Any good programs for high school students?

[JakeBarrington]

My high school doesn't have any Chinese programs. I was thinking of maybe doing one over the summer. Are there any good high school programs on the east coast? Something under $1500 would be good. I saw the Middlebury one which looks pretty good.

[muirm]

Cornell has the FALCON program. There were definitely some high school kids in there when I did the summer session a few years back. Although it's way out of your price range, I thought I'd still mention it because I enjoyed it a lot and learned a lot (very intensive).

[eion_padraig]

Both Wofford College (Spartanburg, South Carolina) and Furman University (Greenville, South Carolina) had programs last summer. Furman's was actually free last year because they received a grant. It may be free this year as well. I believe both of the programs were just for high school students.

[JakeBarrington]

Thanks guys!

[Meng Lelan]

Middlebury's high school programs are very high priced because they spend heavily on public relations and promotion. Even if it seems they have lots of financial aid (they are always sending out emails about discounts, deals, bargains, financial aid, etc) they tend to only dole out a small portion to those who request financial aid. You are likely to end up paying several thousand even if you get some financial aid. The teaching quality is quite high though. However I think that you should look into the STARTALK programs that are available around the US including the East coast, go to this website and start watching it early next year when the STARTALK summer student programs are announced. I am looking for something similar to what you are looking for because my teen son may be doing a residential summer program in Utah if it gets STARTALK funding. But now that the above poster mentioned Furman, I am putting that in as another option for my son. Then again it depends on what we see on this website when the STARTALK proposals start making announcements early 2013.

Click on summer programs, you can see what was available last year and soon you will see what will be available in the summer:

https://startalk.umd.edu/

[JakeBarrington]

Thanks. I've heard good things about STARTALK. I'll check it out!

[daofeishi]

Is there a reason for why you want to do it in the US? Going to China would be much a much more rewarding experience, and you would probably end up learning much more there than in even the most rigorous Chinese programs in the US.

I went to China on a gap year project with a humanitarian organization right after high school. I wasn't there to learn Chinese per se, but I contacted the local university and managed to get myself a tutor and join an evening class. Through what I learned during my 7 months there and by interacting with Chinese people on a day-to-day basis, I was able to skip 3 full-year Chinese courses when I started College in the US. If I were in your shoes and wanted to learn Chinese, I might try to find a summer program in a second or third tier city, or contact a university directly and try to stitch together a personalized program. It does require that you're a bit adventurous and that you and your family don't mind that you travel alone, but it could be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

[Meng Lelan]

Is there a reason for why you want to do it in the US?

There could be several reasons. Some students want to get started on Chinese in the US to build a foundation and learn the basics before really getting into it in China.

[JakeBarrington]

Yeah I want to learn the basic say 1000 chars and basic building blocks of grammar here in the US. Then I can go abroad.

[hibicc]

BICC offers free 28 days summer program to 50 students (US citizens). In your budget (under 1500USD), you can buy the air ticket for that price and rest everything will be covered by BICC.

You can click here 2012 Intensive Chinese Summer Camp.pdf to see our last year program.

For more information contact us at : info@hibicc.com

Any US citizen who is 16-24 years can apply for this program.

[JakeBarrington]

Thanks. I will look into the program.

[Meng Lelan]

Be sure you come back and do a write up on the results of what you decide to do.