Hopkins-Nanjing Center Blog

The Hopkins-Nanjing Center International Admissions Office is closed due to Hurricane Sandy. We will get back to applicant questions as soon as we reopen. Thank you!

The Hopkins-Nanjing Center Office of International Admissions based at SAIS in Washington is responsible for recruiting and admitting international students to the HNC while Nanjing University manages the enrollment of citizens of the People's Republic of China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. HNC Cafeteria What do we mean when we say our office admits "international" students?  These applicants are mostly American but about 15% of students each year come from countries other than the US and China.  This year we have students from Australia, the UK, Canada, Korea, Russia, Germany, New Zealand, Ireland, and Italy.  While the official name of the HNC is the Hopkins-Nanjing Center for Chinese and American Studies, the students there are truly international and activities at the Center reflect this diversity. For example, there have been Spanish and French language tables in the HNC cafeteria and the China-Latin America Roundtable Series at the Center also included a trip to t...

Tonight at SAIS in Washington, there will be a China Policy Debate between Jeffrey Bader who will represent the Obama campaign and Aaron Friedberg who has replaced Lanhee Chen to represent the Romney campaign.  David Lampton, Director of SAIS China Studies, will moderate the debate.  For those of you not in DC, there will also be a live webcast of the event accessible at: http://bit.ly/ChinaDebateLIVE. HNC students "vote" in the 2008 HNC mock election Students in Nanjing are also gearing up for the American presidential election.  American students have requested their absentee ballots but historically HNC students have also held mock presidential elections that both Chinese and international students can choose to take part in.  Do you think the China policies discussed above will affect the mock election results at the HNC?

 Current MAIS student Natalie Sammarco joins us again with an update about fall in Nanjing: "Two weeks into the semester, we have a week long break for China’s National holiday (Oct 1-3). We have to make up some of the classes we miss during our week long break but the best part about having time off is that we get time to explore Nanjing! Some students choose to go elsewhere for break and many of the Chinese students return home to see their families, but I stayed here to acquaint myself with my new home. Here are some of the highlights from National Holiday break: Moon cakes: The Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated all over China. The best part about this festival is the food related to it. Moon cakes have a softer, butter shell on the outside and gooey yuminess in the center!  :-) They are filled with everything from fruit, to tea flavors, nuts, egg flavorings, and red bean paste. Be careful not to eat too many though, they are so addicting that after the holiday (when ...

Current MAIS student Natalie Sammarco shares her thoughts on taking graduate-level coursework in Chinese: Natalie Sammarco, MAIS '14 "Welcome to my first thoughts about applying to the Hopkins-Nanjing Center. Intimidating, right? Yet, isn’t life all about perception? For many people, the challenge posed by taking classes in a target language is what draws people to the Center. That’s what I find in my classmates here. What better place to learn about Chinese society than living in China, studying at a level that is intellectually and academically rigorous? Not one person here isn’t a little bit self conscious about his or her abilities to function in Chinese at the level the Center demands. These feelings are warranted, though. It’s a big step: moving from learning Chinese to using Chinese to learn, especially at the graduate level. What makes me so excited, even just a couple weeks into the semester, is that the questions about whether my Chinese is good enough have fa...