I wanted to get a quick summary of the existing schools and the textbooks they use. AFAIK…
Shi Da (NTNU): uses Shi Da textbook, Practical Audio-Video Chinese
TLI: uses their own textbook
NTU fast track: uses their own texts, derived from when it was a Stanford program
NTU regular old Chinese department: uses… ?
CCU: uses Shi Da textbook, Practical Audio-Video Chinese (?)
…
Would value any corrections or additions to this list.
NTU (non-fast track) mostly uses the Shida texts
Zhengda uses a mix of the Shida texts and some others
Here is a revision:
Shi-Da (NTNU): uses Shi-Da textbook, Practical Audio-Video Chinese
TLI: uses TLI textbook
NTU fast track: uses their own texts, derived from when it was a Stanford program
NTU regular old Chinese department: uses Shi-Da textbook, and others materials.
CCU: uses Shi-Da textbook, Practical Audio-Video Chinese.
Mandarin Daily News: uses MDN bopomofo textbook. Placement test.
Tamkang: ?
FWIW I am leaning towards MDN or CCU, mostly because I don’t want to bother with all the formality: college transcript, signing up months ahead of time, taking a blood test, etc. MDN seems the easiest to deal with, in that their classes are month by month. TLI or MDN, if you pull together your own squad, will use your textbook. But I kind of want to finish out the ShiDa textbook, at least through book 2 (people say book 3 is very uneven), so I may end up at CCU.