Best for
Degree holders with science preparation pursuing a clinical field.
Application path · Undergraduate
Check eligibility first for medical or dental transfer
Medical and dental bachelor-entry transfer is highly limited, so verify degree eligibility, prerequisites, and whether the school recruits that year.
Goal
Path
ROUTE AT A GLANCE
Three things to check first
Check first
Annual seats, eligible degree, prerequisites, exams, and cost.
Leads to
Entry into the professional curriculum leading toward licensure.
Milestones
Eligibility stage
Bachelor-transfer eligibility check · very few schools run it
This stage
Judge eligibility for the bachelor transfer first — terms vary by school, natural / life-science grounding must be substantiated, offering schools are scarce, and each year's opening must be checked per school.
Do I actually have bachelor's-transfer eligibility (self-judgment scenes)
Who is bachelor's-transfer for?
For those who have already graduated and want to make a major switch from their original field (often engineering/science or life sciences, but also humanities/social sciences) into the regular training track of a medical faculty's medicine department or dental faculty's dentistry department. It is a 'bachelor's-transfer / transfer admission' selection run independently by the university, not a regular entrance exam, not privately financed international special selection, and not graduate-school admission.
Can I go this route if I haven't graduated yet / don't hold a bachelor's degree?
Not necessarily limited nationwide to bachelor's-degree holders only. Official samples show at least three readings: (1) a medicine-department reading centered on 'a university graduate / a bachelor's degree conferred by the National Institution for Academic Degrees / completion of 16 years of overseas education'; (2) a relaxed reading of '2+ years of university enrollment and 62+ credits earned', also eligible to apply; (3) some private dentistry faculties go wider, also including graduates of junior-college / KOSEN / medical-field vocational-school specialty courses, or those recognized through individual qualification screening. Whether you're accepted can only be read off that year's current guidelines, per school [verify].
I hear 'designated science credits' are required — can I go this route with a humanities background?
'Designated science credits' is not a nationwide threshold set uniformly by MEXT, but a premise or screening method each school sets on its own in that year's guidelines. Some schools don't write a uniform credit number at all, instead directly testing the foundation via a 'natural science / life science written exam'; others only write 'hoped to have completed mathematics · physics · chemistry · biology'. Humanities or weak-science backgrounds usually need to fill the gap first and substantiate it with credits / a course list / a syllabus / exam scores; the subjects and thresholds must be confirmed per school [verify].
Bachelor's-transfer vs regular admissions vs doctoral advancement (a positioning comparison)
| Dimension | Bachelor's-transfer (this route) | Regular admissions | Doctoral advancement (L1-C) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Target population | Graduates making a major switch into the regular medicine/dentistry training track | High-school graduates entering an undergraduate faculty from zero | Those with a degree already, advancing further |
| Entry level | Mostly year-2 transfer into medicine/dentistry [verify] | Undergraduate year 1 | Doctoral program (latter half) |
| Purpose | Entering the medicine/dentistry specialty track, studying to a degree then the national exam | New undergraduate enrollment | Research / a doctorate, raising the research level |
| Eligibility gate | Readings differ per school: bachelor's / 2 yrs of university + 62 credits / junior-college, KOSEN, vocational, etc. [verify] | 12 years of school education | Master's degree / research experience |
Related tools / deep dive
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