2017 Confucius Institute Scholarship

[艾墨本]

*Note* I'll come back to edit this post later with more relevant information. The previous topic got to long at 128 pages! The search function is your friend: https://www.chinese-forums.com/forums/topic/24335-confucius-institute-scholarship/

 

This thread is for questions and discussion regarding the Confucius Institute Scholarship. 

 

The CI scholarship has changed a lot as of 2017. The whole application happens on the CI's application website: cis.chinese.cn. The overall process is:

1) submit all relevant documents to either a local CI or a testing center

2) The local CI or testing center will review your application and submit it to your first choice of school. 

3) The school will look over your application and decide if they want you. This might include extra steps from the school such as an interview. The school then sends it to Hanban.

4) Hanban's headquarters look over the application once more to make sure the applicant meets all the requirements. If not, the applicant gets send back to one of the previous steps. Otherwise, after passing this step you have officially received the scholarship.

5) School will send you documents to fill out. The student will likely need to apply to the school as well. Some schools require this prior to step 1.

 

 

scholarships@hanban.org is the official email. There is no phone number to call. If you have questions, send an email and include your application number. It will automatically get forwarded to a specific person that is in charge of your case. Once they respond, you will have that persons specific email that you can use in the future.

[roddy]

Some general notes from the site admin

 

1) Welcome to the site. We've been helping people choose universities and get scholarships for well over a decade, and every year we see successful applicants come back to help the newcomers. We look forward to seeing you back next year.

 

2) We aren't just about scholarships. We can advise on accommodation, flights, visas, working. Pretty much anything to do with getting to China, living here, learning the language, getting work afterwards. It's all here.

 

3) Please keep this topic for CIS applications. If you ask about Tsinghua accommodation in this topic, your question probably won't be seen by current Tsinghua students who aren't on a CI scholarship, or a CSC applicant who managed to speak to an accommodation officer on the phone this morning. A question on cheap flights from Columbia might not be seen by a tourist who flew Bogota > Beijing last week. We have a topic for every university in China. If you're worried your question won't be seen in the university topic, please post it anyway and then add a link to it here. The better we organise the information, the easier things are for people next year.

 

4) Stay calm. We get people posting "I'm really worried now" or "Has anyone heard anything" over and over again. This doesn't help, and it makes the topic even harder to manage. 

 

5) The more information you give, the more you help others and the more others can help you. Where you're applying from, where you're going, what you're going to study, etc etc. If you get some information, tell us where you got it. "I heard..." could mean anything. 

 

10,000 thanks to @艾墨本 for starting this new topic. From now on we'll try to have a new one for every year, hopefully with a newly-updated first post. 

 

[roddy]

I've now renamed the CSC Scholarship forum to cover CI and other scholarships. I've moved this and the old CI topic into that forum, and made this topic sticky. If you know or notice any topics elsewhere on the site that should be in this forum, send in a post report so I can move them. 

[roddy]

To get the new topic off to a good start, I'm going to list everyone who (so far) has reported success in this round of applications and invite them to make a post...

a) (re-)introducing themselves and where they're going and why they chose that destination

b) briefly explaining the application process from their point of view

c) advice for future applicants - what did you find difficult or confusing, what do you wish you'd known. 

 

So...

@艾墨本 who's going to ECNU for a Masters in TCSOL. Also @Sharon_Too and
@Wicker West to SCNU

@Geo_chan & @Jellyfish to Fudan. And also @FabriziaCandido and @易梓星

@dumpling98 to ZUT

@nyanko0 to 上海外国语大学

@yahya to  BFSU

@Dthanhhang to SCUT

@方茹婷 to BLCU

@地球人 to Jilin Uni

@foreigner2u to ?

@Opi to Beijing Ligong ( I spent SO MANY hours in a cafe at the South Gate there in the early 2000s. Actually a very early version of this website was made on their wifi. Wifi was rare then, and I only had dial-up at home...)

@diogoilheu to DUFL

@Olya to 浙江工业大学

@Cereenkee to SJTU

@igacave to NJNU

@Luxin to ?

@earthtojess at Tsinghua

 

That's 20+ people, and I might have missed some, and not everyone will have posted. Good work!

 

 

[earthtojess]

Hi guys! Great idea to start the new topic (thanks @艾墨本). 

 

Like @roddy stated above, I'm going to Tsinghua. I was originally planning on applying for Dalian University of Technology, but at the last minute changed my first preference to Tsinghua. I've previously studied Chinese as an exchange student at Nanjing University and National Chengchi University (Taiwan), so I was initially trying to avoid any universities in the big cities due to the air quality. In the end, I was influenced by my Chinese friends and still put Tsinghua as my first preference...

 

I actually applied through the Confucius Institute which I took my HSKK at (instead of the Confucius Insitute at my university). I basically emailed both of the unis and went with the one which provided the recommendation letter first.  I applied for the "One- Academic- Year Study" to study Chinese Language and Literature with midrange HSK5 and HSKK Intermediate. I'm a (very soon to be) university graduate in Australia and my majors were International Business and Chinese. In my application I essentially wrote that although my Chinese is currently at a decent level, it is not good enough to use it professionally ( eg. interpreting, translating or teaching). 

 

So far Tsinghua seems to be super organised. Before I was accepted by Hanban I already had to register online and reserve my dorm. All the correspondence from them has been in English. They sent the admission package last week via express post (sent on 5th July and arrived on 10th July) so I have now received all the forms (admission notice, JW form, physical examination form, campus guide, campus map, registration schedule, and the fall calendar). 

[Jellyfish]

Thanks @艾墨本  for starting this topic, and to @roddy for giving us some pointers here!

 

I've applied and got accepted at Fudan, although it was a pretty messy application process. I applied via my local CI, where I've been taking Chinese courses for the past 2+ years. Fudan is my CI's partner uni and was recommended to me by my CI's applications manager.

 

I have HSK3 at 274, HSKK basic at 89 points. I've also got a Master's degree in philosophy from a UK university.

With this I initially applied for a one year course in Chinese Philosophy, got accepted by Fudan and forwarded to the fourth stage (Hanban), where my application was rejected because I don't fulfil the criteria (HSK4, HSKK intermediate). My application was then returned to the first stage and my CI and Fudan recommended I apply for one semester instead. That's what I did, although for one semester I didn't have the option to choose Chinese Philosophy at Fudan anymore, so I went for Chinese Language and Literature instead. For this I got accepted and I'm starting in September.

 

I'm still waiting for my documents and will apply for my visa as soon as I get them. I'm about to email Fudan again to ask if they've been posted yet, and if so, when they were sent out.

My recommendation to any future applicants would be: Keep at it, check your status daily (you're only notified if your application progresses, not if it is returned or set back to an earlier stage), don't rely on your CI beyond their recommendation (in my case, they were a lot more clueless than some people I met on this forum), be polite but insistent if you want or need something, and keep all communication with your host university in Chinese.

 

Good luck to future applicants and a huge thank you to everyone on this forum for sharing their experiences here and helping me with my application!

[igacave]

First, I would like to share my general impressions.

 

1) The most important thing: Read "guide" in Chinese. Download it from their official webpage. This is only way you know what are the reqirements.

2) 靠自己。Your local CI may not be well informed.

3) Choose the right program - if you have HSK 5 and you want to go for one year - It may not be possible.

4) Fill in you application carefully. Remember to type your passport name, the whole name.

5) When contacting your Chinese Uni always use Chinese

6) Rules change every year and it is harder to win scholarship I would say it's highly competitive, but don't feel discouraged, just choose wisely your Uni, accoroding to your results. 

7) It may be easier to apply to Uni that is cooperating with your local CI. However if you fill that is not a good choice, then simply apply to Uni that suits you.

 

And after you are accepted. These are just my opinions:

8)If accepted, wait patiently for admission letter. It may come in middle August. If it won't come, do not worry, you may go to China on tourist visa. I do know few people who came to China this way. 

9)Buying tickets: even thou I did not receive my docs, I bought my tickets. 

10)After all it is very good opportunity. It is painfull sometimes, especially dealing with formalities, but I consider this scholarship amazing experiance. 

  

And these are details of my application: 

 

I got into Nanjing Shifan Daxue, for MASTER program: 

• I have HSK 5, HSK Oral (Middle)
• I have a master degree in History, Teaching English and I am currently studying Public History
• I studied for one year in China (CIS for one year). I had pretty good results.
• I applied for MTCSOL 2 years at Nanjing Normal University
• I clicked 'yes' for applying for the teacher's program
• I applied via our local CI
• I didn't apply to my CI's partner university, even thou CI really wanted me to.
• I wrote that I really wanted to teach Chinese and provided an agreement between me and local CI, that I wish to teach there and they want to hire me.

I hope you find this useful! Good luck!  

[Geo_chan]

Hi guys~

 

As mentioned  before, I applied for the 1 year TCSOL course at Fudan, was awarded the CI scholarship and will be studying there this coming September A lot of useful information regarding the application has already been posted, and personally I'm not sure if I have any other tips or suggestions to add because I found the application process to be quite straightforward. The only annoying thing was the lengthy waiting time. Nonetheless I'll share my experience of this process. 

 

So my first choice was Fudan and second one was ECNU - both located in Shanghai. The reason why I picked this city and those two unis is because after studying in a rural-ish uni for three years, I wanted to live in a city again, feel the hustle and bustle. Shanghai is a very modern and international city as well as one of the major financial hubs of China. So I thought it wouldn't be too much of a culture shock and I could hopefully make some beneficial connections during my study there. Fudan is a prestigious university with a lovely campus, plus I knew someone from my university who ha applied to study there the year before. And ECNU was recommended to me by my Chinese teacher because she said their Chinese language programmes were excellent quality.

 

I applied through my University's CI and my CI director was very helpful and assisted me through the entire process.

• Neither of my choices were my CI's partner university
• I studied Mandarin as minor for 3 years at my unis CI
• Applied to the 1 year TCSOL with HSK 4 (260) and HSK beginner (88)
• I didn't tick the teacher training course or mention wanting to be a Chinese teacher i
• In my personal statement, I talked about wanting to learn more about Chinese  history and culture (I'm a British Born Chinese) and how my study trip to China really inspired me to study there and improve my grasp of the language. Also mentioned how it would be beneficial to my future career ( I'm an accounting and finance major and plan to work in the financial services industry)
• I applied in early March and was pre-admitted by Fudan on the same day I submitted the application

They changed a lot of the requirements for the CI scholarship this year. So one word of advice would be to carefully read through the guidelines listed on their website. Good luck to next batch of people who are applying!

 

Currently waiting for my admission letters to arrive so that I can apply for the visa. Anyway, hope some of this was useful to you guys

[JirentheGray]

Hey @Jellyfish

 

I'm actually going to Fudan this fall for a master's in Chinese Philosophy and Culture! We should totally hang out and play a rousing game of Chinese Chess with some jasmine Tea while spouting Confucian wisdoms :-) 

 

我的想法对你怎么样？

[esther星]

Hi guys! 

 

So, initially I wanted to apply for the MTCSOL. I'm not sure that I would want to be a teacher but I thought it would be an exciting challenge and intensive way to improve my Chinese. I even got to the point where Nankai university said that accept me if I applied based on my qualifications.

 

In the end, after much consultation with friends and teachers, I decided that this was not the road I was meant to take for now. So then, I looked to the one year study of Chinese.

 

I chose to apply to Fudan university because I had been there before for 6 months on exchange. Last time I felt like one semester was too short for me. It was only towards the end of my stay in Shanghai that I really started to enjoy my time. Additionally, I now have many Chinese friends that live there that I can go and bother them. I also chose Sichuan university as my second choice, because, you know? Pandas.

 

Joking aside, my choices were limited because I had selected Fudan and could therefore only opt to study Chinese & Philosophy. (Though if given the opportunity I would love to audit some of the classes of other majors.) I heard that Sichuan was a great place to study and quite different to somewhere like Fudan so I wanted to give it a try; an opportunity broaden my horizons if I didn't get my first choice.

 

In my personal statement I expressed how I would like to learn about China and hope to have a career that is related China is some way. In actual truth, I would like to do a masters in China once I feel more confident with academic writing. 

 

I think the best advice I could give is to be patient. Waiting for the results, waiting for the admission notice it all takes time and patience.

 

1) I am going to Fudan University for a year of Chinese & Philosophy

 

2) Master's degree was in International Law & Chinese and my undergraduate degree was in Law.

 

3) I have been studying Chinese for about 2.5 years: first at my university and then with the local CI  (they are linked)

 

4) I have HSK 5 and HSKK Advanced 

 

 

I am still waiting for the admission notice. 

 

Thanks everyone for sharing. Perhaps I will meet some of you in Shanghai 

:-)

[Eldana19]

Hi everyone! My name is Eldana and I am from Kazakhstan. I can speak Russian and English as well.  I was accepted by Xiamen University and I will take my Masters Degree in MTCSOL . I didn't find any topic about Xiamen University, that's why I am texting here. Anyone going to Xiamen University? Please contact me in wechat : eldana19 , will be happy to make some new friends before I arrive Xiamen

I applied for CI scholarship having HSK 5 (264) and HSKK (middle) 73 points. Also I had an interview by Skype with 3 teachers, and it lasted for 15 minutes . It seemed a bit difficult for me cause they asked some 很专业的题 but I received my B.A in Teaching English and German as a second language , so nothing in common with Chinese . At the begging they asked me to introduce myself and then each teacher asked me some questions concerning Chinese grammar , literature , pronunciation and gave a quiz. Also they asked some questions about my future plans and what I think about teaching Chinese and 汉语老师应该具备哪些素质 something like this. Hope it will be helpful may be for the next year applicants  

[方茹婷]

Hello Everyone!
Firstly, thank you for making this new thread. 

So I'm from Hungary, I've been learning Chinese for almost 3 years now at my local university, where I've just graduated and received a Bachelor degree of Philologist in English and American Studies (specializing in Intercultural Communication and British Culture&Literature). Currently, I have HSK 3 290 points, and HSKK basic level 84 points. My university's partner university is 北京化工大学, where I was promised to be admitted to. The problem was that my CI didn't really know anything whether I would be able to be admitted there for one year, also, in the CIS system, their name was not even listed among the universities. I was telling my CI's director and teachers to hurry up because the deadline was coming up and I still didn't submit my app. In the end - at the last minute to be exact -, my teacher eventually told me to apply to another universities, so that's how I chose 北京语言大学 and 北京外国语大学, TCSOL and one year. 
In my personal statement, I clearly stated that I really want to continue studying on MTCSOL (I also ticked the teacher training possibility), but first I need to get HSK 5 at least. I also told them that I've taught many high schoolers English in my country and that I really enjoy teaching (well, with my current degree, it is said that I can teach in primary schools). On 17th May, I was admitted to 北语, and on 28th June I officially received the scholarship. 
I'm still waiting for the admission package, however, 北语 was quite helpful, and answered all my emails (written in Chinese of course). They even told me the date of the registration days, after telling them that I need to buy the plane ticket asap. 

Update: This week (07.18.) I received the admission notice, everything was okay with the documents. 

One advice I can give is that if you apply for this scholarship you need to be unimaginably patient and careful with the application process.  Oh, and don't rely on your CI...if you're unlucky, they know less than you (even if they are helpful, you still have to do most of the 'work'). And even if you are rejected, don't give up. Right, @Luxin ?  

[Sharon_Too]

Hi there, I'm Sharon from Mauritius. First time applying for CIS and super excited to start studying at ECNU this September.

 

About me:

• Started learning Mandarin in 2011.
• HSK 6, HSK Oral Advanced (2016).
• Bachelor degree in Chemical Engineering (Chinese taught) from Changzhou University. 
• Won prizes at a couple of Chinese competitions for foreigners while in China.
• Took a gap year after my bachelor, working for a while (teaching Chinese, translation, interpretation and office work), reading some papers about TCSOL and trying to make up for not having studied BTCSOL. Preparing for MTCSOL after a BEng

 

My application process for MTCSOL: 

1. East China Normal Uni in Shanghai
2. Sun Yat Sen Uni in Guangzhou  (SYSU definitely has better courses and feedback but still wanted to stay in Shanghai...)

• Clicked 'yes' for teacher's program.
• Didn't apply to my CI's partner university, 浙江理工, they don't offer MTCSOL anyway.  
• In my application statement, I wrote I would like to be a Chinese teacher in Mauritius, but lack the foundation and training. However as local Mandarin teacher I'd have advantages over teachers from China.

 

Late February: Initially tried to apply via the recently established CI (December 2016). I managed to get an appointment with the Chinese director, talked about my aspirations to teach Chinese, he was more than happy to recommend me.

Early March：CIS application website got updated, new rules: CI needs to be >6 months old. My local CI was only 4 months old then. Do download the guidelines and read it carefully. So Plan B: HSK Center, aka Chinese Cultural Center (oldest one in the world). They never recommended students for CIS, and had no idea of how to undertake the procedures. I might as well be the first and blaze a trail for future applicants… CI director talked to them, got my recommendation letter even though I didn't take Chinese courses there. They put a stamp but somehow forgot to sign the letter, went back again to get the signature.

April: HSK Center says they can’t recommend me because they can’t have access to the application website, they’ll contact Hanban and see how to solve this.

10^th May: HSK Center tells me I have to change my recommending institution to Chinese Embassy but I can’t withdraw nor edit, no such function on CIS Website. I emailed Hanban and they say only Chinese Bridge winners can be recommended by the embassy anyway… Finally, HSK Center managed to confirm my recommendation online.

7^th June: Interview with ECNU. MTCSOL Interview with ECNU

9^th June: Pre-admitted to ECNU. Waiting for Hanban to confirm.

26^th June: My application got pushed back to stage one. Because there should be the name of the person recommending me and not the name of Chinese Cultural Center displayed on my online application. Same situation as @Cheenchin and @yahya. So make sure there’s someone’s 姓名 in there.

28^th June: Finally got my scholarship, downloaded my CIS award and forwarded it ECNU. Got my package including admission notice and Visa form 2 weeks later. ECNU Admission package

 

Application for both Confucius Institute Scholarship and Chinese Government Scholarship

I first applied for CGS via independent university program just before the deadline on 30^th of March (chances via the local ministry of education/embassy are slim unless you've got connections...), still to ECNU but for a master in education, not MTCSOL and the status is still "submitted" to this day.

So I didn't have to choose between the two scholarships, unlike @唐大卫 who got both but different courses at different schools (CIS：TCSOL at Shanghai U and CGS：general scholar in chinese language at ECNU) and then they automatically canceled the CIS. He said they did same thing with another girl from his college the previous year, so if you intend to apply both CIS and CGS, it would be safer for you to want CGS more than CIS.

I first mailed my CGS documents to my brother who’s in Shanghai and he went on campus to submit my application. When he happened to ask if I had to pay the application fee a second time when I’ll apply for CIS a week later, she thought I was applying for MTCSOL both via CIS and CGS and rudely refused my CGS application despite my brother explaining it is two different courses. It seemed like she was exasperated that students apply for many scholarships and increase her workload, but hey it’s only fair for us to try to maximize our chances. Anyway, my brother left, got some lunch and came back, luckily another person was there and gladly took my CGS application. So better not mention that you’re applying for many scholarships, just be all smiles...

 

Difficult to say how each of these weight on how they choose the final scholarship recipients, but that's what it's all about, trying to increase your chances and show them you're worth the money they'll be investing on you.

 

End of story, or rather the beginning of a new exciting chapter in Shanghai!

 

PS. To all future applicants, do prepare a hotpot full of perseverance and patience... Don’t be afraid to pester people but only when you have a genuine question, inform yourself well by reading the guidelines and by being resourceful with the search engine on this amazing forum… and finally best of luck，加油！ 

[roddy]

This is fantastic info folks, many thanks. 

[Toffy]

Hi guys,

 

was my first time applying for this scholarship, and since my application is still in the the first step

I am wondering if it's even realistic to hope for a positive answer. ( Apllication is for the coming semester btw ).

 

-send appl on May 4th ( according to the responsible person in my university of preference, deadline is 15th june)

- one semester studying 'Chinese History'

-HSK 4, basic oral

 

I am not so sure whether it's alright to send them ( scholarship@hanban.org ) an email asking them if my apllication is lacking something.

But it is quite late isn't it?

What would you think and what's your experience?

 

Thanks a bunch, Tobias

 

PS: Thanks for this new thread, its great!

[Jellyfish]

Hi all, maybe this question belongs in a visa thread rather than the CIS thread but I'd imagine this concerns other people in the same situation right now so I'm hoping someone can help, and that it'll be useful for others, too.

When applying for a visa with the CIS, who did everyone else put as their Inviting Party and Sponsor? As sponsor/funding I currently have "Confucius Institute Scholarship", as inviting party I have put my university and address - is that correct? Or would both sponsor and inviting party be Hanban? If so, what's the address there?

[Jellyfish]

@Toffy Hi Tobias, sorry for the late reply, I somehow skipped your message last time I posted. So basically all our experiences have shown that chasing up anything that isn't 100% clear (and sometimes even things that are clear but uncomfortable) is always worth it. Be polite but insistent with your questions and requests. I agree that it seems very late and unlikely that you may have got it but weren't informed, but if you've not had any communication from them, that seems a bit strange.

I'd email them (always using Chinese) and maybe phone them up too... You don't want to waste time at this point!

[Sa R]

Hello all. So I have been learning Chinese for about 5 years now but not full time. I have give hsk 4 and got 175/300 and I recently gave Hskk 中级. I wished to apply for the one semester program in spring. I contacted Hanban and they said they might take a few applications providing recommendation from the Confucius Institute. Now the eligibility criteria for a one semester program is hsk 2 while some universities I contacted have said 3. And Hskk basic. With my scores you think it is still possible to apply since I have given 4?my hsk 2 score was 198/200.

 

Please advise. Thank you. 

[艾墨本]

Yes. You can apply for the CI scholarship as long as you meet the minimum requirement and do not have a score higher than HSK 5 180/300. 

[Sa R]

 I haven't studied from a Confucius institute (it was set up only a few years ago while I had already started studying before that). How do I then approach them to recommend me, any suggestions? The institute  I studied from is a certified hsk testing Centre though.