Studying Computer Science in China

[karakorum]

Hello everyone,

 

I have been browsing and searching the forum for a couple of days, but I haven't been able to find the information I want regarding Computer Science degrees in china.

On the few threads that mentioned the discipline, I noticed that @imron often contributed with valuable input so I PMed him and asked for advice about my particular situation, he suggested I create a thread here so that the information would be shared with everyone. Anyone with questions or experience and testimony is welcome to post here.

 

 

Here is my personal situation:

In a few weeks, I will graduate with a  Master in Languages and Business from a french university.  I am looking at the possibility of applying for a scholarship and enrolling in a CS Master program in China next year.

Despite the low relevance between my prospective master and CS studies, I am an amateur programmer and I believe I am at least as good as a BS CS student in at the end of his 2nd year.

 

My current plan is to apply for a Master in Computer Science via CSC scholarship, and get the "1 year chinese class preparation year" before starting the actual CS program, which would give me the time to finish HSK 6 (currently about 5 and a half) and get up to date with CS bachelors on programming ability.

I do not aim at elite universities like Tsinghua or Zhejiang, maybe something more like Xiamen or Chuanda, or anything really.

 

Is this silly or could it work?

 

 

 

[imron]

I definitely think it could work, and I would be more worried about your Chinese level doing this rather than your programming ability.

 

Even with HSK 6, doing a technical masters completely in Chinese will be tough - though probably easier than a non-technical masters because much of the original subject material will have English equivalents.  It will be great for your Chinese though.

 

If you're worried about not being able to demonstrate programming knowledge then now would be the time to start developing a small portfolio of work and hosting it on a site such as Github or similar so you can point to an existing body of work.

 

Bonus points if you can submit (and have accepted) pull-requests to existing open-source projects.  Nothing says you can program better than other programmers accepting your code in to their work.

 

The only thing I would ask, is why not aim for the elite universities with a strong reputation for CS?

[Angelina]

You studied CS at 清华, right @imron? 

 

I would add that it is imporant to choose a school and a program that offers you the best environment to work in the specific research area you are interested in. CS is a broad area, it would be easier if you narrow it down.

 

You should be able to speak Chinese fluently. For graduate school, you should pay a lot of attention to writing. English is the language used in science now. You can do a lot of the reading and writing needed for school in English. Unless your program is taught entirely in English, you should be able to do this in Chinese too. 

 

 

[imron]

12 minutes ago, Angelina said:

You studied CS at 清华, right @imron? 

Nope. I studied CS in Australia well before I even got interested in Chinese. 

[Angelina]

I think you mentioned 清华 once. 

Do you have any experience with Chinese education? 

[imron]

Yes, I studied 6 months of business at 清华 as part of an Australian government sponsored scholarship, and several years before that did a year of Chinese language studies at 北大.

[Otoshi]

Hello, I want to do a master in Computer Science in China after my bachelor but I will be older than 35 years. Is this possible or do they have an age limit? I read that it could be 35 years but at some universities I read that for a master the applicant should be under 40. These universities didn't offer a good master in Computer Science though.