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Just 'cause you're smart, it doesn't mean you know how to design CPUs (or write C Compilers.) And if the national university entrance exam is testing for VLSI design domain knowledge, they're doing something wrong.

It sounds like UTokyo is like MIT. My first test there had material that wasn't in the book and wasn't covered in the lectures. When I asked my instructor about that, he said "Oh. You're supposed to know to do research outside of class," and when I asked my class-mates they said... "Oh. Yeah. My fraternity maintains a file of past tests for each instructor. You can get a good idea for what's going to be on various tests from reviewing the files. And if you don't understand it, you can get a frat brother to tutor you on it."

(As an aside... one of the frats had THE EXACT SAME TEST I had just taken. The prof didn't even change the problems. sigh)

So... my experience with MIT was that it's a place where bright kids go to get taught by upper-classmen and the classes are there only to prove you have some sort of mastery, or at least familiarity, with the material.

At Xmas that year I was bemoaning this fact to a friend from high school. His father was a physics prof at the local state university and overheard my complaints. He offered to give me a place in the lab if I xferred over. I took him up on his offer and wound up with a desk in the undergrad office, an account on the departmental VAX (this was a big thing back in the day) and a key to the physics building and the optics lab. I could drop in to my professor's offices virtually any time and most of them were excellent in explaining the finer points of quantum chromodynamics or math methods. I was recruited to be on the "let's build a super-cheap STM" team and landed a scholarship award for my work. After taking a hiatus to defend democracy I returned and landed a part-time gig at the Superconducting Super-Collider. That year I got my own MicroVAX. (Thank you, congress for all that SSC money.) But, of course, it didn't last. (Curse you, congress for taking all that SSC money away.)

My point may be that smart kids will do well at whatever university they attend. Also, I think I did MUCH better at the local state school than I would have at MIT. (Though I didn't actually graduate w/ a Physics B.S. as I planned. IBM hired me before I graduated and it was a PAIN IN THE ** to matriculate with even a B.A.)

Also. Lori Glaze (NASA director of Planetary Science) was a class-mate of mine, so... you know... it couldn't have been THAT bad of a school.

Now... as a software development manager, the thing that REALLY impressed me was the ability of a group of kids to effectively work together. The United States pumps out a lot of very bright CS grads, and our national mythos of "the rugged individual" helps in some ways, but I'm going to guess most CS students aren't getting a lot of experience in groups larger than 2 or 3 people. When I hire recent grads from US schools, the most important thing we have to teach them is how to play well with others. Sounds like the UTokyo team already learned this lesson.