UTokyo's First New Degree in 70 Years

How to Win Admission to the College of Design's Inaugural Class, at Less Than 1/3 of Industry Pricing, with Career Support That Lasts a Lifetime

By Emi Sakashita
UTokyo Sciences II ｜ UTokyo Graduate School ｜ Columbia University Teachers College
Lead Admissions Strategist, Alpha Academy

Introduction｜This Is Not a New Department. It Is a Tectonic Shift.

I'm Emi Sakashita, Lead Admissions Strategist at Alpha Academy.

These past few weeks, my inbox has been overwhelmed with the same kinds of messages from parents:

"Is it true UTokyo is launching a brand new program?"
"Should our daughter even consider it?"
"Where do we begin?"
"Another consultancy quoted us over ¥700,000 for application support. Is that really what it takes?"

The program everyone is asking about is the University of Tokyo College of Design (CoD), set to open in September 2027.

This is the first new degree program at UTokyo in roughly seventy years. It features a five year integrated curriculum (4 years undergraduate + 2 years master's, with the option to complete in 5 years for top performers). All instruction is in English. Intake is in September. Each cohort has 100 students, with about half international.

I want to be very clear at the outset: this is not the launch of a new department. It is a tectonic shift in Japanese higher education.

I went through UTokyo Sciences II as a regular admittee, then UTokyo Graduate School, and then Columbia Teachers College. So I can say with confidence:

The CoD admission process is unlike any UTokyo entrance exam that has come before.

And, with the right strategy, it is also entirely winnable. Alpha Academy has supported over 80,000 students into elite institutions and global careers across more than 18 years. In this piece, I'll lay out exactly what CoD is, what they're looking for, and how to give your child a structurally unfair advantage in the inaugural cohort.

1｜What CoD Actually Is, and the Misconception You Must Avoid

Let me correct the single most common misunderstanding I encounter:

The "Design" in College of Design is not visual art, graphic design, or product design.

I have already received dozens of messages saying "My child isn't artistic, so this isn't for them, right?" That reading is completely wrong.

UTokyo defines "design" as a mode of problem solving:

・Empathize with people and society
・Envision futures worth pursuing
・Prototype and test in the real world
・Collaborate across diverse minds

In other words, design as broad spectrum problem solving thinking.

The 21st century's hardest problems (climate change, super aged societies, AI and digital transformation, geopolitical fragmentation, the mental health crisis) cannot be solved within the old binary of "humanities or sciences." They require fluid integration of literature, philosophy, economics, engineering, computer science, biology, and medicine.

CoD is UTokyo's bet on producing graduates who can do exactly that. It is the strongest attempt yet by a Japanese university to compete with, and surpass, the global leadership programs at SFC, ICU, Waseda SILS, and even Minerva University.

2｜Five Features That Make CoD Unlike Any Existing Japanese Program

There is also one feature that gets less attention but matters enormously: CoD bypasses the traditional first and second year liberal arts curriculum (zenki kyōyō). From the very first semester, students design their own course pathway. This is the most flexible undergraduate structure UTokyo has ever offered.

For exceptional students, the option to complete the master's degree in just five total years is a genuine career accelerant. Twenty one or twenty two years old with a UTokyo master's degree, fluent in English, and ready to enter a global career. That is a structural advantage that compounds for decades.

3｜Who CoD Is Looking For, and Why "Top Average Scorers" Will Not Get In

UTokyo has explicitly listed five qualities CoD seeks in candidates:

・Intellectual capacity and learning ability
・Communication skill and English proficiency
・Logical and creative thinking
・Responsibility, social justice, and inclusivity
・Self direction and collaboration

At first glance, these read like generic admissions language. But notice what is not there: high standardized test scores.

CoD is not hunting for the top scoring applicant in the room. CoD is hunting for someone who can answer three questions with depth and originality:

・What social issue do you genuinely want to solve, grounded in your own lived experience?
・How would you draw on UTokyo's wide ranging disciplines to solve it?
・Can you actually mobilize a team of diverse collaborators to make change?

These are exactly the questions you will be asked, in your essay and in your interview. In English. With depth. In your own voice.

This is a fundamentally different battlefield from the traditional UTokyo entrance exam (a contest of knowledge volume and processing speed). The preparation strategy must be fundamentally different too.

4｜The Admission Structure: Route A vs. Route B

CoD uses a two route admission system, with 50 seats reserved for each.

Required of all applicants

・Transcripts and academic records
・Letter of recommendation
・Essay (in English)
・Interview (primarily English; Japanese permitted in part)

Route A: Domestic Track (50 seats)

・Japan's Common Test (6 to 8 designated subjects, ~80%+ benchmark)
・English certification: TOEFL iBT 80+, IELTS 6.0+, Eiken CSE 2400+, or equivalent

Route B: International / Returnee Track (50 seats)

・IB, SAT, ACT, or A Levels (at least one)
・English certification waivable based on educational history
・Overseas applicants may interview remotely (no travel to Japan required)

A Critical Constraint

You cannot combine a CoD application with any other UTokyo selection (general entrance exam, recommendation admission, etc.).

In practical terms: you cannot keep UTokyo Science I or Humanities I as your "main" option while also applying to CoD. If you target CoD, CoD must be your primary path. This requires conviction and a clear eyed strategic decision, exactly the kind of decision a strong advisor helps you make.

There is no traditional written second stage exam. Admission is decided by holistic review: documents + interview + standardized academic indicators.

5｜The Five Critical Powers You Need to Win, and Why You Cannot Build Them Alone

Across more than 18 years and over 80,000 students, Alpha Academy has built a substantial dataset on what actually distinguishes admitted students from the rest. For an admission as new and as holistic as CoD, we have distilled it into five capabilities that must be developed in parallel.

① Social Insight
The ability to articulate the social issue you genuinely care about, grounded in your own experience, not abstract talking points. This is the foundation everything else builds on.

② Design Thinking Fluency
The ability to walk through empathize → define → ideate → prototype → test in your own words and apply it to your chosen problem. CoD draws heavily on Stanford d.school methodology. Fluency here is not optional.

③ Academic and Interview English
Not just TOEFL/IELTS scores. The ability to discuss abstract concepts in depth, in real time, under pressure. This is a different skill from test taking English and requires a separate training track.

④ Narrative Storytelling
The ability to tell a coherent personal arc (who you are, why CoD, what comes after) as a unified story. The Columbia Teachers College narrative methodology I trained in directly applies here.

⑤ Standardized Test Performance
80%+ on Japan's Common Test (Route A) or strong IB/SAT/ACT/A Level results (Route B). Necessary but never sufficient.

Building all five of these in 6 to 12 months simultaneously is essentially impossible through self study. Traditional Japanese cram schools can build ⑤ but not the rest. Generic admissions consultancies can attempt ④ but rarely understand UTokyo's evaluation culture deeply enough.

You need advisors who have personally cleared UTokyo entrance, US style holistic admissions, and global recruiting, and who have built more than 18 years of process around supporting other students through the same gauntlets.

6｜The Industry Pricing Conversation, and Why Less Than 1/3 Is the Right Number

Let's talk frankly about money, because parents deserve clarity here.

A handful of admissions consultancies have already begun marketing CoD packages at ¥600,000 to ¥700,000+. Their justification is some version of "the program is brand new" or "there's no historical data, so we have to charge a premium."

The reality of what those packages contain

・Limited essay revision rounds (often 3 to 5)
・Mock interviews charged separately
・TOEFL/IELTS support sold as an add on package
・No support after admission

The Alpha Academy CoD Program

How we can structurally offer less than 1/3 of industry pricing

Three reasons, each of them real:

Reason 1. With more than 18 years and over 80,000 students behind us, our methodology is fully systematized. We are not reinventing the curriculum for each client. That alone removes a massive cost layer that newer consultancies cannot avoid.

Reason 2. Our advisors are themselves the alumni. Alpha Academy's founder is a Chicago Booth MBA; I am a UTokyo and Columbia alumna. We do not outsource. There are no middlemen, no markup chains, no third party essay editors.

Reason 3. Our business model rests on long term client relationships, not single transaction admissions. We support our students through college, through recruiting, through careers, through MBAs and transitions. Because we earn the partnership over decades, we never need to overcharge upfront.

To be direct: a ¥700,000+ price tag for what is actually delivered is overpriced. If you are speaking with a consultancy quoting that number, please do at least one comparison call before committing.

7｜Beyond Admission: The Real Differentiator Is What Comes Next

This is where the conversation becomes most important, and where most consultancies have nothing to offer.

A CoD admission is not the finish line. It is the starting line of the next 25 years. And those 25 years are when life is actually built:

・Year 1 to 2: Designing your specialization. Refining your English to a graduate school level. Securing your first long term internship.
・Year 3 to 4: Choosing between top global recruiting and overseas graduate school. (Goldman Sachs? McKinsey? Top tier PE? PhD at MIT? An MBA pipeline?)
・Year 4 to 5: Final stage recruiting or graduate school applications. The first job that defines the next decade.
・Post graduation: MBA preparation. Executive transitions. Founding companies.

Alpha Academy has been the trusted partner for these exact transitions across more than 18 years. We have placed students into Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, BCG, Japan's top trading houses, foreign investment banks, and PE funds. We coach MBA admissions to Booth, Wharton, HBS, INSEAD. We support international moves and entrepreneurship.

No CoD specific consultancy can offer this continuity. Period.

The question parents should be asking is not just "who can get my child admitted to CoD?" but "who will still be standing alongside my child when they're choosing between Goldman and McKinsey at age 22, or considering Stanford GSB at 28?"

That is a very different selection criterion, and the answer set is a great deal smaller.

8｜The Inaugural Cohort Is a Once in a Lifetime Position

A final point I want to make to parents:
Being part of an inaugural cohort is a position you cannot get back.

History supports this:

・Keio SFC's first generations went on to disproportionate executive and entrepreneurial success
・ICU's early cohorts still occupy the most senior positions across Japan's international firms
・UTokyo PEAK's first classes secured the program's defining alumni network

In every case, the first cohort received:

・Faculty members at maximum personal investment
・The strongest scarcity branding on the job market for life
・A monopoly on senior alumni network positions
・Concentrated media exposure and public visibility

The students entering the CoD Class of September 2027 will have all of these advantages. But this is a window measured in months, not years. Only those who begin serious preparation now will be holding a seat in that inaugural class.

9｜Next Step: A Free 60 Minute Consultation

For families who are seriously considering CoD, Alpha Academy offers a free 60 minute strategic consultation, including:

・Objective diagnosis of your child's current English and academic level
・Strategic decision: Route A or Route B
・Complete admission roadmap to September 2027
・Concrete pricing comparison versus industry standards
・Long term career planning beyond admission

Before you spend ¥700,000+ on a competitor's package, please take one hour to speak with people who have actually walked the paths your child is about to walk, both UTokyo and Columbia, both Japan and the United States.

It may genuinely be the most consequential hour of the next decade.

About the Author
Emi Sakashita completed UTokyo's Sciences II program (admitted in her active high school year), UTokyo Graduate School, and Columbia University Teachers College. She specializes in admissions strategy, essay coaching, and interview preparation, with a research background in pharmaceutical science, neuroscience, and the science of learning. At Alpha Academy, she leads admissions advisory for UTokyo CoD, overseas universities, and dual track applications.

About Alpha Academy
Founded: 18+ years of admissions and global career advisory
Track Record: 80,000+ students supported into elite universities and top firms worldwide
Practice Areas: International university admissions, global career placement, MBA admissions, top tier Japanese university entrance support

Information current as of May 2026. Official CoD admissions guidelines are scheduled for release in August 2026. For the latest details, also consult the official site at design.adm.u-tokyo.ac.jp.

How to Get Into University of Tokyo College of Design: The 2027 Inaugural Cohort Admissions Strategy

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TJ Profile

TJ began his career at Sumitomo Corporation in Corporate Accounting, overseeing budgeting, financial reporting, and performance management for more than 800 global subsidiaries, as well as IR activities. He was selected as the youngest trainee at Sumitomo Corporation of America in New York, contributing to the restructuring of a U.S. steel business. He later joined Project Finance, arranging large scale financings for international infrastructure projects and telecommunications. Chosen as a company sponsored MBA candidate.

He earned his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, concentrating in Finance and Entrepreneurship. He founded the University of Chicago Japanese Association and launched the school’s first Japan Trip, now an annual tradition.

TJ subsequently joined Goldman Sachs Japan Investment Banking Division, advising on M&A in the media and consumer sectors, IPOs and capital raising, and private equity and restructuring assignments.

He was selected as a fellow in the Entrepreneurial Leadership Program by Keizai Doyukai, receiving mentorship from top business leaders including H.I.S. Chairman Hideo Sawada.

As President of the Chicago Booth Alumni Association in Japan, he guided candidates to leading MBA programs and global universities. His students have secured roles at firms including Mitsubishi Corporation, McKinsey, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, Google, Big 4 consulting/FAS, Toyota, MUFG, and Nomura.

Renowned for rigorous one on one coaching for TOEFL, GMAT, IELTS, and GRE, TJ is widely trusted for his ability to design and execute career and academic strategies with exceptional precision.