2015-05-09 Mimi Ko 美国常春藤教育
关注 美国常春藤教育 ，扎根美国十四年的本土升学规划专业团队
编者的话：本周三，Wendy同学收到了梦寐以求的宾夕法尼亚大学（University of Pennsylvania）的录取！别人总说，常春藤盟校在RD（常规录取）阶段录取的学生很少；他们还说，被常春藤盟校waitlist（等候列表）后补录的可能性微乎其微。让那个我们通过Ivy Labs（美国常春藤教育）Mimi Ko（高老师）的叙述，来看看Wendy是怎么做的。
Ms. Mimi Ko
美国常春藤教育国际规划导师
哈佛大学教育学硕士、乔治城大学学士
Last year, Yale admitted 6.3% of students from a record-highpool of 30,992 applications (Yale Daily, 2014) and University of Pennsylvania 10% of 41,000 (UPenn, 2014). Admission officers undertake the difficult task of compiling a student body that reflects their mission and values. In 2011, the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) released a trend survey of admission decision factors, which colleges have ranked from “no importance” to “considerable importance.” According to this survey’s outcomes, grades in college preparatory courses (84.3%), strength of curriculum (67.6%), admission tests scores (59.2%), and grades in all courses (51.9%) fell under considerable importance (NACAC, 2011). These components help admission officers to determine not only whether their college is a best fit for each candidate but also whether the candidate will be successful at least in her/his first of college.
去年，耶鲁大学从破纪录的三万九百多名申请者里录取了6.3%的学生（耶鲁日报，2014）。宾大的数字是四万一千多人中录取了10%（宾大2014年数据）。招生官们承担了一个艰巨的任务，要去组成一个能反映学校价值与使命的学生群体。在2011年，全美大学招生咨询协会（NACAC）发布了一项大学给录取决定因素排序的趋势调查（从不重要到相当重要）。调研结果显示，大学预科成绩84.3%，课程强度67.6%，标化考试59.2%，平均成绩51.9%被列为相当重要（NACAC，2011）。这些标准不仅帮助招生官判断他们的学校是否对候选人合适，也被用来判断候选人是否至少会胜任本科第一年。
In the case of a current high school senior, named Wendy whom I provided college-counseling services since 2014, she received coveted acceptances from 9 schools including Duke, Johns Hopkins University, Cornell University, and recently University of Pennsylvania. When analyzing Wendy’s academic profile, she meets the threshold expectations, namely the factors that colleges have deemed as considerably significance, of these prestigious colleges. This year, Wendy will graduate at the top 2% of her class of near 700 students and with an unweighted GPA of 3.8. Beyond these hard factors, Wendy’s soft qualities, such as college essays, demonstrated interest in each college, recommendation letters, and extracurricular activities, to her college application were equally impressive.
Wendy目前高三在读。我从2014年开始参与为她提供的升学顾问服务。她获得了令人羡慕的录取结果：包括杜克大学、约翰霍普金斯大学、康奈尔大学、和近期新增的宾夕法尼亚大学在内的九所学校。当我们分析Wendy的学术背景的时候，可以看到她符合了这些著名学校的招生门槛，也就是学校认为相当重要的那些因素。今年，Wendy将会以年级近七百名学生中前2%、未加权GPA 3.8的成绩从学校毕业。除了硬件，Wendy在申请的软件方面，比如大学申请文书、对每个学校兴趣的陈述、推荐信、以及课外活动方面也都非常出色。
Throughout Wendy’s application process, I worked closely with Wendy to revise her essays. I led her to deepen her reflection and passion in art, culture and religion, concretely think and logically write about experiences that accumulated into common themes, and intricately link them to her interests in each school. A former NYU admission officer, who reviewed Wendy’s application materials prior to submission, mentioned that Wendy is unique: “Her passion for cave art and researching Chinese Buddhism is palpable. I have read a substantial number of applications from Chinese students, and I can’t remember seeing one with these interests, so that alone will make her application memorable.”
整个申请季，我和Wendy非常密切地共同修改文书。我引导她去反思和升华了自己对艺术、文化和宗教的热情，具体思考并有逻辑地表述经历中共性的主题，然后精妙地和她对学校的兴趣相结合。在Wendy提交材料前，（Ivy Labs聘请来）负责盲审的纽约大学前任招生官曾提到Wendy是很特别的：“她对石窟艺术和钻研中国佛教的热情是显而易见的。我读过大量中国学生的申请材料，印象中从来没有见过这样的兴趣。所以，仅此一点就可以让她的申请给人留下印象。”
By the end of March, Wendy started unsettlingly mulling over her accepted and waitlisted schools and decided to carefully research each school more before making a final decision. We continued to wait hopefully. On April 3rd, she texted, “Mimi, I am considering to write a supplementary essay to UPenn and Columbia.” With my feedback, Wendy emailed her supplementary essay, which she amusingly called “love letter.” To my surprise, Wendy defeated the odds of being removed from the UPenn’s waitlist; yesterday UPenn notified her of her acceptance. Although her text was unexclamatory about this great news, I knew we were experiencing the same euphoria and relief. I sent her a slew of celebratory emoticons. We did it!
三月底的时候，Wendy开始心神不宁地琢磨她被录取和被放在等候列表的学校。她决定在做出最终答复之前再多去仔细调研一遍每一所学校。我们继续抱有希望地等着。在4月3号那天，她微信联系我，“Mimi, 我正在考虑给宾大和哥大再写一份补充文书。”在我帮助修改之后，Wendy发出了比她戏称为“情书”她的补充文书。令我惊讶的是，Wendy真的击败了所谓的几率被宾大补录了。前一天宾大通知了她录取的消息。尽管她的微信留言是对这个大好消息的感叹，我知道我们都刚刚体会到了相同的欢欣与宽慰。我给她发了大量地祝贺的动画。我们做到了！
写在后面的话：
Wendy的坚韧、冷静、高标准、和执行力令我们Ivy Labs的导师团队印象深刻。我们欣慰地看到她在申请过程中的成长，看到她对学校的理解和对自我的认识随着不断深入的交流逐步加深，最终一气呵成地呈现在给学校的“情书”里。
我们相信，每一个学生都有着自己独特的优势和兴趣点。我们愿意和学生一起去寻找和发展这些只属于你的亮点，进入适合的学校，并最终将这些收获转化成以后生活的财富。
编译整理：Ying
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