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Japan 

By: Decomposed in POPE 5 | Recommend this post (2)
Fri, 01 Feb 19 4:34 PM | 41 view(s)
Boardmark this board | Pope 5 		Msg. 22587 of 62138
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My son was accepted to Wasada (sp?) University in Tokyo last night, just for one semester. I can hardly believe that the school waited until two weeks after U.S. semesters had begun before extending their official invite, but that's what Wasada did. All we had to go on 'til now was the University of Virginia's approval for Joey to go, and UVA's word for it that when UVA approves, the foreign school rarely declines. Rarely. Heh. That's very reassuring for parents who are out a lot of money if a decline occurs, and for students whose graduations get delayed if that happens.

Wasada's semester doesn't begin until mid-April, so it thinks it's reasonable to wait until January 31st before letting its incoming exchange students know whether or not they're really in. Guess what? That's not reasonable. Far from it.

Now that he's finally, officially accepted, Joey has to apply for a place to stay. Naturally - given what we've already experienced - Wasada says that not everyone who applies for a dorm room will get one. Unlike UVA, Wasada doesn't have enough for all of its students! They decide by lottery who gets one and they won't give us THAT answer until the end of February. By then, it may be really tough to find an alternative. They suggest applying now for backup lodging outside of the university if being denied will be a problem. And that will double our cost. Well, guess what? We're in the frigging U.S. of A. Being denied a dorm room WILL be a problem!

Japanese colleges obviously don't have much regard for their students. I find accepting foreign exchange students while not guaranteeing them a place to stay to be inconsiderate and irresponsible.

Sorry if I sound a little miffed today. But, given the high cost of college, you'd think they'd have worked out the kinks in some of the more highly touted programs. The opportunity to study abroad is one of the biggest drawing cards schools have when they're marketing themselves to parents. It bugs me when programs like this that have been around for decades still have major wrinkles that could be ironed out in just a couple of days, with very little effort, and at virtually no expense to either school. But then, someone would have to actually CARE.




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Gold is $1,581/oz today. When it hits $2,000, it will be up 26.5%. Let's see how long that takes. - De 3/11/2013 - ANSWER: 7 Years, 5 Months

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