Confucius Institute Scholarship

[earthtojess]

@方茹婷 not sure if this helps, but my university (Tsinghua) says that the registration date is  Sept. 12  

[Sharon_Too]

@Geo_chan We could create a wechat group, TCSOL@Shanghai and organise a meetup. Those interested, PM me. 

@yahya @foreigner2u When I got accepted, I only contacted ECNU to confirm that I'm taking the scholarship, as they are the ones to prepare the student visa and registration stuff. They told me the documents should arrive within 2 weeks and confirmed my address.

I also asked about dorms, they said it will be organised for us scholarship students, no need for reservation.

I haven't informed my recommending institution yet (they don't have much to do anyway). I then reconfirmed acceptance with Hanban as well, replying to the automatic notice email from the application system as well as emailing scholarships@hanban.org.

 

@方茹婷 I didn't ask when semester starts so they didn't say anything about it either. You can ask them specifically so you can book tickets early. 

I also found the academic calendar 2017-2018 of ECNU from their website：

10th Sept 2017: 新生报到 Freshmen registration

11-15th: 入学教育 Freshmen Orientation, Campus Tour, Medical Check

18th: 正式上课 Class starts

So it should be around that time, although it might be slightly different for international students and for different universities.

According to the 微信公众号 of International Student Office, registration started a bit earlier last year, on 1st Sept 2016. They even offered free airport pickup as from 31st August.  

So I guess the date written on the Visa will include a few days before registration.  

http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Zi_FkVcsiPeiip4PMFDe1Q

Anyway, Mauritians can go to China without tourist visa and stay for 2 months 

 

 

 

[Wicker West]

I got accepted too - South China Normal University, in Guangzhou. Needless to say that I feel happy, but most of all - relieved  Hope that everybody will have a great time.
But yeah, I do feel kind of lost with - 'what now?'. I'm going to my CI and ask them about next steps.
By the way, a WeChat group, as it was proposed in a previous post - great idea! 

[Sharon_Too]

@Wicker West @Geo_chan Just created a Wechat group called TCSOL, for people who studied/will study TCSOL and like teaching Chinese. So here's the QR code. Feel free to join in. Of course we hope to maintain the quality of the chat, so no unrelated stuff/ads please. Prefer talking in private unless it's useful for all. Thanks!

[Wicker West]

Well, I didn't apply for TCSOL and I'm not going to East China University... I was just wondering whether there are people who would be willing to set up something similar to my program

[roddy]

ADMIN NOTE

 

This is a fantastic topic, but it's getting too long to be useful - nobody can be expected to read all 2,500 posts since 2010, and we're probably still sending update notifications to people who left China years ago. It's time for the CIS scholarship discussions to shift to separate yearly topics, like the CSC topics. 

 

I'll set this topic to close automatically in two weeks. Hopefully in that time one or more of the regular posters can start a new topic or two - perhaps one for those who've already applied to start in 2017, and a new one for the next round of applicants?

 

Roddy

[Badger]

@roddyI would at least hope all this information from the this years CIS would be available for people for next year to refer back to, as that would be extremely helpful for next years folk.  

[roddy]

Nothing is getting deleted, we'll just be starting new topics. And hopefully (and this happens with the CSC topics) someone can write a first post containing lots of useful information. All posts will be available to read. 

[Wicker West]

@Roddy Good idea - but what I suggest would an even greater idea, is to make a subcategory for Confucius Institute Scholarship related threads. There could be threads for those who already been to China, forr those who are applying and other topics. But that's just my proposition.


Going back on track. I was wondering, what is my status while I'm on a Confiucius Institute Scholarship. I just graduated, so I'm technically no longer a student - does CIS give me student's status, or not? This is a very important question for me, as I am not sure whether I should apply for continuation of my degree just to preserve my student's status.

Also, another question - is there much of a difference between universities, if it comes to one-year learning Mandarin scholarship? I didn't apply for those most prestigious universities like BeiDa or Fudan, and when I saw my university of choice in the ranking, I got a bit worried that I won't receive quality language course, compared to those more famous universities. 

Does anybody know whether the university's fame and the position in the ranking is influencing the quality of CIS' language course?

[wanx25]

Is anybody here who has been accepted for Xiamen University (TCSOL)? 

[Badger]

@Wicker Westfrom what I've heard, fame/ranking of school has little correlation with good language schools. In my personal case, I was deciding between Nanjing Uni and Nanjing Normal Uni..nanjing uni is one of top 5-10 schools in china. But I was told my multiple people, even some students at Nanjing, nanjing normal is a better choice for learning chinese. I was told some prestigious universities Chinese programs are actually worse than less prestigious universities, because no matter how bad their programs are, the will still get students coming because of the prestige. So they are less incentives to have a good Chinese program. That does not mean there are not some prestigious schools that have good Chinese programs, but many of the less prestigious schools have better teaching sometimes in their Chinese program. I heard schools that are "normal" schools have better teaching sometimes because these schools are schools that develop teachers.!in sum, it really depends on the school.

[方茹婷]

I'm posting this here first because more people follow this topic and then I'll post it to BLCU's own thread as well.

 

Finally I got a clear answer from BLCU (see the picture below).

 

So basically the semester starts on 11th September and the registration days are 6-7-8th September. 

[diogoilheu]

@wanx25 I have a friend who has been accepted to Xiamen University and has been awarded the scholarship as well, I can put you in contact with her. 

[Dthanhhang]

Anybody who has contacted your university and got an answer, can you tell me if you have written them in English or Chinese? I have written my university SCUT in Guangzhou last week but have not received any answer back from them. So I am not sure if I should write again in Chinese.

[Olya]

 Is anybody here going to 浙江工业大学？

[LinZhenPu]

16 hours ago, Dthanhhang said:

Anybody who has contacted your university and got an answer, can you tell me if you have written them in English or Chinese? I have written my university SCUT in Guangzhou last week but have not received any answer back from them. So I am not sure if I should write again in Chinese.

I wouldn't bother with English in any correspondence with Chinese universities. It's too much extra work for them.

[Justin123]

Hey folks, anyone heading to Dalian University of Foreign Languages? 

[Dthanhhang]

@LinZhenPu Thank you for your advice! Actually I just realise what you said as well when the director of CI here answered me in Chinese and told my Chinese teacher to meet and explain for me . Well, at least she answered though. I will write again to SCUT today in Chinese. My kind teacher told me to cc her, so that she can help explaining in the conversation.

[Opi]

So I have a question regarding the HSK tests we may or may not be required to take during the scholarship. I don't know if anyone who has been awarded this scholarship can answer or anyone who knows someone that has, can help inquire about this...

So if I'm not mistaken, when you go to China, you'll begin the next level after the one used to apply, meaning for those that used HSK 3 to apply, you'll begin HSK 4. Will we be required to write the HSK 4 test, even if we've written it before?

There will be HSK tests coming up in August, so I'd like to know whether I should go ahead and write it, if it'll mean I'll be able to avoid paying the huge fee in China or should I just wait because they'd make me write again anyway?  

[方茹婷]

@Opi Err, I thought the scholarship covers the fees for the HSK exams.....Btw, I'm sure they will make you take the exam again.