CSC Scholarship - Archives

[Jenlaoshi]

Hello all,

After teaching in Shanghai for a year in 2005-2006, I returned to Washinton, DC and I have been studying Chinese, here in evening classes. I've decided that I'd like to return to China to study full time. I jumped back on the fourms to restart my search for where to study and I was excited to learn of this scholarship opportunity. I am going to apply for 2009 through the Embassy in Washington, DC.

As the first post was excellent, I don't have any questions right now, but wanted to join the discussion. I will post my progress and/or questions as I move through gathering and completing my application materials.

Though, in terms of advice as I begin, I'd be particulary interested in hearing from those who have recieved the full scholarship to first study as a language student then move on to a master's program and how you completed your application to indicate this desire. Would this be indicated through my plan for study? (I did a basic search for this type of information, but may have missed it.)

Thank you!

Jen

[extrapages]

jen,

welcome to the forum! yayay! always glad to make this group bigger =]

it all depends on what option you check on the application. you should take a look at it - the link is somewhere on the first post. you can choose between partial/full for chinese language, undergrad degree, masters, or phd (degee options including a year or two for remedial chinese before you start your courses if necessary). you can only apply for one of those choices. i dont know of anyone who came on a language scholarship and then extended the scholarship somehow to move onto getting a degree. everyone i know of applied, received, and remained on whatever track they chose from the beginning. but i might start looking into this (extending from chinese language to masters). will update if i find out anything. i figure it will be complicated to a certain extent, especially if you want to change the school you are at and get your degree from a school other than where you have been learning chinese. whether you need to reapply from the beginning or if you can just get someone at the csc to handle your case since youre already a scholar. shrug.

[elvisrules]

Thank you for the very informative and helpful thread everyone.

I have one question: do applicants from the EU have a lower chance of getting accepted? Someone mentioned only 100 people were accepted, did I understand correctly?

[extrapages]

elvisrules,

yep. 100 from what we know.

but no one knows if thats a lower or higher chance because no other country/region has disclosed how many scholarships they can award with their specific agreement with the csc. hope this helps. go for it anyway!!! =]

[bigtops]

Hi everybody,

Been lurking on this thread for an awfully long time, and probably will be awhile longer. Many thanks to Extrapages for all of your information.

A bit of quick info for those applying in New Zealand... The Confucius Institute there appears to be very strict about their rule that you must have graduated from an NZ university. I went to school overseas and they turned me down on that basis, and seemingly no other. I was not in NZ when I applied, so if you're in Auckland and can regularly knock on the CI's door to show your enthusiasm you might have some better luck.

Oh, and it appears that the Confucius Institute is New Zealand's sole distributor of CSC scholarship slots... I believe there are ten for the country.

At any rate, I'm also a US citizen so maybe I'll have better luck next year applying from here...

[bigtops]

And a question... Anybody know if it is possible to obtain the scholarship and then defer enrollment by a semester? Sorry if this is already covered by I have read the whole 30 pages through once and I'ma cry if I have to do it again...

[extrapages]

bigtops, thanks for coming out of lurking mode =]

yes, it seems like the confucius inst. people are strict with their rules... they try to stick to whatever rules the csc gives them but fails to inform the rest of the world. you may have been turned down initially because of having gone to a school outside of new zealand, but im about 99% sure that you were actually ineligible from the start because youre an american citizen and they might not have been aware of that yet? each country has its own agreement with the csc board and they are responsible for only their own citizens.

i dont know anyone who has deferred. i dont even know if its an option/possibility. you might need to get in touch with someone either within csc or at the embassy for that one.

Edited November 15, 2008 at 06:08 PM by extrapages

[bigtops]

Well, I'm a dual US-NZ citizen, so it was pretty definitely a disqualification based on the reasons they gave me... 'Less they're really vetting people out, as I never mentioned to the CI in New Zealand that I'm also an American...

[extrapages]

OHH!! DUAL CITIZENSHIP! hotter than... inappropriate things i shouldnt say here.

if those were their reasons, then those were their reasons. its good to know though. ill keep it on file. =]

[blink]

Hi everyone. I'm also going to apply for the CSC this year along with a few other fellowships through the US. Hopefully one of them will pan out.

Thanks to everyone who's posted, especially extrapages. Navigating the application process is going to be a lot easier after reading everyone's comments. I'll check back in later and let you know how it goes.

[menyawga]

Hey guys, I've also been reading the forum for a while and this is my first post. I also want to profusely thank extrapages and everyone who's contributed.

I'm a US citizen who's been teaching English abroad for a couple years. I am currently in Korea and will be applying to study for a Masters degree. I took a little Mandarin and did a China study program in Xiamen University in 2003, but I've forgotten a lot of that because I started studying Japanese while teaching there. My question is for extrapages, but if anyone else has any info that'd be helpful too.

Extrapages, when you applied while in Korea, did you apply to the Chinese embassy in Seoul, or did you use an American address as a base to apply through the Chinese consulate in America? I'm looking to get things together as early as possible to avoid a headache later.

Cheers,

-Menyawga

[menyawga]

Here's a conundrum for anyone who's interested in going to Xiamen University (like I am).

Here's a quote from Xiamen U's website under Chinese Government Scholarship:

http://admissions.xmu.edu.cn/website.aspx?language=en&website_id=24

The Chinese Government Scholarship is a full scholarship set up by the Ministry of Education of China to enable foreign students to study in China. The purpose of the scholarship is to encourage and support international educational exchanges, and to establish internationally first-class Chinese universities.

Xiamen University (XMU) is a national key university affiliated to the Ministry of Education. XMU is to begin independent enrolment of foreign students under this scholarship as from the beginning of the 2008 academic year. Welcome foreign students to apply for the master's or doctoral programmes, whether taught in English or in Chinese.

So guys, I'm wondering exactly what it means that XiaDa is "independently enrolling" foreign students into the Chinese Government Scholarship. They have the scholarship application form on their website as well, and in another part of the website they say that graduate students who have a XiaDa professor as one of their recommendations that they'll be given priority in consideration for the scholarship. I've emailed both XiaDa (who was prompt with replies but didn't seem to understand my questions about applying "through them") and the CSC people (who never responded). Has anyone else heard about whether there's a way to apply directly through the university you want to study at, and whether there's an advantage with this over applying through your embassy?

-Menyawga

[evasiege]

Anyone know if this scholarship can be applied to summer language terms?

[extrapages]

menyawga,

Extrapages, when you applied while in Korea, did you apply to the Chinese embassy in Seoul, or did you use an American address as a base to apply through the Chinese consulate in America?

When I applied in Korea, I used my home address in America and applied through the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. I had gone to the Chinese Embassy in Seoul and they had NO IDEA what I was talking about. There seem to be many Korean students here on the CSC scholarship, but I don't know what the application process is for them or where they go to talk to whoever they need to talk to. Doesn't matter though, since as American citizens, we need to apply according to the Sino-American agreement.

Has anyone else heard about whether there's a way to apply directly through the university you want to study at, and whether there's an advantage with this over applying through your embassy?

If there's an application form on their website, I would do it through them. But compare both applications to see if there's anything missing on the XiaDa one. And what's the application process? Do you send the application to them or to CSC with a XiaDa specific application form? What about the physical exam and stuff? I think if you're set on trying to get the scholarship for XiaDa, you should try to stick with them throughout the whole process. But start as early as possible so there's still time to make things right if something goes haywire. I assume that the applications and the required documents will be very similar, if not exactly the same - so if you want to be EXTRA careful, maybe you could apply using BOTH channels. But I think that might be overkill... and expensive (notarizing is expensive in Korea).

---

evasiege,

Anyone know if this scholarship can be applied to summer language terms?

The CSC does NOT cover summer courses. I know this because I wanted to take more Chinese courses during the three months school was out instead of traveling. And I was told that the CSC doesn't cover summer courses anywhere.

Hope this helps. =]

[menyawga]

Thanks Extrapages for the response. I did a little more research and found that there are a number of universities that are indeed taking care of applications independently. These are key universities in China and include XiaDa and Fudan Universities. They both link to the original CSC application form with no changes.

However,

Only Masters and PhD scholarships are allowed to apply through universities, not language students. It appears that the universities each are given a certain number of scholarship slots (Fudan got 30 last year) for graduate students. They take in the applications, choose their top picks, and then send those picks to CSC for final approval. These scholarships are obviously more specialized by topic of study and therefore heavily dependent on the schools that offer those desired topics. If you have a specific plan in mind, and especially if you have any kind of connections with a specific university (studied there before, know a prof, etc.) then maybe trying for a university independently is the way to go. The only thing I don't know is whether applying through the U will allow you to choose the second and third pics and whether those pics will ever get to see the application. If anyone gets any other info please share.

Cheers,

-Menyawga

[extrapages]

menyawga,

thanks for looking into it and taking the time to let everyone else know. so what do you plan to do next? if you need any help, the forum is here to help, so don't be a stranger!

[evasiege]

So if you get the scholarship, the school you actually attend is based on what they assign you?

[extrapages]

evasiege,

Please review the application and the first post. Please. Please. PLEASE.

It will answer many questions for you.

You choose your top three in the application, and if selected by the CSC as a recipient of the scholarship you applied to, they will choose the school you will attend from among your choices.

[yueni]

Hi extrapages,

Just a quick question. I know you've renewed your CSC scholarship for the year, and you got your teachers to write you a recommendation letter, but is there a fixed procedure? Do I need to fill in the application for next year? I'm hoping to get my scholarship renewed, and I've started to look into it, but most of the info I see has largely to do with getting it the first time, not the second time.

yueni

[menyawga]

As for your question about what's next, I'm putting together as much of the time-consuming materials as I can early on: contacting my undergrad university's registar and asking about getting a notarized diploma, figuring out who to ask to be a recommender, etc.

Which brings me to another question for Extrapages:

How did you go about getting the physical examination form in Korea, and are there any special boxes that must be "checked off" in a certain way?

Thanks,

-Menyawga