What to do to improve my chances at applying for Japanese Degree next year?

Hey!

I have a question regarding the Japanese degree in UK. I'm an EU citizen. I applied for a Japanese course (through UCAS) but didn't quite make the cut I guess (no offers, even through extra).

So my question is, what do people do to improve their chances when applying for the course, with basically a year to spare? Are there any official requirements (apart from the AAB/ABB)?

I'm a (wannabe) mature student, I studied for 2 years at a university in my home country, on an unrelated course, so I don't think that would count for much.

My grades for the high school final examination weren't exactly high (apart from English), and It seems that every Uni requires at least 70/80% of the combined scores.

So.... are there any Foundation Courses that would prepare me for Japanese Course? How useful are the evening Japanese courses (as in how much would they improve my chances when applying to Uni)?

Thanks for any help,
Simon

Reply 1

Sephael

Bah, I guess I'll have to find a different source of information :frown:

Reply 2

Quack

Do things that are related to Japanese, and get a really good personal statement.

If you've already done some time at Uni, the fact that you want to study Japanese now is (probably) a sign of your committment to it, which will impress the applications people. So make sure you emphasise what is about japanese that interests you in your personal statement and why you now want to study it (having already been at university).

A good personal statement is one of the crucial factors to getting an offer.

I'm not sure about studying Japanese before you go to Uni. It would almost certainly add to your chances of getting a place at a university (more committment etc). But it won't do that much for you long term as (most courses) are ab initio. I would instead say that you read around areas of Japanology that interest you and emphasise them in your personal statement. Literature? History? Linguistics? what is it about Japan that interests you?

People here won't be able to tell you THAT much about what to do. Instead, I would say get in touch with the Unis that you want to apply to and ask them what it is they want, what you have, and what else you'll need to get an offer.

You will definitely need the equivalent of the AAB/ABB offers. But they may be lenient in some cases.

So yeah, contact the unis and sort out a decent personal statement, and most importantly, be interested.

Where/what did you study?

Reply 3

Sephael

Economics (Business English) in Poland. The uni I was in decided to drop the English part, so I was left with some of the most boring classes in the world :wink:

I'm more of a linguistics guy, so I quit and decided to study something that I've always wanted - Japanese. The problem is, I've never finished any official Japanese courses, all I've done was learn Hiragana/Katakana, some Kanji and history. Kind of hard to prove when there are no entry examinations , or even any requirements other than AAB/ABB :frown: