From our other sites
The story
Maidona News reported that when it asked first-year students at Yamagata University why they enrolled, a flood of negative answers came back, sparking buzz online for being “too funny.” That set off a debate on 5ch about just how well-known Yamagata University actually is. The thread lit up with discussion of how many people don’t even know where Yamagata Prefecture is located, comparisons ranking it against Waseda/Keio and the MARCH group of universities, the boundaries of the Tohoku region’s “imoni-kai” (taro-stew party) culture — and why Aomori gets left out — and whether a regional national university or a city university is better for job-hunting, with some posters even citing specific tuition figures over the years.
“Why did you enroll at Yamagata University?” We asked first-years… and got a flood of negative answers that had everyone laughing. A gathering of “people whose dreams fell through”…?
Maidona News, 10/29
“Too funny.”
Source: maidonanews.jp / Original article here
What people said
Why are you even asking that? It's right there in what you just wrote.
Yamagata University, Yamaguchi University, Yamanashi University… anything else?
Yeah, that's true…
It's not that it's bad, it just doesn't really stand out.
Apparently a lot of people think it goes Tottori, Shimane, Yamagata in that order.
Honestly I only have a vague idea too
It's in kind of an awkward spot
It should be facing the Sea of Japan, but isn't that area actually Niigata…?
Yamanashi, Yamaguchi, Yamagata
Fukushima, Hiroshima, Tokushima
Fun fact: those are the only two sets of three prefectures in Japan that each share a kanji character like that
Most people at MARCH who claim they "failed Waseda/Keio" just sat the exam for the hell of it (a so-called "commemorative application") — they never had the chops to actually pass.
So that means Yamagata U >>>>> Waseda/Keio.
Yamagata U students, hold your heads high.
You're a cut above Waseda and Keio.
Why does Aomori get left out of imoni culture?
No good riverbanks, and it's too cold, I guess.
Because it's a southern Tohoku thing —
Yamagata
Miyagi
Fukushima
make up the imoni cultural zone, while northern Tohoku's
Aomori
Akita
Iwate
are not part of it. (The original post visually stacks the kanji of each prefecture's name to show the grouping.)
If you're going to end up at a small local company anyway, the reality is you're better off going to a "Nittokomasen" school (Nihon, Toyo, Komazawa, Senshu — a tier of Tokyo private universities) and landing a civil-service job or a major company from there.
Tokyo's networking and sheer number of companies are just on a different scale from the countryside.
Nittokomasen to a major company, lol
Don't cite some rare exception, lol
Even Nikkoma grads land major-company jobs all the time, totally normal. Tokyo-area universities have deep alumni networks too, and that makes a real difference as well.
Even at a major company there's an "executive track" and a "foot soldier" track, you know…
If all you want is to brag about your entrance-exam score, fine, but if you're thinking about the rest of your life, you're better off going to a university in Tokyo.
For job-hunting, a Tokyo university is better, yeah.
If you're a genuine STEM type, a rural university with nowhere to goof off is actually better for you
If you're a fake STEM type, Tokyo with all its temptations might suit you more
So outside the med school, do they start you back at grade-school arithmetic?
Re: #143
Sounds like you don't actually get what hensachi means
Though at my university's (not Yamagata U's) science and engineering department, there's an extra half-semester course in Math III for students who seem shaky
That's about the extent of it
You think I don't get it? Go ahead, draw me a graph. Don't even know how to do that? (LOL)
Just draw Mt. Fuji and you'll be about right (a bell curve does look like Fuji's silhouette)
Sounds like you think every high schooler takes university entrance exams
I get that you're desperate, lol — if tuition were at private-university levels, people would just go to Tokyo instead, lol
Living costs in the Tokyo area are high too, you know?
2003: tuition ¥520,800
2004: tuition ¥535,800 (corporatization began this year)
Yamagata University's current tuition: ¥535,800
Held flat this whole time
Because of deflation
Some national universities have recently loosened the cap a bit and raised tuition, but Tohoku-region universities will likely be the last to do so
since a lot of their students come from lower-income families
https://img.jisin.jp/uploads/2021/08/yamagata_tower_mansion_1_line_Tw.jpeg
https://skyskysky.net/building-japan/06yamagata/02/photo/001/1.jpg
https://www.nts-kij.co.jp/cms/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/91c8a21557c9b4f1db8c368d5650b457.jpg https://www.jalan.net/jalan/images/pictLL/Y6/L320926/L3209260000702539.jpg
Sounds like there's a lot of aging posters here, scarred by the exam wars, who might've just barely gotten in if their academic ability matched today's Yamagata U level.
Well, of course
Academically it's still above average overall
It's right on that borderline where, among people aiming for a national university, it's a toss-up whether it reads as "oh, you messed up" or not
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Yamagata University is a regional national university that emerged from the postwar education reforms, and the thread saw a clash between voices mocking its low name recognition and voices pointing out that, as a national university, it still requires a certain level of academic ability to get into. The comparisons with Waseda/Keio and MARCH aren’t a numbers-based ranking — they’re really just 5ch’s trademark exaggerated self-deprecation and trolling, so take them with a grain of salt. The claim that the imoni cultural zone includes Yamagata, Miyagi, and Fukushima but excludes Aomori, Akita, and Iwate is based on one poster’s personal impression, not an academic boundary. On tuition, posters noted that since the 2004 national university corporatization, Yamagata University and many other regional national universities have kept tuition flat at ¥535,800 for years — worth reading against the backdrop of some national universities recently moving to raise fees. The debate over whether a regional national university or a city university is the better path is likewise confined to the narrow axis of job-placement outcomes, and the thread reached no overall consensus.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Speed+) thread ““Why did you enroll at Yamagata University?” We asked first-years… and got a flood of negative answers that had everyone laughing. A gathering of “people whose dreams fell through”…?.”
Leave a Reply