EAstudies

Just my personal opinion:
The U.S. is indeed in a precarious state, to put it generously. Nonetheless, I don't think the U.S. will completely "eat itself" in the next six or seven years to the point academia will also collapse. Major U.S. schools have large endowments compared to schools in other countries due to how they operate the schools, and they still have influential scholars, resources, and research networks here. State schools are indeed more dependent on the government grant, but if you're a student from the U.S., I don't think your stipend will be affected any time soon. And regional studies like EALC/EAS are not an exception.
If any, after doing a Ph.D. in the United States, you can be a professor in another country. Every year, there are quite a few Ph.D. recipients who get a tenure-track job in Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, etc. This is a very common practice. However, the other way is simply not an option. There are numbers of scholars who have a B.A. or M.A. from East Asian schools, but all of them (or at least I haven't seen a single exception yet) have their final degrees, i.e., Ph.D., in the United States. This sounds unfair since this is East Asian studies, but this is the reality. So you should consider where you'd really like to stay after graduation. If you are sure that you only want to stay in Japan and nowhere else, then U Tokyo is a great option. But if you seriously want to remain in academia and do not work in an industry, a Ph.D. degree from the United States will open a bigger academic job market for you, and this includes moving back to Japan.
Lastly, you should remember that methodologies and the academic trend may differ in the United States and Japan. Even if you're studying the same discipline, let's say Japanology, the U.S. schools are becoming more and more inter-regional and interdisciplinary (though in varying degrees). Also, grad schools here and there have different cultures or vibes (e.g., a relationship between a grad student and professor), so that would be another thing to consider. 
And congrats on your acceptances!

I got an offer from Princeton yesterday (Ph.D.). I still haven't heard back from others, but I can now sit back and relax whatsoever. Best of luck to everyone! 

Yes, that's generally very true. It's risky to do MA in countries other than the U.S. and Canada, and this includes "Western" institutions (and even other English-speaking countries like Australia or New Zealand).  
Nonetheless, as far as I know, this is an uncommon practice in area studies (e.g., East Asian studies; and note that I'm not saying this is a "common" practice). So, for example, if you want to apply for East Asian studies with the focus on Japan and did BA in the U.S. or Canada, doing Masters in Japan isn't a bad idea. However, if you want to go into a traditional department like history, anthropology, or any other non-Area studies major it can be quite risky and should think about it twice. 

Got into uoft's MA program!

Just my personal opinion:
The U.S. is indeed in a precarious state, to put it generously. Nonetheless, I don't think the U.S. will completely "eat itself" in the next six or seven years to the point academia will also collapse. Major U.S. schools have large endowments compared to schools in other countries due to how they operate the schools, and they still have influential scholars, resources, and research networks here. State schools are indeed more dependent on the government grant, but if you're a student from the U.S., I don't think your stipend will be affected any time soon. And regional studies like EALC/EAS are not an exception.
If any, after doing a Ph.D. in the United States, you can be a professor in another country. Every year, there are quite a few Ph.D. recipients who get a tenure-track job in Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, etc. This is a very common practice. However, the other way is simply not an option. There are numbers of scholars who have a B.A. or M.A. from East Asian schools, but all of them (or at least I haven't seen a single exception yet) have their final degrees, i.e., Ph.D., in the United States. This sounds unfair since this is East Asian studies, but this is the reality. So you should consider where you'd really like to stay after graduation. If you are sure that you only want to stay in Japan and nowhere else, then U Tokyo is a great option. But if you seriously want to remain in academia and do not work in an industry, a Ph.D. degree from the United States will open a bigger academic job market for you, and this includes moving back to Japan.
Lastly, you should remember that methodologies and the academic trend may differ in the United States and Japan. Even if you're studying the same discipline, let's say Japanology, the U.S. schools are becoming more and more inter-regional and interdisciplinary (though in varying degrees). Also, grad schools here and there have different cultures or vibes (e.g., a relationship between a grad student and professor), so that would be another thing to consider. 
And congrats on your acceptances!

Just my personal opinion:
The U.S. is indeed in a precarious state, to put it generously. Nonetheless, I don't think the U.S. will completely "eat itself" in the next six or seven years to the point academia will also collapse. Major U.S. schools have large endowments compared to schools in other countries due to how they operate the schools, and they still have influential scholars, resources, and research networks here. State schools are indeed more dependent on the government grant, but if you're a student from the U.S., I don't think your stipend will be affected any time soon. And regional studies like EALC/EAS are not an exception.
If any, after doing a Ph.D. in the United States, you can be a professor in another country. Every year, there are quite a few Ph.D. recipients who get a tenure-track job in Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, etc. This is a very common practice. However, the other way is simply not an option. There are numbers of scholars who have a B.A. or M.A. from East Asian schools, but all of them (or at least I haven't seen a single exception yet) have their final degrees, i.e., Ph.D., in the United States. This sounds unfair since this is East Asian studies, but this is the reality. So you should consider where you'd really like to stay after graduation. If you are sure that you only want to stay in Japan and nowhere else, then U Tokyo is a great option. But if you seriously want to remain in academia and do not work in an industry, a Ph.D. degree from the United States will open a bigger academic job market for you, and this includes moving back to Japan.
Lastly, you should remember that methodologies and the academic trend may differ in the United States and Japan. Even if you're studying the same discipline, let's say Japanology, the U.S. schools are becoming more and more inter-regional and interdisciplinary (though in varying degrees). Also, grad schools here and there have different cultures or vibes (e.g., a relationship between a grad student and professor), so that would be another thing to consider. 
And congrats on your acceptances!

Unfortunately, I must say the same since I don't know much about their application process. But Archimon, as a current Columbia student who got into their PhD program, might have some knowledge. And as far as I remember, there was a current Columbia PhD student (might be from history dept. with the focus on East Asia, not EALAC) in this thread. If you want, you can try to go over the earlier parts of our conversation and send him or her a private message. 

I’ve replied to Nekoinu via PM.

Yes, I'd echo what @EAstudies said. I'm not an American citizen myself, and I definitely agree that the situation in the US seems incredibly scary, but remember that the current president is fairly unpopular and the election is coming up soon, so you will very likely not have to experience this for the entire 6 years you spend in graduate school in the US.
Also, while Toudai is a great school, keep in mind @EAstudies point about the way a foreign degree will be looked at in the US. I'd also encourage you to think about the way the training you will receive in Japan will be perceived in the US because there are major differences between Japanese-style scholarship and US-style scholarship. Japanese historians, for example, tend to produce works that are very descriptive and focus narrowly on a particular subject or particular documents, while in the US you will be encouraged to make a more analytic "big picture" argument. Both styles have their positives, but it might be difficult to make a name for yourself in the US if you produce Japanese-style work. 

Just my personal opinion:
The U.S. is indeed in a precarious state, to put it generously. Nonetheless, I don't think the U.S. will completely "eat itself" in the next six or seven years to the point academia will also collapse. Major U.S. schools have large endowments compared to schools in other countries due to how they operate the schools, and they still have influential scholars, resources, and research networks here. State schools are indeed more dependent on the government grant, but if you're a student from the U.S., I don't think your stipend will be affected any time soon. And regional studies like EALC/EAS are not an exception.
If any, after doing a Ph.D. in the United States, you can be a professor in another country. Every year, there are quite a few Ph.D. recipients who get a tenure-track job in Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, etc. This is a very common practice. However, the other way is simply not an option. There are numbers of scholars who have a B.A. or M.A. from East Asian schools, but all of them (or at least I haven't seen a single exception yet) have their final degrees, i.e., Ph.D., in the United States. This sounds unfair since this is East Asian studies, but this is the reality. So you should consider where you'd really like to stay after graduation. If you are sure that you only want to stay in Japan and nowhere else, then U Tokyo is a great option. But if you seriously want to remain in academia and do not work in an industry, a Ph.D. degree from the United States will open a bigger academic job market for you, and this includes moving back to Japan.
Lastly, you should remember that methodologies and the academic trend may differ in the United States and Japan. Even if you're studying the same discipline, let's say Japanology, the U.S. schools are becoming more and more inter-regional and interdisciplinary (though in varying degrees). Also, grad schools here and there have different cultures or vibes (e.g., a relationship between a grad student and professor), so that would be another thing to consider. 
And congrats on your acceptances!

I’m an MA student.

Impressive! Congrats!!

Ahh I finally got my Harvard HEAL decision this morning! Accepted! The first e-mail was from a graduate student which kind of took me aback!

Congrats, archimon! Terrific program, indeed!
It seems like we have a pretty darn strong applicants on this website this year since so many of us are getting into great PhD programs. That being said, I wish everyone luck!

Congrats, archimon! Terrific program, indeed!
It seems like we have a pretty darn strong applicants on this website this year since so many of us are getting into great PhD programs. That being said, I wish everyone luck!

I just got got an official email from Columbia telling me that I’d been accepted, so presumably emails are coming out now. 

I got an offer from Princeton yesterday (Ph.D.). I still haven't heard back from others, but I can now sit back and relax whatsoever. Best of luck to everyone! 

Thank you! Yes, I have a lot to think about already, but I am still quite anxious to hear back from the other two. HEAL is probably tied with Yale for my top choice program. Hopefully this week most of the remaining programs will release decisions and this process can finally end ?

By the way, congrats on Northwestern and Yale! It seems like you already have offers from solid departments. 

I got an offer from Princeton yesterday (Ph.D.). I still haven't heard back from others, but I can now sit back and relax whatsoever. Best of luck to everyone! 

I got an offer from Princeton yesterday (Ph.D.). I still haven't heard back from others, but I can now sit back and relax whatsoever. Best of luck to everyone! 

I got an offer from Princeton yesterday (Ph.D.). I still haven't heard back from others, but I can now sit back and relax whatsoever. Best of luck to everyone! 

I don't know how it would be common for schools to just offer one theory class. I've never been to other undergraduate schools, but I've always thought reading and discussing with a minimal attention to theories is a high school type of literature class. But I guess it is a lot more common than I thought. I don't want to sound conceited, but this is how my undergraduate experience has been as a comparative literature and philosophy double major:
Even though I was not an English literature major, I took a lot of theory courses from the English department as a comparative literature student. My school doesn't necessarily focus on critical theory, but we do have famous theorists in their respective fields (e.g., queer theory, Lacanian psychoanalysis, postcolonialism, etc.) and I was especially interested in the theoretical part of literature. The English program here offers quite a few theory courses for undergraduate literature students every semester, and although English department doesn't have this requirement, my department requires students to take a theory survey course as 101. It's mostly going over the Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism and some other texts picked by the professor, but I think it is a pretty solid overview for an undergrad student. Of course, higher level courses focus on a specific field in critical theories, and I've been mostly taking psychoanalysis and deconstructionism. I imagine these courses wouldn't go as deep and comprehensive as graduate level courses, but I'm still pretty satisfied with my coursework. Plus, my school is a research university with a small graduate population, so I could get ample attention from the professors who are active in research and are the leading figures in their fields. And for these classes, there weren't students who weren't particularly disinterested since it was not required for them to take these. And my school is very supportive of independent studies, so I'll be doing 2.5 years of independent work (honors thesis + 2 semesters of independent studies + 1 summer research scholarship) for one topic. So I do feel like I have some depth in this specific area, enough to start the graduate work.
Okay, this now sounds like a real bragging. I might delete this later since it makes me feel silly. But my point is that it is possible that your school's program was particularly rigorous even though it may be a lot more common than I thought. It is possible for you to meet undergraduate students who have had a lot more exposure to theories when you go to grad school. At least, my friend who went to another undergraduate has a very similar experience with me. But I don't think there's any reason to be intimidated or worried. Over the summer, just go over the Norton Anthology. It's a fascinating theory book for beginners, and it's actually pretty hard to meet anyone who hasn't heard how good it is. The first two years of graduate study (at least in many comparative literature programs) start with coursework. You will have time to learn theories in depth. Also, even if a student is from the school that has a strong theoretical base for undergraduate students, that doesn't necessarily mean he or she is well-covered. For one, as I said earlier, my school offered a breadth of theory courses but they were not requirements. Also, my school regularly had theorists coming over and holding a lecture last year (like Alain Badiou and Judith Butler) and the vast majority of the audience was graduate students. I only saw very few undergraduates in any of the lectures. So undergraduate students from the schools that have lots of opportunities to study critical theories aren't necessarily better informed...unless they did take advantage of it. My friend who had a similar experience with me, too, actively took advantage of his school offered. (And now that I'm seeing other posts, he and I did go to rigorous public and private institutions in Cali and New England, so our situation might not be too common compared to the general population...)

I generally agree, and I certainly think OP shouldn't be freaking out about it.
But there certainly are some schools that actually do see GRE and will likely reject you if it's below their threshold. Those schools often mention their score range (for example, one of the programs I know clearly states that they rarely accept students with 95 percentile or lower on Verbal on their admission website), so it would be a good idea for him or her to check the websites. Also, if a program states an average GRE for their accepted students and if your score is a lot lower than that (e.g., another program I know says that their students usually have 165/161/5.0), it would be wiser to take a test once more and get something closer to that score. The thing is, these schools are inundated with applications, and there are so many students with great research experience and GPA--so if the schools care enough about GRE so that they'd post cut-offs or average scores on their website, an invariably low score can have an impact (not straight-out rejection, but still...) 
So an advice like a low score won't hurt--which is tempting to say and is true in most cases, which is why I said I generally agree with you--is a risky thing to say because it really depends on a discipline and program. So as I said, I think OP should just calm down and take a breath and check the websites of the schools. OP still has a month to study for it, and if she/he doesn't get the score she wants, she can try to contact the schools. If doing the latter part is indeed necessary or not depends on an individual program. 

It takes about 10 days (or we can say 14 days, just to be safe) to get the official score, and ETS claims that it will take appx. 5 business days after sending the report. So we can say you gotta give 15 to 20 days before the deadline. That being said, I do think you can take another month to study for GRE, but not more than a month. 
Also, I've known some people reaching out to the school and asking if they can submit a new GRE score after the deadline. And some of them got a positive response, some of them didn't. So I'd suggest that you contact the programs you're going to apply and ask if you can send the score you have for now and send a new one after the deadline. If all of them say yes (though I don't know how likely this would), you will have more than a month to prepare for it. But of course, you'd want to hand the score in before it is too late in the admission process.