 What do Selena Gomez, Wikipedia, Winnie the Pooh, and time travel have in common? They're all banned in China. You know what's not banned in China? You, going there, as an international student! Hello my people, my name is Valeria. Welcome to the SCORE channel, and this is how to study in China. China? China, China, China. I have to have my China. The People's Republic of China is the world's largest country by population, so it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that they have 500,000 international students within their borders. Those students are going to get a bachelor's degree in just four years. Like other countries in the Northern Hemisphere, China's classes start in September. But unlike other countries in the Northern Hemisphere, their deadlines are a lot more flexible. Most universities put their deadlines for international applicants in July. Some will even let you apply in August to study in the same year. However, more competitive programs do put their deadlines back in April. And if you want to study for free, you're going to have to file by the end of March. Most students go to China to study engineering, but there's also a lot of international business programs, and it's also a very popular destination if you want to get a medicine degree at a great price. With over 500 universities that accept international students, how are you supposed to figure out where to go? China doesn't have a central portal for applications like other countries do. Seems like your only option is to check each university's website one at a time. Fortunately, there's a faster way. Several private companies have emerged as the official representative of many universities for foreign students. Universities pay these companies to bring them international students, which means that you don't have to pay these companies very much or even anything at all in some cases. Two of the best options that we found were Chinaadmissions.com and also China's University and College Admission System, or CUCAS. CUCAS charges just $50 for you to file an application through their site, while Chinaadmissions.com doesn't charge you anything. Now, every university has an application fee that ranges between $70 and $150. You do have to pay this for each university, and you can pay it through the same company that you're using to file your application. On the bright side, however, acceptance rates are pretty high, so you shouldn't have to apply to more than 4 or 5 universities to guarantee a spot. Like we talked about in the France video a few weeks ago, China will only admit students who are 18 years old or more. They also curiously have an upper age limit for international students of 30, which means I can't get a bachelor's in China anymore. Sad. I'm getting old. Now, the government doesn't place any standards or rules for what you need to have to get in. Seems like as long as you've graduated high school from somewhere, you can get in. Most universities ask for a high GPA or an A-B average in different courses. There are some more selective universities that will ask for SAT scores or an international baccalaureate. But in general, there's definitely a university for you, regardless of where you come from or your academic background. Now, one of the other pre-rex that we don't usually talk about is your character. China places a lot of emphasis on good character. They're going to want to see that you are a good citizen who will respect the rules and follow the law. This is important to show in your personal statement or in the letters of recommendation that you get, and you're going to need at least two of those. So, you should start buttering up your teachers with presents and gifts and whatnot. Real side note, if you aren't nice to your teachers, they're probably not going to like you. They're not going to want to write you a letter of recommendation. So, be nice to your teachers. You're going to need to take your transcripts and your high school diploma and translate them into either Chinese or English. You don't actually have to translate everything to Mandarin Chinese, which brings us to the language barrier. Chinese is one of the hardest languages to learn on earth. It's freaking crazy! Look at this! How are you even... I can't! Fortunately, you don't need to know Chinese to study in China. Those websites we mentioned before have a huge list of programs that are available to be learned in English, and that is not an accident. What are the plans to take over America again? I forgot! China's plan for world domination means having professionals all over the world that can speak English. So, they need to learn in English before they can leave the country, and that means there's space in their programs for you to study in English also. Now, you will have to show that you can speak English to get admitted to a program. The IELTS is the most widely accepted test for Chinese students, and it typically asks for a level of 6 or 6.5 for you to get into an undergraduate program. Of course, if you like pain, and who doesn't. You could try to study in Chinese. You'll need to take the Chinese Proficiency Test or the Hanyu Shui Ping Gelshi. You'll need to get past the level 4 test of the HSK to get admitted to study in China. Let's be real, it takes a long time to even get a basic level of proficiency in Chinese. So, if you haven't started learning yet, you really should get going, because you're going to need it just to get around and do basic things in China. Given how difficult Chinese can be to learn, I'm going to rate the language barrier of studying in China as 4, concentration... I'm sorry, General So, let me try that again. I'd rate the language barrier of studying in China as 4, delicious Chinese dumplings out of 5. Okay, General So, man, he's tough. He's going to end up locking me in a cage like Tyler. I was expecting Chinese universities to be pretty affordable, but I had no idea they would be this cheap. How cheap? How about $3,000 a year cheap? That's less than my first cheap car. Even a more expensive program costs $7,000 a year. And okay, maybe you got some deep pockets. You want to spend some serious cheddar? Well, guess what? A super expensive education in China is $35,000 a year. That's still way less than what you would pay at a lot of American universities. And living expenses are about as affordable as a cheap pair of chopsticks. If your university has dorms, you're looking at spending about $3,000 a year just to have your place to stay and another $200 a month for food and transportation. And that's it. In most countries, you've got to spend $10,000 to $15,000 just to survive. In China, it's at least half that. But hey, maybe you're on a shoestring budget. Maybe you can't even afford shoestrings. Well, lucky for you, there's the Chinese government scholarships. They cover up to $4,000 a year in tuition. And they give you another $1,500 to help with living expenses. But hey, there's more. They even give you a stipend so that you can stip. That's literally $400 in the bank every month, just so that you can enjoy your wonderful Chinese life. I can't even, like, what are they going to do next? Give you free karate school? So how do you get one of these Chinese government scholarships? You've got to go to this website. Those sites that we mentioned before, Kukas and chinaadmissions.com will help you apply for scholarship. Although they do charge a pretty hefty fee for doing so. Deadline for getting a scholarship is in March, so you need to apply earlier than most other international students would. However, between the Chinese government scholarships, local government scholarships, and university scholarships, there's a really good chance that you can study for free in China. If you get admitted to a Chinese university, then it's time for you to get your visa. International students will need to apply for the awesomely named X visa. That's like the visa they give to Tony Hawk when they don't recognize them at an airport. Look it up. It's a thing. It's hilarious. If you got a scholarship, you'll get a JW202 form from your university. If you're self-funded, you'll get a JW201 from your university. You'll need to present these in the local Chinese embassy, along with the V.2013 form. Now, China makes it very, very clear that you need to truthfully, correctly, and completely fill out this form, or else you will be denied. Visa rejection from China is not uncommon. Now, most of the time your visa gets rejected because of a small mistake on your forms, but there's also a few rejections that are kind of mysterious. The Chinese government doesn't explain why they rejects applicants. I am just purely speculating here. I have no evidence to back this up, but the Chinese government cares a lot about its reputation. They don't want anybody talking smack about the Chinese Communist Party, the CCP. And as proof in 2020, the Chinese government sentenced a Chinese student to six months in prison for tweets that he borrowed criticizing the government while he was in the University of Minnesota. He was studying in the U.S., tweeting in the U.S., but because he's talked some smack about China, they put him behind bars. So you can bet they have seen every face you've gramed and every tick you've talked and every tweet you've snapped and they're looking at it all before they give you a visa. So if you've been critical about China's treatment of the Uyghur... Sorry, General. Didn't mean to. Let me try it again. So if you've been critical of China's handling of the Hong Kong... Sal, my bad, my bad. I'm gonna get it right this time, okay? If you've been spreading information about the Tiananmen Square... Oh, my bad. That way I can't talk about that one either. Okay, hang on. If you've unfairly slandered the Chinese government by spreading misinformation about things that the Chinese government has never done, don't be surprised if you get rejected for a visa. Help. If everything looks good, you should get your visa in less than a week. The ex visa is only good for 30 days and one entry to China. So you should file for it right before it's time for you to go into the country. Once you get there, you register with local authority who will stamp your passport. After that, you can come and go as you please. You can even bring your family along for a visit using an S2 visa. And that, my people, is everything you need to know to study in China. I'd like to give a big shout out to Marco and the always wonderful little lady up for requesting this episode. This was one of the first requests we ever got on the channel, and I've been dying to make it. Finally, here we are. So if you've got a country you want us to cover, leave it in the comments below. Hit us up on Instagram at prepwithscore or go to prepwithscore.com. If you want some help studying in China, we're looking forward to sending somebody there. We haven't done it yet. I want to do it. Let's go. I'll see you next week.