Studying for Bachelor Degree in China

[WenLei-William]

ello Everybody,

 

     For a while now I have been wanting to attend university in China for my bachelor's degree (right now I'm 18 years old, I started learning Chinese when I was 15 in the beginning of 2012), and as of right now I am putting my plans into motion. One and a half years from now (2017) I will be applying for the Chinese Government Scholarship and to the following universities: Tsinghua University, Peking(Beijing) University and Fudan University because these following schools would be accredited in my country and I hear they are considered among the top universities in China. In regards to my preparations I will be preparing to take the SAT again next year to get a higher score and I have already taken the HSK 6.

   

     The scores I have received for the HSK 6 are as follows:

     Listening: 66

     Writing: 70

     Reading: 94

     Overall: 230/300

    

     From the scores above one can see that my listening and writing skills are not on par with my reading skills, so to better myself I have began watching more Chinese TV and doing English > Chinese/ Chinese > English translations. I also use Italki to get native speakers to correct my writings and find language partners. Apart from this I have also been hired on the freelance translation website Gengo, and last year I also received the NSLI-Y scholarship to study abroad in China for the summer.

 

     With this information in mind, I would now like to ask the following questions:

 

1. With a 3.83 GPA in highschool, overall score of 230/300 on the New HSK 6 (within 3.5 year period of learning Chinese, only been to China for a total of two months) and a relatively high score on the SAT, is there a reasonable chance that I could be accepted into one of these competitive universities and receive the Chinese Government Scholarship?

 

2. Is the level associated with the HSK 6 high enough to meet the needs and requirements of the work needed for a bachelor's degree in China? (I will continue to study everyday during my freetime until I'm leaving for China, I will also start learning more vocabulary associated with the degree I want to pursue.)

 

3. For individuals who have studied a bachelor's degree in China, I was wondering what are some of the biggest challenges linguistically speaking? (Writing essays for class, listening to professors' lectures, giving speeches/debates, reading textbooks/academic articles, etc.) Culturally Speaking?

 

     I'm very passionate about the Chinese language and I hope that I will be accepted to one of these schools. I've had many people tell me that the education system isn't as good as many western countries, but the main reason why I want to do my bachelor's degree in China is so that I can learn more about this language that I'm so passionate about. At this point in time I'm not even learning Chinese for money or job opportunities, It's become one of my biggest hobbies and I want to get really good at it, my favorite thing is watching hilarious TV shows and reading!

 

I want to thank each one of you in advance for your advice and wisdom! 

 

-方文磊（William）

[imron]

At this point in time I'm not even learning Chinese for money or job opportunities

That's great to have such a passion for something, but keep in mind that at some point you *will* need to start thinking about money and job opportunities.  What will you be wanting to do?

 

Chinese language skills alone usually won't cut it - you also need a skill to go along with that.  Even (or rather especially) if you want to do translation, you'll need technical understanding of a field (or multiple fields) in English in order to be able to translate things correctly (or at least you will if you want to make a living wage).

 

What other things besides Chinese do you have an interest in, and what undergraduate degree do you think you would apply for?

 

Keep in mind also that although you can list 3 universities on your CSC application, CSC can (and often does) ignore those and just sends you wherever they want.

 

Anyway, I haven't studied a bachelor's degree in China, but I did a semester's exchange at Tsinghua's MBA course and took some classes in Chinese.  The biggest difficulties were reading lecturers' handwritten scrawls on the blackboard, and exams that had a written component.  If you want to get started on handwriting, have a look at this thread.

[imron]

See also this thread.

[WenLei-William]

Thank you for the advice! As of right now I am thinking about doing my bachelor's degree on something science/technical related such as physics. However, since I do have some time before I go to China I often think about what I really want to do as a usable skill/trade besides Chinese. For example: I recently started reading a book about programming and it seems pretty interesting, but I want to try out some other things as well just in case I want to change my mind from studying physics. To me, physics seems like a good fundamental bachelor's degree for when I return to the US to do a master's degree. But in the meantime I will think more about what I want to do and try out a lot of new things.

[Flickserve]

I gather the OP wants to study a non-Chinese subject within a Chinese environment.

Tricky but can be done. I am just thinking of all those students who don't have low level English yet still complete a degree in an English speaking country.

Those three universities quoted are the top.

Are they as good as your home country for the subject you want to study?

Would your needs be met by a gap year in China?

Is there any chance of a joint degree course where you study Chinese with another course and spend a year in China?

Those are just options to consider.