Good colleges & universities in the US for studying Chinese

[xiaojiang216]

大家好,

I'm starting to think about colleges and about where to go... that old chestnut... I searched the forums for a while, but didn't find anything similar to my topic...

Anyway... There is no doubt in my mind that I want to continue studying Chinese in college, because I really want to incorporate it into a career.

By the time I'm in college, I might be third or fourth year level, according to my teacher. How many levels are there? I don't really know much about all of the schools out there, but I have been looking at Middlebury.

Does anyone know of any more schools that have good Chinese programs, or even perhaps their own study abroad programs?

Thank you all very much for your time!

[葛亞輝（美國人）]

I'm a student at Brown, and I think our program is pretty good...I mean, I've never been anywhere else, but a couple of our teachers work at the Middlebury summer program sometimes, they're all native speakers, and we always seem to be ahead of the people who transfer in from other schools.

classes offered (all 1 year long):

beginning mandarin chinese

intermediate mandarin chinese

advanced modern chinese I

advanced modern chinese II

if you get through all that, there's also classical chinese, chinese literature (in chinese although we probably have a chinese lit class in english too), and "special topics in chinese" which is probably just independent study with some of the teachers once you've done everything else.

[sou-san]

Middlebury has good Chinese program. My school, Oberlin College, also has a good Chinese language program. I think there are many decent schools in the US in the area of Chinese Studies-- both big universities(yale, michigan, indiana) and small liberal colleges(dartmouth, middlebury). You should go to their school website to look at their Chinese/East Asian Studies department for more information and what they offer. Check out these:

http://www.middlebury.edu/academics/ump/majors/is/east_asian_studies/

http://www.chinesestudies.hawaii.edu/index.php

http://www.oberlin.edu/eas/

[gato]

What year are you in school? How are your grades and test scores? Do you prefer a small liberal arts college or a big univerisity? Public or private? Any geographical, urban/rural preferences? Any other majors or minors you'd like to study along with Chinese? What about cost issues?

[xiaojiang216]

Thank you all for you input and help!

Gato, I am a sophomore in high school, and I'll be a junior in September. All of my grades are A's and high B's without any acceptions. My test scores mirror that for the most parts (especially this year with so many funerals and lack of time to study). My GPA ranges from 3.7 to 3.8. I am not sure what would my specific preferences be regarding the type of college. However, I am not very competitive by nature. As far as geographical location goes, I would prefer to stay in New England. I would love to major in Chinese, and minor in something like International Business or something of that nature.

About Yale... I am taking private lessons with a Yale professor. My parents wanted me to take classes at Yale as a senior in high school, and I met with the head of Chinese studies. He asked me if I wanted to go to Yale. I was surprised, because I never even thought of it. I really don't think I'm capable of attending an Ivy League school. I'm not competitive, and my grades aren't what people call "perfect". I am taking only one AP class next year, unlike other peers who are taking three or more. So... I don't know...

Again, thank you all for your help. It is truly appreciated.

[kudra]

sounds to me like you should ask your tutor for advice. Also, perhaps he/she can set you up with some of the yale undergrads who are learning Chinese and find out what they plan to do with it.

having browsed a bunch of College Chinese Program web sites as part of compiling the list of texts used at US university programs, I found that lots of them have some way for the students to study in China. I don't think that will be a distinguishing feature among the good programs. there seems to be a big push across the board for study abroad programs in US universities, for any and all majors (maybe not pure math).

Also, if you are going to be say undergrad 4th year level by the time you start as a freshman then I'm guessing you will not be the typical Chinese major even at Yale. It could be if you have some specific area that you want to study involving Chinese, you might be attractive enough to the program for the admissions people to discount your "shortcomings." Not having served on an undergrad admission committee, I am guessing that in this case it is not really about being "competitive" by nature, but rather having/showing the potential to do something serious. Especially if your tutor writes you a letter, you are not going to be filtered out just because of gpa.

[FSO]

If you think you will be at the 3rd/4th year-level by the time you begin college, you might consider Brigham Young University. It's inexpensive, hosts one of the nation's Chinese Flagship Programs, and is located in a beautiful setting (though not in New England, of course). BYU also boasts an excellent business program.

One major benefit is that it would likely be easy to find other students at your proficiency level, since many of the people majoring in Chinese at BYU have served Chinese-speaking missions, and bring excellent language skills to the table. The Chinese major is designed to build off of such a solid linguistic base.

Oh, and you needn't be a Mormon to attend BYU.

Cheers,

FSO

[xiaojiang216]

Again, thank you all for your help!

Is anyone familiar with the specific requirements for 3rd and 4th level Chinese classes? Much of my writing practice is independent, and therefore isn't as strong as my speaking and listening skills, for example. When I met with the head of the Chinese language department at Yale, he was encouraging me to work on my writing more. In a 3rd year level, do they expect you to be able to write everything you can say? If so, how can I bring myself up to this level?

Thank you all very, very much!

[sou-san]

Hi xiaojiang,

I don't know about the content of 3rd level Chinese class, however I can tell you a little bit about what one expects in the 4th level at Oberlin. It's all in Chinese, students and the professor interact in Chinese; it's like a seminar class conducted in Chinese. We read literary essays and pieces from from the 30's, some cultural and political debates from the 80s.. I mean all kind of texts from teh modern period. But the harder part is to talk about these issues in Chinese and to present them in clear language. students may be assigned to prepare and give a presentation for 10 to 15 minutes in class. Lots of writings (400-600 characters, usually every week) and small quizes on vocabulary; at this point, they don't even discuss grammar- it's like you have mastered Chinese grammar, but of course that's not true.. I hasten to think at this level you're going to move beyond the textbook and begin to deal with the difficult parts of using Chinese.

[gato]

In a 3rd year level, do they expect you to be able to write everything you can say? If so, how can I bring myself up to this level?

My impression is that after two years, you are expected to be able to write 800-1200 of the most common characters. You get there by repetition, using flashcards, etc.. How have you been studying?

[xiaojiang216]

How have you been studying?

This is probably my weakest area in my studies of Chinese. With my first teacher, (who was a college student who had moved to America three or so years ago at the time) she would just tell me to remember the characters. And when 听写 time came, I would get laughed at if I forgot any characters.

When the head of Chinese language studies at Yale told me that I should be keeping up with my writing, I asked my teacher (my current teacher) for advice. She told me to "慢慢儿来", and that we would work on writing later on. (I guess my reading isn't good enough yet?)

So what I do when I have time, (and even when I do have time I tend to slack off because I'm so terrible at it anyway) I will practice writing a few characters that I come across and am not familiar with how to write. Then later in the week, I will try to visualize that character and write it down, compare it to what it actually is, and see if it's right. If it's not right, it gets written several times. Then it will be put back in the cycle again.

Pretty lame, huh? I feel so stupid... Forgive me!