Applying via BLCU.org / Sinowest International Education vs BLCU.edu.cn

[jordanlee]

Does anyone know the difference between applying via BLCU.org and BLCU.edu.cn? The application form is virtually identical, but the housing options don't seem to match up. Though, housing may be a moot point given that I get the impression that advance housing reservations mean nothing.

Prices are also in USD and seem to be "all-in" (incl. insurance, airport transportation, etc.). And, they have a paypal option, which is ALOT simpler/cheaper than a wire transfer.

Has anyone used the BLCU.org process? (Office is in Vancouver, Canada) Good? Bad? Ugly?

TIA!

[roddy]

I don't think BLCU.org has any special connection with BLCU itself, it's just another agency. Compare the costs, look at the extras the agency adds on, and decide if it's worth it or not.

[Buddhini]

Hey Jordanlee, have you discovered the difference between the 2 web sites? I'm from Italy and I'm planning to study in Beijing from March to July and I was wondering the same thing.

I sent some e-mails and this is the answer:

blcu.edu.cn is the university's website, and blcu.org is the university's partner. But blcu.org offers much more services the university does not have, such as language exchange, accommodation, weekend activities, airport pick up, and many culture activities.

The point is, blcu.org ask to pay everything on a bank account in Canada, nothing aginst Canada, but why there if they're in China??

[XiaoBin]

BLCU.org is a website created by a student. It's there to help you find apartments and other things. The title also states that it's an unofficial website.

Always apply through the official website.

[Anders]

I applied the course by blcu.org this summer. Their services are pretty good. It took just several minutes to complete the application form and send to them, and I received the Admission Notice and JW202 Form in just 2 weeks. They helped me with homestay placement and organized several cultural activities. The only thing I do not like is that the cell phone they gave me is cheap, and sometimes the signal is not good enough. But generally, they really made the application and life in China much easier. Just my own experience. You may make your own decision.

[roddy]

Tell us Anders, you wouldn't happen to have any link to BLCU.org beyond being a customer, would you? You've just applied through them, and are now in Beijing, studying at BLCU?

[Anders]

What I enrolled was a 4-week intensive course starting from Aug 3rd, and I am not in China now. I just searched from the internet and found them, that's it.

[roddy]

Did they provide an email account as part of the service?

[XiaoBin]

Though friends I know the founder of BLCU.org

If you need some more info or his email let me know

[roddy]

I'd like some info. I'd like to know if anyone from the company registers on Internet forums pretending to be a happy customer. If so, I'd be interested to know if he (or she) thinks this is an appropriate marketing technique - personally I find it a bit dubious - and what it says about the company's trustworthiness. I'd also like to see Anders posting again, it's a shame to lose a new poster so soon . . .

[Victor Zhang]

Hi, everyone, my name is Victor Zhang. I am a manager of blcu.org. I just received an email from a previous student showing this link. I felt a little surprised when I saw the discussion about our site here. We are sorry if we have made you guys confused. To clarify the situation, I think I should explain the following points:

1, blcu.org is a totally independent site from blcu.edu.cn. We have signed a co-operation contract with BLCU University to help them recruit students for them, but we are not part of them. Our company’s name is Sinowest International Education. We have offices in Beijing and Vancouver.

2, It is a fact that our fees are higher than BLCU university. Firstly, we offer more services than the university itself. Secondly, our fees include the accommodation and culture activities. Finally, we of course want to make some money. But if you don’t need any extra services (just want to take a course), we usually only charge a little service fee.

3, The reason that we ask students to pay the fee to Canada office is that it will make the application and transaction much easier. In fact, 50% of our students are from North America. They can easily pay application fee and program fee by credit card, paypal or check in USD to our bank account in Canada. We can receive it in several minutes. It is much harder to receive them if we just have a bank account in China, and the surcharge for each transaction is also higher than we do this in Canada. It also takes longer time.

4, We did not ask anyone to pretend to be a happy student to do “marketing” here. People may have their own ideas, and the Admin may have his reasons to be dubious. But we did not and will not do this disgusting thing. We have many students’ testimonials with their names and contact information. Please contact us if you would like to check some references.

It is of course your choice to choose BLCU.edu.cn or BLCU.org. For students who have enough time or have some connection in Beijing, it is a good option to apply for the program directly from BLCU University. Their phone number is 86-10-82303591. Their website is www.blcu.edu.cn . You should contact them directly. For students who want to save some time, or have no connection in Beijing, or want to everything to be arranged before they go to China, or have missed the application deadline, blcu.org will definitely help them. Sometime even BLCU University will recommend us to students who need more help.

[roddy]

the Admin may have his reasons to be dubious. But we did not and will not do this disgusting thing.

'Anders' registered with an email address quickly and easily associated with your company. If you want me to post the details up here so everyone can make up their own mind, just say so. You might want to check what your staff have been up to . . .

[Victor Zhang]

Thank you for reminding us of this. Now we understand why you are dubious. We just want to confirm that it is strictly prohibited at our company to do such things. I don’t think the poster is from our staff. Anyway, I will check it.

[roddy]

Very good.

For reference, four weeks and a shared double dorm via the actual BLCU site will cost RMB3500 tuition and 1500 (50*30 days) for the cheapest accommodation option - 5000RMB total, USD730 give or take. BLCU.org charges 1780USD. There might be a few extra services thrown in, but I can't see anything that justifies an extra thousand dollars over a month. It's only BLCU, you're not climbing Everest.

The BLCU.org address, the way the website is written, and the use of the university logo (where's your company logo, Victor?) may give the impression this is in some way 'the' official agent for BLCU (or even BLCU itself). This isn't the case, there are many of them. If you must use an agent, shop around.

There are companies (China Unipath is one I happen to know of as they're a forum sponsor) which will break down costs and give you a range of service packages to choose from, with tuition and accommodation fees being paid direct to BLCU rather than as part of one lump sum to the agency. That makes considerably more sense to me.

[Victor Zhang]

BLCU Dorm center’s phone number is 010-82303300, could you check if RMB 50 is still possible to use a shared-room now? Make sure your information is correct before you give your advices, please. The economic room in our site, in most cases, is actually standard dorm in BLCU, and standard room is new dorm building.

Regarding the logo thing, we have our agreement with BLCU with the permission to use their logo. Is it a must to have our logo in the site? If so, where is your logo in your site? In every page of our website, we indicate “Sinowest International Education”. The only thing we are different from other agents is that we have a domain “BLCU.ORG”.

We have admitted that our prices are high than BLCU school’s in the last poster, because we offer more services. Some of examples of the services include:

Our welcome package includes a cell phone with local number, Chinese-English dictionary, Beijing Life Handbook.

We usually have our culture activities include welcome dinner, Beijing opera show, Beijing roast duck dinner, weekend excursion, Karaoke nights, and even more. Send an email to me, and I will show you more pictures of this year’s activities.

We have our own insurance services, including international SOS membership.

Our staff will go to Beijing international airport to pick up each student and send them to the dorm or apartment. For each apartment and host family, we interview the landlord and visit the room in person.

We have teachers to offer free after class tutorials when students have questions on what they learn.

Every application we send it to student by international DHL. Students can receive in 2 days instead of several weeks.

Our language exchange program allows students learn Chinese by maximal interaction with local Chinese natives.

Your business is to make some topic like this, and draw attention from other people to get Google ad fee. The more we discuss, the more attention you will get, and the more money you will make. We really do not want to spend so much time on this, since we have to work on our services. Anyway, thank you for giving us an opportunity to explain our services here. It is customer’s decision to make a choice who they want.

Core Program Course

Program Registration and Enrollment

Placement Test

Certificate

Textbooks

Chinese – English Dictionary

Supervised Homework Support

1-on-1 After Class Tutorials

Elective Workshops

Language Exchange Program

Pre-Arrival Assistance

Pre-Arrival Package

Visa Support Documents

Insurance + Medical Membership

Airport Pick-up and Drop-off

Accommodation

Orientation

Welcome Package

Social Activities

Guided Tours

Excursions

24 Hour Support & Assistance

Travel Plans Assistance

Internship / Work Experience

Farewell Dinner and Departure Assistance

　

Please be objective when you give comments to our agents. I don’t think it is a smart idea to give more positive comments just because China Unipath is your sponsor. Every agent has its own services and features. Check more information our agents, you will find our price is just average. Please compare the services and make more investigation before you give more comments. Thank you.

We Why we must use our logo in our website? Who

Your business is to have more topics to attract more attention from others to get Google Ad fee, so the more we talk, the more , we do not have much time spending here to

I do not know why

Please do not use the

Core Program Course

Program Registration and Enrollment

Placement Test

Certificate

Textbooks

Chinese – English Dictionary

Supervised Homework Support

1-on-1 After Class Tutorials

Elective Workshops

Language Exchange Program

Pre-Arrival Assistance

Pre-Arrival Package

Visa Support Documents

Insurance + Medical Membership

Airport Pick-up and Drop-off

Accommodation

Orientation

Welcome Package

Social Activities

Guided Tours

Excursions

24 Hour Support & Assistance

Travel Plans Assistance

Internship / Work Experience

Farewell Dinner and Departure Assistance

[imron]

Regarding the logo thing, we have our agreement with BLCU with the permission to use their logo. Is it a must to have our logo in the site? If so, where is your logo in your site?

It's not about logos, I think the key difference is someone looking at your site could easily be mislead into thinking it is an official BLCU page (in fact the OP of this thread appears to be one such person). That doesn't happen when someone visits this site. Yes, you put your name at the bottom of each page, but it's in a small font, and nowhere (or at least nowhere clearly) does it say that you are just an agent. In fact, looking at the site, one gets the distinct feeling that you are intentionally trying to give the impression that the site is run by BLCU.

[Victor Zhang]

The fact is the Admin “Roddy” made a misleading conclusion that we charge much higher than what we really offer before she / he really knows our services. This is totally unacceptable! Before you have real proofs, how can you just make a unfair conclusion?

A forum is supposed to be objective and allow every one gives his idea. How come you, as the Admin, lost your objectivity and just tried to d

A forum is supposed to be objective and allow every one gives his idea. How come you, as the Admin, lost your objectivity and just tried to do “marketing” for your sponsor? Could you explain this to everyone?

We will stop here and do not involve more debates. What we want is just to remind you of being careful to give comments when you do not really know what you are talking about. Thanks.

[NickFelt]

It is not affiliated in any way with the university, and its costs are several times higher than those of other organizations. Furthermore, it presents itself as partner of the university, and preys on foreigners unfamiliar with the costs of attending a Chinese university. I went to BLCU through blcu.org in the fall of 2014, and I quickly encountered other students who were provided with comparable accommodation for a fraction of the cost. When I contacted the Sinowest rep in Beijing (a devout Christian, go figure), she ignored me. What they are doing is not illegal, but is certainly unethical.

 

My experience with blcu.org is definitely a cautionary tale. If you are considering going to Beijing to study, do your research, and avoid blcu.org and Sinowest like the plague.