对于留学党而言

申请学校时最痛苦的是标化考试

而最烦人的莫过于文书

既要有思想又要突出个人特色

这着实不是一件易事

今天小V就让我们的

藤校女神来说说

她眼中的申请文书

她被哈佛大学，普林斯顿大学，斯坦福大学和哥伦比亚大学同时录取，最终选择入读普林斯顿大学；

她主修经济学，辅修心理学和计算机；

她曾任职于美国知名传媒公司，负责公司在新兴市场的国际推广工作；

她出于对中国文化的喜爱，在中国创立了自己的电商品牌，并于China Daily，SCMP，TechCrunch等42家国际杂志上发表相关品牌推文；

作为习美的资深外籍文书顾问，她已经帮学生拿到了芝加哥，鲍登学院，UCB等一批名校的录取。

I’ve worked with a number of high education consultancies, and nowadays with the rising pressures of the gaokao and more available student visas, the service industry around empowering these kids are truly a dime a dozen. The realness of the students I have had the pleasure and frustration of working on with Ximei, are, unfalteringly what makes this experience so rewarding. 

我曾任职于多家高等教育咨询公司。如今，随着高考的压力越来越大，且学生签证发放数量的增加，围绕着这些学生的背景提升而发展起来的服务业比比皆是。这些学生在申请季中与习美一起经历着快乐与挫折，也无疑从这段经历中受益。

I spend at least half of my time brainstorming with students, and it surely my favorite part.  It can be a trying journey, and I’ve had more than one student cry. It is also only something a completely neutral third party, acting as a mirror and a magnifying glass, are able to accomplish. Parents and counselors are biased. Students themselves are too intimate to own their lives to see the forest from the trees. While students have achieved, created, and accomplished, I find they are often too busy to think back to understand the full ramifications and implications of the fruits of their labor.

我花了至少一半的时间与学生进行头脑风暴，这无疑是我最喜欢的部分。这是一个尝试的旅程，我已经有不止一个学生在头脑风暴的时候哭了。也只有这样一个完全中立的第三方能够做到这一点，像一面平面镜或是放大镜。有时家长和顾问的立场是有偏颇的，而学生们因为沉浸中自己的生活中而无法看清全貌。他们有所成就，有所创造，但是却没时间去反思他们的成果是从何而来。

I constantly ask myself,  “What exactly makes a student unique?” 

我经常问自己，“究竟是什么使一个学生独一无二？

I’ll be honest, most students are delightfully mediocre, just as most of the people in the world.  My job is not get them into university (they can do that themselves), my job is get to them to express theirselves in the most authentic and intimate way possible. There is no secret to what makes someone the most different, or the most special, it’s simply about their ability to express themselves in a genuine way, in a real way. So many Chinese students have the impression of who or what they’re supposed to me, with very little hint of how their real self contrasts to the idealized self. The process of writing their personal statements is first finding their sense of a true self, and then finding a true way to communicate the true way. 

说实话，绝大部分学生都是平庸的，和普罗大众一样。我的工作不是把他们送进大学（他们自己就可以做到），我的工作是让他们可以用最真诚、最个人的方式表达自我。没有什么所谓让一个人与众不同的奥秘，他们自己真实地表达自我的能力才是关键。我可以很容易得得知这些学生是谁，但却很难直观地了解他们真实的自我与理想的自我之间的区别。写自我陈述的过程就是，首先找到他们的真实自我，继而用一种真实的途径把它呈现出来.

Sitting in a room and trying to understand every angle of someone’s young life, flipping through their mental photo albums, for that one moment or picture that jumps out at them can take 20 minutes or 2 hours. The moment you find the right topic, or are able to weave a number of topics together fluidly, you know it resonates with the student.  The moment the first draft materializes, I always cringe. The number of times I’ve had to convince students that my numerous comments on a draft doesn’t mean failure, but instead potential. We should give credit to the students, because re-writing the 11th draft of a personal statement is no small feat, to persist and be open-minded to feedback. 

坐在房间里努力从各个角度去挖掘一个年轻的生命，翻阅着他们脑海中的相册，这样的一个迸发的瞬间或画面感的出现可能需要20分钟甚至2小时才能达到。当你寻找到那个对的主题，或者能够流畅地将一系列主题串联起来时，你能明显感受到自己和这个学生产生了共鸣。每当第一稿成形时，我总感到局促不安。我需要无数次地去说服学生，初稿上的大量的批注并不意味着失败，而是潜力。我们应该相信这些学生，因为重写已经修改了11遍的个人陈述并不是一件轻松活。坚持并对别人的反馈持开放的态度很重要。

Students wrestle with the concept of authenticity even as they’re writing. Some try to emulate the prose of famous writers; others copy the style of example essays they’ve read.  More common yet, they try to stuff their essays full of accomplishments, rather than qualities.  Voice is an integral part of authenticity, and often times the personal statement is also a writing exercise to understand this very fact.

学生在写作的过程中还需要尽力地保持真实性。一些人会去模仿名作家的散文，一些人会去复制他们读过的范文的语言风格。而更常见的情况是，他们会一味在自我陈述中罗列自己的成就，而非自己的品质。内心的声音是真实性的一种体现，自我陈述的写作过程在很多时候可以帮助我们意识到这一点。

My role is not, and has not never been, to write the essays for the students. Even if this is something we did, it wouldn’t work because ultimately the authenticity of the student would be crushed underneath a veneer of elevated prose and sophisticated phrasing. Writing an articulate essay can be taught, but writing a real essay is all about intention.

我的角色从来不是为学生写文书。我们过去确实这样做过，效果并不好，因为那些精致的文采和高深的措辞会让学生的可信度遭到质疑。写一篇表达清晰明了的文书的技能易学，而写一篇真实的文书却只关乎初衷。

真实性是一篇文书的精髓

是一个人最纯真的表达

真实往往可以真正得展现出自我个性

关于Personal Statement 

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