<p>I am in the ninth grade and was wondering what can I do now to increase or ensure my chances of getting into Harvard or any other Ivy League university. Also, would going to live in Japan for a year increase my chances of getting into Harvard and inpress the admissions staff.</p>
<p>Do well in school, which is most important. Take difficult classes, the hardest your school offers. Do well on SATs and SAT IIs. Be active in clubs or sports and attain leadership positions. Do something different.</p>
<p>As for your question, I honestly don’t know.</p>
<p>The next 3 years of your life will be full of opportunities. Good luck.</p>
<p>Thank You, gxing</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>If you can do something constructive and worthwhile, and maintain an excellent curriculum, then maybe. However, if you just go and goof off at some high school and spend more time in club activities than studying something applicable, then not really.</p>
<p>Besides, how will you expect to mesh the two? As a first year high school student in Japan (remember that sophomore in high school in the US is ichinensei in Japan), you’ll have to do some hardcore reading and writing in Japanese, take awful English classes, and study math that’s probably a bit advanced for your age as an American.</p>
<p>Unless of course you plan on going to a private school that caters to expatriate Americans…</p>
<p>There is not “magical” forumla. All you can do is do well in school, very well, and show a very strong passion in what you believe and wanting to do when you get to college, and perhaps in the future. Keep your fingers crossed and good luck!!</p>
<p>Have fun. Party alot. Drink up.
And when you have to study, study.
Work hard, Play hard, live hard. </p>
<p>Seriously. Don’t miss out on your youth
in order to attain some lofty goal. :]</p>
<p>lol you shouldnt advise a 9th grader to drink!</p>
<p>You do know that 9th graders(some) do drink. Well at least at my school some do.</p>
<p>And I know this because I was there, witht them, but I don’t drink.</p>
<p>Japan would be fricking awesome, do it. Great experience, you’ll mature and learn about yourself, huge culture shock which you’re going to have to adjust to, they’ll like it. Can’t harm your admissions. Make the most of your time there though - get to know the natives, take part in the customs, try out all the freaky things they do over there, ask lots of questions, be observant (how is Japanese education different to Western education…), take photos, remember interesting things, compare the their culture with ours (eg Japanese attention to detail… East Asian philosophies… business… success… stuff like that). Oh and karaoke. Compulsory for first timers. You might be able to write an essay on your experience.</p>
<p>Also, about doing the hardest courses on offer at your school… surely you should do the ones you enjoy most?</p>
<p>The Ace,</p>
<p>Japan can be great. It can also be very bad. Remember that unless you are pretty much at a high school level of reading, writing, and understanding Japanese, life can be very difficult. Plus, Japanese is not a language that’s easy to “pick up,” due to its very difficult nature.</p>
<p>Unless the OP has Japanese down pat, I’m very hesitant to recommend schooling (unless it’s in a non-Japanese school.) As someone who has gone to school here (university level) I can attest to the fact that even with years of language training under one’s belt, it’s a rough ride. </p>
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</p>
<p>I wish that carried over to their textbooks… SIGH. </p>
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</p>
<p>Only fun if you can drink. Otherwise, it’s an hour of listening to Japanese drone to badly written pop love songs. Ayumi Hamasaki is bad enough to begin with. Now have it done badly, and it’s excrutiating.</p>
<p>Add beer, and all of a sudden it’s fun.</p>
<p>I dunno, I only had very basic Japanese (about half a GCSE course) but had a great time nevertheless (home stay… although to be fair I was around the others from my school for a lot of the time as well). You pick up a lot on the way simply through being chucked into a foreign environment like that and having to fend for youself… but I guess you know best having been at university there.</p>
<p>Only problem is that they simply cannot talk English to save their life. Apparently they all do quite a bit of reading & writing at school, but hardly any oral whatsoever. Silly. I disagree with their philosophy on education - they need to bring in more Western elements (like trying things out even if you get them wrong… IE SPEAKING ENGLISH) and if they combined it with their current attitudes (discipline, hard work, achieve high grades etc.) they would be awesome. I read an article in the Telegraph the other day (don’t worry, not a regular reader) about them building a school based on Eton over there haha. Have you heard about it? I was wondering if it’s going to be single sex as well, and if they were going to have the same uniforms heh. </p>
<p>Which uni are you at over there?</p>
<p>The Ace,</p>
<p>I studied in 2003 at Tsukuba University and ICU.</p>
<p>The Japanese can’t speak English for a number of reasons. Here are a few I’ve come to believe are true-</p>
<ol>
<li> The textbooks are simply awful. They’re based on passing the tests, which require no listening or speaking anyway. No real-life applicability at all. </li>
<li> Even when they do have natives in the classroom (like me), they focus primarily on having them be human tape recorders and read the stupid dialogues. Did I mention that the dialogues are based on the test, too? And that they oftentimes have serious grammatical and diction errors?</li>
<li> Even when errors are made evident, the teachers have no power to change anything, since the tests are based on the texts. That means that despite the numerous errors I’ve pointed out (like saying, “Gee, that’s a high building!” instead of “tall building”), the teachers have NO POWER to change anything. The error stays.</li>
<li> Cultural attitudes. Language learning requires a bit more open-ended thinking than most Japanese students are accustomed to. I can’t even get my kids to fill in blanks for ad libs, because it requires too much actual creativity. They’re all afraid of putting the wrong answer!</li>
</ol>
<p>Japanese education is great at teaching things that require only rote memorization (math, science up to a point, and kanji.) It fails at teaching creative thinking, languages, and problem solving. I have kids that, when pressed with figuring out how to spell a word, won’t figure out why I placed a dictionary on the desk. They actually have to ask my WHY I put that there. If I tell them, “look it up!” they instantly go, “ohhh, okay!”</p>
<p>But before that, blank stares.</p>
<p>Opal Mehta gets a favorable review from Japan, where the theme resonates.</p>
<p>"Younger readers will be able to relate to the characters and oldies will find echoes of their own school lives, albeit in an updated version.</p>
<p>Opal (who, like her creator, is the daughter of an Indian family living in the United States) is a brilliant high school student in New Jersey, preparing for graduation and her dream of attending Harvard. Her precociousness would appear to equip her perfectly for acceptance into such a prestigious institution, only to be told that she needs to complement her intellectual skills with lessons in life.</p>
<p>What follows is a refreshing insight into the life of an upper-middle-class teenager who methodically attempts to become cool and fashionable by hanging out with a bunch of vain and self-centered female classmates to make up for her years of academic single-mindedness…"</p>
<p>" … How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life is good read that will amuse a wide audience, though younger readers especially will recognize the themes that are touched upon, whether they are native or nonnative speakers of English. Indeed, teenage students of English will find this an accessible novel that will challenge, inform and entertain in equal measure …"</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/book/20060409TDY18002.htm[/url]”>http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/book/20060409TDY18002.htm</a></p>
<p>It seems to be an Asian trait.</p>
<p>hahahhahaha I’m reading the excerpt from that book right now, it’s classic.</p>
<p>You’ll have to go get a signed copy!</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.bergen.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkxNjcmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTY5MTI1MjAmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk3[/url]”>http://www.bergen.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkxNjcmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTY5MTI1MjAmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk3</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/excerpts/2006-03-29-how-opal-kissed_x.htm[/url]”>http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/excerpts/2006-03-29-how-opal-kissed_x.htm</a></p>
<p>I’ll look out for it… seriously though I’d never heard of her before, I wonder how she’s going to raise publicity.</p>
<p>Well, in Japan, if she goes on some “variety show” and tastes some plain rice and raves about how it’s the most delicious food she’s ever eaten, then she’ll be just fine.</p>