<p>My D'13 is looking for a school with outstanding opportunities for learning Chinese and studying abroad. We are familiar with the Flagship programs but are looking for liberal arts colleges with exceptional programs. She has a very strong academic background and scores, and some unique experiences/skills that might be considered "hooks" so we are open to any suggestions. We do need some merit and/or financial aid. We are middle class but have a large family. Any ideas?</p>
<p>Oberlin has excellent Chinese studies and wonderful work/study abroad opportunities in Asia via the Oberlin-Shansi program. They do offer merit aid.</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://shansi.oberlin.edu/]Shansi[/url”>http://shansi.oberlin.edu/]Shansi[/url</a>]</p>
<p>Middlebury and Grinnell would be the schools to look at if you want LACs. I’m majoring in Chinese, and they were my two top schools when I applied to colleges last year. Both also meet full financial need.</p>
<p>Regardless of where your D winds up, she could apply to spend 1 or more summers at Middlebury’s Chinese school. These are intensive immersion programs in which students pledge not to use English in or out of class. One approach would be to do this immediately before a study-abroad term (or two).</p>
<p>SFSU</p>
<p>Not as prestigeous in US but you can study abroad in the most prestigeous U in China/Taiwan.</p>
<p>[Chinese</a> Program – Links – Study Abroad](<a href=“Chinese Program | Department of Modern Languages & Literatures”>Chinese Program | Department of Modern Languages & Literatures)</p>
<p>The best of San Francisco is to be able to connect with the vast number of Chinese in all levels. It is also possible to intern in the local Chinese schools as teacher’s assistant(you have to be darn good to do that).</p>
<p>Thank you for the feedback so far. Anyone else with an idea? D is currently at an international boarding school in New Mexico. She is especially interested in western schools.</p>
<p>Kudryavka, We took her to visit some midwestern colleges a couple summers ago. Grinnell was her favorite. I just wondered whether the Chinese program was as good as the flagship programs we’ve looked at that included summer study abroad a couple times during the four years and then a 5th year in China. Do you think you will be at a high level in Chinese at the end of your study?</p>
<p>^Apollo, I think the Chinese classes at Grinnell are excellent, since they go at a brisk pace, stress ability in all four areas of writing, reading, talking, and listening, and cover both traditional and simplified characters. Another nice aspect is that they have two instructors, one who is a native English speaker and another that is a native Chinese speaker.</p>
<p>The large majority of foreign language majors spend at least one entire semester in China, and the Grinnell financial aid applies to your expenses while you’re overseas. Don’t worry about study abroad. If you want to do it, it’s there, no doubt.</p>
<p>“Do you think you will be at a high level in Chinese at the end of your study?” - You have to keep in mind I’m not a typical student :). I already knew Japanese going into it, and I’m a polyglot, so a better question might be whether I think a typical student that takes four years of it will be at a high level. I think the answer to that is simply that you’ll get out of it what you put in, as it is at any other school in the country; if you don’t study abroad and you don’t put effort into memorizing the characters, you won’t be at a high level, but the courses definitely put you in a prime position to learn Chinese at a high level and, more importantly to me, in a wide variety of contexts. Naturally, you’ll learn your “business Chinese” and learn to say important things to survive in the country, but you’ll also learn to read literature, both modern and classic. This is one of the biggest things I love about the language courses here. I’m taking both Chinese and Spanish and they don’t focus nearly so much on the “how to order food in a restaurant” type of language skills. You’re not memorizing phrases, you’re learning what those words mean and how to put them together logically and grammatically, even in the beginner courses.</p>
<p>Thank you, that sounds good. My D learned Spanish during an exchange year in S. America and scored a 5 on AP Spanish language, She studied a year of college level Chinese last year, did a StarTalk Chinese program last summer and hopes to study in China this summer. She studies IB French at her current school because they don’t offer Chinese. Fluency is important to her. I hope she can visit Chinese classes at colleges in the future.</p>
<p>Make sure she looks at this program for language study in China. It’s primarily for graduate students, but they do take some undergrads.</p>
<p>[Inter-University</a> Program for Chinese Language Studies, UC Berkeley](<a href=“http://ieas.berkeley.edu/iup/]Inter-University”>IUP - CHINESE CENTER at TSINGHUA UNIVERSITY)</p>
<p>Thank you, I will keep that in mind for the future.</p>