Did anyone use sicas.cn to study in China ?

[edelweis]

@Capt. Ahab: They helped you get admitted, fine. You're feeling grateful and optimistic, good for you.

I am just wondering whether it was really a difficult task for sicas. Getting an admission to a language program seems much easier than, say, a Master at a prestigious university. Also getting an admission into an expensive program such as an MBA in English might be actually easier than getting into a cheap program - provided that you're paying the tuition fee yourself. So knowing what documents you submitted and what kind of program you'll be enrolled in is interesting.

I am also wondering how much money you paid because, well, it seems they asked A LOT of money to the OP (and I have more reasons to believe the OP is genuine - because he gave much more details than you about everything, including things which have nothing to to with sicas in another thread),

And also, if sicas used inside "friends" to help extend the deadline - assuming it was really "hard" to get this extension for this particular program - there might be a "red envelope" involved. Anyway the amount of money is interesting.

And whether you already have the visa because, well, it's too early to tell how much trouble you'll have with the university when you're in China.

Some people have had bad experiences with other agents/universities - which is not necessarily the agent's fault - while for other people everything went fine with the same agent but a different university.

So knowing whether you have all the relevant forms already might give an preliminary hint about sicas' efficiency. We'll see about the rest when you report either successfully settling in at the university or having whatever difficulties can happen when dealing with bureaucracy in a foreign country.

Regarding "blaming without evidence":

We can't know for sure that the OP's report is genuine.

But how can YOU know for sure that the OP's report is not genuine?

Maybe sicas only tries to scam young people desperately trying to leave their country.

Or maybe there is just one "bad apple" worker at sicas who tried to take advantage, without the sicas director being aware.

Or maybe the OP's posts were all a scam by a rival agent. (I don't believe this, but still it's a possibility).

We can't really check. Neither can you.

[Yamiiiiii]

@new_e9 2 years later,i would like to kniw how it went with sicas and if they can be trusted

 

[Chris Two Times]

I find this whole thread to be quite bizarre; nonetheless, I am also curious about any further insights about sicas.

[Mohammed2020]

Yes Dears , i'm one of the students who came to China by SICAS . Please NO one has to use their service they're scammers when we arrive in China they received us nicely and welcome us . From the next day you will find you have no Scholarship if you pay for their fake package . and i'm now in my second year where i have to pay the same amount of money again to the school because the school get NOTHING in the first year . Basically, they charged a lot of money for fake service and fake scholarship . if you are planning to apply for scholarship NEVER use them and there's CSC scholarship where it's free and real . 

 

Hope new comers be aware of it and NEVER trust them . We're many students who had been cheated from different countries and that's enough.

 

   

[edelweis]

Oh wow. Thanks for posting this.

How did you get money to pay the university, were you able to work part time on the student visa?

[Ustaz]

I neeed advice from anyone who had experience with ACASC agent for Chinese universities admission on the creditably of this office. 

 

I ask this because I applied to SICAS and they also asked for relatively big amount of money -compared to the normal announced fees- to "guarantee" the admission. They said this is a special package!! 

[roddy]

Apply direct to the university.If you can't do that, write a post explaining who you are, where you're from and what you want to do, and we'll see if we can help. I don't think we've ever heard of ACASC before. 

[DarkestLight]

I applied through SICAS too for Yangtze University and Jinzhou Medical University and i got refused by both. But I know for a fact that my advisor isn't a scammer because if she was she would've runaway and blocked me after all the things we said. They said (before i got refused by Yangtze University (YTU)) that my situation was not optimistic and that if i pay them $3800 they will help me apply to two more universities (because by this time I got refused by Jinzhou Medical University and their service is for 3 universities) and they could guarantee the admission letter for at least one and they would prioritize YTU. But if i wanted to apply only to YTU then i should pay $7600 so that their admission officer could personally go to YTU and use their "special relations". We were almost tempted but that's a huge amount of money if we only wanted the letter from YTU and a risk with the three universities because they could only prioritize YTU and not guarantee it so we didn't. After being refused by both universities my family was furious because we paid them $350 for application and their services which was much more expensive than it we had done things ourselves. Anyway, my SICAS advisor still stayed with me and gave me another solution to increase my chances of getting accepted next year which is 1yr of foundation course for Bachelors - Science. I called the university office today and asked them if they authorize sicas and they said yes. Furthermore, the founder of sicas (Zhang Ku , i think) is also one of the founders of the program and the Secretary General at Silk Road co., ltd which sort of explains their "special relations". The Sicas founder is also in a lot photos with ambassadors either standing with them or shaking hands so I don't understand how it could all be fake. Also my advisor sent me a video of herself in her office (which was the interior of the BRCIC office in Qingdao and she was also wearing a ribbon around her neck with BRCIC printed on it). and also a video of just the office which was the interior of the same place. If you go to the brcic website you'll find the interior pictures of the bright yellow chair and the cubicles. I can't not trust them. I cant find a reason not to.

[roddy]

There's a minor scandal waiting to break here, unless I'm very much mistaken. Expanding demand from developing world students for Chinese medical degrees, rapid expansion of English-taught medical degrees in China, agents and universities colluding (I bet) to give places to those who can be taken for the largest amount of money rather than the best qualified.

 

I would walk away. If it's possible to get into the university by paying more, how much credibility will your degree have?

2 hours ago, DarkestLight said:

But I know for a fact that my advisor isn't a scammer because if she was she would've runaway and blocked me after all the things we said.

She'll block you when you've run out of money. 

[DarkestLight]

I don't understand what you mean. Are you advising against this program? Because if so, we still haven't paid them anything (they didn't even ask for the application fee this time) so i could walk away. I just need a good reason too. And this doesn't feel like a scam to me. But if you find something odd here I'd appreciat it a lot of you'd point it out.

[edelweis]

12 hours ago, DarkestLight said:

the founder of sicas (Zhang Ku , i think) is also one of the founders of the program and the Secretary General at Silk Road co.

Do you mean, founder of the MBBS or founder of the "foundation course"?

If this person is a founder of the MBBS, and they asked you for 3800$ to guarantee admission to the MBBS, won't they also ask you for more money to ensure graduation from the MBBS, after you have spent several years in China and spent so much money already?

If this person is a founder of the "foundation course", they want you to pay the foundation course tuition fees. And afterwards, when you have been in China for a year, where is the guarantee that you will get accepted into the MBBS? Won't they again ask you for 3800$ to guarantee admission to the MBBS?

 

8 hours ago, DarkestLight said:

i could walk away. I just need a good reason too.

Two or three people have already complained here that sicas was scamming them with a fake scholarship which was "guaranteed" provided that they pay a big fee.

Did you read the full thread?

 

[edelweis]

@DarkestLight Since you are now in China, I'm interested in an update. Did you use sicas in the end? Are you satisfied with the service provided?

[DarkestLight]

3 hours ago, edelweis said:

@DarkestLight Since you are now in China, I'm interested in an update. Did you use sicas in the end? Are you satisfied with the service provided?

Yes I did. SICAS did what they said they would i.e. airport pickup and get me admitted. And yeah, I am satisfied. ?

[edelweis]

@DarkestLight excellent. Thanks for the reply. I'm glad it worked out for you.

[Sunflower_Gem]

Hi guys I need help I'm talking to a SICAS agent right now and I've gotten the pre-admission letter but not the visa papers, apparently they need me to may $3000 first so they can send it, but what I don't understand is that the money is supposedly meant for tuition but I haven't even registered at the school yet which means I'm not in the school's system and yet they need me to pay lots of money for this. What should I do? I need help.

[EnergyReaper]

@Sunflower_Gem   If you want to study in China, I think the only trusted service is CSC (China Scholarship Council), and their official website is http://www.campuschina.org/index.html

[艾墨本]

@Sunflower_Gem you’re very likely getting scammed. Walk away. If you want to go to a university in China, contact their overseas/ study abroad student office. They will help you and connect you with scholarships 

[Diadiva]

Should i pay my fees to sicas agent

[DarkestLight]

On 11/18/2020 at 3:13 AM, Diadiva said:

Should i pay my fees to sicas agent

If it's for your university then no. You're supposed to pay to the university account. I've dealt with them before. They will tell you one thing and do another thing behind your back. Yes they will get you admitted but they will either keep in the dark about it or tell you lies. You will get what you want but you will pay a hefty amount of money. Be careful with them. Ask your agent why send to him/her when it's for uni. And if it's not for uni then ask why pay money and for what?

They told me to pay 800$ for campus dorm booking and i did. They said they will pay for the dorm fees from this too. After I went to China, I was unhappy with my dorm so I argued with my agent that she lied to me about it and i want a refund because she did nothing special anyway. So she tells me that all services I got like airport pickup, Sim card help etc was because of that. When you pay sicas for any kind of service your agent gets a commission from it. So she fooled me into paying for it in the name of dorm fees and dorm booking. So yeah, be careful. Any information you need please contact your university directly before paying them and you can also come here. We will try to help you as best as we can. I'm now a second year university student and I'm glad I'm done with these con artists.