NoahB

Hello everyone, my question is regarding the difficulty of applying for a PhD program in the USA after finishing a masters program in mainland China at a top school such as Beijing University (北大). A little bit about myself, I am an American citizen with a non-Chinese background with a bachelors degree in Business Management with a minor in China Studies from a public NY university. During my undergrad I became extremely passionate about studying the Chinese language and learning about China as a whole. I studied intensively for 4 years taking over 500 online classes, taking multiple semesters worth of Mandarin classes at my university, passing the HSK 5 exam, and making many friends using Mandarin. During my undergraduate studies I also began learning Korean. I studied abroad at Korea University for a Spring and Summer semester and I plan on continuing my studies in Korean on the side and later take the TOPIK exam. I am currently teaching English in mainland China while studying intensively on the side and immersing in the culture. My goal is to pass the HSK 6 exam and apply for a masters program relating to China or the Chinese language in someway. The topic of what I want to study is something I am still searching for, however I do know that I want to study using Mandarin as the base language for my masters program. My dream school would be to go to Beijing University. I am slightly concerned with my prospects of potentially getting into a PhD program in the USA after my masters studies in China if I do go through with this route. My dream would be to potentially go to a top school in the USA for PhD study (Columbia, Harvard, Chicago, etc). I know it is a long shot but I think I might as well give it a shot. Does anyone here have experience similar to what I am planning? Will the colleges care more about my research and language ability rather than the school I went to? Will a school like Beijing University be accepted by academics in the USA? Also as a side question, do I realistically need to reach a high level in Korean and Japanese in addition to Mandarin (and probably classical Chinese) to get into these top schools in the USA? Thank you for your time.