【沈阳留学】2022年哈佛大学新生文书（一）-新东方前途出国

哈佛大学校报Crimson每年都会公布当季的新生文书，给未来申请者提供参考，很多申请者正处于文书初稿创作阶段，希望这些成功申请到哈佛的学生的文书能给大家以新的思路。

一、Tony's Essay

Successful Harvard Essay: Beauty in Complexity

Gazing up at the starry sky, I see Cygnus, Hercules, and Pisces, remnants of past cultures. I listen to waves crash on the beach, the forces of nature at work. Isn’t it odd how stars are flaming spheres and electrical impulses make beings sentient? The very existence of our world is a wonder; what are the odds that this particular planet developed all the necessary components, parts that all work in unison, to support life? How do they interact? How did they come to be? I thought back to how my previously simplistic mind-set evolved this past year.

At Balboa, juniors and seniors join one of five small learning communities, which are integrated into the curriculum. Near the end of sophomore year, I ranked my choices: Law Academy first—it seemed the most prestigious—and WALC, the Wilderness Arts and Literacy Collaborative, fourth. So when I was sorted into WALC, I felt disappointed at the inflexibility of my schedule and bitter toward my classes. However, since students are required to wait at least a semester before switching pathways, I stayed in WALC. My experiences that semester began shifting my ambition-oriented paradigm to an interest-oriented one. I didn’t switch out.

Beyond its integrated classes, WALC takes its students on trips to natural areas not only to build community among its students, but also to explore complex natural processes and humanity’s role in them. Piecing these lessons together, I create an image of our universe. I can visualize the carving of glacial valleys, the creation and gradation of mountains by uplift and weathering, and the transportation of nutrients to and from ecosystems by rivers and salmon. I see these forces on the surface of a tiny planet rotating on its axis and orbiting the sun, a gem in this vast universe. Through WALC, I have gained an intimate understanding of natural systems and an addiction to understanding the deep interconnections embedded in our cosmos.

Understanding a system’s complex mechanics not only satisfies my curiosity, but also adds beauty to my world; my understanding of tectonic and gradational forces allows me to appreciate mountains and coastlines beyond aesthetics. By physically going to the place described in WALC's lessons, I have not only gained the tools to admire these systems, but have also learned to actually appreciate them. This creates a thirst to see more beauty in a world that’s filled with poverty and violence, and a hunger for knowledge to satisfy that thirst. There are so many different systems to examine and dissect—science alone has universal, planetary, molecular, atomic, and subatomic scales to investigate. I hope to be able to find my interests by taking a variety of courses in college, and further humanity’s understanding through research, so that all can derive a deeper appreciation for the complex systems that govern this universe.

专家点评

Tony 的文书从凝视海洋开始，我们能感受到他对自然世界的感知和生命本身的好奇心。这种好奇被他巧妙地呈现出来，并且更成功的是他能够进行深层次的思考而不是拘泥表象。

故事围绕一个毫不相干的事情展开，一个随机的选择让Tony在选择法律之路时研究荒野艺术。影响他的决定是偶然的，对此他很痛苦。我们看到他承认自己受制于“以野心为导向的范式”的脆弱性，而不是研究他最感兴趣的东西。然而，通过本文的其余部分，我们发现Tony决定继续从事荒野艺术，这彻底改变了他，将他的视角从“简单化思维”转变为沉迷于“理解我们宇宙中的深层联系”。

Tony语言的力量帮助我们欣赏他意外觉醒的广度和兴奋。从想象“冰川峡谷的雕刻”到陶醉于自然系统的复杂力学，这篇文章展示了Tony是多么欣赏我们的世界，这要归功于一个曾经似乎不公平地武断的事件。通过观察Tony对生活相互联系的渴望，我们越来越相信，他不断发展的视角将引导他的研究进入令人兴奋和意想不到的领域。