I have gotten an offer to do a study year abroad at AIU. I will be coming from a large sized University in the city and am coming from a software background. For others who come from a similar position as me or just went to AIU for a study year abroad, how was your experience when coming from a larger university to a smaller size one such as AIU.
by Lost-Smile-6813
3 comments
I can’t directly answer your Akita-related questions but can speak generally to the move there.
Akita is about as BFE as you can get in Japan, e.g. it’s a 4-hour Shinkansen ride to Tokyo, or a 3-hour train ride to Hiraizumi, I guess the closest cultural center of (mild) historical interest.
The isolation could be good I guess; Akita is not a small city in itself (300,000) so you’ll have the opportunity to meet a lot of people and really work on your Japanese abilities.
This might be controversial or a bad take, but speaking from the experience of being a 1992 CS grad and having worked in IT for the 30+ years since then, I think the real-world benefit of CS/software studies is whatever the student, personally, puts into it; CS shows you where the tools are but it’s up to you to figure out what you want to do with them.
So the upshot of that is this year in Akita would be best focused on cultural exposure, language skills, and seeing if life in Japan is something you’d like to continue with. Plus self-study in applied software creation in the field(s) that interest you professionally.
I have a friend who studied there for a year and she loved it!
Akita is a decent place, it has everything you need and isn’t too expensive or big. AIU is a bit out from the central city but there is public transportation that goes to the mall and downtown. For a countryside town it’s ranked really high for quality of life. Also Akita has some really nice diverse seasons.