斯坦福致被拒學生的信：不要歪曲申請的真正理念！

決(jue) 定是否錄取學生是一門科學，但同時也是藝術……無論怎樣，世界並不會(hui) 因為(wei) 你被拒絕而否定你的價(jia) 值和努力。

每年申請季，我們(men) 都看到“幾家歡喜幾家愁”的場景。有的同學誌得意滿，抱著夢校offer美美下車；有的同學心有不甘，但還是遺憾落榜。雖然傷(shang) 心和失落是在所難免的，但是，如果你的自信就此被摧毀，才是最可怕的事情。

被夢校拒絕並不可怕，可怕的是你沒有麵對失敗重新再來的勇氣。

今天老師就來給大家分享一封斯坦福招生官Richard·H·Shaw曾經給所有被拒的學生和家長發過一封郵件，希望讀完這封信，同學們(men) 都能有所感悟👇

THIS AFTERNOON, my office sent out over 34,000 email notifications to high school seniors who applied Regular Decision and were waiting with anticipation to learn whether they would be invited to spend the next four years at Stanford.

今天下午，我們(men) 向34000名申請者發出了郵件，他們(men) 都遞交了斯坦福RD輪的申請，並期待著受邀在斯坦福度過接下來的4年。

Even though I have been in the admission field for over 30 years, I still feel quite a bit of pain at the end of this week (as I do each year) about the many exceptional youths who were not offered a space in the class. I also expect that in the following weeks I will hear from parents who are understandably distraught that their sons and daughters with top high school class rankings, very high SAT scores and some truly impressive extracurricular accomplishments were denied entry.

盡管我已經在招生領域工作了超過30年，但每年這個(ge) 時候，我還是感到非常難過，因為(wei) 許多優(you) 秀的年輕人沒有被錄取。而且我預計，在接下來的幾周內(nei) ，我將會(hui) 聽到家長們(men) 的抱怨——他們(men) 的子女在高中班級名列前茅、SAT分數非常高，在課外活動方麵也很出色，但依然被斯坦福拒絕。

Clearly, I believe that a Stanford education is wonderful, but my experience suggests it’s often parents who are more upset about our admission decisions than the kids. I can relate to their concerns: I found myself getting jittery as my own daughter waited for her college application decisions. But given that today’s teens already have enough pressure in their lives, I wish to impart three credos to these parents.

我非常確信，斯坦福大學的教育是很棒的，但是我的經驗表明，當一個(ge) 學生被拒絕，家長反而比即將接受教育的學生本人更加沮喪(sang) 。我能理解他們(men) 的這種心情——當我自己的女兒(er) 在等待大學的最終決(jue) 定的時候，我也非常緊張。但是，考慮到現在的青少年已經在他們(men) 的生活中承受了足夠的壓力，我希望可以把以下三條理念分享給家長們(men) 。

First, it’s all relative. While the number admitted into the undergraduate class has remained unchanged for years, Stanford, like many of its peer schools, has had a record number of total applicants – more than 42,000. Regardless of arguments over whether too much preference is given to one category over another, thousands of students are going to be turned away, and there is no doubt that the vast majority of them could have met the demands of a Stanford education. We could, for instance, have filled incoming classes four or five times over with applicants who achieved grade point averages of 4.0 or greater.

首先，一切都是相對的。雖然被錄取的本科生人數多年來保持不變，但是斯坦福大學和很多同類院校一樣，在申請人數上創下一次又一次新高，每年我們(men) 會(hui) 受到至少42000份申請。先拋開錄取時對申請人的偏好的爭(zheng) 論，每年都有數千名學生必須被無情地拒絕。而毫無疑問的是，他們(men) 中的絕大部分人都是符合斯坦福的錄取要求的，實際上，GPA4.0的申請者數量是我們(men) 實際錄取人數的4~5倍。

I wish there were a formula to explain who is accepted and who isn’t, but the decision-making is as much art as it is science. Each class is a symphony with its own distinct composition and sound; the final roster is an effort to create harmony, and that means that some extraordinary bass players don’t get a chair. What’s more, even among my staff there are legitimate differences about applicants. The bottom line: The world is not going to judge anyone negatively because they didn’t get into Stanford or one of our peer institutions.

我也非常希望有一個(ge) 公式來告訴我們(men) 誰能夠錄取，誰會(hui) 被拒絕，但是實際上決(jue) 定是否錄取一個(ge) 學生是一門科學，但同時也是藝術。每一節課都是一場交響樂(le) ，需要由獨特的組合和聲音，我們(men) 的最終目標是創造一個(ge) 和諧多元的環境，而這就意味著有些本身能力非凡的貝斯手沒有多餘(yu) 的位置。更重要的是，即便是在我們(men) 的同事內(nei) 部，也對申請者是否應該被錄取有著不同的看法和意見。但無論如何我想說的是：世界並不會(hui) 因為(wei) 你被斯坦福拒絕而否定你。

Second, celebrate the bigger picture. Despite the constant media buzz about the turbulent state of youth today, most of the applications I reviewed – as well as those reviewed by my colleagues at Stanford and elsewhere – are truly remarkable. And in most cases, those denied admission to some schools are admitted to others. The transition from high school to college is a monumental turning point, and it’s more important to focus on how a young adult is moving on to a new stage than where that stage happens to be. This is the moment when parents should mark the success of their children and rejoice in the excitement that the next four years will bring.

其次，要把目光看的更長遠一些。盡管現在的媒體(ti) 總是在宣揚年輕人是垮掉的一代，但就我們(men) 看到的這些申請斯坦福大學的年輕人來說，他們(men) 都是絕對的了不起。通常來說，被我們(men) 拒絕的學生最終都會(hui) 被其他同一級別的大學錄取。從(cong) 高中到大學，是人生中的一個(ge) 重大的轉折點，對於(yu) 年輕人來說，如何完成這個(ge) 轉變、進入人生的新階段，比在哪裏完成轉變要更重要。父母應該關(guan) 注他們(men) 取得的成功，並為(wei) 他未來四年即將帶來的驚喜而感到歡欣鼓舞。

And that leads to my final point: Education is what a student makes of it. Of course, certain schools have resources that others don’t, but they all offer opportunities to learnand to grow.

這就引出了我要說的最後一點：教育需要是學生自己成就的。不可否認，不同大學之間的教育資源有差異，但是他們(men) 的本質都是為(wei) 學生提供學習(xi) 和成長的機會(hui) 。

I am reminded of a teenager graduating high school in Sunnyvale, Calif., in 1975, who applied to only Stanford and one other school. He was understandably disappointed when denied admission here, but he later excelled as an undergraduate at the distinguished university across San Francisco Bay, UC Berkeley.

這讓我想起了1975年加州森尼韋爾的一名高中畢業(ye) 生，他隻申請了斯坦福和另外一所學校。當被斯坦福拒絕的時候，他的失望顯而易見，但是他後來被另一所學校——加州大學伯克利分校錄取了。

He went on to earn a doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and to become a research scientist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington and an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins. In 2003, he joined the Stanford University School of Medicine and was the co‐winner of the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 2006.

後來，他在MIT完成了自己的博士學位，並成為(wei) 了華盛頓的卡內(nei) 基學院的研究員和JHU的教授。2003年，他加入了斯坦福的醫學院，並在2006年獲得了諾貝爾獎。

Andrew Fire is not atypical when it comes to Stanford applicants. Nor for that matter is John Etchemendy, the Stanford provost and philosophy professor who also was denied admission as an undergraduate. Nor are any of the thousands of others who aren’t accepted to Stanford and go on to have fulfilling lives.

在所有申請者中，Andrew Fire並不是一個(ge) 個(ge) 例——現在的斯坦福大學教務長、哲學教授John Etchemendy當年也沒有拿到斯坦福的本科錄取，還有成千上萬(wan) 沒有被斯坦福錄取，卻依然獲得非凡成就的人。

An undergraduate degree from Stanford, or an Ivy League college, may well end up being only one line at the bottom of a resume. What parents and college applicants across the country need to remember is that the news they receive, whether good or bad, is but a single step on a much longer journey.

不論是斯坦福的本科學位也好，其他常青藤院校的學位也好，它們(men) 很有可能隻會(hui) 在簡曆的最後一行出現。而家長和學生需要記住的就是——他們(men) 收到的消息，無論是好是壞，都隻是更長的旅程中的區區一步而已。

事實上，當你已經把世界頂尖的院校列入自己選校的範圍的時候，從(cong) 一定程度上就已經是對你這幾年努力的一種肯定了，而“人生不如意十之八九”，比得到夢校錄取更可貴的，是無論在哪一種境遇中都不放棄學習(xi) 和向上的品格。

不論最後的結果如何，都希望大家放平心態，戒驕戒躁。到達既定的終點固然重要，但更寶貴的是這一路的風景。

當然啦，還是希望所有同學都能如願以償(chang) ，早日收到夢校的橄欖枝！