<p>I am a sophomore at a 2nd tier private university in Japan, and will graduate in 2014 with a BA and minor in French (hopefully).
My native language is English, but am fluent in Japanese and Chinese. In fact I will have to write my senior thesis in Japanese....
Hoping to pursue an MA in East Asian Studies in the USA/Canada straight after graduation, specifically concentrating on Japan/China, with the aim of continuing on to a Ph.D in the same field. </p>
<p>I'll have to choose a thesis adviser (zemi) soon, and will probably spend the next 2 years studying and completing my senior thesis on the comparison of Japanese and Chinese culture. I know this is a little early, but what can I do to increase my chances of being accepted by a top 20 MA program? Student-professor interaction at undergrad level (humanities) in Japan is limited to one's thesis adviser at best, and research opportunities are next to nothing. My GPA at the moment is an A average (4.0 on a scale of 5.0), which I am afraid may be a little low for top programs. Will the fact that I did undergrad in a language that's not my native language be considered? </p>
<p>The only thing that may possibly differentiate me from other applicants that I can see at the moment is my fluency in both Chinese and Japanese, and 5 years' worth of living experience in Japan by the time I graduate. I have no work/research experience whatsoever, but may complete an internship in a totally unrelated field in the next 2 years. No formal translation experience either, though I have done paid translation work on an ad-hoc basis a couple of times. </p>
<p>Any suggestions as to how I should proceed? Also, what are some of the top MA programs in this field?</p>
<p>Research is not really required for MAs like it is for PhDs. I’m at the MA program at Yale right now and other than my honors thesis (translating short stories from Japanese to English) I didn’t have anything other than regular coursework and study abroad.</p>
<p>I’m a bit confused about your GPA - usually an A is a 4.0 on a 4.0 scale. 4.0 on a 5.0 scale would be more like a B average.</p>
<p>You will need 3 recommendation letters, so if it’s difficult to build relationships with professors you should probably work on that. Maybe a supervisor from your internship would be a good alternative.</p>
<p>Out of 8 people in the program at Yale this year, 2 are fluent in both Japanese and Chinese (native speakers of one, studied the other to fluency), one more is a native speaker in Chinese and the rest of us are not native speakers of either, though most have had quite a bit of study. A few are in the classical/literary Chinese/Japanese courses, if not starting to learn whichever language they haven’t studied yet. My language skills are definitely the lowest out of the group - and I majored in Japanese (4 years of study at an American university). So I don’t know if your language skills are necessarily unique.</p>
<p>Yale and Columbia are the only programs I applied to, due to geographic restrictions, so I don’t know much about other schools.</p>
<p>Thanks! Good to know that research isn’t absolutely essential. </p>
<p>About my GPA: my school uses a scale of 5.0, with 5.0 being A+, so I don’t really know how my GPA will be translated. Grade inflation here is a problem in the sense that almost everyone passes, with the exception of certain classes. However, there is a bottleneck in the sense that it’s not that easy to get an A+ grade.</p>
<p>Would a LOR from a professor whose classes I’ve taken count?</p>
<p>For all 3 LORs you would ideally want them to be from professors whose classes you’ve taken, with one of those being your advisor. Someone from your internship would be a backup if it’s too difficult to get 3 different professors to write for you.</p>
<p>If an A+ is a 5.0, then maybe 4.0 would be more like a B+? It’s really hard to say.
5.0 = A+
4.0 = B+
3.0 = C+
2.0 = D+</p>
<p>makes a bit more sense than
5.0 = A+
4.0 = A
3.0 = A-
etc.</p>
<p>You’ll submit a transcript, probably translated, so they’ll be able to see the context and not just the number.</p>