My Chinese program back home is basically insanely intense and they made us learn traditional characters (and a lot of them) for the first two semesters of study. In second year, they figured we had enough of a background in trad to let us pick which ones we wanted to study -- and that that point, 95% of the class was like, "... So, if we go simplified we'd have to ... learn like three hundred characters again...? NO THANKS." So basically they gave us no choice until it didn't matter anymore.

I KNOW RIGHT, GO GO TAIWANESE ACCENT. Except the barely perceptible distinction between s and sh that they've got going. It sounds nice and all, the Mainlander retroflex sounds are sorta harsh and all, but we were doing a tongue twister today, right? It's 十四是十四, 四十是四十! Taiwanese people practically say, "Si si si si si, si si si si si!" Me and my roommates were all like, whut.