It is necessary and beneficial for students who want to study in China to learn the application knowledge of Chinese universities as much as possible through which some methods to improve the success rate of application can be summarized I believe. What do you know about the skills of applying for Chinese universities? Don’t worry, I'll share all my relative knowledge and experience with you now! Six methods to improve the success rate of your application which you must read before applying for Chinese universities:

Method 1:【Timeline】- Do the Right Things at the Best Time

Method 2:【Key points】- GPA, Language Certificate, Research Proposal 

Method 3:【Universities / Majors】- Collect as Much Information as Possible Before Applying

Method 4:【Well-planned】- Apply for Multiple Schools and Different Types of Suitable Scholarships at the Same Time to Secure the Seats

Method 5:【Application Documents】- The More Complete, the Better 

Method 6:【Agency】- A Reliable Agent is Very Helpful

Method 1:【Timeline】- Do the Right Things at the Best Time

As the above picture shows, if what you want to apply for is March intake, then you’d better apply at the most suitable month and the admission result usually comes out in January or no later than March if it's delayed due to the COVID-19. If what you want to apply for is September intake, then apply early and the admission result usually comes out in June/July or even early. As far as the current situation in China is concerned, September enrollment is the mainstream.

The earlier you apply during the opening period, the better. Because if you apply too late then there may have no seats. Apply early, get feedback early and plan for the next step early. Different universities have different application deadlines, please check their latest application guidance for details and double confirmation.

Maybe you wanna ask me: I want to apply for September intake this year, but I haven't graduated from my current school yet. What should I do? What a good question! Well, we usually graduate in the Summer and by the time we get our formal Graduation Certificate and Final Transcript, we may miss the target Chinese university application deadline. If we can’t catch the following semester, we may waste one year. Therefore, we should apply for Chinese universities before we graduate from our current schools. In this way, how can we provide our academic certificates to Chinese universities? Don’t worry, we can request our current school to issue us the “Pre-graduation Certificate” or “Studying Certificate” to prove that we are about to graduate. And we can provide the transcripts of the previous semester to the admission office to show our academic performance. Such documents are recognized by most Chinese teachers but we still need to provide the formal documents as soon as we receive them. This is the first method to improve the success rate of your application which you must read before applying for Chinese universities. Do the right things at the best time. Are you clear about the Timeline I listed now?

Method 2:【Key points】- GPA, Language Certificate, Research Proposal 

If you plan to study in China in the future and still have much time to be more competitive among the applicants, then you can concentrate on improving your GPA, trying to get English Certificate like IELTS, TOEFL, English Language Proficiency Certificate, Duolingo, or Chinese Language Certificate above HSK4 (If you apply for programs taught in Chinese), making a perfect Research Proposal (for postgraduate applicants only). These three factors will determine whether you can be successfully admitted and what type of scholarship you will get. These are the most important methods to improve the success rate of your application which you must read before applying for Chinese universities. If you can’t get more competitive by working on these 3 aspects, then you can try to improve the success rate of your application with other suggestions below.

Method 3:【Universities / Majors】- Collect as Much Information as Possible Before Applying

It may not be so difficult to search the information of a specific school but the difficulty is that we don't even know the names of most Chinese universities. In this case, we need some web pages to help us collect information about Chinese universities and majors to find our target programs.

1. CUCAS (China's University and College Admission System) and CUCAS Scholarship Platform

These two platforms have rich(400+) Chinese universities’ information and are not as outdated as other platforms. They are the best assistants for us to find our favorite majors and schools.

2. CSC (China Scholarship Council)

If you wanna apply for a CSC scholarship, you can just search there.

3. ShanghaiRanking

ShanghaiRanking Consultancy is a fully independent organization dedicating to research on higher education intelligence and consultation. It has been the official publisher of the Academic Ranking of World Universities since 2009. This platform can easily provide you some information about the Chinese University Ranking.

4. Top 10 universities in China
 A very good article for your reference.

Method 4:【Well-planned】- Apply for Multiple Schools and Different Types of Suitable Scholarships at the Same Time to Secure the Seats

How to make an application plan suitable for yourself? As we all know, what suits us is the best. If you have very good academic performance, then a full scholarship is approachable for you. Apply CSC at the proper time and choose your three universities with different levels of ranking and can apply non-CSC of other universities at the same time to secure the seats as well. But if your GPA isn’t that good, maybe you can also apply for some partial scholarships as supplementary options, which also have an easier application process and faster result announcement. What’s more, even if you don’t gain any scholarship as a new student, you will have a chance to apply for a scholarship from the 2nd year of university course as a current student. These are the useful methods to improve the success rate of your application which you must read before applying for Chinese universities.

Common sense for reference only:

1. The application success rate of unpopular majors is higher than hot majors sometimes. 

2. There is less competition for programs taught in Chinese than programs taught in English.

3. Applying for a pre-bachelor course launched by your target university helps you enter the bachelor course easier.

Don't totally believe the common sense I share, because the specific situation is always much more complicated. In this unstable era, we should make specific analyses based on different universities. 

Method 5:【Application Documents】- The More Complete, the Better 

Submitting complete documents required by the university will let our application be processed first and be favored by admission teachers. On the contrary, submitting incomplete documents may cause our application to be ignored. We should find the complete list of documents required from the latest enrollment brochures of the school and prepare according to it. What are the commonly required files?

1. Passport photocopy with name, passport number & expiration date, and a photo included.

2. Recent ID-photo with white background.

3. Application Form.

4. Highest Education Graduation Certificate or Pre-graduation Certificate if you have not yet graduated (documents in languages other than Chinese or English should be translated into Chinese or English and be certified by notarization. And both translation and original documents should be provided).

5. Academic Transcript for all the courses in all years of your highest education (documents in languages other than Chinese or English should be translated into Chinese or English and be certified by notarization. And both translation and original documents should be provided).

6. Chinese Language Proficiency Certificate like HSK 4 or certificate proving you have been taught in Chinese in your Senior High/Bachelor/Master if you wanna apply for Chinese taught programs.

7. English Language Proficiency Certificate like IELTS/TOEFL/Duolingo or certificate proving you have been taught in English in your Senior High /Bachelor /Master if you wanna apply for English taught programs.

8. Non-criminal Certificate provided by local police office which is generally only valid in 3~6 months (documents in languages other than Chinese or English should be translated into Chinese or English and be certified by notarization. And both translation and original documents should be provided).

9. Physical Examination Form designed by the Chinese Quarantine Authority which will usually be valid for 6 months only.

10. Two Recommendation Letters in English or Chinese provided by professors or associate professors if you apply for postgraduate programs.

11. Research Proposal/Study Plan written in Chinese or English.

12. Bank Statement/Financial Guarantor Letter.

13. For a student currently studying in China or have studied in China, you also need to provide these documents from your current/previous Chinese school/university: Academic Transcript, Attendance Rate, Graduate/Leaving Certificate or Transfer Certificate, Current Residence Page (if have) and Visa Page.

14. Supervisor Acceptance Letter, if you apply for postgraduate programs.

The documents listed above are for reference only. In actual operation, we should find the complete list of documents required from the latest enrollment brochures of the target school and prepare according to it.

Method 6:【Agency】- A Reliable Agent is Very Helpful

As I mentioned before, the specific application situation is always much more complicated than expected. In this unstable era with COVID-19 and other uncertain environments, we should make specific analyses based on different universities when we plan to study in China. If you have enough knowledge about applying for China university and have time to do it by yourself, then just do it. But some of us may still don’t know what to do to study in China even after reading this article or don’t have much time to apply by ourselves. In this situation, you can choose to take the service of an admission agent who can provide you the newest school information, clearest guidance, successful cases, and reasonable price as well. And the point is that most universities will firstly check and choose students with agent recommendations as agents are experienced enough to smooth the process.

I have an excellent friend from Bangladesh who applied for a university located in Yunnan Province, China in 2021 but didn’t receive any feedback from the school for 3 months. Then he asked me to help him contact the university for results but there was no one picked up my calls. When I mentioned this matter with one of my friends who is an admission agent, she told me that the university stopped recruiting new international students since 2020. If we could know such information before application then how can we waste so much time! So a reliable agent is very helpful if you can’t make it by yourself. This one is the most recommended method to improve the success rate of your application which you must read before applying for Chinese universities.

Thank you so much for your time to read this post! I wonder if my long article has any inspiration for you? If you have any questions about studying in China, please feel free to leave me a message and I may reply to you when I am free!