese Language Proficiency Test blank during the Primary Screening!
2019 was the first, and so far only, time I have heard of this happening. I do not anticipate it happening again, but I can no longer be sure.
It will take a long time to the embassies to confirm that you have passed the Secondary Screening and to announce your university placement, but do not let that bother you. That is just normal, slow bureaucracy, not a reflection on your application. For the 2021/2022 application cycle, the final results and placement information is expected in January – February 2022.
In some cases, you may end up hearing from the universities even before the embassy gives you the final approval. If you hear from your professor or housing office at one of the universities on your list, you can consider that an unofficial confirmation.
Once you have your final confirmation, you should reach out to the other university that issued you a letter of provisional acceptance to let them know that you were placed in another university and thank them for their support. You never know when you might end up interacting with them after arriving in Japan!
For more about what to expect from the secondary screening and placement, I have another article entirely about that process.
Questions?
Let me know in the comments below!
Special Thanks
Special thanks to the TranSenz supporters on Patreon, who help keep this site running through their generous contributions, especially to Daimyo Supporters Flower and Isaac C. If this site has helped you in your application process and you want to “pay it forward” to keep the site running to help future applicants, every contribution helps!
Hello Travis,
I am a Physics undergrad student.I want to pursue masters in Physics.I searched up some universities and got to know that i need GRE Subject scores.But the problem is that the GRE Subject Test is conducted only once in my country(end of Oct-beginning of Nov).How will someone acquire LOPA without these scores?Can i submit the scores later?Hoping to hear from you about this.
Hi Poulomi Dey,
Just to make sure, you were looking at the requirements for applying for a Letter of Provisional Acceptance for MEXT Scholarship applicants, NOT the general admission requirements, right? The requirements can be different depending on your application process!
If they do require GRE subject test scores and you can’t get those scores in time for the LoPA application deadline, then I’m afraid you would have to look at different universities, instead. There should be other universities that do not have that requirement!
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Hello Travis good day, I hope this message finds you well.
I have an Inquiry
One of the Universities that responded to me agreed to give me an LoA. However, not to long ago they emailed me to let me know that that have to do an eligibility check because i have completed 13 years of school and not 16.
According to the MEXT eligibility guidelines for a Masters degree I satisfy the second requirement which is “2) Applicants who have completed a program with the standard study period of three years or more at universities or equivalent educational institutions in countries other than Japan and received a degree equivalent to a bachelor’s degree.” and I have my Bachelor’s degree.
Should I let them know this in my response or does it not matter in this situation?
Also, what does an eligibility check entail?
Hi TJ,
Just because the embassy determined that you are eligible to apply does not mean that the university automatically has to agree that you are eligible for the degree program, so you most certainly should not tell them that it doesn’t matter! It is entirely the university’s decision to decide if you are eligible or not for their admissions. The eligibility check means they are trying to determine if you meet the university’s eligibility requirements for admission to the Master’s degree.
If you look around the university’s website for the application requirements for regular, fee-paying Master’s students, you should be able to find their requirements there and determine if you meet them.
Most of the time, the eligibility criteria you cited applies in cases where a student has completed 15 years of education, including a 3-year bachelor’s degree. Many universities will have 15 years including a 3-year bachelor’s as a specific qualification in their eligibility standards, but they may not be as flexible as MEXT. If you do not meet a specific, established eligibility criteria, then the university probably bas regulations in place to require an individual screening to make a determination as to whether or not you are eligible, which sounds like your case.
For now, all you can do is to wait for their decision.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Hello .
I know that maybe you have answered this question at some point , but i wanted to ask it from the perspective of 2023 Admission
Is it a big issue of rejection if I get Exact 3 LOA . i have heard from multiple people that 2 is the maximum , but there is always 3 choices whenever i see the placement form .
Thanks for all the work you do regarding the information on these topics
Hi Mazy,
The limit is 2 LoPAs, even though you can list three universities on the Placement Preference Form. You are not allowed to be in contact with more than 2 universities at any one time.
You are allowed to list universities on the Placement Preference Form that have not issued you an LoPA, but you cannot list a university that has rejected your application for an LoPA.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Hello Travis,
Can I withdraw my LoA application from a University to apply to some higher ranking University? Also, what will happen if we made contact with 3 Universities at the same time.
Hi Ashutosh Mishra,
You can withdraw your LoA application, but I don’t think “rank” is a good reason to do so. University rank is usually just a measurement of reputation, not an indication of the quality of education/research there and usually it is not meaningful.
If you are concerned with reputation, then look at the reputation of the professor that you want to study under in your field – that is much more significant!
If you apply to three universities at the same time, you are breaking the rules of the scholarship application. There’s a chance that MEXT never finds out and nothing happens, but if you ever find yourself doing and worrying about whether or not you will be found out, then that’s a good sign that you’re doing something wrong!
In the case of contacting more than the allowable number of universities, you are unnecessarily wasting the time of the universities and professors.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Hello Travis! I hope this message finds you well!
Firstly, thank you for your excellent work with your blog and books! I am sure they changed the lives of countless people!
Taking into account that the deadline for the Second Screening and University Placement is until the end of December, according to the MEXT document for this year, and that you can only lose the scholarship after the Second Screening, my question is the following: If I have not received any contact from my consulate/embassy about the second screening so far, can I be fully confident about winning the scholarship or am I being to naive?
I am writing considering that MEXT still needs to be able to do the University Placement, which is a process that may have its own bureaucracy and, therefore, may demand some time to be done.
Thank you for your attention!
Hi Grilo,
Thank you for your kind words!
I think I may have given you the wrong impression. It is possible to lose the scholarship after the University Placement phase if none of the universities agree to accept you. It is also possible that embassies/consulates will not report the results of the Secondary Screening to applicants prior to the university placement stage and will only report all results at the very end.
So, it is not possible to be 100% confident of the result at this point, but I think your chances of winning the scholarship are overwhelmingly high! Both of the scenarios I described above – late notification of the Secondary Screening or rejection by all universities should be very rare, especially if you have acquired at least one Letter of Acceptance.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Hello Travis!
First of all, thank you for the prompt and helpful reply (and also for your patience).
Secondly, sorry for my misinterpretation of your content, your explanation is crystal clear now. I think I emphasised the second screening elimination since you highlighted it in your post. But still, by the time being do you think we already crossed this phase?
And lastly, and just out of curiosity: Is sending a notification about the result of the Second Screening to embassies/consulates a standard practice? I am asking because I haven’t heard anything like that happening, at least in Brazil where I am coming from. All the applicants I know from previous editions received only the last result on the time predicted by MEXT, and none of them were negative.
Hi Grilo,
Yes, I think by this time, the Secondary Screening should be over and MEXT should be in the midst of contacting universities for the placement process, based on usual years.
Based on my experience and feedback here, I think that it is quite unusual for embassies/consulates to notify applicants of the results of the Secondary Screening. As you mentioned, in almost all cases, there is no notification until the very end, and almost all results are positive.
Up until a few years ago, I used to say on this site that once you pass the Primary Screening and get at least one Letter of Acceptance, then your scholarship should be practically guaranteed. But then, in 2019, there was an incident where MEXT cut the number of slots available in the middle of the application process and some applicants ended up getting rejected during the Secondary Screening, so that is why I mention that in the article.
It has not happened again since then and the year it did happen was the year Japan made university and pre-school free to low-income families, so MEXT was under unusual budget stress.
In your case, I do not expect any problems with the selection this year and I think you should be hearing good news in the new year.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Hello Travis!
I hope this message finds you well!
I am passing by to thank you for all your support throughout the application process!!!
If I managed to receive my posivite end result now it was partially because of you!
So I just wanted to thank you and to tell you to keep doing this amazing work that you do.
Once more, thank you very much!
Best regards,
João Grilo
Hi João Grilo,
Thank you very much for your message! It means a lot to me.
I hope you hear positive results in the near future.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Hello Travis!
I hope this message finds you well!
First of all, i would like to thank you for the excellent work with all MEXT applicants/candidates. Your blog and your book, which i had the pleasure of reading, were/are super useful. So thank you very much for your effort once again!
Well, I have three questions for you. Hopefully, it won´t take much of your time to answer them.
I. Did you observe any signal that may indicate a possible cut in the MEXT budget? I am asking you, as this seems to be the only threat for those approved on the 1 Screening and got their LOAS. In addition, Japan not-so good-economic situation and the challenging budget request for the next fiscal year do not appear to be good indicators;
II. Would you classify the second phase, the one conducted by MEXT, as a procedural or eliminatory stage? and
III. Considering that I passed the first screening and received two LoAS from good universities, one private(Waseda) and other national (Kobe) should i be calm/optimistic with the final approval?
Sorry if the aforementioned questions are a bit random, but they have been haunting me since I reiceved my LoAs in early September,
Once more, thank you for attention.
Hi João,
I am very happy to hear that you found the book and blog useful during your application!
I. No, I have not heard anything like that. The only time I saw slots for the scholarship cut for budget reasons was the year Japan made kindergarten and college free for low-income families. But that was due to a major new budget item, not budget cuts.
II. Procedural. It is not a competitive evaluation. The year with the scholarship slot cut that I referenced above was the only time I saw any significant number of applicants cut at this stage.
III. I certainly think so! I don’t see any reason why you would not be selected for the scholarship in the end.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Wow, I wasnt expecting for such a fast reply!
Thank you very much for your quick and insightful answer! It definitely helped me to calm down. This waiting period has been harder than I expected haha.
Once more, thank you!
Best regards,
João
Hi Travis, hope you are well!
The universities I applied to both rejected my requests, which is quite distressing. My question is, while I know that a letter pretty much secures your position, seeing as in the next university preference form needs to be updated with the information of new universities, is there even a sliver of a chance of acceptance into any of them?
I know it’s probable a long shot but I just wanted to reach out.
Thanks as always,
Yusuf
Hi Yusuf,
I am sorry to hear about the results of your Letter of Provisional Acceptance application results. I can imagine how you must be feeling now.
There is still a chance that you could get accepted into one of the universities you list on your final Placement Preference Form, even though you won’t have a Letter of Provisional Acceptance from any of them. Once your application passes the Primary Screening, MEXT will contact those universities, send them your application materials and ask them to consider accepting you. Since you won’t have any chance to interact with them directly, you should do your best to research them and make sure each one has a program taught in English where you can study and that there is a professor at each with the right specialty to supervise your studies to give yourself the best chance.
Frankly, your chances are lower than they would be if you had a Letter of Provisional Acceptance. There is no way around that. But you do still have a chance of being accepted!
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Dear Travis,
The research theme on my research plan form is not exactly the same as that on my letter of provisional acceptance. It is consistent with my research theme but just more spesific(for instance, ı said I will investigate a novel key protein but my Prof wrote that I will investigate X protein . Is this a problem? And should I write this specific topic on my placement preference form or should it be exactly the one that I wrote in my study plan?
Thank you so much in advance for your help.
Hi Mari,
It should not be a significant issue if there are minor differences between the Letter of Provisional Acceptance and your original research plan/original placement preference form. It should be understood that those two forms come from before your application to the university, and it is natural that the professor will have some input on your topic. However, the topic in the Letter of Provisional Acceptance will be considered the topic that you have been accepted to research, so make sure that you are willing to research that!
If so, you should not need to change anything.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Hi Travis,
Thank you so much for your support. I have received two LOAs from the first 2 choices. They are both private universities but the first university’s tuition fees is more than the second university. Do you believe that the cost (budget) will be the deciding factor or MEXT will prefer the 2nd university based on the cost given that both of them are private universities?
Hi Krishtee,
Congratulations on getting the LoAs from your first and second choice universities!
I have only ever heard of MEXT skipping over private universities to place applicants in national universities in the past. I have never heard of them skipping a higher-tuition private in favor of a lower-tuition private. Honestly, I don’t think that would make a significant difference in terms of their budget, anyway. At a national university, MEXT does not have to cover tuition at all, so the difference in cost to them is the entire cost of the private university’s tuition. If they are just choosing between two privates, then it is likely the difference is relatively insignificant.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Hello!
Thank you very much for all the information, it was a great help during all the process.
I wanted to ask for an advice for the placement form.
My first choice is a private university and I have already obtained a LoPA from them. My second choice, a national university, rejected me (how high is the rejection rate for MEXT scholars in a national university?).
I was kind of bummed out by this since I liked the study plan in case my first choice didn’t work out… but at the same time, as it wasn’t my first choice, I am actually kind of glad (because I didn’t wanted my first choice to be passed by because of it being private).
With this, and because of the deadline, I have to give my placement form with only one LoPA (and from a private university), so, I wanted to ask…
Is it better to put only private universities in my placement form as my LoPA is from a private university? Or, Should I put one national university just in case?
Also, do my chances of getting a scholarship diminish because I have only one LoPA? And from a private university?
Sorry to ask so many questions, I’m really worried about this. Also, I have heard rumors that, due to the expense of the olympics, there may a possibility of budget cut for the scholarships… is it true? And in that case, is it true that the first students to be rejected and those who applied to private universities?
Thank you for the time and for sharing your knowledge.
Best regards,
Andy
Hi Andy,
Thank you for your kind words.
I’m sorry to hear about your second-choice university. There’s not really a “rejection rate” for LoPA applications. In my experience, applications are usually rejected for specific reasons (most often: no professor able to supervise the research), and if there is no specific reason, most applicants are accepted. So, if your application was rejected, it is likely an indication that the university was not able to provide support for your research plan.
Like you said, though, this could be a blessing in disguise, since there is a relatively high possibility that MEXT would have passed over your first-choice private university to place you in the national one, instead. In your situation now with only one LoPA, MEXT is not likely to pass over that university to attempt to place you in a second or third choice with no LoPA, even if one of them is national. I would suggest filling in the best universities for your research, regardless of their status. (i.e. don’t fill in a private university for the sake of it being private if you couldn’t complete your research there!)
I have not heard anything about a budget cut in future years because of the olympics. If that was the case, the budget cut should already have happened years ago. MEXT’s budget runs on an annual basis and the costs of the olympics have largely already been paid and should not increase in future years.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Thank you Travis!
I sent my placement form and I hope for the best! I’m still really worried though. Today my embassy told me “Another person from Mexico has an LoPA for the same university and degree…. there are also a lot of people worldwide that probably applied to that university and got a LoPA…. the university has only so many slots, it is still a competition, so you may not get one, you should not have a lot of hope”.
This really worried me, I know the person in my embassy always says things to not get our hopes up just in case… but, can a university give out more LoPAs than their available MEXT slots? (thinking they are the second choice or similar?).
And how often is it that MEXT actually gets a slot in a second or third choice private university that the student hasn´t contacted (with no LoPA)?
I apologize for asking too many questions, I just want to get a clear idea of my chances getting the scholarship to not be disappointed latter on.
Once again, thank you Travis, for answering my question before and reading this inquiry now.
Best wishes,
Andy
Hi Andy,
Even if another person from Mexico has an LoPA from the same university, unless it’s from the same professor in the same lab, they wouldn’t be in competition with you. (Even then, I recall a year at my previous university where we had two MEXT Embassy scholars from Mexico in the same lab or the same department, at least).
There is no limit to MEXT slots for any particular university under the Embassy Recommended MEXT Scholarship. Each professor (and by extension, each graduate school) has a limited number of advisees that they can accept overall, including MEXT scholars, Japanese scholars, etc. I suppose it is possible that they might give out more LoPAs than they can accept assuming that some scholarship will have other universities as a first choice. If that did occur, I would suspect that it would be at a private university, since MEXT will often skip a private university in an applicant’s preference list and try to assign them to a lower-priority national university, first. But in that case, MEXT itself would reduce your competition for you. If I remember right, you did not have a national university on your list at all.
I only know of one case personally where MEXT placed a student in a private university when that student hadn’t even applied for an LoA there. But I think in that case, the student hadn’t received any LoAs at all. If the first university does reject your application for some reason, MEXT will still try to place you.
My best advice for you in the meantime is to try to build a relationship with your advisor at that first-choice university if you can. That should ensure that when MEXT asks the university to formally accept you, the advisor will stand up for you and make sure your application is approved.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Dear Travis,
Thank you so much! Yes, it’s a private university, so it makes sense they may have given out too many LoA… I know my professor personally and have worked with him before, so I hope it counts for something. My second and third choice are still private but I hope for the best! I’ll let you know if by any luck I pass the second screening… Thank you again!
Warm wishes,
Andy
hi Travis,
Thanks for the informations. I have 2 questions :
1/ is the Letter of Provisional Acceptance sent by mail or by post?
2/ is it better to apply for the spring semester (April) rather than September in order to maximize the chance to get a place in the dormitory?
Hi Mahmoud,
1. Typically, it is sent by post, but with the postal system disrupted by the pandemic in some cases, your embassy may accept emailed versions. You should check with them.
2. Ultimately, the housing situation depends on your university, so I can’t say one way or another, but I do not think it would make a significant difference in most cases.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Hi Travis,
Firstly thank you for your very handy guides and ebook on the MEXT application process – it was a huge help and to be honest I probably wouldn’t have progressed to this current stage without them.
Despite only first hearing of the scholarship in April this year, I managed to get an application in just in time. This rushed application did result in me needing to rush my placement preferences a bit though! I only had a few days to research my preferred courses and professors.
I have recieved an LOA from my first preference university, which I’m very excited about. I still have an application being considered by my third preference university also.
The problem is, that upon doing some more research into my third preference course, I’ve realised that it isn’t really in line with the course and the research I want to do and I’m not interested in pursuing it there. And my first preference course is really perfect for me.
Given that I’ve already recieved a LOA from my first preference, is there any reason why I should be still seeking another? If I proceeded to recieve another LOA, would that affect my chances of getting into my first preference? Both are private universities.
Essentially I’m wondering if I should contact my third preference uni and request that my application be withdrawn. Would there be any risks in doing this? And is only having one LOA considered risky?
Interested in your thoughts given all of your experience.
Thanks again for your help.
Cheers
Tim
Hi Tim,
Thank you very much for your kind words.
If your first choice university conducted a thorough screening and you have no doubt that they will accept you once MEXT asks them to do so formally, then that should be safe. It would be particularly safe if you were in contact with a faculty member there.
Personally, I always like to have a back-up plan, but that’s just my personality. I also don’t want to recommend that you take an unnecessary risk and become the reason things don’t work out well for you. If you do get an LOA from the 3rd choice university, since both your first and third choices are private, it should not decrease your chances of getting into your first choice university (if it was a national university, that would be a different story!)
Hopefully in the situation you described, the third-choice university wouldn’t accept you, anyway, if the course wasn’t aligned with your research. But if you feel that strongly, then you can contact them to withdraw your application.
You can still fill in three universities on your Placement Preference Form, even if you haven’t gotten LoAs from them, as long as they haven’t rejected you. In that case, MEXT would still try to contact those universities to accept you if the first-choice one did not, so you would have a slight safety net, but also have almost no risk of MEXT skipping over your first-choice university to place you elsewhere. That could be a viable alternative.
You haven’t mentioned your second choice, though, so that could also be a factor.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Thanks for your response Travis. I agree that it’s probably a good idea to have a backup plan. I’m confident that my first choice will still be recommended by the university, but I’ll proceed with my third preference as a backup in case something goes wrong. I’d rather be studying in Japan than not going at all of course!
(My second choice was rejected early on; it looks like they aren’t holding an english language Masters in the field I’m interested in, in 2022, unlike previous years).
Cheers
Tim.
Hi Tim,
The reason for the second choice rejection makes perfect sense, though I’m surprised the university stopped offering the English-language program. That seems contrary to the general trend.
I wish you the best of luck in getting into your first choice!
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Hello Travis,
Thank you for you guidance and efforts; thanks to your books I passed the Embassy’s 1st screening and now I have spoken to two researchers in Japan that have agreed to supervising me. For one of these, the University has also accepted my application and have allowed me to request a LoPA from the Graduate School at that University. For the other, I am still waiting for the review of my application,
My question; before I send the LoPA template to the Graduate school, should I (a) fill out the entire template (date of arrival, research theme etc.), (b) send in a blank form, or (c) at least fill out some basic info (name, nationality, month of arrival etc)?
That is, what should I do with the LoPA template I got from the University’s International Office? It is a Microsoft Word document. I thought it was to be completed and issued to me from them.
Thankful for your help as I am a bit confused.
Sincerely, Steven
Hi Steven,
In general, you should submit a blank Letter of Provisional Acceptance Template to the university and they should send you back the completed form. I’m not sure why they sent you the blank form.
This sounds like a unique procedure to the university that you contacted. If they gave you instructions about what to do with that form (e.g. what to fill in on your own, what to do with it), then follow their instructions. If they did not direct you to fill in any parts of it, then you should not have to do so. Just send them the blank template and they should complete it.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Thank you for your kind help!
No, the International Office sent me the template without other instructions than to request a LoPA from the Graduate school. So I guess I just sent them an e-mail with the request and the blank document.
Thank you again, and if I pass the 2nd screening, if it is of any value to you, I could perhaps send you the research plan I admitted to the Embassy to repay you for your help on the blog and in your books!
Sincerely,
Steven
Hi Steven Patrick,
In a decade of working with this scholarship, I’ve never seen that pattern before!
When you email the graduate school, I recommend you make sure to tell them that you have been in touch with the International Office and have been going through their procedures since [when you got in contact with them] so they know that you have been working on this since before the Aug 27 deadline.
If you would be willing to share your field of study and research program plan later, I would certainly appreciate that! Every example I have of a successful plan helps with the advice that I can offer to future readers here. Of course, please wait until a time that makes sense for you, like after you get that final notification of your award.
(When you are ready, a comment on here or a message through my coaching form is the best way to get through to me quickly.)
Thank you and good luck with the LoPA!
– Travis from TranSenz
Hello!
First of all, thank you for your great and very useful website.
I have passed the first screening and now I have trouble concerning sending the medical certificate when applying for a letter of provisional acceptance. Actually, the consulate in which I was taking exams, sent me information that I should submit all the documents that I had submitted to the consulate to universities for LoPA application including the medical certificate upon notifying me about the result of the first screening, so I followed the information from the consulate and sent everything to a university. Probably, they unintentionally sent the outdated information, I do not know. However, as your article and the guidelines point out medical certificate is not to be sent to universities, so I am anxious about this situation.
The university which received the medical certificate among other documents issued a LoPA anyway and I also contacted the consulate on this issue and the person in charge told me that it is not a problem at all. But still, I guess it may become a serious problem later.
Could I ask for advice on what to do about it? What do you think, should I contact the university on this issue?
Hi Ahmet,
Thank you for your kind feedback!
It is not a problem that you sent the university your Medical Certificate (it also would not be a problem if you sent them your Placement Preference Form).
Universities are not supposed to have access to that information because MEXT does not want it to prejudice their decision. The idea is that universities should not be able to reject your application because of the contents of your Medical Certificate (or the contents of your Placement Preference Form) and I think they also want to avoid you having to share personal information like your medical condition any more than necessary.
Essentially, the instructions to not send the Medical Certificate are in place to protect you from negative consequences during the LoPA application process.
It will not be a problem later that you sent those documents to the university, especially since you already have the Letter of Provisional Acceptance! You don’t need to do anything about it.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Hello Travis
First, thank you for your effort in helping and enlightening us. I really appreciate it.
I contacted my professor and he said he ll send my loa till 17th september. But sometimes shipping take about 1 month so I miss the deadline which is 1 st of october. Do we have to submit the original signed loa till 1st of october or is it ok to submit the copy of it until we have the original loa?
Thank you
Hi Travis
I also would like to ask what is the best way to remind my professor of the Embassy s deadline? I dont want to sound rude while reminding him. What would you suggest me to do?
Hi May,
It is fine to remind the professor of the Embassy’s deadline in a polite email, but I would recommend giving the professor a little more time, especially since he has already said when he will issue it. If he has given that specific of a date, it is probably related to university processing times or when he can get formal approval.
If that day (in Japan time) passes with no reply, though, it is fine to contact the professor, apologize for rushing them (explain that you know they are busy, etc.) and ask if it will be possible to consider your application and send the results so you can submit them by the embassy deadline.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Hi May,
I think you need to ask the embassy/consulate where you will submit it what their policy is.
If the professor sends the scan of the letter in advance, they may be willing to accept that provisionally and allow you to submit the official letter once it arrives. Even in pre-COVID times, I know of cases where this was permitted. Now that the pandemic is disrupting mail services, I hope they are even more willing to be flexible with accepting digital copies provisionally, but it is ultimately an embassy decision.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Thank you Travis for your time
I will contact the Embassy today regarding the deadline.
Hello Travis! So in May 2021 I applied for MEXT (PhD in Aerospace). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the outcome of the document screening was significantly delayed. In fact, by mid-July I totally gave up on MEXT and applied elsewhere and actually got admitted into a world top-100 university. Despite this success, Japan was still my first choice as my master’s degree is from Japan and I am already familiar with Nippon. Fortunately, the Japanese embassy staff phoned me in the last week of July to inform me to prepare for the interview in early August. The written tests were favourably cancelled. While preparing for the interview I stumbled upon this website and it heavily influenced my preparations. I was so prepared that I even predicted some of the judges just by analysing the pictures on the Embassy website. For instance, I knew in advance that the interview panel would comprise a certain Professor who is actually a MEXT alumnus, and a certain government official from the Ministry of Education. Accordingly, my approach was centered on how my research will mutually benefit both countries and most importantly how it would enable my country to achieve the UN sustainable development goals and Industry 4.0 (4th Industrial Revolution). Consequently, the interview was a tactical masterclass and at one point I frankly felt for the judges because all my answers were ruthlessly befitting. The reason is because I meticulously studied this website. I was shocked because most interview questions came from this website under the comment sections. Carefully pay attention to the information provided by past MEXT candidates on this website. So after passing the preliminary screening, I submitted my application materials to my 1st and 2nd choices. I received a positive LOA from my 2nd choice within 5 days, unbelievable considering it is a top-8 university in Japan. TODAI, my first choice, will respond in early September 2021 as expected. Things really happened at lightning speed in a similar fashion to the Taliban regaining power in Kabul (LOL). I think it’s because I have already published journal articles and presented papers related to my research plan at two premier international conferences and numerous local conferences in Japan during my masters. My advice is that you must submit full journal articles to the embassy if you have ever published. Do not just submit abstracts. Another trick is to attach your papers when you contact potential supervisors in addition to the certified documents. When applying to a top university you must leave nothing to chance. Use every unfair advantage to beat the competition. For instance, if you ever won an award as the best final year student in your department, submit it. If you ever completed an internship at a world-leading company, submit the certificate of completion to the Embassy. I had some of these unfair advantages but for some reasons I failed to submit the certificates to the Embassy. I was under the naive impression that MEXT did not ask for them unlike IELTS, etc so they are unnecessary. When you apply to a top university, these little things can make a big difference. It is better to overkill than to underestimate. Another lesson is that if you can upgrade your research plan/field of study, do it by all means. Initially, my research plan was technically sound but it did not conform to the conventional template of a research proposal. This spelled “rejection on arrival” so I found a way to fix it and ensure it is appealing to both the admission committee and Professors. Another lesson, if possible avoid contacting Professors directly, especially 2nd choice. I say this because my 2nd choice Prof is very excited to work with me and we are communicating a lot. My fear is that if TODAI accepts me he will be very disappointed after his efforts. We are in the same field, we will meet at conferences and one day he might peer-review my articles. Japanese laboratories collaborate a lot and do not be surprised if one day you end up visiting your 2nd choice Prof to conduct an experiment in his lab because maybe only his lab has that specific facility or equipment. That being said, thank you for your time and good luck to all!
Hi Senpai,
Thank you for your feedback and for sharing your advice for future applicants!
Some of your suggestions here are different from what I recommend, but it sounds like it worked for you, so it’s hard to argue against! It sounds like you had a very strong research proposal and application.
The only comment I have is about contacting professors: I do not think it is a problem to contact your second choice professor. Yes, he or she might be disappointed if you are placed somewhere else, but they should also know that with the MEXT Scholarship it is not your choice, it is MEXT’s, so there should be no hard feelings. Plus you will have strengthened your network in Japan and may still have opportunities to interact, even if you are enrolled elsewhere.
Thank you again and Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Hi Travis,
Thank you again for your continuous support to all applicants.
I have been in touch with you in your previous pages and I have a small doubt which I wanted to clear with you.
I have cleared the primary screening and have already sent my request to 2 Universities for LOA. Both of them have confirmed that they will start the screening after the 27th August and will reply back with a final answer by 29th September.
Since the 27th Aug is the deadline to request for LOAs, I am worried if both of them reject my application, will that hinder my chance of getting an LOA from my third choice?
Thanks again!
Hi Krishtee,
If the universities will not start your screening until after the August 27th deadline, that means it will be impossible for you to apply to your third choice university for a Letter.
If one of the two universities ends up refusing to give you a Letter of Acceptance, it would be after the deadline, meaning you cannot reach out to any other universities.
There’s really nothing you can do about this situation, but if it gives you any comfort, most other applicants are likely in the same situation!
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Hello, Travis.
There is a university which ever had an active discussed with me about their acceptance for MEXT research student. They gave me prompt reply everytime. But then, the email address given by the embassy is different with the one I used to communicate with the university before. So I sent the application email on 5th August to the new email address and didn’t get any confirmation until today. I sent a follow up message to the first email address three days ago about whether or not they have received my email application, because I was afraid that the application email doesn’t reach them. But the international office also didn’t answer. So, is that mean that I’ve been rejected or is it normal that I don’t get any reply from them? I don’t plan to apply to another university, because there are only 2 universities that provides the learnings for my research theme. I’m looking forward to your advice and suggestion. Thank you, Travis. Your articles are very helpful.
Hi Yann,
If you have been in touch with the university through a different email address and the person at that address has been responsive, then I recommend asking them if they can help you contact the office that is supposed to accept applications and see if they have received yours! (If that is the email you mentioned that you contacted three days ago, they might reply soon – I got your comment on a Sunday and they certainly wouldn’t reply on a weekend.)
The other thing you should do is to check the university’s website for their instructions as to how they want you to apply for a Letter of Acceptance. The address you got from the Embassy might not be current. If the university has specific instructions about how to apply for a Letter of Acceptance, be sure to prioritize the university’s instructions, not the embassy.
No reply does not mean rejection, but you are running out of time to confirm that they have received and are processing your application, since the deadline to apply for the Letter of Acceptance is this Friday, so I recommend that you keep trying to contact them. If you can’t get them to respond by email, try calling if you have to.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Alright, thank you very much for your assistance.
Hello Travis, I have passed the primary screening of the mext scholarship in my country and I was told to contact up to two universities. Well now here is the problem, on my placement preference I realized later I have picked some really top universities. I didn’t know I would come this far in the process as each year only one person is picked in my country but here I am. As my grades are not that outstanding and universities took some time to reply, I have contacted a third university and they told me I have been accepted. So as for the two others, only one confirmed having received my application, the second choice I suspect that the files were too large and my email most probably ended up in the junk. Regarding my question, as the deadline is close, if the second choice doesn’t confirm, shoud I just let it be or should I ask them to confirm the reception of my email?? As I’m not sure as well if my first choice is going to accept…
Hi Aisha Max,
Congratulations on getting this far! It sounds like it was a very competitive process to pass the Primary Screening!
Even if you picked top universities in Japan, in general the Primary Screening for the Embassy-Recommended MEXT Scholarship is more competitive than any university. So, if you can pass the Primary Screening, you ought to be able to get into any university! The only challenge is making sure that you are eligible and that there is a professor that can supervise your studies there, but that’s not a competitive factor.
You shouldn’t be discouraged that universities took a while to reply, either. That’s not a reflection on your application. It’s because universities are large, bureaucratic, and slow! (Although if you are concerned that your email was never received in the first place, that’s a different issue.)
Technically, you are only allowed to be in contact with two universities to request LoAs. So, since your third-choice university has already replied positively and your first choice has said they received your application, I think it is best just to let the second choice university be. If they don’t reply, you are still within the 2 university limit. If they do reply and offer you a letter of acceptance, you can legitimately explain to the embassy that they had not replied at all for X weeks, so you considered that a rejection and contacted a third university.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Hi Travis, thanks for the enlightenment.
I would like to ask about something that currently cloud my mind. The international office from the university I enroll in has given a positive response and forwarded my documents to the graduate school I aim for. The graduate school then sent me an email as well that they will discuss my application with my professor. My professor then said that the Letter of Provisional Acceptance might be sent within a month (which is probably around the 1st-2nd week of September). So, should I chill a bit or should I contact another university just for the worst case? And if once the letter has been sent to me (either digital or hard copy), could I feel “safe” or is there something to worry about later on?
Thank you 😀
Hi Atelie,
Congratulations on making it this far through the Primary Screening and starting the application for your Letter of Provisional Acceptance. It sounds like you’re in a very good situation indeed.
However, as positive as things sound, I think it’s still a good idea to have a back up plan. As well as it sounds like it is going with that university, nothing is certain until you have that letter of acceptance in hand and the 1st/2nd week of September would be too late to reach out to another university if, for some reason, the university declined to offer you a Letter of Acceptance.
There is also a (very remote) possibility that the university may change its mind later and decline to accept you when MEXT contacts them after the Primary Screening to request formal acceptance. I have heard of this happening in some cases, though it is very rare and I have heard no clear reasons why. The only thing I can think of is if something happens to the professor who was supposed to supervise you (e.g. they leave the university), so there is no longer anyone who can supervise your research.
So, that is another reason why it might be a good idea to get a Letter of Acceptance from a second university as a back-up.
I always tend to err on the side of caution, though. You probably do not need to be worried at all at this stage, I just always recommend having a back-up.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Hi Travis
Thank you very much for guiding us throughout mext scholarship application process.
I passed the primary screening and obtained a letter of acceptance from one of the national universities in Japan.
I submitted 3 letter of recommendation while applying for this scholarship. 2 of them are original(Wet signed) but one of them is not orijinal(no Wet sign) because my Prof. sent it to me by email. Actually only one letter of recommendation is enough for this scholarship but I wonder if this causes trouble at the second screening?
Thank you
Hi S,
No, it will not be a problem in the secondary screening if one of your Letters of recommendation was a copy. You were only required to submit one original Letter of Recommendation in the first place, so they can’t penalize you for something that was never required!
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Hello! Thank you so much for your dedication to this website. You’ve been a lifesaver all these years that I been trying the MEXT scholarship and this year I finally have passed the first screening.
So, I would to ask your advice. I accidentally contacted 3 universities. What happened is: my 2nd option asks to consult the professor before sending any docs to LoA but to do that I had to contact the Graduate School because the professor’s email is not available anywhere. And the Graduate School took a couple of weeks only to confirm they have received my request and, thinking I was doing something wrong or being ignored, I contacted my 3rd option as a substitute. Plot twist: that third option confirmed my LoA a day before a professor from the 2nd Univ contacting me directly and accepting me after some email exchanges. I have his ok but haven’t submitted the formal request for the LoA because I already did it with 2 other universities. The thing is: I haven’t heard back from my 1st option yet and it seems I have a good chance with that 2nd one now, which is actually better than my 1st option. But if I wait for a rejection from the 1st, I might lose the deadline for LoA request for the 2nd one. What do you think I should do? Wait anyway and give up the 2nd one? If I get acceptance from all, submit all 3 letters? Or submit the Placement form before hearing back from them so I would have less than 3 LoA?
Hi Sthefany,
Thank you for your kind words!
In your situation, it seems like you had a logical reason why you ended up contacting three universities. Right now, though, you only have 1 LoA, plus a second one that sounds like it is on the way.
I recommend that you go ahead and submit the formal application to the 2nd university, especially if it’s better than the first.
If you haven’t heard back from the first university at all, you can always write back to them and say that you would like to withdraw your application for an LoA. Then you would be back down to two universities. Either way, if they don’t respond by the deadline to submit the Placement Preference Form, you would only have 2 universities, and if they did, you could always say that they hadn’t responded at all for several weeks, so you had interpreted that as rejection and contacted university 3.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Thank you so much for replying me! Your perspective of the situation helps me a lot. If everything goes well I’ll certainly come back here in the comments to thank you again.
Hi Travis. Thank you so much for enlightenning us regarding mext scholarship
I passed the first screening and contacted my Prof. And send my document to him. He said I will prepare a loa and send it to you. So do I have to send my document to international office as well? Because I havent contacted to admin. Office as my Prof said that he will prepare a loa for me
Hi Aida,
Congratulations on passing the Primary Screening and for your success in getting in touch with a professor who is willing to write you a Letter of Acceptance.
I would recommend that you double-check what the university’s instructions are for applying for a Letter of Acceptance. If they say that you are supposed to contact professors directly, then you should be fine. But if they instruct you to apply through the admin office, then you should at least contact that admin office and tell them that you have been in touch with the professor and that he has promised to prepare a Letter of Acceptance, but that you want to check if there is any other paperwork or procedures that you need to complete with them.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Hi Travis,
Thank you for your guidance. I also contacted admin office as you recommend
But I also have another question.
1 month has already passed but I havent heard anything again from my professor. He said he will prepare LOA for me in 2 weeks, 1 month ago. So should I remind him again? What should I say in my mail? I dont want to disturb him but I am a bit nervous because I dont have any loa and the deadline is this friday:(
Hi Aida,
In the last month, your professor has probably gone through the end of the semester/final exams, submitting grades, and the O-Bon summer holidays, so there’s a decent chance he got distracted with other things and did not get back to your letter. A polite reminder would not be out place, especially since he gave you a time frame.
I would suggest a reply to his most recent email (the one mentioning the two weeks, if possible), saying something like: “I understand that the end of July and August are busy times in the school year, but I wanted to follow up about the Letter of Acceptance we had previously discussed to make sure there are no problems or issues. The deadline for me to apply is this Friday, so if there is anything else you need from me, I want to make sure I get it in before that deadline.” or something like that.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Thank you so much Travis. Without your guidance, ı wouldnt even come this far.
Thank you Travis for this helpful article!
I have only one question… I have contacted 2 professors at 2 universities and got their acceptance and they even submitted my documents instead of to the university to get LOA… I wonder if I can still be refused… I’m waiting since 20 days.
Thank you so much for reading my question.
Hi Stive,
Typically, if the professor has given their provisional approval, you should have no problem with the LOA being issued in the end.
However, if you are relying on the professors to submit your paperwork on your behalf, the university might not accept that, if it is not part of their process. You want to make sure that your application is being officially considered!
I would recommend that you review the university’s website and see if they have specific instructions for applying for LOAs and make sure you are following those instructions, exactly. (Of course, tell them that you have the professors’ acceptance, too!)
Other than that, the bureaucratic processing and formal approval process could take some time, too. It is not unusual for it to take over a month, even if your application is set to be approved, just because it has to go through a formal committee approval process, etc.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Thank you so much for your reply.
I have got an email from both universities that the international office is screening my documents. However, it has been more than 23 days and I’m still waiting. I know it may take a long time to issue my LOA, but I wonder if I can know now wether they have accepted me or not. Also, one of universities doesn’t has a Ph.D. program (I’m applying as a non-degree research student and mentioned in my documents that I’m planning to carry on till Ph.D)… now i wonder if that can influence my acceptance as a non-degree research student.
Thank you so much for your articles. Your website is so amazing!
Stive
Hi Stive,
Thank you for your kind words!
Unfortunately, there is no way to know if they will accept you until they issue the LoA.
Have you already completed your Master’s degree? If you already have a Masters and are applying as a non-degree student to a university that does not have a PhD in your field, they may not be able to accept you, so that would be a concern and you might want to consider withdrawing your application there and applying somewhere else.
However, if your intention is to go from non-degree student to Master’s degree student first, then that would not be a problem (again, as long as you don’t already have a Master’s).
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Hello
thank you for your post, Do you know what will happen if I contact more than two universities at a same time? will my scholarship get canceled?
Hi Moon,
There are no clear disqualification rules, etc., but you should be honest and straightforward throughout the application process.
If you make an honest mistake and contacted more than two universities because you weren’t familiar with the rules, or the embassy gave you wrong instructions, that should not hurt you. But if you are aware that you are only allowed to contact two universities and still contact more, then when the embassy asks you to explain why you contacted more than two, you would have to be honest about it and that could hurt your status.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Thank you, Travis.
I have been reading your blogs since I was very young, always thinking about how useful all of the information you give us is! I finally applied for the master’s scholarship this year for the first time and passed the First Screening of the Embassy in my country.
Something that isn’t very clear to me is the final Placement Preference Form. I had previously had unnoficial acceptance by my preferred university months prior, following their specific contact guidelines. So when I passed the First Screening I only contacted that university and got the Letter of Provisional Acceptance from them already. I did not contact the other two universities listed in my Placement Preference Form.
My question is, do I also put the names of the other two universities I did not contact on the final Placement Preference Form or do I just have to list the university that sent me a Letter of Provisional Acceptance?
Thank you for everything you do! It really helps everyone interested in this scholarship.
Hi Jorge,
Thank you for your kind words. I am impressed that you have been reading and preparing for so long!
If you already have the Letter of Provisional Acceptance from your preferred university and only want to study there, then you do not need to apply to other universities for a letter.
In that case, you could list just the one university in your Final Placement Preference Form, but that is a little bit of a risk. If something unexpected happens and that university becomes unable to accept you later when MEXT formally contacts them, you would not have a back-up plan. (Though this is very unlikely!)
On the other hand, having two other universities on the list, even if you don’t have Letters of Provisional Acceptance from them, would mean that MEXT would have two other choices to contact and request them to accept you, even if the first one did not work out for some unforeseen reason.
In that case, you would still most likely be placed in your first choice, since that is the only place where you have an LoA.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Dear Travis!
Thank You for this article and all the guidance provided – You are doing an amazing job helping us out.
I may have a stupid question but what does the selection process after applying for a LoA exactly looks like? I have an informal acceptance to a lab from a professor from Todai and I was wondering if this guarantees me the letter of acceptance? Or when I officially apply through the online form, are there some other factors or people, apart from my preferred supervisor, that have a say in on if I get the LoA or not? Should I mention in my application that I have been in contact with the professor and he’s already invited me to his lab?
In the form I also have an option to apply either to spring or fall intake. Is choosing spring intake minimizing my chances of getting LoA because more students are applying for arrival in spring? Am I better off applying for fall intake? I am only speculating at this point..
Thank You!!
Hi Anna,
It’s not a stupid question. But unfortunately, it’s not one that I can answer, either, since the process can vary from university to university.
In general, if the professor has given informal consent to supervise you, I cannot see any reason why you would not receive a Letter of Acceptance in the end. However, it is possible that the letter would have to go through a formal approval process at committee meetings, etc., so it might take some time for those administrative procedures. (That was the case at the university where I processed LoAs: They could only be issued after approval at a faculty committee meeting, and there were no meetings held between the end of July and mid-September, since it was summer break).
I would certainly mention that you have been in touch with the professor and that he has invited you to his lab! That should help speed up the process some.
You do not need to worry about whether your arrival semester will impact your chances of acceptance. This should not be a competitive screening where you will be compared to other applicants. Most international students start in the fall, though, since that works better for most academic calendars and many English-taught programs start in the fall semester, too, for that reason. If your program offers both intakes, then you should choose the one that works best for you. But do keep in mind that you will likely be assigned to a Japanese language program in the first semester (though this is up to the university’s discretion), so you would start your studies at the university one semester after your arrival in Japan.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Thank you Travis for sharing your knowledge!
I have two questions and I really appreciate your time and consideration,
I passed the Embassy screening and now I have obtained a Letter of Acceptance from my first choice.
My first question,
My second choice requires I first contact the supervisor and have an acceptance letter or an informal acceptance from him (Keio University), but as it is my second choice, I do not want to bother the profesor just for me to choose my first choice in the end, as it stands, would you recommend looking for another university that dosen´t require personal acceptance from a supervisor or try to contact him and get an LOA from the University? In my research I will probably meet this professor someday.
My second question,
If a University says they will give out the results of the LOA screening in September, then, even at the risk of not getting another LOA, can you not contact another University?
I thank you for your time and patience,
Sincerely,
Andrea
Hi Andrea Martinez,
Congratulations on passing the Primary Screening!
1. In the end, you do not get to choose what university you are placed in, MEXT chooses the order to contact the universities on your list, and it is possible that a university that gives you a Letter of Acceptance might not accept you in the end. So, it is always worthwhile to have additional letters of acceptance. If Keio is your second choice, then I would recommend that you stick with it and contact the professor. In the worst case scenario, you will have just made another connection in your field of study that can help expand your network later. (Although, if your first choice is a national university, there is very little chance that MEXT will place you in a second-choice private university over a national one.)
2. That is correct. You cannot contact a back-up university, even if the universities will not give you the results until September. I think you will find that this is the case with almost every university. It is very rare for a university to give you the results before the Aug 27 deadline.
If the results from that university come back negative, you would not be able to list them on your Placement Preference Form anymore, so you would have to replace it with another university, even if you have never contacted that replacement university or asked them for a Letter of Provisional Acceptance.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Hi Travis, I am in a similar situation but my top choice is a private university. They have issued me a letter of provisional acceptance and my backup school is a public one. I was wondering if it’d still be worth contacting my backup at this point as it could just lead to me being placed there as MEXT will prioritize public schools over private ones. Also is there a chance that if I get letters from both I’ll still get the private one if both schools are part of MEXT’s “Type A Top Global University Project”.
Hi Juan,
There is still a chance that you would be placed in your first choice private university over a second choice national university (by the way, “national” universities and “public” universities are different. MEXT prioritizes national universities, but not public ones), but I think your chances would be much higher if your backup university was private, too.
Since you already have a Letter of Provisional Acceptance from your first choice university, you might want to consider replacing your second choice university with an alternative private university – Of course, make sure it is one where you are willing to study! – or simply not requesting a Letter of Provisional Acceptance from your second-choice university.
Both of those options could weaken your back-up plan in case your first-choice university does not accept you for some reason, but it would likely increase your chances of being placed there.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Dear TranSenz:
Thank you very much!
Sincerely,
Andrea
Hello, I have passed the first screening. I have a few questions:
1. Just to confirm, if I pick the degree seeking option for Master, and my application is not enough, they will still place me as research student? Will I not lose the opportunity? Would it be better to choose Research student regardless of my intentions?
2. I am a little worried about the transition from research student to master course. I plan on studying Biomedical Engineering (or something related) in Tohoku or Tokyo (preferably Tohoku), and in the case of Tokyo the entrance exams are extremely difficult. I have no idea what kind of people can pass those tests. I have been speaking to someone who had earned the scholarhship to Tohoku, and he told me everything depends on the advisor/professor. He can decide if you do the tests, do an interview, or enter directly to the master course. If I were to enter Tokyo, and I am forced to take the tests and pass them, I am afraid I would most certainly fail. I plan on entering the G30 International Program, which might be different but I dont know.
This part worries me because I want to enter the master course and eventually the doctor course. What do you recommend?
Thank you.
Hi Oscar,
Congratulations on passing the Primary Screening!
1. Regardless of whether you chose research student or Master’s degree student, the university will decide what status to accept you, so it might not match your wishes. It is possible that they will choose to accept you as a research student even if you select “Master’s Student”, for example if they require you to complete an entrance exam.
2. I’m not quite sure what your question is here. In any case, you would not be taking the entrance exams until you arrive in Japan, so my recommendation is that you study and prepare to make sure you can pass them! You should have plenty of time before then.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Thank you Travis for the great series of articles about the MEXT scholarship. I have just recently been informed that I have passed the preliminary screening by my consulate. I do have a question regarding my application for the University of Tokyo and I was wondering if you could provide some insight. I am applying for their astronomy department and they require the physics GRE exam. I have been unable to write it for all of 2020 due to the covid-19 and I cannot book any future seatings around my area for 2021 due to the pandemic. Hence, I have written to them about this to see what I could do. Do you have any idea how long the department of science at the University of Tokyo, or at any university, usually takes to reply? I am especially worried since they state that you should email them about this before the application period (which they list as from July 1-August 27) but I could only email them around July 14 because that’s when I knew I had past the preliminary screening.
Hi Juan,
Congratulations on passing the Primary Screening!
Right now, it is final exam season in Japan, so universities may be a little busy, but they should still get back to you within a few days in most cases. (I should note that July 22-23 are national holidays for the start of the Olympics, so the university offices will be closed. You will not be able to get a reply until the 26th at the earliest).
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Hi Travis, I have passed first screening of my embassy as a research student and now I’m about to contact universities (Tokyo, Tohoku) for the first time. My embassy sent me contacting addresses of “Student Exchange Division” of schools. From their website, it is rather to contact their international divisions. After few days, I’m gonna receive my stamped documents from my embassy. I have some questions.
1. Is it better to send email to the divisions of both schools without any attachment?
2. If yes, what is the preferred template for a first email? (Can I mention my research field, language ability etc)
Hi Bayanbat Shinekhuu,
I recommend that you apply for Letters of Acceptance as described on the university websites. You can also contact the offices in the list the embassy gave you, but if you do, I would recommend that you limit your message just to saying that you passed the primary screening and were told to contact that address to apply, but that you saw the instructions on the university’s website and submitted your application accordingly.
1) In the article, I described how I recommend contacting universities, including the attachments, so please read the section about “Applying for Letters of Acceptance: What to send”
2) I recommend keeping your email simple. Let them know what you are applying for and include any information they ask for on their website. You should also mention the graduate school you want to enroll in and the name of the professor you want for your advisor. Your application documents should tell them everything else they need.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Thank you man,
Hello Travis, Thank you for the detailed information, it is really helpful.
Today I contacted the representative from the local Japanese Embassy, I wanted to confirm if It is allowed to contact more than two universities. I mentioned that according to guideline we should contact up to two universities, but the representative told me to contact all three universities and get the letter of acceptance. So now I am a little bit confused, whether I should behave as the representative of Japanese embassy told me or according to guideline. Is it possibility for me to get disqualified if I contact all three universities at the same time as the representative of Japanese embassy told me to?
Thank you a lot for your reply and help in advance,
Best regards,
Ann
Hi Ann,
I recommend following MEXT’s instructions, since it sounds like the embassy staffer you talked to is not up to date on the process. But if you follow the verbal instructions from the embassy staff, I do not think you will be disqualified.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Thank you so much for your detailed answers on this and on my previous questions too! It is a huge help!
Cheers!
Hello Travis,
Thank you so much for your guidance, I believe you helped us all a lot.
I have several questions I want to ask you and will be really grateful if you could provide answers to them. I successfully passed first screening at embassy and am currently waiting for the documents to be returned so I can send them to the universities of my choice. According to guideline we can contact up to two universities, I think this might be the rule that changed only recently. So I was wondering does this imply that we are not allowed to contact more than two universities or can we contact more than two universities and in case we receive 3 or 4 letters of acceptance we should submit only two of them to the embassy? or is it restricted to contact more than two universities in general?
Another thing that worries me is that, after submitting my research plan I noticed several typo and spelling mistakes and currently am worried about the length it might affect my acceptance chances, therefore I was wondering if there is a chance for me to correct and edit my research proposal and resubmit it to the embassy? Maybe you have heard about similar experience.
Thank you a lot in advance for your reply and help!
Best regards,
Anna
Hi Anna,
Congratulations on passing the Primary Screening!
You are only allowed to be in touch with two universities at any time, so you cannot apply to more than 2 then only submit 2 letters of acceptance.
This is a recent rule change – a few years ago, applicants were allowed to contact up to 4 universities and obtain up to 3 letters of acceptance, but since last year, the limit for both is 2.
Unfortunately, there is no chance to correct and resubmit your research proposal at this point, and you must send the same document to the universities, but if you have already passed the primary screening, that is the hardest and most competitive part of the screening, so you should not have much to worry about!
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Hey Travis!
I tried replying to the thread above but I’m not sure it was saved/sent.
I have the same issue with discrepancies between what the embassy sent me and what is posted on the website of the university. When I asked them (embassy) about this they specifically said to only use the e-mails they provided, but I am worried their emails are duds and that my application never arrived. I want to use the e-mail from the university website but I am worried, since they are so adamant, that there will be repercusions or disqualification if I do that. Do you have any advice?
Hi Alex,
Your first comment did go through, but all comments require manual approval, so it usually takes me a few days or more to get to them and that is why it did not appear. I wrote a reply and I think you should have seen it already, but just in case, here it is again.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Hello Travis!
Today I just got my recommendation from the embassy and I have a few questions.
I’m applying to both Tokyo and Hokkaido Univ. and my embassy told me to send them an email with the recommendation, sample of the provisional LoA and the stamped documents (they also sent me a spreadsheet with all the univs. emails per department).
Should I do what the embassy told me or follow the university’s instructions for MEXT students? For ex. Tokyo Univ, for the School of Engineering it states that I need to fill a form in their own system (T-CENS).
Hi Santiago,
Congratulations on passing the Embassy’s Primary Screening!
I recommend that you follow the university’s recommendation for how to apply. At the same time, you can also email the office that the embassy gave you the contact information for and tell them this was the contact information that you got from the embassy, but you will be applying via the T-CENS system, and ask if there is anything else you should do to complete the procedures.
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Thank you Travis for this really helpful article!
I have passed the Embassy screening and now I have to obtain a Letter of Acceptance.
I have only two questions:
1. The Japanese Embassy in my country has sent me a list with contact details of the universities in order to request a LoA. But the contact details for requesting a LoA are different from the ones in the university’s website. So, to which e-mail should I send my documents? To the e-mail in the Embassy’s list or to the e-mail at the university’s website?
2. This year I have to obtain a LoA from only 2 universities. In your article you write that I cannot contact more than 2 universities at the same time. So, when should I contact the 3rd university, if the second one does not reply at all to my e-mail, without violating the MEXT rules?
Thank you in advance for your help!
Best regards,
Billy
Hi Billy,
Congratulations on passing the Primary Screening! That’s a huge accomplishment.
1. I recommend that you give priority to the information on the university’s website. The information from the embassy should have come from a survey of universities, but it could be out of date. The information on the website should be the most recent.
2. You can only contact a third university if one of the first two rejects your application. If they have not responded, or if they are still in the process of considering your application, then you cannot reach out to a third university yet in that situation. (If they do not respond after a week, and you have sent them a reminder, then you can contact them again to say that since there was no response, you will withdraw your application. If you tell them that you withdraw your application, then you are no longer “in contact” with them.)
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz
Hey!
I also had the same dilemma. When I asked the embassy about it they said to exclusively use the contact e-mail they provided. I am very worried my application never actually arrived because the contact information from the embassy is different from the one on the website. I also fear repercussions for not listening to what the embassy told me..Do you have any advice on that?
Hi Alexandra,
In my experience, the embassy is usually clueless about what the universities want, so following the university’s advice is almost always best.
However, one thing you can do is to submit your application according to the instructions from the university and email the address provided by the embassy, tell them that you have submitted your application as instructed on the university website, and ask if there are any other procedures that you should be aware of or complete. That should cover all of your bases!
Good Luck!
– Travis from TranSenz