Someone introduces themselves as “a dropout of University X,” and gets the reply: “So basically you’re just a high school grad.” That framing touched off a debate on 5channel’s Nanidemo Jikkyo G board (a general-discussion board on 5ch, the huge Japanese forum network formerly known as 2channel). Does dropping out of a prestigious university actually rate higher than a high school diploma — or does it just make you look like “someone who can’t see things through to the end”? Several posters claiming to work in HR weighed in, and opinion split right down the middle. The thread also raised examples of celebrities who call themselves “University X dropouts” without ever being treated as merely high-school-educated, plus claims that correspondence universities are actually harder to graduate from than regular ones — turning into a wider conversation about the gap between how people report their education and what that really means.
I assume you mean a high school grad who could've gotten into that famous university anyway, right? Then obviously the high school grad.
In Japan pretty much anyone who gets admitted can graduate — so dropping out at all means something pretty serious happened.
I mean, it's not technically wrong though?
Basically just a high school grad.
Between a University of Tokyo (Todai) dropout and a Nihon University graduate, the Todai dropout gets rated higher.
Yeah, fair — it does mean the guy couldn't manage to graduate even after years of trying, and Japanese universities are easy to graduate from to begin with.
Back in Horiemon's generation (Takafumi Horie, the famous entrepreneur and Todai dropout), maybe there was this idea that quitting school to start a company while still enrolled was 'cool.' Dunno though.
I wonder how correspondence universities are these days. Couldn't you breeze through now with AI?
Apparently graduating from a correspondence program is insanely hard. Even Keio (one of Japan's top private universities) has a correspondence division anyone can join, but almost nobody actually manages to graduate. So actually finishing one is supposedly rated pretty highly.
In Japan, if you get in you can graduate — and for Waseda's Literature department specifically, I've heard actually graduating is considered the 'uncool' option.
No, you definitely can claim it.
You saw a correspondence program through to the end — hold your head up.
I knew that without you saying it, but it still stings.
No, I don't think that really counts as a proper high school diploma.
Most criminals out there are high school grads too — are you saying you're ranking below even that?
I'm in HR too — dropouts get rated highly where I work.
Not buying it from you — of course a dropout would tell a lie that gets exposed instantly.
Yeah, it's a character red flag.
…Can't argue with that.
The reason he's at Nihon University is that he already 'ran away' once, from somewhere harder.
By that logic, isn't dropping out itself also 'running away'?
Does Todai even have athletic-recommendation admissions? That's my point.
Re: #109 Re: #113
Nichidai fans getting salty lol
What's salty about it? My post at Re: #109 was just me, as OP, judging the argument between you two.
You're supposed to get into university on brains. Athletic-recommendation admissions don't count — that's just a walking billboard with a high school diploma.
That's not necessarily true. If that were the case, why would recommendation admissions even exist?
Background and Key Points of Debate
Japanese universities are widely seen as far more selective at the entrance-exam stage than at graduation, meaning dropping out doesn’t require a scandal or financial hardship — it can simply happen. That’s likely why, even among HR professionals, how a dropout gets weighed varies so widely depending on the prestige of the school and how easy the reason for leaving is to explain away. The thread surfaced two competing views side by side — “a dropout from an elite university rates higher than a high school grad” versus “dropping out signals a habit of running away and rates lower” — highlighting that there’s no shared standard. It’s also probably not widely known outside Japan that correspondence (distance-learning) universities are considered harder to actually graduate from than in-person ones. And when a celebrity describes themselves as a “University X dropout,” that isn’t résumé padding — they’re simply stating the fact that they enrolled and later left — though that distinction is easy to lose track of in debates like this one.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5channel (Nanidemo Jikkyo G) thread “Dropout: ‘I dropped out of University X.’ Me: ‘Oh, so you’re a high school grad.’ Dropout: ‘No! I dropped out!’ …I mean, come on.”
