I am currently at my freshman year of college, trying to take care of Gen Ed credits. I will do a double major of Japanese and most likely marketing, with minor in arts. I want to live in Japan in the future, and up until today I thought that studying abroad is best option. I come from a low income family, but luckily my financial aid take care of my classes at my community college. I wanted to transfer to University that offers study aborad between 1 semester to a whole year. However I research that while some say to just enroll in a Japanese university, other say to just study aboard for a semester to see how I like it. I feel conflicted on where to go from there. Should I just continue on taking care of my credits and then transfer or should I just enroll in a Japanese university? I do have some Japanese language knowledge. I never took the JLPT, but I would consider myself JLPT4. I can understand some kids tv shows with no English and hold a basic conversation in Japanese.
by ClassEnvironmental41
4 comments
If you are reliant on financial aid to fund your education then enrolling in a Japanese simply isn’t going to be an option for you.
US financial aid doesn’t cover universities in Japan, and there are *very* limited financial aid options available to foreigners from Japanese sources. It’s pretty much exclusively scholarships, and because the options are limited they’re highly competitive.
If you need financial aid, finishing your degree in the US (where you can use financial aid, qualify for more scholarships, etc) makes a lot more sense.
When you say you want to “live in Japan” do you mean you’d like to live in Japan for a year or two at some point? Or make Japan your permanent home for the rest of your adult life?
If it’s the former, once you finish your degree in the US, you can apply to work as an ALT, which is a common “gap year” experience for young people without much experience. It’s not paid much, nor is it good for a long term career, but it can be a fun way to spend a couple of years (while being paid!) before returning to your life in the US.
If it’s the latter you’re going to have to do more research and thought to what a long term career that would both make you happy and allow you to work in Japan would be.
Depends on if your end goal include moving to Japan long term after completing college.
As a short answer: There’s virtually no transfer options, you’ll either do your US degree in full or do a full degree program in Japan.
There’s no really mix and matching via transferring credits. Doing study abroads isn’t really transferring.
if you’re planning on returning to US anytime soon I’d continue the CC to Uni with study abroad approach so that you can dip your toes to really be sure if the culture is a match, but it also ensures your degree is applicable in your field by its accreditation and/or certifications. Medical and engineering that’s important, Idk about other fields.
If not, at least take a few trips to Japan to the areas your interested in and the schools your interested in before dedicating.
I was/am in a similar boat as you, was doing CC was going to transfer to the local Uni, but unfortunately for us, 99% of Japanese colleges won’t accept transfers and may not accept your credits even if you do find like the 2 colleges that do (there are some, I’ve seen about 2 personally).
What that means is you’d need to start over from the beginning, needing to do all 4 years, additionally you’d likely have to take a program in English if so.
There are some weiirrdd exceptions to using FAFSA loans* in Japan, in example the college I’m aiming to attend is Tohoku University. It doesn’t qualify for FAFSA loan use, BUT it does qualify me for FAFSA loan deferment with student status, just like if I were a student a US college.
*Edit: I somewhat miss remembered: for clarity, specifically getting *student loans* through fafsa is possible, NOT the grants that don’t have to be paid back. [Here is the list of colleges](https://studentaid.gov/sites/default/files/international-schools-in-federal-loan-programs.pdf)
There are a few US colleges in Japan too, you’ll want to research those yourself as I’m not familiar enough to say anything beyond that.
You can find a ton of information on the [Japanese government page for foreigner students wanting to study in Japan] (https://studyinjapan.go.jp/en/)
Edit* additionally if you decide to stick through the CC route and you’re a strong student with 3.5gpa and higher, consider joing Phi Theta Kappa Honors society if you get an invite, they have some realllly solid scholarship chances with surprisingly low competition.
Study abroad in Japan on an exchange program with a university in the US is a no-brainer.
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