<p>Hi, I'm trying to finalize the list of schools I'm applying to. I'm looking for small schools (under 10,000 students, either public or private) in the Midwest that offer upper-level Chinese language courses. I've looked into Macalester, Grinnell, Kalamazoo, Beloit, and St. Olaf.
Does anyone know of any other schools with advanced Chinese?</p>
<p>Lawrence University in Wisconsin </p>
<p>[Chinese</a> Department | Home](<a href=“http://www.lawrence.edu/dept/chja/chinese/curriculum/index.shtml]Chinese”>http://www.lawrence.edu/dept/chja/chinese/curriculum/index.shtml)</p>
<p>Add Carleton College.</p>
<p>Oberlin has great Chinese and great opportunities to spend time in China.</p>
<p>Ah, thanks so much for the replies! I’ve been searching collegeboard like crazy for schools with Chinese/East Asian Languages majors, but haven’t found much since a lot of schools don’t have the major but offer a decent amount of coursework. I’ll check the departments out at Lawrence, Carleton, and Oberlin.</p>
<p>I hate to do this, but… bump</p>
<p>My D did the same search last year - I think you have been given or already have all the fairly comprehensive Chinese programs small midwestern LACs offer. The best way to go about it is to look at each school’s East Asian website - see how many levels are offered, if they have Chinese literature courses, what the overseas affiliation is, how many profs, etc. The smaller the school the more carefully you need to plan.</p>
<p>For ‘medium’ sized schools - I believe Northwestern has a good Chinese program, check out U of C, and WUSTL as well. Obviously much depends on your stats.</p>
<p>fs, I think you’ve about covered it in the midwest. If you’re willing to expand geographically look at Williams.</p>
<p>Some other Midwestern schools offering Chinese:</p>
<p>Majors: Augustana (IL); Calvin
3+ years: Valparaiso
Minor: St. Benedict’s/St. John’s
3 years: Hamline, Denison, Kenyon, Carthage</p>
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<p>And Middlebury.</p>
<p>"Oberlin has great Chinese and great opportunities to spend time in China. "</p>
<p>Moreover, the instructors are excellent.</p>
<p>One other advantage of Macalester is that you can take even more advanced Chinese language classes (or other unusual languages such as Hindi, Turkish etc) at the University of Minnesota through ACTC (Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities).</p>
<p>Actually when D1 was applying she viewed Mac as having a relative disadvantage in this regard, because they offered no advanced-level chinese instruction on their own. Maybe not even intermediate chinese?? don’t recall now, you’d have to check. She was surprised to find that a school that bills itself as having significant international focus didn’t even offer advanced-level chinese instruction. One would have to investigate how seemless the integration of schedules, times. etc, was with U Minn to see if you wanted to hang your hat on the cross-registration possibility. But if it works, that’s certainly a positive.</p>
<p>Cross registration doesn’t get talked about much with Macalester, if this is a big thing there it should get more play, since it would drastically expand Mac’s effective course catalog. I wonder what % of Mac student’s courses are typically taken at U Minn?</p>
<p>My DD attended a Chinese immersion school K-8 (she’s a blue-eyed blonde), spent a life-changing semester in Beijing during her junior year of HS in the SYA program, and planned college around the colleges’ Chinese programs. </p>
<p>After visiting 25+ schools all over the country, sitting in on Chinese classes, speaking with professors (at Colgate the Chinese professor advised her not to go there if she was serious about Chinese!), she whittled it down to Middlebury and Hamilton. </p>
<p>She applied ED to Hamilton, is a sophmore in 400-level classes, will attend the ACC program in China next year and will return to more Chinese classes at Hamilton than she can ever take.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info and insight, everyone.
I posted because I just really hoped that there was a college in the Midwest with advanced Chinese that I hadn’t considered or found out about on here yet (especially one on the less selective side). However, SimpleRules, you’re right, there aren’t very many places I haven’t looked at.
I’ve studied Japanese and Chinese for several years and am very interested in one of these countries after graduation while working for an NGO focused on rural development. …Perhaps, even though I prefer smaller schools, I’d be better off going to my state school or the U of M…</p>
<p>flowering,</p>
<p>I can name an outstanding school for you in your field. Trinity University in SA, TX. Before overlooking it at least check out the East Asian studies program, and the Study Abroad in China is highly thought of.</p>
<p>Though you were seeking a smaller school, you might check out the Language Flagship Programs in Chinese. These are federally-funded programs at selected universities designed to foster supperior proficiency in certain critical languages. The program at Ohio State looks particularly strong, and OSU is the designated National Resource Center for East Asian Languages.</p>
<p>[The</a> Language Flagship - Chinese](<a href=“http://thelanguageflagship.org/chinese]The”>Chinese | Flagship)</p>
<p>[The</a> Ohio State University Chinese Flagship Program](<a href=“http://chineseflagship.osu.edu/]The”>http://chineseflagship.osu.edu/)</p>
<p>And if you’re willing to consider larger schools, there are many good East Asian Depts. at several Big 10 universities, e.g., Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, OSU.</p>
<p>A bit more info - D was accepted into a number of universities that have extensive programs in Chinese, but in the end it was smaller school that won out over extensive program. She has background in Chinese and ultimately was looking only at schools that offer 4th level + literature classes. She ended up at Beloit, the size, amazing merit, some other areas of interest covered, and a long established Chinese exchange program sealed the deal. There are many Chinese exchange students on campus and she spends time in the Chinese conversation club (think that’s what it is called). They have a well known summer language intensive that is excellent as well. With just 2 profs teaching Chinese she knows there is a risk that she may not get exactly what she wants but is willing to compromise as this would be a second major or minor for her.
If you are concerned about highly selective that might rule out Carleton especially, and possibly Grinnell and Macalaster. No doubt as others have pointed out going out of the midwest and going larger may give you more options.</p>
<p>If you are willing to travel farther, Middlebury would be perfect. It has a fabulous Chinese department with an array of upper level language courses and literature courses. There is an International Studies major with an East Asian track or a Chinese major. Even in the first year, the course of study is very rigorous with seven classes a week (including five regular classes and two “drill” classes). They are soon adding a third destination in China for study abroad in Middlebury programs.</p>
<p>I think you will be fine going to a small school for Chinese. My D is in AP Chinese at her high school, but I very much doubt she will be ready for more than 3rd year Chinese at college. So if you go to, for example, Macalaster, you can take 3rd and 4th year Chinese (I checked - they offer both), Junior year abroad, and senior year independent study or cross-register at U Minn (that information is linked to the consortium’s web page). You could also do a summer at Middlebury to really boost your language proficiency. </p>
<p>The rural development idea is interesting - hope you don’t mind if I comment about this too although I know you didn’t ask for advice:) If you want to work for an NGO specializing in this field, it is important to have the right substantive background - language is probably not enough and a language or area studies major may not be the best idea (although it is helpful to have language fluency on the side). Middlebury, Macalaster, and I think Hamilton all offer geography majors which is suitable, but this major is rare at LACs. You could also study economics, sociology, anthropology just about anywhere. Another idea would be to go to a bigger university and study agricultural economics or even agriculture.</p>