[Franck27]

Hello,

I have recently been offered a Chinese Government Scholarship (full scholarship + stipend) to attend the MID program at Tsinghua University in Beijing. The program is held entirely in English and lasts for 2 years.

Does anyone have any experience with this program? Any thoughts/comments? Although I hold acceptances from other great schools (LSE, Sciences Po, Harvard), I may not be able to afford any of them at the moment so exploring my other options.

I am interested in education policy (combining public health + economics), and my regions of interest are the Middle East and West Africa. Would this degree offer a good entry point into an international career in development? I already have international exposure and experience but looking to expand those options with a masters degree.

Thank you for the input!

[nonswimmer]

China is a repressive police state.

If you don't care about that then go, and enjoy your $$$ !

[highworld]

If your from Europe, America, or any other modern country, you may find Beijing to be a heavy adjustment. Not just the quality of life, but also the innumerable counter productive processes that are status quo here. If you never believed in the saying, "It's the little things that count", you will when you get here. The little things, or lack thereof, will drive you borderline crazy. If your proactive and like to solve things/make stuff better, you'll find resistance everywhere you look here. Change is not welcome and I must be completely honest in saying that China is quite racist. This works in your favor if you are white though. The staff at Tsinghua are not very helpful at all, and that across the board; foreign student office, residential staff, departmental, etc. If your Chinese is great (like at least 2 solid years, high HSK 5 or 6) this problem may be slightly appeased, keywords; may be.

Basically, go to any of the other schools you listed unless you Absolutely Positively cannot afford to. Harvard? My goodness, it'll easily more than pay for itself after graduation.

ps. I spent a semester at Tsinghua this year.

[Franck27]

(Original post by highworld)
If your from Europe, America, or any other modern country, you may find Beijing to be a heavy adjustment. Not just the quality of life, but also the innumerable counter productive processes that are status quo here. If you never believed in the saying, "It's the little things that count", you will when you get here. The little things, or lack thereof, will drive you borderline crazy. If your proactive and like to solve things/make stuff better, you'll find resistance everywhere you look here. Change is not welcome and I must be completely honest in saying that China is quite racist. This works in your favor if you are white though. The staff at Tsinghua are not very helpful at all, and that across the board; foreign student office, residential staff, departmental, etc. If your Chinese is great (like at least 2 solid years, high HSK 5 or 6) this problem may be slightly appeased, keywords; may be.

Basically, go to any of the other schools you listed unless you Absolutely Positively cannot afford to. Harvard? My goodness, it'll easily more than pay for itself after graduation.

ps. I spent a semester at Tsinghua this year.

Thank you very much for the comprehensive and helpful reply "highworld". What about the academic caliber of the institution? And the student body? While the social challenges are something that I somehow expected, my main concern comes from the academic perspective. What did you study while in there?

Thanks again!!

[Ghost6]

Go to Harvard, even if you have to sell your girlfriend.

[sj27]

Tsinghua is a highly regarded institution (in general) and has been moving up the world rankings fast. That said, I'd agree with the others that Harvard is first prize, then the others you've mentioned. What Harvard course is it by the way - MPA/ID? Or another? (it's my opinion that there are few if any courses that will match MPA/ID in terms of prestige, network or employment prospects in this field.)

Also, I'd do a bit of digging - if your prime interests are the middle east and Africa, it doesn't immediately strike me that a Chinese university would have those regions as specialties from a development perspective.

[highworld]

(Original post by Franck27)
Thank you very much for the comprehensive and helpful reply "highworld". What about the academic caliber of the institution? And the student body? While the social challenges are something that I somehow expected, my main concern comes from the academic perspective. What did you study while in there?

Thanks again!!

Academic caliber: high, but not on the same level as American or British schools. I would also note that I do not believe the English programs to be of the same caliber as the Chinese taught programs. These English grad programs are all very new, e.g. MID only half a decade old. I don't think a program at least about 5 times younger than its students can be too much of an established one. They are part of something called the MacArthur foundation, but not sure how much that means and it's inclusion probably had more to do with the school's brand. There are some pros here of course; 1. your in China and China is hot, so to speak so you'd be putting yourself right in the middle of the world's biggest commerce center, 2. In two years, you can be fluent in Chinese. If you're set on it, no doubt. 3. Your bound to make some good connections
Relative to some of the other english grad programs, MID appears to be one of the better looking ones, there's more coursework, 3 semesters entailing 45 hours instead of two with 30ish or less, you get one semester off to work on your thesis, not two (which is entirely too long by any measure) and I think they may even require an internship, the elective course offering is also a little broader than some of the other programs. I'm comparing the MID program to the other english programs in general.

Student body: This may sound mean, but the student body is your stereotypical nerdy Chinese student. I don't condone stereotyping or discrimination, but i know what the stereotypes are and you will encounter many of those types here. If you have any Chinese friends, they will have probably already told you this. The students here have basically studied beyond belief to get into Tsinghua and social apptitude or appearance is something that drifted into the background while accomplishing their goal of getting into Tsinghua. You probably already know that Tsinghua is the dream school, domestically, of most Chinese students. If your Chinese is not at an advanced level, you will most definitely have a hard time assimilating and making friends with them. It happened to me more than once that when I spoke English to someone they literally became frightened and walked away or just said 不是 不是 and acted like they did not know what language I was speaking. That said, there are more progressive, internationally minded Chinese nationals at Tsinghua that you may meet.

btw, social scene sucks, absolutely no house parties, everything is far away, alcohol quality's below average, etc....if you can make it to Sanlitun, that might be your only respite. I may have a bit of a representative bias though since I spent 4 amazing years at arguably the most "socially adept" university in America. I studied business there on an exchange program.

Disclaimer: My typos, grammatical errors, and lack of proofreading in no way, shape, or form reflect the quality of education I received at the University of Texas. Heaven knows I've written too many academic papers to care about posting quality on TSR, lol.

[highworld]

(Original post by sj27)
Tsinghua is a highly regarded institution (in general) and has been moving up the world rankings fast. That said, I'd agree with the others that Harvard is first prize, then the others you've mentioned. What Harvard course is it by the way - MPA/ID? Or another? (it's my opinion that there are few if any courses that will match MPA/ID in terms of prestige, network or employment prospects in this field.)

Also, I'd do a bit of digging - if your prime interests are the middle east and Africa, it doesn't immediately strike me that a Chinese university would have those regions as specialties from a development perspective.

What rankings do you look at?
I see them as 49th a couple years ago, 58th last year, and now 71st this year in THE rankings.
Not trying to be a smartass or contradict anyone, just curious.

[sj27]

(Original post by highworld)
What rankings do you look at?
I see them as 49th a couple years ago, 58th last year, and now 71st this year in THE rankings.
Not trying to be a smartass or contradict anyone, just curious.

I tend to look at the QS rankings, but I know how debatable rankings are. In any case, in most rankings they are somewhere in the top 100 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsinghu...rsity#Rankings), which I believe is a big step up from where they were say 10 years ago. I don't claim to be any kind of expert on this though - just something I've come across mentioned a number of times. I only personally know 2 people who've studied there, one of whom only did a semester as part of a global finance MSc in collaboration with NYU's Stern School. Feedback generally that they were happy with it, but neither was in the field that the OP is interested in.

[Franck27]

(Original post by sj27)
Tsinghua is a highly regarded institution (in general) and has been moving up the world rankings fast. That said, I'd agree with the others that Harvard is first prize, then the others you've mentioned. What Harvard course is it by the way - MPA/ID? Or another? (it's my opinion that there are few if any courses that will match MPA/ID in terms of prestige, network or employment prospects in this field.)

Also, I'd do a bit of digging - if your prime interests are the middle east and Africa, it doesn't immediately strike me that a Chinese university would have those regions as specialties from a development perspective.

I agree with you as well, but the price tag and lack of funding options (I am an international student btw) make it almost an impossible venture. At Harvard I got accepted into the "International Education Policy" program, and in "Development Management/Int. Dev." at LSE and Sciences Po.

As far as the Chinese perspective on development, I was curious to analyze the recent massive "development aid" (Chinese euphemism for investment) given to Africa so I was coming from that side of the equation. But in fact, Sciences Po and LSE do have a stronger presence/reputation in these regions.

I am strongly considering taking an extra year off to gain more experience and apply to other programs with more funding opportunities. I just hope not to regret turning down a full ride in the future...

[sj27]

(Original post by Franck27)

As far as the Chinese perspective on development, I was curious to analyze the recent massive "development aid" (Chinese euphemism for investment) given to Africa so I was coming from that side of the equation. But in fact, Sciences Po and LSE do have a stronger presence/reputation in these regions.

Yeah well...as you are probably aware there is a huge amount of controversy about the Chinese presence in Africa. Let's just say, development is not usually the first word that springs to mind (which is why I was careful to phrase my original response the way I did!)

[Franck27]

(Original post by highworld)
Academic caliber: high, but not on the same level as American or British schools. I would also note that I do not believe the English programs to be of the same caliber as the Chinese taught programs. These English grad programs are all very new, e.g. MID only half a decade old. I don't think a program at least about 5 times younger than its students can be too much of an established one. They are part of something called the MacArthur foundation, but not sure how much that means and it's inclusion probably had more to do with the school's brand. There are some pros here of course; 1. your in China and China is hot, so to speak so you'd be putting yourself right in the middle of the world's biggest commerce center, 2. In two years, you can be fluent in Chinese. If you're set on it, no doubt. 3. Your bound to make some good connections
Relative to some of the other english grad programs, MID appears to be one of the better looking ones, there's more coursework, 3 semesters entailing 45 hours instead of two with 30ish or less, you get one semester off to work on your thesis, not two (which is entirely too long by any measure) and I think they may even require an internship, the elective course offering is also a little broader than some of the other programs. I'm comparing the MID program to the other english programs in general.

Student body: This may sound mean, but the student body is your stereotypical nerdy Chinese student. I don't condone stereotyping or discrimination, but i know what the stereotypes are and you will encounter many of those types here. If you have any Chinese friends, they will have probably already told you this. The students here have basically studied beyond belief to get into Tsinghua and social apptitude or appearance is something that drifted into the background while accomplishing their goal of getting into Tsinghua. You probably already know that Tsinghua is the dream school, domestically, of most Chinese students. If your Chinese is not at an advanced level, you will most definitely have a hard time assimilating and making friends with them. It happened to me more than once that when I spoke English to someone they literally became frightened and walked away or just said 不是 不是 and acted like they did not know what language I was speaking. That said, there are more progressive, internationally minded Chinese nationals at Tsinghua that you may meet.

btw, social scene sucks, absolutely no house parties, everything is far away, alcohol quality's below average, etc....if you can make it to Sanlitun, that might be your only respite. I may have a bit of a representative bias though since I spent 4 amazing years at arguably the most "socially adept" university in America. I studied business there on an exchange program.

Disclaimer: My typos, grammatical errors, and lack of proofreading in no way, shape, or form reflect the quality of education I received at the University of Texas. Heaven knows I've written too many academic papers to care about posting quality on TSR, lol.

Thank you again for the detailed reply! Actually, I just got an email from an international student currently enrolled in this program and his comments were not too positive. You both coincide when it comes to the lack of support provided by the administration and faculty to international students, as well as the social challenges.

I've already had my fair share of partying (hey! I did my undergrad at the party Ivy in Philly and in Berlin) so now I am just focused on academics. Either way, I need to take a decision this week and so far it seems like I will take an extra year off to prepare stronger applications to schools with more generous financial aid.

[highworld]

(Original post by Franck27)
Thank you again for the detailed reply! Actually, I just got an email from an international student currently enrolled in this program and his comments were not too positive. You both coincide when it comes to the lack of support provided by the administration and faculty to international students, as well as the social challenges.

I've already had my fair share of partying (hey! I did my undergrad at the party Ivy in Philly and in Berlin) so now I am just focused on academics. Either way, I need to take a decision this week and so far it seems like I will take an extra year off to prepare stronger applications to schools with more generous financial aid.

Not sure how to navigate the messaging functions on here..could you forward me that email? I would really like to see it considering I also have an offer on the table from the same program.