Japan teens prep for Harvard at elite cram school

TOKYO (Reuters Life!) - Want to get into Harvard, fast? A new cram school in Tokyo could be the answer for Japanese teens -- if they manage to squeeze into the $28,000-a-year, intensive after-school course.

"Route H" -- or the route to Harvard -- opened for business late last month for those keen to get into the prestigious U.S. university, selecting only 15 high school students at a time through special examinations.

The cram school preps the students for the SAT and TOEFL, aptitude and English language tests which most major U.S. universities require foreign applicants to take.

It also coaches them for admissions interviews, helps them prepare their applications and invites students from top universities abroad to share their experiences.

"We've had a couple of cases where people mentioned their interest in applying to top schools abroad," Kaori Sakamoto, a spokeswoman for educational services firm Benesse Corp, which operates Route H.

"That's why we are focusing on students who aim to get into top class schools in the United States."

ROUTE TO SUCCESS?

Cram schools and tutoring services targeting students who plan to study abroad are not new to Japan, but Route H is the first to specialize in getting into Harvard, Sakamoto said.

She said the school is named after Harvard "since it's somewhat symbolic and it's easy for people to understand what this prep school is aiming at", but students keen to go to other Ivy League universities are also welcome.

To be accepted into Route H, students must pass entrance exams which show they have sufficient academic capabilities to apply for top universities.

So far, only two students have been accepted after 15 students took Route H's entrance exam -- though Route H's acceptance rate still remains higher than that of Harvard, which was 7.1 percent for the class of 2012, according to the online edition of campus newspaper, the Harvard Crimson.

Route H's tuition fees ranges from 1.5 million yen ($14,110) to 3 million yen ($28,220) -- considerably higher than many other cram schools -- but Sakamoto said that was due to the small number of students and quality of the teachers.

Education is highly competitive in Asian countries, including Japan, China and South Korea, as students vie for places in exclusive universities that are seen as a way up the economic ladder. Many attend cram schools to supplement studies outside of formal schooling.

In South Korea, the number of students going abroad to study has been growing over the years, and the number of South Korean students in the United States outnumber any other foreign student group at 100,000.

The figure for Japan is smaller with around 47,000 students in the United States, data from the education ministry showed. About 32,000 of those attended undergraduate programs.

(Editing by Miral Fahmy)