Zhejiang University

[ZedSharif]

Hey hey,

I will be starting my studies this September too  

Hey Tiri.

So my first question, how do PhD student normally dress when they work in the uni? is it semi casual or just casual?

Just wanted to understand the culture or dress code (if any) in the Uni

[Alex_Hart]

Having attended language courses at ZheDa for the past year, thought I'd do a write up. I will (probably) be staying for another two years in the MA program, so will come back to that a year from now unless I follow my secret dream and move to Kunming to open a hostel-teashop-cafe-brewery-bookstore 

 

Application Process

I applied directly to 浙江大学 as a Masters student (Chinese language China Studies major). When applying, I added a request for an extra year in the beginning to study language, which I have now been doing for around 9 months-ish. The application process was a pain. It was extremely hard to find any information from the school, and I found a lot of it was not updated. Contacts here were less than forthcoming about the major, the coursework, etc. When applying, I also applied for the Chinese government scholarship. I did not apply twice, I merely sent in one application. A lot of people seemed confused about that part. Things like medical forms, etc, will need to be done in your country (maybe - plenty of my classmates didn't do it even though it was required) and then retaken once you arrive at your own expense (the full slate of medical exams costs around 500 RMB and takes you two hours, but can only be taken at one hospital and you will need to skip class for this).

 

I now have several classmates applying to MAs here and have to say, the process is still opaque and confusing. A Polish classmate was told she could only apply when geographically in her home country, even though she was already in China studying language. She was also told that if the documents arrived at the Chinese Embassy in the EU with a stamp from China - they would be rejected. She got around this by giving her application documents to her mother who re-postmarked them as from Poland. Meanwhile, another classmate simply sent it directly and had no problems whatsoever. This will be completely impossible for some people, but I think the takeaway is that the entire system is pretty weird. If you're from some countries (I'm thinking of my German classmates) where bureaucracies are efficient, you might go insane. I find the better method is to shrug your shoulders and be 随便 about it, and don't be afraid to be forceful with the person you're talking to.

 

Course and Funding

 

I am a Chinese language student. I do not know the costs as I am on the Government scholarship - I pay for nothing including dorms/classes. Books do cost around 200-300 kuai per semester. If you're lucky, you can track down an old student willing to sell their books at a bargain price.

 

Arrival and registration

 

Nothing is organized. I arrived and nobody knew what dorm I was meant to stay in. I spent two to three hours walking from dorm to dorm as each one told me "Ah, maybe you're in Dorm <insert #>." This was made harder as nobody bothered to give me a map. I was told several times that I would be given a single room with a bathroom shared with another room, or in a shared room with our own bathroom, but found myself put into a shared bedroom with a bathroom shared between 20-30 men.

 

Luckily, I spoke some Chinese. Others arrived without any Chinese at all, and were completely lost. One person went to the wrong campus as the school had told her to tell the cab "浙江大学," which is incredibly unhelpful as there are several campuses scattered around Hangzhou. When she finally arrived at the dorm, they yelled at her for bothering them so late at night (10pm).

 

The first month will be a marathon of running between offices. You need this paper to open a bank account, but you need another paper to get this paper, and that paper needs a bank account. It's baffling, but fear not: it will be over soon. I went to about a dozen offices and paid a lot more than I thought I would have to, but it's not so terrible. The queues can be crazy, though. Again, it helps to speak Chinese and to be a little bit pushy. After not hearing anything about our stipends for over a month (and being unable to open a bank account), we were told all scholarship students must go "this Friday." This was on a Thursday. Having not seen the email until 4pm on Friday, I arrived at the bank to find a "three or four hour wait." My girlfriend (who came with me from the US but is a Chinese native) asked the person to speed it up and our number went from #250 to #112 - shrinking the wait to 20 minutes. Several others saw this and proceeded to do the same - customers who protested were met with blank stares and refusals to change their # even after apologies were made. Don't get angry about chaotic lines and methods, it won't help you at all (and you'd be surprised how many 老外 get here and think throwing a tantrum is going to get them any help!). 

 

Accommodation

So.. This is complex. 

(1) The International Student Dorm is where you will likely go first if you arrive at 玉泉 campus - it is the center of the 老外 student community here, and there are always dozens of foreigners sitting outside. These dorms are, I think, mostly single beds with your own bathroom. They are nice, clean, comfortable, and next to the "Foreign Student Cafeteria." I'm not sure, but I think rent is around 1,700/RMB a month. There are no public washers from what I understand, so you will need to pay to have your laundry done. This dorm is for fee paying students, and you're unlikely to end up here if you come with a scholarship. Guests are allowed and there is no curfew. The cafeteria is not actually only for foreign students, anybody can go in and pay to eat. I don't often eat here as it's really loud.

 

(2) Dorm 16 and dorm 31 are for exchange students and language students on a scholarship who are not doing a masters or PhD. These dorms are of middling quality. They're not that clean, but you get your own bathroom for you and your roommate. Some of the rooms have a single and a double with a shared bathroom/living area which I understand is first come first serve. Ask when you arrive, you cannot ask beforehand. If you don't ask, you will probably end up in a double. Not sure this is possible, but also ask about not being on the first floor as several of my classmates have reported mold - Hangzhou is an extremely damp place, and the first floors tend to be worse for it. They aren't thrilled about guests.

 

(3) The Old International Student Dorm is where you will, sadly, wind up if you are later or currently pursuing an MA or PhD and are on a Scholarship. This dorm is where people bond over how terrible the dorm is. It's a nice distance from where language students take their classes, and the cafeteria outside the door is not open for breakfast. I was promised a single bedroom, but these are only for PhD students (not MA). There are two sides to the building. One side is doubles (you'll have a roommate) with your own bathroom - these are relatively OK as long as your roommate is OK. Your shower isn't separated from the bathroom (no stall or anything, which really bothers some people for some reason though I think it's OK) but you do have western toilets and it's your own. The other side of the building is pretty awful - the rooms are doubles or singles with shared bathrooms. The bathrooms are disgusting most of the time as you have 20-30 men sharing three toilets and three showers. The 叔叔s who run the building spit on the floor, and the 阿姨 uses the washing machine 60% of the time for sheets (I have no idea whose sheets these are - they don't clean for you here). There are shared kitchens, but I was fearful to use them as some people in the dorm don't bother cleaning after they use it, or use your pot and leave it dirty in the kitchen. If you're staying long term, buy your own mini fridge. A lot of the stuff in the fridge gets stolen. The toilet seat was stolen at some point and took about a month to be put back. Not that I ever used the western toilet as it was always so dirty you were better off squatting (a healthy alternative!).

The building closes the front door at 11 pm, but you can ask for a blue chip thing that lets you unlock it - I'm told some people are not given this chip, but I got it the second week. If you come back after 12, the chip no longer works and you will need to bang on the front door until a 叔叔 arrives to open it - he will be angry, and he might leave you outside for a long time (I'm not sure about the veracity of this as I never really came back after curfew, but a Russian girl claimed the 叔叔 left her outside for an hour at 3 am). Guests must register at the front desk and must leave before 11 pm - they are really anal about guests here. My girlfriend visited every day for a month and they made her sign in with her ID number every time, and sign out. She was yelled at twice (at length) for writing 10:15 when it was 10:17, and for writing 1:15 because they wanted her to write 13:15. 

Having said all that, the other students are great. I moved out after a month and regretted it because the students were such a nice group of diverse people. There are also a bunch of North Koreans on the fourth floor who sing Karaoke at 8 pm and play Ping Pong on the first floor - they won't talk to anybody, but everybody enjoys talking about them for the first month (and hates them for singing every night after that).

 

(4) Moving out on a scholarship can be hard because you need to get the school and police's permission, but it's relatively easy if you speak a little Chinese. You can apply for a stipend (700 yuan a month), but it's rare for people to get it. They will tell you that you definitely can't get it the first time you ask, but ask a few times (before moving out!) and they will eventually tell you that it's possible, whereupon they will give you a sheet of paper to fill out in order to apply. I have lived off campus since mid-October. Rents vary widely. Classmates who live on 文一路 pay half what I pay, but they need to commute for 30 minutes while I walk for 4 minutes to get to class. As I'm here with my girlfriend, my costs are halved for a room, but you can expect something around 2,000 yuan if you take a really crappy place (no kitchen, 老房子) anywhere nearby, 3,200 yuan for a small apartment in a 老房子 and 4,000+ for a new apartment. The farther you go, the cheaper it gets - classmates who live an hour away have a really beautiful 2 bedroom flat on a park with a nice kitchen and a huge balcony for 4,000, while classmates nearby have something much simpler for 4,500.

 

Classes, Classrooms and Teachers

 

All language classes take place on 玉泉 campus as far as I can tell. The vast majority are in building #31 - you will see nothing but 老外 here.

 

Classrooms are fine - most teachers use a PPT and all the classrooms come equipped with projectors. They vary in size. There is no heating in Hangzhou, but the classrooms all come with an A/C that can be used for heating. I fought wars with classmates over turning the A/C on as it was generally too hot for me, but too cold for them, so I think the quality is fine. Classes vary in size, but aim for around 20 (some are 10, some are 25). My first semester was as a level three student (you will take a test when you arrive) with 20 students - around 12-15 showed up regularly. I am now in a level four class with 28 students (there are only four level four classes, but around nine or ten level three classes) and about 25 show up regularly. Absences are common. Some people are here for their last semester and don't care about grades, others are only here to drink, but there are plenty of studious students.

 

My classmates range from all over the world. A majority are Korean, but I've had classmates from Japan, Germany, the US, Belarus, Bolivia, England, Australia, Argentina, Laos, Thailand, Kurdistan, etc. 

 

Class times are 8:00-9:30, 10-11:30, 1-2:30, 2:40-4:10. You will take two classes a day most of the time, although I have one class on Tuesday and three on Friday this semester. Most people take a majority of morning classes (you can't choose) and have a 1pm class once or twice a week. The afternoon classes are much fewer.

 

Levels 1 through 3 ("Beginner") will take 口语 (speaking)，精读 (grammar)，阅读 (reading)，和听力 (listening). 精读 (grammar) will meet four times a week, while the rest are all twice a week. Level 4 and 5 stop taking 听力 and take 写作 (essay writing) once a week instead. I'm not sure about levels 6-8, but these classes are much smaller (some only 5 students). For comparison's sake, students in level 3 will generally pass HSK 4 easily enough and struggle to pass HSK 5; students in level 4 are almost all either preparing for HSK 5, or have already taken it. Your classmates will range over a huge space in terms of their Chinese level. I have some classmates who passed HSK 5 with incredible scores and can hold hours long conversations about politics or philosophy in Chinese, while others struggle to talk about everyday topics. There are also .5 classes for 1.5, 2.5 and 3.5. 

 

Classes are mixed. While I don't know all the material, I'm pretty bored in some of my classes - you definitely need to study outside of class time if you want to improve. I don't know what to compare them to, but they're much easier than the courses I took in my American uni, and easier than the summer course I took at 川大 (but that was accelerated). Teachers similarly vary. Some are great - I'm a little in love with one of my teachers - and some are just OK. I don't think any are terrible, but the better teachers waste less time.

 

Classmates also vary a lot. Some students are asleep in class, others write down every word the teacher says. 口语课 is where you will interact with your classmates the most, and it can be made or broken by your classmates.

 

Extracurricular 选修课

Every semester, there is a long list of afterschool classes published in the second week which you can sign up for free. You can pick two or three and these are generally in the afternoon. Off the top of my head, they had: "Hangzhou History," "Hangzhou Style," "Chinese painting," "Chinese calligraphy," "Chinese movies," "Taichi," "Martial Arts," "古代汉语," “Tea”and a few others. Some of these classes (古代汉语 and tea culture) are only for intermediate and advanced students as they're only in Chinese. I've taken 6 of these classes and dropped 5 due to how boring and slow they are - the exception being 茶文化. I love this class and would definitely recommend it to anybody in level four or above who likes tea - it's also the first class that I was in where most people didn't drop it (Chinese movies went from 60 students to 10 in 3 weeks). The teacher is great and the material is interesting, plus you drink free tea that most students won't be able to afford on their own. Once you take it and fall in love with tea, come back to the forum and check the food section!

 

The taichi/calligraphy/etc classes are more popular, so if you like that kind of stuff, they're all available and they have multiple levels (beginner, intermediate, advanced).

 

Campus and Environment

There are several campuses here. Language students will be at 玉泉 which is a 10 minute bike ride or 20 minute walk to 西湖, the main attraction of 杭州. I think it's hard to say where "downtown" is, but the main shopping area is about 40 minutes by bus. There are no subways nearby, but Hangzhou is building them everywhere. I like the neighborhood a lot. 

The campus is the "old" campus and is relatively small, with older buildings and less "stuff." There are around six canteens (which the foreign students nickname "Second Floor," "International Students," "Princess," "Dirty," "Big," and "Muslim." They're relatively similar, but have different offerings. Vegetarians will want to eat in the "Big Canteen" by 东门 as it has lots of tofu options; the Muslim canteen isn't bad either. 

 

I like the campus, but most people prefer the other campuses more. This one is pretty boring and there are no bar/restaurant streets nearby. Most students walk about 20 minutes to "9Bar" or Ellen's. I'm not much for bars, so can't comment on that. The restaurant options are pretty terrible, though. There are two or three Korean places, two Halal places, a small pizza place and a few other random options. There is a small wet market ( which Angelina pointed me towards) near 北门 and a much larger one by 正门. Fruit stores are everywhere. 

 

I have found it really hard to meet Chinese students here, but I'm not sure if it's the campus or just me. Some people say it's easier at 紫金港. Part of the problem is that there are just so many foreigners here, and part of the problem is that there is nowhere that you really need to interact with Chinese students (i.e. class).

 

Cost of Living and Budgeting

This question is pretty impossible to answer. Some students eat pizza and western food every day, but I cook my own meals at home and am a vegetarian. I don't know the average costs for meat eaters, but I do know that I generally spend 8-10 kuai in the canteen ($1) while my friends spend 15-20kuai ($2-3). Cooking vegetarian meals at home, I generally spend around 10-15 kuai per day to feed my girlfriend and myself for dinner - vegetables and tofu are cheap here. Some classmates go to 外婆家 (the main 'middle of the road' restaurant in Hangzhou) weekly, and you can expect to pay around 30 kuai if vegetarian and 40-60 if a meat eater. Expect to pay much more if you regularly miss western food - a pizza from the local place is 30 kuai ($5-6?) for a plain pizza, 35-45 for toppings; other pizza spots need 50+kuai. Coffee ranges from 12 kuai ($1.50-2) at Dr Bread on campus to 22 kuai ($3) at the nicer cafes around campus. Beer is 3.50 kuai for a cheap bottle in the grocery store, and 20-30 kuai in bars. A favorite foreigners restaurant is Mojitos by 南门 where they have specials so you can get burritos for 15 kuai on Fridays. I would say your expenses are really going to reflect how much you spend in your own country. I have a 3,000yuan/month stipend and I pay 1,500/month rent and work part time (just two hours a week) and have never run out of money even while traveling, but have many classmates who run out halfway through the month every month. Also hard to say what you need to spend - a German classmate thinks I spend lavish amounts on tea (OK, I do!), but I think she spends lavish amounts on rent and meat, so you can figure out what you need. Fans of clubbing and the like will definitely spend a lot more - I understand that a lot of my classmates spend 40kuai per cocktail. 

 

Any questions, feel free to ask. You can also PM me, but would prefer to answer here in case anybody else wonders. Sorry for the length - I'm not good at brevity. 

[Chris Two Times]

Alex!

 

I've been wondering how you've been doing on your first scholarship year.

Many thanks for this write up. I will write a similar one for my year at Tsinghua at a later time (July?).

Good luck with everything and keep keepin' on!

 

Chris

[Alex_Hart]

Still alive! In the homestretch for HSK 5 prep now.

 

Looking forward to your write-up, Chris! 

[BanjoSlice]

Hi guys great to see both of you @Alex_Hart and @Chris Two Times. You did a great job on the 2016 CSC topic. Thanks for the write up.

[heff]

Hi! I applied for the language program in Zhejiang University for Autumn. Do they accept all  applicants for the language program?

 

Thank you so much. 

[Angelina]

Zhejiang University 

Academic Calendar 2017-2018

 

School starts September 18 2017 

 

Registration:

New students: September 16 2017

Already a student here: September 15 2017

 

Enjoy the extended summer! 

 

[Chike]

Hello @Angelina, thanks for your informative posts. I may be in Zheda by September if I'm granted the CSC scholarship. I look forward to meeting you guys there. Much grace!

Chike.

[BanjoSlice]

Hi guys . Hope y'all are doing well. So i got accepted at Zhejiang University at the ZJE institute with a scholarship. However I was required to fill the Zhejiang online application for an undergrad program and I mistakenly chose my highest degree as bachelors instead of high school.  Am wondering whether this will have an impact on my offer. I have emailed them highlighting this correction,is it sufficient? Thanks and waiting for your replies.

Regards,

Lance

[BanjoSlice]

Hi guys. How long does it take to receive a message that documents were received and how long for this to effect on online system? Thanks. 

[Alex_Hart]

On 6/26/2017 at 11:50 PM, LanceGonza said:

Hi guys. How long does it take to receive a message that documents were received and how long for this to effect on online system? Thanks. 

I found out mid to end July; I forget how I received the information first, but either way it was a long wait. 

 

It should be the same this year as my friend just went to see the office here at ZheDa and they told him results would be out end of July for potential graduate students.

[BanjoSlice]

Thanks I'll have to wait then. A month isn't a long wait for something worth it. 

[BanjoSlice]

Help please. According to tracking by courier my documents arrived last Monday at international college. Am worried because until now my status of documents online is unreceived. I noticed that my application form had a printing error that caused my application number to be less by three digits ie 2017*** instead of 2017******.i am wondering whether this could be the problem. It's really worrying as deadline for sending documents already passed. Thanks in advance. 

[Alex_Hart]

I'm not really sure, sorry. I'd recommend emailing, or calling, the school. Are you applying for a graduate program or the language program? Tang Li would be the one to help you for the graduate program; I'd recommend calling him rather than emailing if possible.

[BanjoSlice]

Thanks for your reply.. Am applying for undergrad program. I'll try the possibility. Thank you.

[BanjoSlice]

Update: My admission status is: 通过 but my documents status is unreceived. is this ok??

[Lana_]

Hi, guys! Could you please help me, because I am a bit confused... I applied for MA China Studies scholarship program, couple of days ago I received confirmation of admission to China Studies MA (from China Studies department, with all info about starting semester, and WeChat app, etc.), with phrase "you were nominated for scholarship award". What is that mean...? Am I still part of the competition for this scholarship? it is my first time applying for any scholarships, so it is sooo confusing...

Thank you in advance!

[Alex_Hart]

On 7/5/2017 at 8:00 PM, LanceGonza said:

Update: My admission status is: 通过 but my documents status is unreceived. is this ok??

Sorry mate, I'm really not sure. I would ask this kind of question in the CSC thread, but I suspect the answer is going to be I'm not sure there, too. The process is pretty opaque, and I would either call them or just wait it out.

[Angelina]

@Lana_

 

It means you are admitted, no matter what happens next, you can study there. 100% confirmed.

 

The only thing left is funding.

This came from the Department and they are in charge of admissions. You have to wait and see if you get a scholarship, the financial part. 

You are admitted, nominated for a scholarship, still have to wait for a decision when it comes to funding.

 

The Department does not decide on your funding, they can only nominate you. It depends on the funding organization. I assume you will hear about that by the end of July. 

[BanjoSlice]

@Alex I got it thanks. They replied me that my documents were received  and they're finalising my enrollment.