<p>I want to [double] major; one of my majors being Japanese. I've already attempted to do a lot of research, but can't seem to find the answer: which college[s] have the best Japanese program in the USA? I want something that requires study abroad.</p>
<p>Thanks for your help!!</p>
<p>Try look at University of Hawaii -Manoa</p>
<p>I have looked at it, and have determined that UoH at Manoa would NOT be a good school. (practically everything i read about it was scary!).
I was thinking perhaps somewhere in California near LA or Sandiego would have the best program because of Little Tokyo and Japan Town?</p>
<p>Do you mean Japanese (language) or Japanese Studies (History, etc.)?</p>
<p>Peterson's Four Year Colleges 2008 lists only the following schools for Japanese Studies:
Case Western, Claremont McKenna, Earlham College, Gettysburg College, Gustavus Adolphus College, SUNY Albany, University of San Francisco, Williamette University
Note that the University of San Francisco is very close to Little Osaka/Japantown</p>
<p>For Japanese language/literature, there are many colleges with this major. UCLA is one of the and is is usually near the top in most departments. Whereas the most popular majors at UCLA may have large class sizes, I'm sure you would have small upper division class sizes at UCLA. Also, UCLA is near to three historic Japanese areas which all still have Japanese presence:</p>
<ol>
<li>Sawtelle (very near UCLA) has a long history for Japanese people, and today has all kinds of Japanese restaurants and businesses</li>
<li>Little Tokyo has a great Japanese American museum and all kinds of cool places to eat (and practice your Japanese)</li>
<li>Gardena/Torrance. This is the center for U.S. headquarters for MOST of the big Japanese companies. You could possibly get an intership here.</li>
</ol>
<p>By the way, according to Peterson's, only three coleges have BOTH the Japanese major AND the Japanese Studies major:
Claremont McKenna
Gettysburg
Gustavus Adolphus</p>
<p>Japanese Language. UCLA seems like a good canidate, so i'll definantly look into it! Thanks!
Are there any other good colleges for Japanese Language?</p>
<p>University of Penn</p>
<p>Harvard's Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations.</p>
<p>If you're talking about learning the Japanese language.</p>
<p>University of Hawaii - Manoa is the best HANDS DOWN, nothing can compete with them on this front. I'm a Japanese major and I've looked extensively into this, trust me.</p>
<p>The university itself leaves much to be desired though...</p>
<p>I would have to say the second best program in the U.S would probably be at Middlebury. They have great teachers, and as a school are committed to extensive language learning.</p>
<p>I think Tufts would probably be third, but don't quote me on that...</p>
<p>UCSD has a premier East Asian Studies department.</p>
<p>Listed from most to least selective (estimate!):</p>
<p>Yale University
Duke University
U.C. Berkeley
Claremont McKenna and/or Pomona College (both Claremont Colleges)
Middlebury College
U.C. San Diego
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Williamette
University of Hawaii
Earlham</p>
<p>
[quote]
Listed from most to least selective (estimate!):</p>
<p>Yale University
Duke University
U.C. Berkeley
Claremont McKenna and/or Pomona College (both Claremont Colleges)
Middlebury College
U.C. San Diego
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Williamette
University of Hawaii
Earlham
[/quote]
</p>
<p>You have overestimated the selectivity of most of the California schools on your list.</p>
<p>I would look into California schools for this perticular area of study. Do to the fact thier VA funding is very limited in this state, I had to look else where. <em>wishes I had woken up sooner</em></p>
<p>These caught my eye:
<ol>
<li>Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (no prev foreign lang req.)
Although it is abroad (japan of course), financially it’s still less then alot of Major Universities, which is a huge plus if your seriouse.</li>
</ol>
<p>U Chicago
U Michigan
U Wisconsin
Washington U St. Louis
Ohio State U
Indiana U
Cornell U</p>
<p>I did a lot of research on this and got some help from a professor at Princeton. Most of these are public schools, which I’m partial to. I choose to go to University of Wisconsin-Madison to study Japanese. They have an amazing program that’s very intensive, covering twice the material of most colleges in one year. Their Japanese program is 6 credits per semester, since they meet every day for discussion sessions and 3 times a week for lecture. The professors are wonderful and the TA’s really do a outstanding job in discussions. As an awesome bonus, they have classes on anime and manga! I visited University of Michigan (supposedly having one of the best Japanese programs in the country), and was not very impressed. The head professor was great, but the discussion group I sat in on wasn’t much better than my high school Japanese class. Plus the atmosphere of UMich is very depressing and feels mechanical.<br>
I have heard good things about University of Washington - Seattle (which has study abroad at Tokyo University), Indiana University, Penn State, and Michigan State. A lot of people asked about University of Hawaii at Manoa, and I’ve gathered that’s it’s ok. You get some benefit from being immersed, but the teaching isn’t the best and since you’re at a third tier school, you can get a good enough education in Japanese, and not much else. It’s pretty laid back, and I’ve heard there’s a fair amount of racial separation between whites and Asians at U Hawaii, so the immersion might not be as good as you think.
The Ivy’s are hard to judge, but I’ve heard great things about Yale and Dartmouth. As far as liberal arts colleges go, Swarthmore is the best. For programs in Japan, the International Christian University is at an Ivy league level and is equally as hard to get into.</p>
<p>This is a little late but I was wondering if anyone knew about Amherst’s Japanese program, and the rest of their languages (in conjunction with the five school consortium)?</p>
<p>Amherst was the first American college to have a relationship with colleges in Japan; according to their website, “By the late 1960s, Japan studies had come to be accepted in American liberal arts colleges. As part of this movement, Amherst began to see its historic ties with Doshisha in a different light. In the past, the College had thought of Doshisha as a place where its graduates could promote the study of Christianity and American civilization. Now it would also be seen as a place where Amherst students could study Japanese language, history and culture. In September 1968, Amherst proposed to Doshisha a faculty and student exchange and other forms of cooperation. This led, in 1971, to the organizing of the Associated Kyoto Program (AKP), a junior-year program at Doshisha University for Amherst students , and others, who wish to study Japanese. With offices on Doshisha’s main campus, the AKP, now sponsored by fifteen private colleges, has hosted more than 1,000 American undergraduates, including over 100 from Amherst, for a year of study in Kyoto. It has also awarded more than fifty fellowships to American and Japanese faculty to participate in educational exchange for periods of one or two semesters. The AKP now constitutes a principal avenue for Amherst student and faculty contact with Doshisha University.”</p>
<p>UC Irvine has a pretty good Japanese program, I believe (though personally, I think the Japanese language department at the Irvine Valley College, which is a community college, is better due to the awesome staff there)</p>
<p>Why do you want to major in Japanese? What will you do with this major?</p>
<p>I’m going to resurrect this thread. I applied to Eastern Michigan University, University of Mount Union, and University of Pittsburgh and got accepted to all three. I also applied to University of Wisconsin but I’m assuming that I’ll get rejected or wait listed at this point. I probably won’t be able to afford Pitt unless they are VERY generous with financial aid for OOS. So, it’s between Mount Union and EMU, which program is better? I have visited both campuses and I like Mount Union but I’m not a big fan of EMU. Does Mount Union have a strong program? If not, is EMU’s any better? Thanks for any responses!</p>
<p>What about schools in New York? Any good Japanese programs?</p>