Study Plan - English or Chinese?

[yaycat]

Hello,

I am a native English speaker wanting to attend school in China to study Chinese Literature via a CSC scholarship, and I'm curious as to whether my study plan should be written in English or Chinese. Obviously I am more comfortable with English and am leaning towards that to not blow my chances at a scholarship, but I wonder if Chinese might be preferable in that it can display my current abilities (which may not be a good thing :) )

 

I understand that no one really knows what makes for the best application, but if you succeeded in receiving a scholarship and are a native English speaker, I would appreciate feedback on your approach to the study plan. Other feedback is welcome as well.

 

Also, I am sorry if this question has been addressed elsewhere or if I asked this in the wrong place.

[MSG9]

Some may perhaps suggest that you should write it in Chinese since it's quite a bold move and might indicate that you are competent and truly interested in Chinese culture. However, I would suggest sticking to whichever language you think you would most be expressive in. The goal of study plans is, in fact, to assure them that you are invested into pursuing your studies in China. And I think that if you're comfortable in the language you are using for the study plan, you would be able to elaborate those reasons more eloquently and substantially. Also, if you aren't quite sure if your Chinese is up to that standard of being fluent yet (at least in an academic sense), then I wouldn't suggest pushing forward with using it because small mishaps may  turn them off? But, hell, who knows what really goes on the screening process.

 

I'm not really quite familiar with this because my study plan when I applied was 100% hinged on the program I was applying to; and because it was an English-taught program and I wasn't going in the country for language study purposes, my plan was written fully in English.

 

I guess it all boils down to your preference. Just go with what makes you more comfortable to give yourself the freedom to be more expressive ☺️

[ZhangKaiRong]

To be honest, it doesn't matter at all. I seriously doubt that they bother reading it at CSC. Three of my non-Chinese citizen friends (who are ethnic Chinese) applied with a study plan written in English and got the scholarship. My own study plan was four/five lines in total and was written in English.

You're overthinking the whole process

[thechamp]

From what I've heard from friends it's virtually impossible not to get the CSC scholarship.

 

Write it in Windings and see if you can still get it!

[yaycat]

@ZhangKaiRong Wow, four/five lines total! I didn't realize I could write that little. And I'm assuming you are using yourself as an example because you also received a scholarship?

 

@thechamp Haha Wingdings! I'll stick with Comic Sans so if my study plan does get read, they can at least tell what I'm saying ?

Thanks all for the responses! Perhaps I do worry too much, but I also want to safeguard myself from getting my application rejected over something dumb :c 

[ZhangKaiRong]

@yaycat Yes, I got a CSC scholarship in 2012 with those five/six lines study plan. And with incomplete Foreigner's Physical Examination Form, because we had like a week and a half to collect our documents, as that year the EU Window scholarship was announced soooo unimaginably late (on 9 May, with a deadline of 20 May, lol).

 

However, I completely agree that having a full application package the nicest way possible definitely won't be a disadvantage, so you aim for it if you can, but once you're in China you will see that people in administration tend to be quite laissez faire with everything if it helps to alleviate their workload.