Hopkins-Nanjing Center Blog

Happy Thanksgiving to our American applicants and safe travels to all HNC students on fall break!  We will respond to applicant questions when the HNC Office of International Admissions reopens on Monday.

HNC American Academic Coordinator Angela Chang was recently in Beijing and Harbin to recruit for the Hopkins-Nanjing Center.  You can read about her experiences while visiting CET in Harbin below.  Future HNC students should keep Harbin in mind as a destination during one of the weeklong breaks during our academic year! Harbin Beer ( 哈尔滨啤酒) is available across China   Earlier this semester, I recruited at the CET program in Harbin, a city well regarded for its standard Mandarin pronunciation.   Harbin is the center for higher education in Northeast China, and Harbin Institute of Technology, which is where CET is based, is considered one of China’s “ivy league” universities.   CET Harbin offers its students a full immersion environment complete with a language pledge, one-on-one tutorial, and local roommates.   A former student once joked that the reason they attain such high Chinese proficiency is because it is too cold outside to do anything but s...

It's hard to overstate the importance of essays as part of your application to the Hopkins-Nanjing Center.  This is a valuable opportunity to let the Admissions Committee get to know you as more than test scores, transcripts, and a resume. Applicants to all of our programs (certificate, MAIS, and the Five-Semester Option) are required to submit a personal statement.  The prompt for this essay is as follows: Please explain the development of your interest in China. Discuss professional, academic and personal experiences that have contributed to your decision to pursue further study of China. How do you expect your time at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center to assist you in achieving your long-term career objectives? (600 - 1000 words) A few tips when writing this essay: 1)  Spell check! 2) Be specific.  Applicants with the best essays give concrete examples about how they became interested in China and what motivated them to continue studying China and C...

The next online chat will take place this Thursday, November 21 from 10:00AM to 11:00AM EST .  Chatting with us will be admissions representatives Katie Brooks (HNC '09) and Lauren Szymanski (HNC '12).  Join us to hear firsthand experience and valuable advice, and be sure to bring any questions you may have about the application process, academics, or student life.  At the scheduled time, click here to join the chat and sign in as a guest.  We look forward to speaking with you!   Not able to join this chat?  Click here to see the dates for other upcoming morning and evening chats.

The Hopkins-Nanjing Center has over 2,400 alumni living all over the world.  During the weekend of November 1-3, some of them had the opportunity to return to Nanjing to reconnect with their classmates and meet current students as part of HNC's annual Alumni Weekend.  The weekend featured a speech by SAIS Dean Vali Nasr on "The New Silk Road and the New Global Order," a "Back to School" session to allow alumni the opportunity to experience the HNC classroom again, alumni career panels, a walk along the ancient Nanjing city wall, a reception, and of course the Center's annual Halloween party.  Check out the pictures below from this year's events:  SAIS Dean Vali Nasr speaks at Nanjing University's Xianlin Campus  2013 Halloween Party at the HNC  Success on the Job- Alumni Panel  Choosing Your Career Direction- Alumni Panel  Students and alumni walk along Nanjing's city wall  Alumni Weekend Reception

With the application deadline a few months away, it's a good idea to start considering who you will ask to write recommendation letters on your behalf.  Letters of recommendation are an important component of the HNC application so don't underestimate the potential of a recommendation letter to positively (or negatively) affect your application.  Below are some recommendation letter tips: Two recommendations are required but a maximum of three may be submitted.   No more than one recommendation should be written by a Chinese language instructor.  Applicants often mistakenly believe that the admissions committee prefers recommendations from Chinese language teachers, but the STAMP Chinese Proficiency Test already provides an indicator of your Chinese language level.  Instead, the admissions committee would prefer to read a letter that addresses another aspect of your academic or professional career.   Recommenders that are well-kn...