California: best university for Chinese Studies major

[helixness]

Hello everyone,

I hope this is the right section. I am currently studying in Cypress college which is a 2-year college in southern california. I am planning to transfer to a 4-year university in fall 2012 on a Chinese Studies major. I am wondering if anyone here knows which school has a good program for that major. I was told California State Uni. Long Beach has one of the best, but I would like to go to UCLA as well. Any advice? is UCLA worth it when majoring in chinese?

[skylee]

Do you need to have studied Chinese before getting into a US university to major in Chinese (just like you need to know basic maths before majoring in maths, etc)?

[helixness]

I have already completed all the chinese language courses at my school. So I'll take the rest of them whether I transfer to.

[aristotle1990]

Do you need to have studied Chinese before getting into a US university to major in Chinese (just like you need to know basic maths before majoring in maths, etc)?

The answer is no. Nor, really, do you have to know basic math before majoring in math at most US universities. What you major in is completely up to you, and in most cases you don't have to declare a major when applying to a school. (Indeed, at most places you don't even have to declare a major until your second or third year.)

[skylee]

I see. This is very different from the universities in HK. AFAIK to major in Chinese one needs to be good at Chinese language and literature in secondary school (same for English). And IIRC to get into journalism one needs to be good in both languages. At least it was like this when I was a student. But things may have changed.

[helixness]

The thing is I am entering the school as a Transfer student which means I enter directly into my third year. Therefore I do need to have some prerequisits met (like math & 1 or 2 years of chinese). I'm only wondering if someone knows of any good schools in california since I'm a calif resident. Right now my goals are either UCLA, UCB, or CSULB.

[xiaotao]

see

http://www.stateuniversity.com/program/16-0301/Chinese-Language-and-Literature

[helixness]

Thanks that is an awesome link! very helpful

[trevelyan]

USC has a good Chinese studies program. UC Berkeley is pretty good too.

[gato]

Aristotle is exaggerating a bit. Of course, you have to know basic math to major in math. But if you go one of the more lowly ranked schools, maybe you don't have to know it very well, though most people who aren't good at math won't major in math.

Chinese is a bit different because it's more like archeology in that it is not studied much in the secondary schools. Universities do allow complete beginners to major in Chinese.

I see. This is very different from the universities in HK. AFAIK to major in Chinese one needs to be good at Chinese language and literature in secondary school (same for English). And IIRC to get into journalism one needs to be good in both languages. At least it was like this when I was a student. But things may have changed.

[heifeng]

I graduated with a B.A in Chinese from UCLA. You can send me a message if you have specific questions (or I can write more up here when I'm more awake :blink: ). I'm happy with the education I received there, but since that is the only school in the US in which I have studied Chinese I really cannot compare it to other places. You could probably factor other elements into your school choice, such as if you want to stay in LA etc.....anyway, I'll try to write more lata....