"Columbia in Beijing at Tsinghua: Please Give Students More Guidance" Past Review
By Eloise R (East Asian Laguages and Cultures, Barnard College) for
Tsinghua University: Beijing - Direct Enrollment & Exchange
I am not really sure. I paid the same amount of money as I do when I am at Barnard, but I really didn't feel like I got the education or the resources Barnard provides.
Personal Information
| How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? | 1 month - 6 months |
Review Your Program
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* Overall educational experience
Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc. |
Compared to Barnard and Columbia, Tsinghua University (the host university of my program) is simply not as strong academically. Although Tsinghua is considered the best school in China, the attitude towards greater education here is different from America's. In China,students work harder in high school in order to get into a very good college, but once they get into college, their motivation is not as strong. The workload, compared to Barnard's and Columbia's, is very minimal. The teachers rarely get to know students on an individual basis. |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
Honestly, the host country program administration is severely lacking. Our program assistant did the best she could, but we really had no one to advise us on choosing classes. That, to me, is one of the program's greatest faults. The list of classes is endless and entirely in Chinese. No one knew which classes were designed for students with a particular major, graduate students, or for Korean students. We had a week to shop, which is incredibly short. I really felt helpless during the class shopping period and even regretted coming to study abroad. This needs to be fixed. Everyone in my program was very disappointed. Our main program director, Professor Shi, did nothing to help us. He was supposed to give us individual sessions to go over our class schedules, and instead he sat with us as a group for twenty minutes lecturing us on the various weather changes China experiences during different seasons. |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
The housing, although not helpful for speaking Chinese, was really comfortable. We all had singles and our own bathroom. Our rooms had air conditioning and heating. I think the housing was probably the best aspect of this program. |
| * Food: |
The Tsinghua cafeterias are pretty awful. If you are a vegetarian, you really have no options. The food is plentiful and cheap though, so I often ate there. |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
Because of our many suggestions, we ended up eating together as a program a lot during the second half of the semester. |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
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| * Safety: |
I got sick multiple times this semester. I think it's because I'm not used to the incredibly dry and polluted air. The program assistant always helped me out and took me to the hospital when I needed to go, and I am really thankful for her. |
| If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? |
No
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Finances
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* Money: How easily were you able to live on a student's budget?
(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost) |
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| Not including program expenses, about how much money did you spend on food and other expenses each week? | 20 dollars. |
| Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants? | Beijing is much cheaper than New York. Food is very cheap. |
Language
| * Did your program have a foreign language component? | Yes |
| How would you rate your language skills at the beginning of the program? | Intermediate |
| What was the highest level language course you had completed prior to departure? | Advanced Chinese |
| If applicable, to what degree did your living situation aid your language acquisition? |
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| Language acquisition improvement? |
I really wish my program had assigned me a language partner. My Chinese improved, but I think the program could have done more to assist us all in speaking more Chinese. Most people cannot speak English here. I used Chinese every day, but not as much as I feel I should have. |
Other Program Information
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* Where did you live?
Select all that apply |
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* Who did you live with?
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* Who did you take classes with?
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A Look Back
| * What do you know now that you wish you knew before going on this program? | You really need to be almost fluent in Chinese to benefit from this program. Talk to students who have done the program. I think the kids in my semester have given Columbia a lot of advice on how to improve the program, so hopefully next semester will be better. |
Individual Course Reviews
| Course Name/Rating: |
Modern Chinese Literature |
| Course Department: | School of Humanities and Social Sciences; 40631142 |
| Instructor: | Ren Dongmei |
| Instruction Language: | Chinese |
| Comments: | The class was very challenging. We had weekly reading assignments that were quite difficult. The teacher was very knowledgeable and always well-prepared. I did not participate as much as I would have at my home institution. In China, class-participation is not really a teacher's objective. Most times, classes are lectures without any student participation. |
| Credit Transfer Issues: |
