BNU 2006 semester dates

[Douall]

Hi. Is anybody able to tell me the start dates for both the first and second semesters at BNU next year? I am currently working in Korea and under contract untill March 1, 2006. Am I going to be too late to start the first (spring?) semester at BNU?!

Thanks in advance:)

[adrianlondon]

Funny you should ask that (and I've even registered for this web site just this second to be helpful) but I went to BNU today and asked exactly that question.

The next term starts on 8th or 14th February. I think 8th is registration and 14th is when the course starts. There's an exam before the course starts, too. Probably 13th. To be honest, there were two members of staff helping me. Their English was OK, but theyjust weren't too sure. As for the term after, they settled on 14th September.

I'm in Beijing (my first time in China, how exciting) for a few days to look at options for studying next year. I liked the BNU campus. I also cycled up to the BLCU campus and wasn't so impressed. Will no doubt see one or two more places before I leave. However, the main goal (do I want to spend 3 or 4 months in Beijing studying?) has already been achieved. A resounding yes

[Douall]

thanks for that - greatly appriciated! i'd tried for a long time to email BNU but their email address didn't work! anyway, they've updated now and i've been in touch with someone called Xuewu Du who was able to answer my questions.

i envy you having the chance to have a look around the city and schools in person! when you visited BNU and BCLU did you have a chance to look at the accomadation? have you been able to look at anything in that side of things? if so what did you think?

many thanks again!

[adrianlondon]

Hiya,

I didn't look in the accommodation. I cycled from my hotel (the hilton on the eastern side of the city) to BNU and BLCU and, while at BLCU I also cycled around QingHua university. My legs and my bum ached after all that, and I knew I also needed to cycle back again so didn't linger that long.

Initial impressions, from NOT having been inside any of the accommodation is ...

BNU was a nice, clean, modern campus full of happy smiley people. The accommodation looked good from the outside and it seemed there was a choice (ie cheaper and a bit run down, to one assumes more expensive and looking more modern). There were places to eat on campus and outside there were a few "normal" cafes and restaurants. By "normal" I mean non studenty.

The area it's in isn't the most exciting but (and maybe I'm just lucky being here in November rather than f/cking cold or f/cking hot) but I can see myself cycling everywhere and BNU is quite central.

The BLCU campus was bigger and much more like I expect a University campus to be. A bit shabby, full of students mingling around and lots of sports facilities. The accommodation was, like BNU, varied. Some of it looked a bit dodgy and some looked OK. I was a bit put off by the huge gangs of young loud Americans wandering around all having a good laugh and chatting to each other in English. But hey - it's a Uni so it's to be expected. It's just that I'm 36 and have done the student thing and, being a Londoner, have a naturally cynical presonality anyway. (Want to see my art exhibition? No thanks.)

But ... and here's my big problem.

BLCU has a lot of choices re start dates and course length. I ideally wanted to do a 12 week course, maybe even an intensive one (yeah, I know, I whip myself with birch for fun), and BLCU offer this. But their main office seemed permanently dearth of any staff and those I did find didn't want to help me. And the campus seemed overwhelmingly foreign. why not just study at SOAS in London.

BNU didn't offer much class choice. You do as they say - you register by a set date (30th November for next term), you book online, you study exactly one term (semester for the yanks) and that's it. However, their staff tried to be helpful (they just didn't seem to know much, but they tried).

QingHua (I think written using wade giles as tsinghua or something - hey, now you know why I need to study the language) either did summer courses or you had to study for a whole year.

Summer courses? In Beijing? OK, so I learn the mandarin for "I'm dripping in sweat" and "Is that you? I can't see through this dust storm" but that's not so useful.

I met someone here (people are very friendly and I'd say 25% of the time aren't out to make you buy something) who works for qinghua and he's going to get some more info for me. He also recommended beida (they shorten everything - BLCU or "bei jing yu yuan da xue" becomes bei yu) but I reckon that'll be a-year-or-nothing too.

I'm considering private schools. The haidan area (where all apart from BNU are) isn't central but it is lively and seems a good studenty place to live. There are private schools there but finding out any info is proving difficult.

Sorry for the long post, but there you go. I talk so much in real life too, which is why I wnt to add another language to my skills. Why not bore billions of chinese too, I thought.