Scholarship Application Story: MEXT/Monbukagakusho – Global Scientists and Engineers Program (GSEP) Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan 🇯🇵

I had been dreaming of studying abroad in Japan since I was in 12th grade. At that time, I already knew about some of the fully-funded scholarships in Japan such as Monbukagakusho a.k.a MEXT Scholarship via Embassy track, Mitsui Bussan Scholarship Program, and Monbukagakusho (from now on: Monbusho) via university like in Tohoku University, Tokyo Institute of Technology/Tokodai/Tokyo Tech, Kyushu University, etc. Unfortunately, in the second semester of my senior year of high school, I could only apply for the Mitsui Bussan Scholarship Program, and I didn’t even pass the document screening for that program. I didn’t apply to Monbusho via the embassy because my national exam score’s average was not good enough for the Gakubu (S1) program. I could have applied for the Kosen/Senshu Program which is equivalent to a D3/D2 program in Indonesia, but that’s not what I wanted. I also couldn’t apply for Monbusho via university because I didn’t have any English proficiency tests like TOEFL iBT or IELTS because the tests are so expensive.

In short, I took a gap year in 2017 so that I could get money for an English proficiency test and I could apply to one of the top universities in Japan which is Tokyo Institute of Technology/Tokodai through their program called Global Scientists and Engineers Program (GSEP). In February 2018, I already had a TOEFL iBT score and I was ready to apply for the GSEP Tokodai and even in May 2018, I was starting to write the essay based on the previous year’s guidelines. Then the official guideline was released in July 2018 (if I’m not mistaken) and there’s a new rule that we need to pay for the application fee and it cost 17,000 JPY. At that time I couldn’t afford it so I didn’t apply for the program again for the second time. Finally, in 2019, I was really frustrated because I really wanted to go to college therefore I was determined to look for money and apply for the GSEP. Then the miracle came, one of my seniors, Kak Hasfi, who I never met in real life called me on the phone, then I shared all of my stories with him, and he offered me to pay my application fee for this GSEP on condition that if I pass the program and get the scholarship, I don’t need to repay him, but on the other hand, if I fail, I need to pay the application fee back to him; and at that time obviously I said yes to him and decided to use my own money to take the SAT Subject test on June 2019. Thank you very much Kak Hasfi for making this story happen haha.

So what is the Global Scientists and Engineers Program (GSEP)?

I’m actually not going to explain about this program deeply, but in a nutshell, this is the first English-taught undergraduate program at Tokodai, and if you are admitted, you’re going to study under the Department of Transdisciplinary Science and Engineering and after finishing the program you’ll get a Bachelors of Engineering (B.Eng) from Tokyo Tech. The cool thing about this program is you don’t need to limit yourself to just learning one discipline, instead, you’ll learn various kinds of sciences and engineering subjects so you’ll be able to solve many real-life complex problems in this world. You can be divergent! For a more detailed explanation, please check this website: GSEP

Preliminary Screening

The first screening is, of course, document screening. By the way, in GSEP 2020, only the 8 best applicants WORLDWIDE will get the MEXT Scholarship, so at that time I didn’t hope too much because this program is really competitive. So what are the documents needed for this program? I’m not going to mention it here because you can find the full application guide on this website: GSEP Application Guide But I just want to mention that you need to pay the application fee which is 17,000 JPY + 500 JPY for admin fee (at that time it was about 2,3 million IDR ), so be prepared for it, especially if you struggle because of money like me.

I finished my documents in the middle of August and sent my documents to Tokyo Tech around the 20th of August 2019, because at that time the deadline was September 5, 2019. I sent it using EMS service, and from the Post Office (Kantor POS) in Cianjur, it cost around 300K-ish IDR . Then, my documents arrived at Tokyo Tech at the end of August, if I’m not mistaken it just took around 4 days for my documents to arrive in Tokyo Tech.

Secondary Screening

The preliminary screening result came out. It was in the early morning on  September 27, 2019.

I think the secondary screening is the most important part of the selection because it consists of the academic test (high school level math, physics, and chemistry) and interview. Because I have forgotten most of HS’s science materials, so I’d been starting learning it again since May 2019. I used A-Level books for those subjects as well as watching youtube videos regarding the materials. To be honest, I was so clueless, because I actually didn’t know what I need to learn since the GSEP admission team never posted the past papers of the previous test. But I highly recommend you learn from the A-Level curriculum because the Indonesian high school curriculum is not enough (but I don’t know about our HS curriculum now). The secondary screening was held at Sampoerna University, Jakarta on Saturday, October 12, 2019.

During the secondary screening, I felt inferior because most of the other students were already accepted in top universities in Indonesia, including one that rejected me. And the academic test was really difficult for me; the thing that I thought at that time was how can I fill the paper as logically as possible so I didn’t leave it blank. I made a portfolio that I made before and brought it to the interview. The interview wasn’t really smooth too, so after the process, I was 100% sure that I would be rejected haha. But the most important things for me were: first, I’ve done my best, and second, I got new friends. After the screening, my friends picked me up and drove me back to my house from Jakarta to Cianjur. Thanks to Sandi, Kani, and Fahad!

The Results

As I told you before, I was very sure that I wouldn’t get in and that’s why I applied for another scholarship program too, GKS Korea (former: KGSP), which maybe I’ll make a post about it later. I applied to GKS to enhance my chance to study abroad with a fully-funded scholarship. The GSEP result came out on November 20, 2019, approximately 1.5 months after the secondary screening. Unfortunately, from November 20, the applicants still had to wait since the results were sent by mail, not online. And on November 22, I already got an announcement that I passed the second screening process of the GKS program and I had to do a medical check-up to continue the process. On November 27, one of the applicants from Indonesia got his results, and he didn’t get in. It made me very sure that it’s impossible for me to get into this program even to be one of 8 best applicants who will get the MEXT Scholarship, that’s why on November 28 I decided to continue my medical check-up for GKS program.

On the afternoon of November 28, after I finished my medical check-up and it cost me a lot, I checked the tracking number of my GSEP results and it said it’s already in Cianjur. From the hospital, I directly went to the post office with the hope that I could know my results as soon as possible, but then, they said that the results package was already sent to my home. On the way home, my sister texted me that there’s a package for me. My heart was beating so fast lol, I felt like I already knew that I would fail and if I didn’t get it I would be OK because I also passed the 2nd screening of GKS but still, you know what I’m saying right?

Then, I arrived at home. My sister who knew that I applied to this program asked me to open the results ASAP. I wasn’t ready at all, and I was planning to open it at night, making a college results reaction video like what the students in the US do haha, but yeah, I opened it directly after I came home and my sister recorded it. I thought no matter when I’ll open it, the result would be still the same.

And… This is what I got:

I GOT IN and I also got the scholarship! I was speechless, excited, tired because I just arrived. Every feeling is mixed and my sister was still recording it. I JUST COULDN’T BELIEVE IT!!

But this was just the beginning of a sweet-sour dilemma that I was going to face. I also want to say thank you very much to Kak Ryza who helped me a lot during the application process, you guys can also read his story on his blog: Adiksidiksi, but please don’t ask him too much haha. And thank you so much for everyone who helped me a lot through the process, I am sorry I can’t mention you guys’ names here but thank you~

If you guys have a question regarding this program, you can ask me in the comment section so other people who read this post will also know your questions but please read and try to understand the guidelines first because everything is on there. You also can ask me through my social media account but I still highly recommend you ask your questions here. Thanks for reading this post and good luck with your application!

-written on March 22, 2020-