亲爱的名牌大学,明知道不会录取我,那就不要来招揽我,加拿大维多利亚教育生活实况微信公众号文章

加拿大维多利亚教育生活实况, 与你分享北美孩子的教育经验，成长体验。和有相同教育生活理念的父母同行共勉。希望有让你得益的信息和感受。无论你身在何方，我们都想让孩子快乐健康地成长，快乐地做自己最擅长的事。

这个叫阿曼达(Amanda Graves)的女生，在《亲爱的名牌大学：明知道不会录取我，那就不要来招揽我》为标题的文章里,首先引用了常春藤联盟之一的耶鲁大学，入学办公室主任今年九月寄给她的信，信中赞扬她的学术成就，恳请她慎重考虑申请耶鲁大学。

阿曼达说，自己学业成绩乏善可陈：未入围全国高中荣誉奖(National Merit Competition)，不是球队领导，没有进行任何科学研究，也没有选入全州乐队，高中学业成绩甚至连全校前25%都没达到。

阿曼达上网研究后发现，耶鲁大学一年仅招收1300多名学生，但却向8万学生发出这样的邀请信，2014年入学这一届，耶鲁的录取率只有6.3%。大学理事会(CollegeBoard)资料显示，95%的耶鲁录取生，高中毕业成绩是前10%，百分之百是高中毕业班的前25%。所以阿曼达说，自己录取机会是零。

阿曼达的文章引起强烈反响，网络上数百个留言中，肯定她的观点的超过90%。

“忽悠”众多的高中生申请自己的大学以降低最后的录取率，这是美国名牌大学通行的游戏，而阿曼达这次则让这个潜规则成为众矢之的。

下面来看看名校是怎样玩“录取游戏”的

美国的名牌大学每年都会花钱从全国性的考试机构购买高中应届毕业生的PSAT、SAT和ACT的考试成绩以及他们的个人信息，然后向成绩不错的学生发起猛烈的“宣传攻势”。于是，很多学生从11年级的暑假开始，家里的信箱常常被印刷精美的大学宣传单或是小册子塞满。

而大学使用的最致命的一招是邀请信。这封信装在印着大学名头的信封里，信中开头直呼学生的名字，落款是大学招生办公室负责人的签名，中间不吝赞美之词，加上“诚挚”的邀请，看上去完全是一封“非你莫属”的私人信件，就如阿曼达收到的来自耶鲁的信。

而这封信对于正在筹划申请哪些大学的高中生来说，无疑是兴奋剂，让他们自信陡增，甚至开始飘飘然，一厢情愿地以为自己真的得到了名校的青睐。更有甚者，很多学生都会收到来自几所甚至十几所名校的这样的邀请信，好多学校还会在申请截止日前来第二轮“轰炸”：“我们还没有收到你的申请，请你再次考虑我们。”真是“盛情难却”啊！

就这样好多被名校的“迷魂汤”灌醉的学生和望子成龙的父母们把那些自己真实能力所不及的名校统统加入申请名单。

于是，名校宣传攻势的目的达到了，比如，申请耶鲁大学2014年入学的人数达30922人，创下该校申请的歴史纪录。

很多人，包括阿曼达，都批评美国名校用这种赚取申请费，其实像哈佛耶鲁这样身价上百亿美元的名校并不在乎申请费，他们的目的只有一个，就是降低录取率。

正如资深政策分析师正如斯蒂芬•伯德(StephenBurd)指出的：“事实上，大学鼓励学生申请的目的是为了最后可以拒绝更多的人。这样大学的录取率会降低，使大学看上去更具竞争力，这有助于提升大学在美国新闻与世界报道中的排名位置。”

由最开始，大学追逐高中生，到后来“权力翻转”，大学拒绝申请人，在这场博弈中，大学无疑是赢家，名利双收。

那么，申请的高中生输在哪里？

美国高中生在申请大学时没有数量的限制，可以说想申请多少就申请多少。美国全国大学招生咨询协会的统计资料显示，五分之一的高中生在申请大学时至少申请了7个以上大学，是10年前的两倍。事实上笔者了解到很多中产家庭的孩子都会申请十所以上大学。

美国高中的升学顾问一般建议应该把申请的大学分为三种类型。一种是与自己目标“符合”的学校(target)，一种是比较容易录取的“安全”学校(safety)，最后一种是很难被录取的“高攀”的学校(reach)。近年来，在名校录取率降低，宣传攻势加大的“威逼利诱”下，很多申请人抱着“撒大网撞大运”的心理大大增加了“高攀”学校的申请数量。

笔者见过一个学生申请了二十二所大学，囊括排名前二十的大学，最后去的是一所排名10到20之间的大学。

“大撒网”式地申请众多大学，特别是名校，对于高中生和他们的家庭来说有三方面负面的影响。

一是金钱上的损失。每所大学的申请费加上提交成绩的费用差不多100美元，申请10到20所大学就要花费一千到两千美元。

二是时间和精力上的付出。尽管现在大学普遍接受网络递交的通用申请表，但是名牌大学都有自己附加的申请材料额外要求。有的要求写单独的论文(甚至不止一篇)，有的要求回答很多问题。对于每一个要求，申请人都不能掉以轻心。在承担高中繁重课业的同时，这些高中生们不得不付出大量的时间和精力来完成大学申请材料。

第三，由于被名校的光环吸引，申请人往往忽视了对于与自己目标符合的学校的研究，在申请这类学校时不能做到有的放矢。结果当被所有申请的名牌大学拒绝后，只好去不太理想的大学，这样令人遗憾的例子每年都找得到。

美国名校以增加申请人数来压低录取率的“潜规则”一直是受到批评的，甚至有人提出美国应该参考英国的做法：每个申请人最多只能报考5所大学，牛津剑桥只能选择一个，所以考生没有把握的话都不报牛津剑桥，这两所世界顶级大学的录取率是20%左右，看上去远远高于美国的名牌大学。

这一次，这个叫阿曼达的高中女生曝光了潜规则，一针见血地捅破了美国名校低录取率的泡沫，所以博得众人喝彩。然而我们不得不承认今天的现实是：游戏的主导者是那些强势的名牌大学，来自世界各国的名校追逐者前仆后继。因此这种潜规则和游戏还会继续存在。

作为美国大学的申请人，要想不成为众多大学录取率中的分母，就要保持冷静的头脑，不为大学“美丽的谎言”所迷惑，对自身的能力水平和未来的专业目标有清醒的认识了解，在此基础上花功夫做研究，寻找适合自己的一些大学。只有这样申请者才能在这场“名牌大学的盛宴”中使自己的利益最大化，为自己找到理想的归宿。

附登载在华盛顿邮报的原英文文章。

Dear elite colleges, please stop recruiting students like me if you know we won’t get in

Dear Amanda,

As the Dean of Yale College, I write to congratulate you on your academic success and to introduce you to Yale’s diverse opportunities and communities…. As you consider your college options, Ihope that Yale remains among your top prospects.

This is part of an e-mail I received from the prestigious Ivy League university this September. I admit, it made me feel pretty special, having Yale, one of the best universities in the world, court me,a fairly average high school senior from New Jersey.

But why me?

My grades are nothing to brag about, and I didn’t qualify forthe National Merit Competition. I haven’t led a team sport, conducted scientific research or been in all-state band. My mom might tell me I’m brilliant, but I’m not even in the top quartile at my public high school(though admittedly, that quartile is jam-packed with overachievers, and ranges from 3.9 to 4.54).

Naturally, I went to Google. I learned that each year, Yale courts not only me but roughly 79,999 other prospective students (down from 240,000 in 2005) for its class of 1,300. For the class of 2018, Yale rejected 93.7 percent of its applicants.

Immediately, that grandiose vision of me, strolling through New Haven in a bulldog sweater, conversing about important intellectual matters with my esteemed peers and professors, was halted by an abrupt reality check.

I’m not alone. Each year, colleges reach out to thousands ofstudents with fancy brochures and solicitous e-mails, inviting them to apply.They contact many more students than they’ll accept, buying names forless than 50 cents a pop from places like the College Board, which has data on students’ PSAT or SAT range, self-reported GPA, ethnicity, religion and potential major. (Students must opt in before their data is shared).

Here’s why: Colleges want prestige, and a high ranking on thein famous U.S. News and World Report lists. One way to get it? Low acceptance rates, which come from lots of applications.

How to get lots of kids to apply? Swarm them with enough love and attention and eventually, some will succumb to the appealing notion that they’re good enough for top college X, Y or Z. (It’s working. According to Bloomberg, the number of high school graduates dropped 2.2 percent between 2008 and 2011. But college application numbers are soaring.)

Then, a big chunk of them are rejected.

This, I assume, is how I ended up hearing from Yale, even thoughI have approximately zero percent chance of getting in. According to the CollegeBoard, 95 percent of Yale’s enrolled students were in the top decile of their high school; 100 percent were in the top quartile.

Colleges defend their outreach, arguing that they’re reaching students who might otherwise never apply. According to William Fitzsimmons, dean of Harvard admissions, “There are so many students out therein the world who might not automatically think about Harvard as a place to go….The odds of reaching the top of anything are not good, but is that a reason not to try?”

These colleges argue that the best low-income students don’t apply to the most competitive schools because they haven’t heard of them,don’t have an ally to guide them through the application process, or don’t realize that most top schools offer extensive need-based financial aid.

But these kids don’t need pamphlets and false hope. They need experienced guidance counselors who can help them through the complicated process.

The majority of the students that Fitzsimmons is talking about don’t consider Harvard because they’re not academically qualified. It’s like telling a slow runner with no chance at the Olympics to “train, train, train.”

One last example: When I was a sophomore in high school, the University of Chicago started sending me brochures and e-mails about how I should:

“discover all the extracurricular opportunities that the University of Chicago has to offer and consider becoming part of our talented, motivated, and involved community. Whether it’s fighting zombies or giving back to the community, at UChicago there’s not just something to do every day — there’s something you want to do.”

As a naive high school sophomore, I felt pretty special having all of this attention from such a great school.

Going into sophomore year, however, I had a weighted 2.9 GPA. I scored 110 out of 160 on the math and critical reading sections of the PSAT,equal to an 1100 on those sections of the SAT.*

For the class of 2016, UChicago’s middle 50 percent of test scores for math and critical reading were in the range of 1440 to 1540. And for last year,only 1 percent of enrolled first-year students had GPA’s between 3.00 to 3.24 (there’s no data for the 2.50 to 2.99 category). Though my GPA has thankfully gone up (as has my SAT score), I was not nearly qualified when UChicago started courting me.

Even now, it’s extremely unlikely that I’ll get in. No students were taken below the top quartile for the class of 2018, and altogether 91 percent of its applicants were rejected that cycle.Nice try, but I’d rather apply at places that I actually have a chance at getting into.

So Yale, UChicago (and Brown and Cornell and Dartmouth and Columbia), stop giving me a false sense of hope.

UChicago did send me an unsolicited fee waiver a while backthough, and did extend its Early Action deadline just for me. Maybe the university really does want me?

**********************************************

加拿大维多利亚教育生活咨询，为你的孩子量身定做中学留学方案，提供高端个性化定制服务。中学申请优势：加拿大本土团队，全程在地与校方沟通联络，英语母语顾问提供书文支持；掌握第一手学校特点信息，利用与私立高中的合作互信关系，确保申请规划及时高效；人脉广泛，与招生官，校长直接对话，前沿把握录取动向。