For the stability of the society, it seems the right thing to do.
So you support affirmative action? for me -- i view it with disdain. it should be overturned. it is the antithesis of meritocracy , and the thesis of
entitlement.
affirmative action provides access based on the color of one's skin , not on one's innate abilities. it is rewarding a
lesser person instead of giving to the more deserving (one who had worked hard to attain grades).
How is Japan towards receiving foreign students as full time students in your universities? I know many Indians who go to your universities for studying volcanology and seismology etc but not other engineering courses.
Could you give a comparative contrast on what is Japan's view on receiving international students and your structure versus US universities?
A student who has completed his or her secondary education (include high school) and school education for 12 years or more outside of Japan will qualify for admission to a Japanese university. A student educated in a country where primary and secondary education (include high school) lasts for less than 12 years will become qualified for admission if he or she completes a college preparatory course designated by the Japanese Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and if the student is over 18 years old. Those who have qualifications such as an International Baccalaureate or Abitur and are aged at least 18 years are also qualified for admission to a Japanese university.
The National Center Tests (usually called Center Tests) are not, strictly speaking, a preliminary round of tests to see where you qualify. They're part of the whole entrance examination process, and are usually counted together with the internal tests to determine admissions eligibility. A few schools, mainly the most hotly contested ones (Tokyo and Kyoto Universities) do use the Center Tests as 'round one' to cut down the field, but not all schools do. In any case, you do not get your individual test results until after the second round of tests (the final official results are issued in early April, way after whether or not you got in to the school of your choice has been determined) so you need to go ahead and take the 2nd round of internally administered tests at individual schools anyway. What happens in reality is that most students will write down their answers on a separate sheet of paper, and take that home with them from the exam. The correct answers are released later in the day; and everyone checks their answers against them. If they did really badly, they might decide to skip the second round of testing.
An important factor is that individual universities give different weights to each subject. (The weighting numbers are published by each university every year in their entrance exam guides.) For instance, the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (Tokyo Gaigo Daigaku) gives a huge weight to the English test results, while the math test results count for maybe 1/4 of English. In addition, the Center Tests themselves are weighted in different ways against the internally administered tests (e.g. Kyoto University only gives them a 50% weight (=25% of the total) I think, or even less.) So everyone who tackles these Center Tests knows well beforehand which school there are aiming for, and what to put most effort into. Since there are 9 subjects that one can be tested on, preplanning is critical. So it's really not possible to switch your national public university school choice after the Center Tests. The national universities schedule their 2nd round tests on the same days too, so it's basically impossible to sit for exams at 2 or more schools.
Not all universities use the Center Tests. It's only mandatory for the national and regional public universities (国公立大学), plus I think all the specialized field universities like the Defense Force university (Japanese West Point equivalent). Private schools can basically use whatever criteria they want to, although many do use the Center Tests. For instance International Christian University considers SAT and TOEFL results among other things. (Private unis do schedule their exam dates after the national uni dates, so many people who aspire to a national uni will take a 'suberidome' (slide-stop, or 2nd choice) entrance exam at a private one too.)
One thing to note is that the national public universities (the best schools to get into, with the exception of a few private schools) basically only look at your test results to consider admission eligibility. So theoretically you could goof off during high school and just get passing grades, never participate in extracurricular activies, and just concentrate on passing the entrance tests. Most high school kids don't do that, but it does account for the prevalence of 'ronin'. Ronin are people who fail to get into the school of their choice the first time, and rather than going to their 2nd choice (almost everyone takes a 2nd choice entrance exam), take a year or more off to just study at exam prep schools and try again. Most Tokyo University students for instance are at least 1-ro (did one year of 'ronin' study). There are plenty of 2-ro, 3-ro and higher entrants too.
Getting into a top national or private university is still a golden ticket in terms of future employment. For a school like Tokyo University, it almost doesn't matter if you don't graduate. Just the fact that you got in stamps you as an elite. Japan is a fairly classless society, so your family background doesn't matter much, but your academic background sets you apart - or not.
