Hello! Today, I will be talking about my experience with dorms and class sign-ups. The dorm process for Waseda University was a bit weird. They sent a form in late January, but this was before I received an official acceptance into Waseda. The questionnaire asks what accommodation you want to stay in, however, there is no way to prioritize the options. So, you may get any dorm that you check off. When I filled this questionnaire out, I didn’t choose one of the options for the big dorm, since it had shared toilets (the other dorms all had personal toilets). However, I regretted this since I did not get into any of the Waseda dorms. Instead, they notified me that I could rent an apartment that they owned and sent links for the available properties (but run by a property company). Here are my pros and cons of this apartment experience:
Pros:
+ Comes with its own toilet, shower, washing/dryer machine, closet, drawer, refrigerator, microwave, bedding, desk, TV, AC/heater, iron, vacuum machine, sink, and stove
+ 10 minutes walking distance away from Waseda University
+ 9 minutes walking distance away from Edogawabashi Station (which connects to a lot of main stations)
+ Many bus stations and convenience stores around
+ Mail/parcel loc
+ Door lock is a digital keypad and has an extra door with a passcode to enter the apartment building
+ No curfews or strict rules (able to invite guests, unlike almost all dorms)
Cons:
- Had to sign lease contracts and contact the leasing property myself (had to deal with the time difference and delayed emails)
- Had to send a wire transfer for the payment in yen (this service is only available at Bank of Hawaii, according to my research; the rest of the banks send the money in USD)
- Very expensive compared to dorms
- Hard to make new friends compared to dorms
- No one to help you with Japan paperwork (registering residence card, getting National Health Insurance, etc.)
Registration
My experience with registering for classes was also very stressful. I received a scholarship that had a requirement of having to take a nine-credit equivalent worth of business courses at Waseda. This was a bit difficult since you need to petition classes you think can transfer to Shidler. These classes also must fit into your schedule, while simultaneously not exceeding SILS’ (School of International Liberal Studies) 21-credit maximum (plus not overlapping any classes). This is made even more difficult as the school also requires 6 credits of Japanese Language Courses (in which I had to take a test to check my proficiency level).
The process for class-sign ups was also very different than UH’s process. There are three registration periods, and you can sign up for classes during the first, second, and third registrations. However, you can only drop classes during the second and third registrations. This was difficult since many people are competing for certain classes. I was very lucky that I got all my business courses, however, I got only one-credit worth of my Japanese Language Courses (also meaning I had around 6 more Japanese classes denied due to over-enrollment). I went to the SILS office to ask about this, and they said this was very common. Luckily, they told me that because I took so many business/lecture courses, I would just need to reach 14 credits total (not requiring the previous requirement of 8 credits of business/lecture courses and 6 credits of Japanese Language Courses). During the second registration, I registered for around 5 more classes (each 1 credit worth) just to make sure I could get one more class. This worked out for me, as I got into one of the five classes I registered for, making my total credits 14 (which meets the requirement for Waseda, and meets the correct transfer amount for UH). This process was very stressful for me, and I had to visit the SILS office, as well as write many emails and make many calls to UH. However, it worked out well in the end! When in doubt, visit the office in person and ask for help! DO NOT HESITATE TO ASK FOR HELP (DON’T WAIT TIL THE LAST MINUTE). Something that was reassuring is that if you don’t get the required number of classes after the third registration, they will help you through this with their course relief registration process.