Application for the Letter of Acceptance

Applicants who wish to enroll at Sophia University as a MEXT Scholarship student should apply for the “Letter of Acceptance” after passing the Primary Screening held by the Japanese embassy or consulate, by following the instructions below. Please note that the application documents must reach Sophia University no later than Friday, August 25 2023.

Summer recess:
Sophia University will be closed from August 11 to August 17, 2023 due to summer recess. Please be noted that we cannot reply to emails and phone calls during this period. Furthermore, please also note that it may take more than three weeks to complete the document screening as most professors will be away from the campus from August through mid-September.

Application procedure for the Letter of Acceptance

Applicants who wish to enroll at Sophia University as a MEXT Scholarship student should apply for a “Letter of Acceptance” after passing the Primary Screening held by the Japanese embassy or consulate.

To apply for a Letter of Acceptance, please send the following items by email.

• The email subject MUST be “Application for Letter of Acceptance <MEXT Scholarship>” as it will be automatically processed.
• Please refer to the below for the documents.

• Applicants who are not native English speakers but wish to enroll in English-taught programs should submit a certificate of English proficiency in principle. If the applicant does not have any certificates of English proficiency, please submit a support letter written by a professor who can prove the applicant’s English proficiency. If English is the medium of instruction at the applicant’s university (meaning that the courses are provided entirely in English), a letter issued by the university stating this fact can also be accepted as proof of English proficiency.
• Document screening for issuing a Letter of Acceptance usually takes around three weeks.
  If the application is accepted, the Letter of Acceptance will be sent to the address on the “Information Sheet.” If it is not, we will be notify the applicant by email.

Process after the Letter of Acceptance is issued

After submitting the Letter of Acceptance issued from our university to your local Japanese Embassy or Consulate General, you will move onto the next selection process. However, a Letter of Acceptance issued by Sophia University does not guarantee that you will be placed at our university.
The final decision for university placements will be decided by the MEXT and notified to each university around December into February of the next year. In addition, university placement will be notified by the MEXT to the applicant via each embassy or consulate and cannot be notified by the university itself.
For those who are officially selected to be placed at Sophia University, we will inform you of orientation dates and housing options around in February if you are entering the university from Spring semester, or in July if you are entering from Autumn semester. The information will be sent to the email address provided on your Information Sheet, so please make sure to check your email box.

English Based Graduate Programs and Japanese Based Graduate Programs

Please note that Sophia University offers English based courses only at the Graduate Programs in Global Studies, Science and Technology (Green Science and Engineering), Global Environmental Studies and Linguistics: TESOL (Teaching English to speakers of Other Languages). Applicants who wish to be enrolled in the Graduate Programs other than these programs are required to have high level Japanese language proficiency, since the entrance examination and all the courses are conducted in Japanese. Although MEXT can provide a 6-month Japanese language training program (full-time Japanese Language Course) during the first 6-month period after your arrival, this may not be enough to prepare for the entrance examination if you are a beginner in Japanese. Please be noted of this information when you consider your future research plans.

上智大学の大学院に関する情報 / Information of graduate programs at Sophia University
http://www.sophia.ac.jp/jpn/program/G(日本語 Japanese)
https://www.sophia.ac.jp/eng/admissions/graduate_p/index.html(英語 English)

各研究科の指導教員に関する情報 / Information of Sophia researchers
https://redb.cc.sophia.ac.jp/?lang=japanese(日本語 Japanese)
https://redb.cc.sophia.ac.jp/?lang=english(英語 English)