You wanted me to come back this forum and tell my experience, should I?

[pancake]

Well, I went to HIT myself to learn Chinese. They have some lovely teachers, but overall I found the experience just so-so. When I was a student there, they had a kind of "promotion" to try and convert language students to regular students. So they offered some modest scholarships for foreigners interested in a B.Sc/masters degree from HIT. Word on "the street" was that anyone who applied was pretty much guaranteed to get it. I contrast this with an acquaintance of mine who went to Stanford who had to jump through all kinds of crazy hoops to get admitted. After he graduated, doors opened that I didn't even know existed! A degree from HIT, by contrast, is going to be ok in China, but is perhaps not so competitive in the rest of the world. There might be valid reasons for selecting HIT over MIT, but honestly I am really struggling to think of any good ones. For a poor student, a MIT degree could easily take you places not easily accessible with lesser credentials. Not going there is going to 成为他一辈子的遗憾.

[Johnny20270]

Both MIT and HIT I know only from reputation, but I'm sure both have their own pro's and cons (even if they are strongly skewed) 

 

 

 

Going off topic a bit but I'm curious why people would choose a Chinese university. To put it mildly a degree from a Chinese university won't get you anywhere in the UK in terms of job prospects, irrespective how good the university is. I have had personal experience of this being on a hiring board in investment banks. We wouldn't ever consider a Chinese degree student. 

[Demonic_Duck]

A lot of lazy generalisations going on ITT. For starters:

• "Some Chinese women are superficial" does not equal "all Chinese women are superficial".
• "The US is not perfect" does not equal "the US is comparably bad to North Korea".
• "Chinese degrees are useless for landing jobs in UK investment banking" does not equal "Chinese degrees are useless for landing jobs in any field in countries outside of China".

[grawrt]

Also~

Someone mentioned about Chinese people being picky about only talking to white people.

 

Uhm. sorry. Anyone who is a foreign face is automatically an English speaker in their eyes. if you can even speak the tiniest bit of English Chinese people are still happy. I spoke with a lot of Chinese students that told me that their only experience with English speakers were speakers from non-English speaking countries. They didn't seem to mind.

 

Let's also add to that and mention that the newer generation has an increasing interest in learning other languages (such as French and Spanish). Actually I've met a lot more Chinese students learning Spanish  than anything else. Although I have to point out, they are MUCH more pickier about their Spanish language exchange partners. I still remember one girl I spoke with who scoffed at the idea of having an Argentinian language exchange partner. No thanks, I just want Mexican Spanish!

 

edit~OT but can we ban pancake from these forums? Every time he posts, I'm hungry. Its not right.

[AdamD]

Yeah, so:

 

Going off topic a bit but I'm curious why people would choose a Chinese university.

 

If I need to complete specialised education (on top of my higher ed qualifications in Australia) in order to pursue Chinese software development, studying UX in China is a very real option for me. I probably should and probably will do it.

[Johnny20270]

 

"Chinese degrees are useless for landing jobs in UK investment banking" does not equal "Chinese degrees are useless for landing jobs in any field in countries outside of China".

 

 

I didn't make that generalisation , hence the question, I also spent years as a structural engineer. A Chinese degree would be not worth much mainly for the lack of knowledge of unified European building standards, regulations or techniques. But areas like software development as Adam noted I'd imagine are very strong. 

[Johnny20270]

 No thanks, I just want Mexican Spanish!

 

 

How about they learn Spanish Spanish

 

In my class myself and the British guy correct the language teacher for speaking American English lol

[AdamD]

Johnny20270: Yeah, it's just common sense and doing some basic groundwork (course and culture) before you enrol in anything.

[Silent]

 

Going off topic a bit but I'm curious why people would choose a Chinese university. To put it mildly a degree from a Chinese university won't get you anywhere in the UK in terms of job prospects, irrespective how good the university is.

The UK is only a tiny country compared to China... So I can imagine the UK situation is not that much of an issue. Also HIT is aimed at technology so I guess the prospects of being hired by a (UK) investment bank is quite irrelevant.

 

But some considerations that may be in play (without having done proper research):

- The costs of HIT is lower then MIT (If I remember correct an import factor for Sujeto as he had a scholarship for China and not for the US)

- HIT can more easily be combined with learning Chinese to a high level then MIT

- In some fields HIT research belongs to the best of the world (probably as good or better then MIT)

- Personal reasons such as existing contacts and interests

[renzhe]

Everybody, this is getting way too ridiculous.

It's not his fault, we are all being brainwashed more or less. Didn't I say that in his mother tongue NATO rhymes with Satan? What if he was brought up with the idea that NATO is Satan?

Why on Earth would you suppose such a thing without any evidence? What if he's a spaceman or a drug dealer? Or a mythical creature from Saturn?

Both MIT and HIT I know only from reputation, but I'm sure both have their own pro's and cons (even if they are strongly skewed) Without proper assessment of what someone values there's no way you can beforehand claim one is better then the other.

This is also getting ridiculous. Where did suyeto day that he could go to MIT (being a gifted engineer is not enough, you need to be both exceptional and quite lucky), or that he passed it up to go to Harbin, expecting better education there? And of course MIT is better than HIT. It's one of three or four best universities in the world by anyone's standards.

I'd go further, and say that I'm suspicious of any Institute of Technology that doesn't have one of three words in its name: California, Massachussetts, or Georgia.

Some of these explanations are way out there. He's a young guy who had never left his city before, and had no idea what he was getting into. More experienced people get burnt by culture shock and unreasonable expectations every day in every country in the world. Hopefully, he'll use the experience to grow as a person, and find something awesome about China that he will cherish.

While I think that his attitude is probably a part of the problem, attacking him for chosing Harbin over MIT (which he did not do) means taking this discussion into really weird places...

[tooironic]

I'd go further, and say that I'm suspicious of any Institute of Technology that doesn't have one of three words in its name: California, Massachussetts, or Georgia.

As a graduate of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.... no comment.

[imron]

As a graduate of Swinburne Institute of Technology.... It's not MIT, but they have (or at least had) an excellent computer science department :-p

[Guest realmayo]

ha renzhe is trolling the Aussies! 

[renzhe]

I have always found those two gentlemen suspicious, now my suspicions have been confirmed!

Then again, I also have an Institute of Technology behind me, so everything I say must be taken with a grain of suspicion.

[Guest realmayo]

Agreed!

[Angelina]

As a graduate of Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, I have to confess that I am a Russian spy hahaha

[renzhe]

As a graduate of Ss. Cyril and Methodius, I have to confess that I am a Russian spy hahaha

Spying on the Greeks? But why?

[Angelina]

Because I support Greek Communists.

[陳德聰]

Haha perhaps it's time for the lock.

[Shelley]

We haven't heard from the OP for awhile, would be a shame to lock it and not hear how he gets on and if he has success with his change of studies and interactions with the locals.

 

I suppose though he could just start a new topic.

 

Would be nice to hear how you are doing sujeto.