kaykaykay

1. start to prepare for your GRE-s and take them. They matter even more for foreigners than for American students. Without that it is really hard to see whether you have a good profile or not. Just by the grades you really cannot evaluate your profile. 2. make sure you have good LOR-s related to your proposed field of study. 3. make sure that you have a good writing sample related to your proposed field of study. 4. make sure you have a good fit to the universities that you apply to, do not just choose top 10 bc they are top 10 (also try to add safeties) Do not worry about how grades look like. You cannot do anything about that. Universities have seen a lot, just follow what they tell you to do with them, they will use the conversion rate they want. Especially German grades should not be an issue, I am pretty sure they have GErman applicants every year. You have to include all your grades. In your application discuss what you did and not what you did not do.

nice. department would be a nice addition!

I am not too sure what to make of the question. I am European and humanities are well respected in Europe, potentially more than the US. Even Political Science is much more closely aligned with its political theory roots. As an empirical scholar I chose the US PhD for this reason (I have an econ undergrad so I prefer this tradition) but I do not think that the European scholarship would be worse and especially it is not disrespected in Europe. (in my humanities heavy family/ school mate/ friends circle actually it is a bit less respected than philosophy or such would be because it is not "humanities" enough)

I do not remember signing it in my offer but at least in my university it is the same as I learned recently. It seems like a standard practice. so it seems that your university just puts it in the offer explicitly.

I chose my advisor, worked with other professors. I am really not sure why you discuss these issues without any knowledge about them, each and every one of your guesses are wrong. I just said that the MA is better than in the US, I do not think the PhD is better but then again, I think it is comparable to many countries

Monbukagakusho. it shows that you are fluent in Japanese. Graduate stipend (after tuition ) is about 155000Y(no tax on it) which is quite enough to live on even in Tokyo. Tokyo is actually not that expensive.you can rent for about 50K . To compare I pay double that amount currently for a shared apartment. You use the 100K to live. It was enough for a quite lavish life compared to here.

I meant fellowships for international students. You do not have to write any of the entrance exams when you get those. You do not have to compete with Japanese students. You do not even have to compete with Chinese or Korean students who have their own programs. I did not have to. If the Japanese Ministry of education wants you you are in (look at MEXT scholarships) but there are a bunch of others. Also the OP wanted to learn Japanese. So I guess his goal is not to get good grades only (btw in small seminars it is much easier to get good grades). I am not sure why you want to discourage people from studying in Japan. The language is difficult but if you want to learn it anyways it is fairly nice (full tuition, good stipend, beautiful cities, good food). undergraduate education has big classes and it is less personal but I am at in a big public university in the US and we have huge classes as well.

No they were proper seminars with 10-15 people. And you belong to an advisor too who will have a special seminar to his/her students. Plus he/she will advise you on your thesis. Actually better master's programs than in the US as in Japan MA is a step towards the PhD. (the PhD program will not have any educational part and it is 3 years like in the UK)

Not true. Any of it. And I lived there for quite long including doing an MA there too. If you get to the postgraduate level you can talk to the professors as much as you want and they will give you rec letters. There are no standardized tests anywhere in Japanese colleges, (normal- nonstandardized tests for undergrads sure but that happens in the US too). grad education is seminar based. Plus there are generous fellowship options. In addition usually there is some form of language training.

Try to teach English in Japan for a couple of years. Or try for an MA in Japan (in a subject you like). I doubt that you could get enough fluency in Japanese even with two years of MA to teach it. Japanese is a fun language as a beginner but it is rather difficult on higher levels.

talk to your recommenders whether they can put you in touch with someone. as you say they thought that everything was in good shape so they must also be wondering how to advise you better.

As a foreigner I have to say that is probably not the reason. If you have any doubt look through the current grad student list there will be plenty of international students. And i would recommend if you are still at that school talk to people right now till they do not forget your application. I did not make it in one application cycle either and I managed to talk to some people so I knew how to adjust my application for the next year (by the way the problem was fit as BFB suggested). Also be careful when your POI is an assistant professor., ask around whether they are taking students. Good luck! And this cycle is not over so who knows...

If you got rejected by your undergraduate institution maybe you can get some insider info as to the "why " part from the commitee members directly or via your recommenders. Maybe they will have an idea how to strengthen your file.

yes. you should email the graduate coordinator if you absolutely need an update. also you could wait (well until much closer to april 15). there is really no need to bother a faculty member with administrative issues, in fact I am not even sure that you are supposed to know who is on the admissions committee. Btw, if they accept you some faculty member might contact you, that is a different situation. (just imagine you are teaching several different classes and students might want to email you when your inbox gets flooded by emails from 300+ impatient prospective students)

applying to only two schools is a huge risk. The positive answer seems to be quite encouraging though.