Program Assessment: Peeve #2 - Textbooks

For $3300 tuition for the summer semester, couldn't ICLP have at least given us our books for free? Instead, I have to shell out another $680 NTD ($21 USD) for proprietary books published by ICLP...and published back in the 1990s I might add. My theory for this is that since the IUP program moved to Beijing in the late 1990s, ICLP just hasn't been able to put out anything new. To their credit, the books they are using are tried and true. No nonsense and basically just text and wordlists, text and wordlists.

As if I didn't have enough books from TLI and ShiDa and CUHK. Don't Chinese programs ever overlap their materials?

EDIT:
I was dead wrong. My Newspaper Readings text was published March 2007 (not even 3 months ago) and is extremely current.

EDIT AGAIN: (7/19)
The Newspaper Readings I textbook is published by Taiwan Normal University, not ICLP.

Program Assessment: Peeve #1 cont. - Cost Comparison with ShiDa

National Taiwan Normal University's (ShiDa) Mandarin Training Center (MTC) is also considered one of the best Chinese language programs in Taiwan and offers various programs and private tutoring sessions during the summer.

I crafted out a plan which most closely matches ICLP's:

8 weeks.
10 hours of group class per week, 6 hours of private one-on-one tutoring per week.

Total Cost: $1091 USD.

Plus, they don't charge a $50 application fee as ICLP does. That's a $2,259 USD discrepancy between two schools who are within 20 minutes walking distance of each other!

Other programs at Zheng Da (National Chengchi University) and at private companies (i.e. TLI) are even more affordable.

ICLP better be a damn good program for them to be charging such a premium for their classes. Classes start on Monday so keep following this blog and I will let you know how it goes.