I am American who has been studying Chinese in an advanced program in Harbin and Beijing for 18 months, I really don’t have a problem with communication and I can read/watch and undestand most news and newspapers. Most or all of my friends here are Chinese and we never speak english. I plan to go back to my American University for a semester and finish up my undergraduate degree ( I am only 22) but when I graduate I want to come back and study Chinese. The ICLP program at the NTU caught my attention because of its experience, and frankly I want to trying something different than the smog infested concrete cities of northern China etc, what is their program like at the high levels? Can they offer a class for me, i.e academic reading, classical chinese, literature, etc etc? Also, I have never studied traditional characters, nor have I been to Taiwan. Will this be a problem at all?
It will lessen the shock if you do some work on traditional characters before you arrive. You are going to need them eventually, anyway.
I went to ICLP for a full year.
They have excellent support for any level, but I think when it comes to advanced learners, they are one of the best schools anywhere.
As an advanced learner, you will probably be taking mostly one-on-one classes. If you are interested in classical chinese, they have many outstanding teachers who are experienced in teaching classical.
As for traditional characters, you will need them, simply because you are going to be living in Taiwan. The teachers might be willing to provide you special material in simplified, but I think that would limit your selection of texts greatly, since all their texts are in traditional.
My only complaints about ICLP are that it is quite expensive ($10500 US for an academic year, with a regular course load) and that it is not very close to an MRT station, so it meant a bit of walking as part of the commute. I actually like walking, as it adds some exercise to my daily routine, but during summer it was almost unbearably hot.