Part I: 我们是如何协助同学确定专业方向和选校？_北京新东方前途出国的博客-新东方前途出国

It was very clear from the very beginning of our conversations that 同学 enjoyed Chemistry and wanted to pursue it in university. The most important questions that universities want to know, however, is “what specifically” and “why.” Chemistry is a very large field, so my goal was to understand what aspects of Chemistry she liked (for instance pharmaceutical chemistry, biochemistry, materials chemistry, etc.), and why she wanted to pursue it. Simply saying, “I like it because it lets me understand the world” is not good enough. Nor is “I am good at it.” Any subject can help us understand the world better, and being good at something is not a very convincing reason. What I wanted her to explain to me was her own experiences and motivations, not something that anyone can say. As her teacher, I need to reveal who she is, not how she is like everyone else. Accomplishing this task requires countless hours of communication, discussions, and questions.

How We Chose Her Schools

One of her other dream schools (aside from Yale) was Georgia Tech. She had conducted some research about their Chemistry program, and she valued the educational resources Georgia Tech would provide her. Because Georgia Tech does not have an Early Decision Round, we decided not to waste this precious opportunity.

I felt that 同学’s academics and scores were strong enough to reach for one top 10 school for her Early Decision. She had participated in “Yale Young Global Scholars” summer school, but I decided she would be a better fit for Columbia due to her global background. Columbia particularly values students with a global upbringing as seen in their Mission Statement. Note how many references Columbia makes about the world in just four sentences:

同学 has a very global background: As a Chinese student, 同学 studied in Switzerland during middle school where she learned French, and attended an international high school in Germany. Her activities included being a Chinese and French Cultural Ambassador, and she connected Traditional Chinese Medicine with Western Medicine in an independent research. Lastly, she was a representative for the United World School, which helps educate children around the world, and a leader that coordinated donations to Swedish orphans.

Next week, I will discuss certain challenges applying to Columbia and how I solved them.

在和同学最初沟通的时候，我们就非常清楚的了解到同学喜欢化学，并且想在大学学习它。然而，这远远不够，因为大学最想知道的问题是“具体是什么专业”和“为什么是这个专业”。化学是一个非常庞大的学科，所以作为指导老师，我的目标是了解同学具体热爱化学的哪个分支领域(比如药物化学、生物化学、材料化学等)，以及她为什么想要从事这一领域。对大学来说，如果仅仅是简单地说，“我喜欢这个专业，因为它让我了解这个世界”这是远远不够的。还有同学回答说，“我擅长这个专业”，这也不是学校希望看到的。任何学科都可以帮助我们更好地理解这个世界，而擅长某件事并不是一个非常令人信服的理由。同学需要做的是向我清晰的表达她自己对于该学术领域的过往经历和动机，而不是一些放之四海而皆准的套话。作为她的指导老师，我帮助她展示她真正的自我，突出与其他申请者不一样的亮点。要达到这样的效果，我们共同经历了无数个小时的沟通，探讨以及提问。

我们是如何协助同学选择学校的？

除了耶鲁之外，同学的另一所梦想学校是佐治亚理工学院(Georgia Tech)。她对该校的化学课程做了一些研究，并且她很看重佐治亚理工学院能提供给她的教育资源。由于佐治亚理工学院没有ED只有EA，我们决定先不浪费这个宝贵的机会。

根据我的评估，以同学的学术表现以及成绩去冲击全美前十学校的提前批次是非常有机会的。虽然她曾经参加过耶鲁大学的“全球青年学者”暑期学校，但我认为鉴于她的国际化北京，她更适合哥伦比亚大学。因为哥伦比亚大学非常重视具有全球教育背景的学生，这一点大家也可以从他们的使命宣言中看出。大家可以很清楚的看到在这短短的四句话里，哥大到底强调了多少关于国际化的内容:

而同学恰恰有一个全球化的背景:作为一个中国学生,同学在瑞士上了中学并且在那里学会了法语,然后又在德国上了国际高中。她的活动丰富多彩，包括担任中国和法国的文化大使，并在她还做了一个独立研究，将中西医结合起来。最后，她还是帮助全世界儿童接受教育的联合世界学校(United World School)的代表，以及参与向瑞典孤儿捐款的带头人。

下周，我将讨论应用于哥伦比亚的某些挑战以及如何解决这些挑战。