My daughter is making a list of schools and so far she has
Pomona
Carnegie Mellon
Wake Forest
Occidental
Wesleyan
Vassar
Claremont McKenna
Swarthmore
Duke
She plans to do Chinese and maybe East Asian studies then get a further degree (masters maybe) to teach it… She wants a good language program (specifically Chinese) and a strong study abroad program (specifically China). Although she can probably do study abroad with a different school and that shouldn’t be a problem.
Her last SAT score was 1390, but she might take it again. Her GPA is about 3.9. She did really well on the Chinese subject test as well.
Some extras for her include student council, international club, human rights club, Model UN, she was adopted from China as a one year old with a severe heart defect, and we are in Washington state.
She has a lot of alumni connections, but most notably Reed, Dartmouth, Smith, Bowdoin, UW, and Tufts.
The list above is her own creation, I have a few I would like her to consider and there are probably a few she should pull from the list, I think she probably needs some more safeties as well. If you have suggestions for her we welcome those as well.
Basically we are trying to consolidate her list to where she should actually apply as well as picking one or two to be her top choices. She’s a very go with the flow kid so she would be fine anywhere which is awesome until we’re trying to rank them and she says she likes them all lol.
Thank you so much!!
Hamilton administers one of the top Chinese study abroad programs and offers a very strong Mandarin program on its own campus as well. For a safer admit, look into Lawrence, which participated (along with a third college, Williams) in the creation of the same study abroad program: https://www.chinainsight.info/education/general/231-associated-colleges-in-china-a-hidden-gem.html.
I suggest adding Willamette University (Salem, Oregon) and Agnes Scott College (suburban Atlanta) to the list. They would likely be match schools for your daughter and I think they have high-quality East Asian studies programs.
NYU Shanghai. First coupling of a Chinese nation and an elite is research uni. Can’t get better immersion than that in my book.
If she’s proficient already, schools like Pitt, Harvard, and Michigan have great programs and excellent libraries. Tufts does this well (especially East Asian studies).
Connecticut College might be worth a look given that she seems to prefer LACs.
I think she could find great programs on the West Coast if she looks a little harder. The list is heavy on reaches, so finding programs at less selective schools should probably be a priority.
UW-Seattle has a good East Asian studies program. That should be a high match.
1390 is a low SAT for most of the schools on the list. Another standardized test would be helpful. Perhaps the ACT?
Go to the catalogs and schedules to see which schools have a good selection of upper level Chinese language, literature, and culture courses, offered at reasonable frequency.
For example, Pomona has some Chinese courses: https://www.pomona.edu/academics/departments/asian-languages-literatures/chinese
But Claremont McKenna has none, so students there would have to take them at Pomona through cross registration: https://www.cmc.edu/modern-languages
How about University of Washington, since it has a good selection? http://www.washington.edu/students/crscat/chinese.html
As the parent, have you checked the various colleges’ net price calculators for affordability?
Schools that are best for a Chinese (or related) major would have the following characteristics, in my opinion:
- Small classes (ideally, less than about 10 students for elementary-intermediate language classes). Developing fluency and good pronunciation takes lots of drilling with continual feedback from good instructors. That would be hard to do (if not impossible) even in classes of "intermediate" size (20-49 students). This may or may not rule out some big state universities (depending on how they manage their Chinese programs).
- Selective admissions (because good classes involve constant practice with partners, who need to keep up enthusiastically with memorized dialogs and creative question-response drills, or else the sessions will be less effective).
- Enough courses and good teachers to cover introductory, intermediate, advanced, and classical language levels, as well as any related subjects that interest you (literature, history, area studies, etc.) As you move out of advanced language levels, you could begin to outgrow the resources of some small schools (even if they've been good for basic language training).
- The financial aid, plus location or other features unrelated to the Chinese program, that make it a good personal fit. To predict need-based aid, use the online net price calculators. To evaluate more subjective "fit" factors, try to visit schools on your list (preferably in overnight visits).
When I was learning Chinese, there didn’t seem to be too many colleges that had all these features. I assume there are many more good programs now, at least for language training (if not also for excellent area studies, history, lit, etc.) I’d expect to find good programs among the schools on your list … although, the only one of them I recall coming up repeatedly in discussions like this is Wesleyan University. You might also want to check out Middlebury, Georgetown, Oberlin, the University of Washington, and Indiana-Bloomington (although financial aid may be limited at Indiana or other out of state public schools, and admission to Middlebury or Georgetown might be a long reach.)
@rosered55 We’ve visited Willamette and we all really liked it… She doesn’t really like the “Deep South” and she’s not sold on a women’s college (I wish she were but it’s not for everyone) so I think Agnes Scott might not make it 
@privatebanker NYU Shanghai is a great idea! It’s a bit hard for me to imagine her gone for a year abroad let alone longer, but it does sound really nice for her.
@Hamurtle Thank you!! She is a very nervous standardized test taker … her essays are great but the high pressure of the SAT really got to her but she’ll probably take the SAT again and we’ll try with the ACT
@odinjude10 totally get that for sure. Maybe NYU nyc and go to shanghai for a couple of semesters.