<p>Hi! I am a Chinese major at UNC-Chapel Hill (happy to give advice on what I feel is the greatest university ever) looking to apply in the next couple years to grad school for East Asian Languages and Cultures programs (Chinese focused). I'm going to take some time off first, go back to Beijing and work for a while, but I'm trying to get a headstart on the search for schools. So far my list is --</p>
<p>UC-Berkeley
U of Hawaii Manoa
National University of Singapore</p>
<p>Does anyone know of some other good programs? Which schools have what strengths? Competitiveness of applicants? There is a serious dearth of information on the internet about East Asian Languages and Cultures grad programs.</p>
<p>You have to have native fluency in read/write/speak (Chinese) to try National University of Singapore. The courses are mostly in Chinese and the standard PhD dissertation is about 320,000 words.</p>
<p>I would know, I graduated from NUS (Chinese Studies Department)</p>
<p>I'm assuming that can be assessed with the HSK then? Assuming one is not born Chinese. Peiking University also requires a certain score on the HSK for grad students, so I have taken that into account.</p>
<p>The dissertation will most certainly have to be in Chinese. Although they will stipulate that the MAXIMUM number of words for your thesis is 320,000, they will fail to say what the MINIMUM is.</p>
<p>It has developed into a culture where PhD grad students will all write up to 280,000 to 360,000 (estimation). The point is: It's very very long. Again it depends on your specialisation. If you're doing Chinese History, then that will probably require a longer thesis. Same for Chinese Philosophy and culturally based topics. If it's Chinese Linguistics, it'll probably be shorter.</p>
<p>The fluency you need in Chinese cannot be underestimated, especially if you're not a native speaker. NUS usually accepts grad student from Mainland China and the Peking Academy of Social Sciences (think Peking U, Tsinghua, and mature grad students who are already lecturers in China). You'll be surrounded by peers who speaks little or no English. The department is not really interested if you did well on the HSK or not, they look at your background, how long have you been engaged in using the Chinese Language. They want to make sure you can survive living in a totally chinese environment for the next 3-5 years.</p>
<p>Actually, going to NUS Chinese Studies Department is going to be like studying in a Mainland China University, except for the fact that once you step out of school, then everything reverts back to being English (It's a strange society).</p>
<p>So if you're really looking for a challenge, you might as well apply for Peking Uni :)</p>
<p>Yeah, I like Singapore (studied abroad there before one summer) and thats why it's on the list, but I don't know if I could do a dissertation that long. As for the language requirement, yeah, I know it will be tough, but I do want the challange. I have studied abroad and then worked in Beijing, and the plan is go back there after graduation and work for a couple of years before applying to grad school. I co-authored an English textbook being put out by the Foreign Languages Press, so maybe I could do translation with them for a few years. In any event, I will be using Chinese in most aspects of daily life for an extended period of time before I start school again.</p>
<p>But thats an idea, doing Peking U -- I want my PhD from an American U because I was planning on teaching in America but I guess I never considered doing masters somewhere else. Do you know more about the program there?</p>