三单词复制100次被斯坦福录取！你以为他们横扫名校offer靠的只是一篇文书？
近日，被两则录取藤校的霸气文书刷爆了网络：
一则是18岁的华裔女孩收割14所美国名校offer，其中包括8所常春藤大学(哈佛、耶鲁、普林斯顿、布朗、宾大、哥大、达特茅斯、康奈尔)。
一则是新泽西州的一名穆斯林高中生Ziad Ahmed在申请信中只是简单重复了100次这三个单词——Black Lives Matter(黑人的命也是命)被斯坦福大学录取了！
这几位堪称“名校offer收割机”的学霸们文书都写的是什么？究竟是什么样的文书打动了那么多招生官？让我们来一探究竟：
01
一纸文书横扫14枚美国名校offer
加州奥兰治县艺术高中的华裔女孩萧靖彤可以称之为“2017最牛高中生”。今年她申请的14所美国高校的写作或新闻学系，其中就包括全部8所藤校，此外还有斯坦福大学、约翰·霍普金斯大学、西北大学、纽约大学、南加州大学和阿默斯特学院。全部通过申请，录取成功率为100%。据说全靠她的一纸申请文书！
萧靖彤在文书中描述了移民家庭学英语的真实故事，打动了14所大学的招生官。在文章中，萧靖彤真实地描绘了很多新移民共有的特点——她和母亲两人经历的语言煎熬与嘲笑。
“我五岁的时候，我们搬到了Walnut。父母并不擅长英语，对我来说，在移民家庭中长大，我和家人之间如何用语言互动是非常有趣的。家里说话的方式与在外谈话的方式截然不同，有些词汇我们甚至不用翻译就可以渗透到对话中。但当我长大后，人们会嘲笑那些我觉得正常的语言，而并不是他们的语言，因此我写下了我的这个经历。”
萧靖彤在她的作文中称，在他们家，英语不是英文，不是在单词的意义上，而是在发音上。“snack”（小吃）会被说成“snake”（蛇），“film”（电影）会说成“flim”。虽然是不正确的发音，但家人彼此都能够听得懂。
由于发音不准确，萧靖彤不得不到语言专家那里进行训练。同学们也都笑话她，因为她把“accept”错发成“except”，将“success”错发成“sussess”。
此外，萧靖彤还在文书中讲述了一段妈妈在马来西亚学英语时被羞辱的故事。她写道：“母亲要我教她正确的英语，这样Target商场的白人老太太就不会嘲笑她的发音了。有时候我避免让一些只言片语伤害到她的自尊心，但也许我已经不经意地伤害到她很多了。”
“随着母亲英语词汇的扩大，我也在纠正自己的英语，方式是在学校参加在3000人面前表演诗歌的活动，采访各界人士以及为舞台剧写故事，反对无知，并为无家可归者、难民及被忽视的群体发声，用我的话来反驳纽约地铁老亚洲街头的一名表演者的嘲笑。我的母亲关注那些贫穷、英语非母语的孩子们，他们有很多故事要讲，但却不知道如何讲。”
萧靖彤的文书正文：
In our house, English is not English. Not in the phonetic sense, like short a is for apple, but rather in the pronunciation – in our house, snake is snack. Words do not roll off our tongues correctly – yet I, who was pulled out of class to meet with language specialists, and my mother from Malaysia, who pronounces film as flim, understand each other perfectly.
In our house, there is no difference between cast and cash, which was why at a church retreat, people made fun of me for “cashing out demons.” I did not realize the glaring difference between the two Englishes until my teacher corrected my pronunciations of hammock, ladle, and siphon. Classmates laughed because I pronounce accept as except, success as sussess. I was in the Creative Writing conservatory, and yet words failed me when I needed them most.
Suddenly, understanding flower is flour wasn’t enough. I rejected the English that had never seemed broken before, a language that had raised me and taught me everything I knew. Everybody else’s parents spoke with accents smarting of Ph.D.s and university teaching positions. So why couldn’t mine?
My mother spread her sunbaked hands and said, “This is where I came from,” spinning a tale with the English she had taught herself.
When my mother moved from her village to a town in Malaysia, she had to learn a brand new language in middle school: English. In a time when humiliation was encouraged, my mother was defenseless against the cruel words spewing from the teacher, who criticized her paper in front of the class. When she began to cry, the class president stood up and said, “That’s enough.”
“Be like that class president,” my mother said with tears in her eyes. The class president took her under her wing and patiently mended my mother’s strands of language. “She stood up for the weak and used her words to fight back.”
We were both crying now. My mother asked me to teach her proper English so old white ladies at Target wouldn’t laugh at her pronunciation. It has not been easy. There is a measure of guilt when I sew her letters together. Long vowels, double consonants — I am still learning myself. Sometimes I let the brokenness slide to spare her pride but perhaps I have hurt her more to spare mine.
As my mother’s vocabulary began to grow, I mended my own English. Through performing poetry in front of 3000 at my school’s Season Finale event, interviewing people from all walks of life, and writing stories for the stage, I stand against ignorance and become a voice for the homeless, the refugees, the ignored. With my words I fight against jeers pelted at an old Asian street performer on a New York subway. My mother’s eyes are reflected in underprivileged ESL children who have so many stories to tell but do not know how. I fill them with words as they take needle and thread to make a tapestry.
In our house, there is beauty in the way we speak to each other. In our house, language is not broken but rather bursting with emotion. We have built a house out of words. There are friendly snakes in the cupboard and snacks in the tank. It is a crooked house. It is a little messy. But this is where we have made our home.
语言并不是破碎的，而带有一种情感。萧靖彤认为，“我们用文字建造了一栋房子。房子里虽然有点乱，但这就是我们打造自己家的地方。”
长期的写作经验提升了她的写作水平和写作技巧，但同时，在这一份申请文书的背后，招生官看到的不仅仅是一名超级学霸（她的GPA高达4.67，新SAT考试1540），更是她热爱写作，积极参加各种活动，将自己的兴趣融入到生活之中的这份精神。
来看看萧靖彤的记者和写作工作：
▲ 作为scholastic小记者在迪士尼采访
▲ 采访美国队长克里斯·埃文
▲ 采访乐高蝙蝠侠电影的导演
据媒体介绍称，萧靖彤从二年级就开始写诗歌，很早就下定决心成为一名艺术学校的学生。妈妈发现她的喜好，为她选择了奥兰治县艺术高中，这开启了她的写作道路。11岁时，萧靖彤就成为Scholastic的儿童记者，在多家青少年网站或报刊兼职做影视类记者，经常出现在好莱坞红毯和记者会上，发掘好莱坞明星背后的奋斗故事。目前虽只有18岁，但萧靖彤已有六年好莱坞记者的资历，还曾获得专门表彰影视媒体业杰出女性的格雷斯（Gracie Awards）最佳学生记者奖。
之后，萧靖彤先后担任Crixit.com和Fanlala.com等网站的青年记者，因常常采访好莱坞红毯而渐渐成为青少年网络红人。她目前还是洛杉矶时报高中特约记者、BYOU杂志特约记者和BroadwayWorld.com上的知名博主，从年轻人的角度撰写影评。目前她受美国青年艺术家协会邀请，参加在加州大学洛杉矶分校（UCLA）的培训。
萧靖彤称，她的目标是成为创意作家：“无论写影视剧本、小说、戏剧、诗歌还是新闻，都希望能用文字表达出有深度的内容与思想。”
02
三单词复制100次被斯坦福录取，任性！
Ziad Ahmed，一位17岁的孟加拉裔美国中学生，移民二代，穆斯林。Ziad目前还是一名新泽西州普林斯顿的高中生，斯坦福，耶鲁和普林斯顿大学录取了他，他还未决定去哪个。
阿哈姆德(Ziad Ahmed)
Ziad在申请斯坦福大学（美国录取率最低，录取难度最高的大学）时申请作文的题目是：什么对你很重要，为什么？（What matters to you, and why）
照理说，这篇申请文章是所有想进入斯坦福的学生的重要敲门砖，不说绞尽脑汁吧，想完成这么一篇作文肯定得三思。然而...Ziad的回答就一句话：“黑人的命很重要BlackLivesMatter” （一句去年到今年非常火的黑人维权口号），然后，他把这句话复制粘贴了一百遍，就交上去了！！！！！！！
阿姆哈德在推特上贴出自己的奇葩申请作文
Ziad表示，他其实也就是想尝试着申请一下，根本没抱啥希望，毕竟录取率这么低的学校，多少大牛排着队呢应该轮不到自己。但是！！Ziad就凭着这一百句“黑人的命很重要”被斯坦福录取了！！！
斯坦福给出的录取理由大致是这样的：“ Ziad你与斯坦福简直是太契合了！所有读过你这封信的人，无不被你的热情和决心所感动鼓舞。你将给斯坦福，这样一个你将来学习和茁壮成长的地方，带来一些原创又非凡的东西！“还在录取通知书上写到：
有网友称赞他的勇气，恭喜他拿到录取通知，也有人讽刺说，这是个笑话...而大家都严重忽略掉了一点，其实他本身就是一个及其优秀的人，并活跃在各种社会活动之中！
Ziad除了成绩好之外，其它方面真的不简单的好嘛，俨然就是一个冉冉升起的政治新星啊——登上过TED演讲，受邀去过白宫，被奥巴马接见，美国大选期间担任过希拉里助理帮助希拉里竞选，在13岁成了一个青少年公益组织，倡导“抛弃（对伊斯兰的）偏见，再造（对伊斯兰的）认知，鼓励（对穆斯林的）宽容和接受”，并在几十个电视台各种演讲并接受采访，还因此跟奥巴马一起吃过晚饭，.....而且他还成立了一个商业咨询公司，专门为年轻人提供机会和企业家进行直接的交流。
Ziad的家境也不简单，Ziad的爸爸毕业于耶鲁，曾是花旗和摩根斯坦利的高管，一位资深金融大牛。如今掌管经营着自己的对冲基金。而Ziad的妈妈也是背景显赫，是国际妇女协会的董事会成员，毕业于马里兰大学和约翰斯·霍普金斯大学，拥有电子工程和计算机科学的双学位。这样的家庭培养出的孩子，也不仅仅是一句话重复一百遍就能上名校这么简单的，毕竟人家现在读的高中一年学费就要34600刀…
简直无敌了！Ziad自己也在Twitter上解释道，那只是申请的一部分，其他内容自己还是有好好准备的~所以当大家每次被简单粗暴的外部表象震惊的时候，千万不要忽视事情背后的真相，尤其是这些每年万里挑一的名校招生官也都不傻的好嘛！
03
逛一逛超市也能进藤校
去年，一个美国的高中生Brittany Stinson被五所常青藤名校录取和斯坦福大学同时录取，是因为一篇Costco的文书！
（图片来源：Business Insidert）
Brittany Stinson 的文书写的是美国的Costco！！
Costco是什么？Costco是美国最大的连锁会员制仓储量贩店，简单的说就是大型批发式超市。成立以来即致力于以可能的最低价格提供给会员高品质的品牌商品。
在Costco什么东西都是大批量，超大份，像是在大仓库里选购。小编每次去都是吃吃吃，买买买，谁会想到要把逛超市的经历写在文书里? 就是这种不走寻常路的风格， 使Brittany的文书脱颖而出。来来来，我们一起膜拜一下她的文书：
Brittany的文书题目是：
Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
"有很多学生有背景,身份,兴趣,或天赋，如果你觉得这些对于你的申请非常有意义，是你申请不可或缺的一部分，那请你将你的故事分享给我们。"
“如果你在某个周六早上看到Costco里有个精力充沛的两岁小女孩，那可能就是我。
我妈妈不太愿意带我去Costco，因为一进超市门，我就莫名兴奋。我的四肢都不听使唤了，我就像发现新大陆一般狂喜。
我在超市的过道上冲刺短跑，看着身旁堆叠成山的货品。我对它们充满了好奇，我想用触觉，味觉体验身边的一切。我想把头伸到冰箱里，我想钻进每一个缝隙。我像个征服者一般，但我的目标不是寻找那黄金国，而是超市各个角落的免费试用品。虽然最后都是被妈妈抓进怀里，但那时的Costco对于我来说就是神圣一般的存在。
从包罗万象的商品到随手可得的热狗套餐， Costco可以算是消费主义的完美体现。从我还是一个只能坐在购物车里眨眼的小女孩，到如今可以独立自由穿梭在货架之间，这座超市是我童年中不可或缺的一块拼图。
作为一个资深Costco购物者，我可以做到快速定位商品，并且分辨不同种类商品的摆放区，再选择一辆容量巨大的购物车，省时又省力。
图片来源：keyword-suggestions.com
但更多时候, 我喜欢观察周遭的顾客，看他们推着自己的购物车，装满各种墨西哥卷饼,芝士,几桶冰淇淋,还有减肥药！有时我很好奇，到底什么样的人会买三磅酸奶油呢？
是因为自己发酵的酸奶口感更好？ 也许吧~
在无数个类似场景下，Costco打开了我好奇心的闸门。
当我吃着超市里卖的热狗时，我脑海里出现的不是Costco促销热狗的广告语，而是思考有限性和无限性，酸奶油的其他创新用法，或是商品从八尺货架上掉下来会做怎样的抛物运动。
从观察每一个购物者的惯性运动，我学到的是最真实的物理知识。
有一次我从超市买了胡桃木熏制的瘦火腿，父亲和我发生了争执，因为这是我们从来没尝试过的新口味。毫无疑问胡桃木的品质是很好的，但父亲不太愿意接受改变，他宁愿选择以前常吃的老火腿，就像他的价值观，世界观一样，认定了某件事就不愿再改变，很偏执，甚至强迫我们按照他的意愿行事。然而最后的结果却是，我俩一致觉得新口味更好吃，肉质更嫩。
在Costco获得了这些技能后，我一点点拓展到了学术领域。了解历史和生物，学习舞蹈，就像我脑海中有一辆容量无限的购物车一样，轻车熟路地收揽所有或严肃或有趣的学术知识。我学习微积分，参加越野跑，报名科研项目，因为脑海中有这样一辆购物车，我就好像有了铠甲，Costco也不仅限于Costco，它的意义早已延伸到全世界。
不管是尝试空中瑜伽,还是在数百人面前跳舞,或是学习天文图表辐射软件,任何有趣的活动我都会积极参加。
我强烈的求知欲,超出常理的思考, 一点一滴地成就了现在的自己。多数人觉得Costco只是一个超市，但就是这个普通的超市随时满足我的好奇心，激发我探索世界的冲动。
也正是因为这个超市的存在，让我不局限于接受现有观点，相反地，使我更关注解决问题的原因与过程，不断发现，不断求知！”
Brittany Stinson 文书原文
Managing to break free from my mother’s grasp, I charged. With arms flailing and chubby legs fluttering beneath me, I was the ferocious two year old rampaging through Costco on a Saturday morning. My mother’s eyes widened in horror as I jettisoned my churro; the cinnamonsugar rocket gracefully sliced its way through the air while I continued my spree. I sprinted through the aisles, looking up in awe at the massive bulk products that towered over me. Overcome with wonder, I wanted to touch and taste, to stick my head into industrialsized freezers, to explore every crevice. I was a conquistador, but rather than searching the land for El Dorado, I scoured aisles for free samples. Before inevitably being whisked away into a shopping cart, I scaled a mountain of plush toys and surveyed the expanse that lay before me: the kingdom of Costco.
Notorious for its oversized portions and dollarfifty hot dog combo, Costco is the apex of consumerism. From the days spent being toted around in a shopping cart to when I was finally tall enough to reach lofty sample trays, Costco has endured a steady presence throughout my life. As a veteran Costco shopper, I navigate the aisles of foodstuffs, thrusting the majority of my weight upon a generously filled shopping cart whose enormity juxtaposes my small frame. Over time, I’ve developed a habit of observing fellow patrons tote their carts piled with frozen burritos, cheese puffs, tubs of ice cream, and weightloss supplements. Perusing the aisles gave me time to ponder. Who needs three pounds of sour cream? Was cultured yogurt any more wellmannered than its uncultured counterpart? Costco gave birth to my unfettered curiosity.
While enjoying an obligatory hot dog, I did not find myself thinking about the ‘all beef’ goodness that Costco boasted. I instead considered finitudes and infinitudes, unimagined uses for tubs of sour cream, the projectile motion of said tub when launched from an eighty foot shelf or maybe when pushed from a speedy cart by a scrawny seventeen year old. I contemplated the philosophical: If there exists a thirtythree ounce jar of Nutella, do we really have free will? I experienced a harsh physics lesson while observing a shopper who had no evident familiarity of inertia's workings. With a cart filled to overflowing, she made her way towards the sloped exit, continuing to push and push while steadily losing control until the cart escaped her and went crashing into a concrete column, 52” plasma screen TV and all. Purchasing the yuletide hickory smoked ham inevitably led to a conversation between my father and me about Andrew Jackson’s controversiality. There was no questioning Old Hickory’s dedication; he was steadfast in his beliefs and pursuits – qualities I am compelled to admire, yet his morals were crooked. We both found the ham to be more likeable–and tender.
I adopted my exploratory skills, fine tuned by Costco, towards my intellectual endeavors. Just as I sampled buffalochicken dip or chocolate truffles, I probed the realms of history, dance and biology, all in pursuit of the ideal cart–one overflowing with theoretical situations and notions both silly and serious. I sampled calculus, crosscountry running, scientific research, all of which are now household favorites. With cart in hand, I do what scares me; I absorb the warehouse that is the world. Whether it be through attempting aerial yoga, learning how to chart blackbody radiation using astronomical software, or dancing in front of hundreds of people, I am compelled to try any activity that interests me in the slightest.
My intense desire to know, to explore beyond the bounds of rational thought; this is what defines me. Costco fuels my insatiability and cultivates curiosity within me at a cellular level. Encoded to immerse myself in the unknown, I find it difficult to complacently accept the “what”; I want to hunt for the “whys” and dissect the “hows”. In essence, I subsist on discovery.
不得不说，这篇文章虽然写的是Costco, 但字里行间已经突出了Brittany的学习能力，钻研能力和用于发现新鲜事物等优良品质。有一位招生官的评价是“感觉文章写的很有趣，总是牵引着读者一直读下去”，当招生官一天浏览上百上千份的申请资料的情况下，Brittany的文书犹如一股清流，得到了五家常青藤的青睐也是情理之中。
除了这篇Essay外，她还有什么有利条件？
高中四年GPA 4.0！！！
在Brittany Stinson被录取后，网络上充满了对她文书的报道，似乎她只是因为这一篇文书就得到了offer，有的人对她赞赏有加，也有的人对她嗤之以鼻，入学后还会有人说：“看，她就是Costco girl！”
但是，Brittany被录取绝非偶然，GPA4.0和SAT的背后是她的努力，而各种活动的参与背后是她的积极。单凭一篇文书是不可能得到斯坦福的offer，更多的是她的综合实力！
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