Allison Said:

I am a college student and I want to do an exchange program to japan but my school doesnt offer it. What do i

We Answered:

You can do a study abroad program via another school. For example, NYU offers study abroad opportunities for people who are not NYU students. I believe that Syracuse, Boston University, and SUNY (New Paltz, Oneonta and others) also offer study abroad opportunities that are open to students from other universities. These are often in the summer, but they can be during term-time. Your home university's student exchange office should be able to provide you with a list of opportunities. I'll link to a few, below, to get you started.

In addition, you can sometimes arrange your own time abroad directly with the foreign university. For example, Charles University, in Prague, offers semester, summer and year-long programs for foreign students who want to learn Czech. I'd imagine some of the Japanese universities would offer similar. You'd need to research the universities and check their webpages or contact them directly.

But the easiest thing will probably to be to go through another US university.

Margaret Said:

Can I do an overseas exchange program without being a college student?

We Answered:

AFS has a program for 18 and older. You should check it out. Im in Japan now but I am a high school student. I dont think you have to be in a university with AFS.

Natalie Said:

I'm interested in a college student exchange programme so I was wondering should I find exactly the same..?

We Answered:

usually u try to do same. but if u want adventure, then u do something different to add to your EQ. this will help lots when u start work. its not compromise - its gaining more knowledge
to excel try www.virtuesproject.com

Valerie Said:

Japanese suggestions: Area to live, college, exchange programs,etc?.?

We Answered:

As Anotherguy said, Japanese colleges are not all that good. The only really good ones are the elite universities such as Tokyo University, Kyoto University, Doshisha University, Waseda University, Keio University, Tsukuba University (for technology majors), Osaka University (for medicine). These universities are all at the American Ivy League level. However, there are more schools at this level within the US.

If you want to go to Japan for 1 year as an exchange (I did myself), go for it! You will learn alot about the people and the culture that way. I wouldn't recommend spending an entire educational career in Japan however. Unless you go to an extremely expensive foreign university, you would be best off studying all subjects in Japanese. This requires you to have the ability to pass Level 1 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test.

In conclusion, I would recommend you to go to Japan temporarily as an exchange student, but to get your degree from the US. Even if you did get a degree from a Japanese University, it wouldn't be accepted in the US. My Japanese wife graduated from college in Japan, and her degree is useless here in the States. She has to go to school all over again here!

In terms of a friendly city, I would say Kyoto, Nara, or my wife's home town of Okayama. For shops and especially restaurants, Osaka is hard to beat. (Tokyo is just too darned big and spread out...) No matter where you go in Japan, there will be a lot to do.

Recommendation: See if your University has a sister college or university in Japan. That way, you can go to Japan and get credits at your college at the same time!!