作者： 理查德·H·肖 來(lái)源：美中國(guó)際教育

隨著早申放榜逐漸接近尾聲，真的是幾家歡喜幾家愁！

(資料圖片)

有學(xué)生成功圓夢(mèng)女神校而笑逐顏開(kāi)，也會(huì)有一部分同學(xué)因?yàn)楸粔?mèng)校defer或脆拒而倍感失落……

為此，今天想和大家分享一封斯坦福招生官寫給被拒學(xué)生的信，想和大家探討一下我們上大學(xué)的意義究竟在哪里，我們?cè)撊绾慰吹阶约旱某晒εc失敗。

被夢(mèng)校拒絕不可怕，

可怕的是你沒(méi)有面對(duì)失敗再站起來(lái)的勇氣。

俗話說(shuō)“人生不如意十有八九”，

也希望大家從每一次失敗中收獲教訓(xùn)和成長(zhǎng)，

讓自己從失敗里變得更強(qiáng)。

“

斯坦福大學(xué)全稱為小利蘭·斯坦福大學(xué)（Leland Stanford Junior University），在多個(gè)世界大學(xué)排名當(dāng)中都位列前五，是美國(guó)最知名的高校之一。該校曾誕生過(guò)60位諾貝爾獎(jiǎng)得主，也因?yàn)榕R近硅谷，誕生過(guò)許多改變世界的頂尖科技企業(yè)，例如谷歌、惠普、雅虎、羅技、特斯拉、思科等世界頂級(jí)企業(yè)的創(chuàng)始人都從這里畢業(yè)，并在創(chuàng)業(yè)之中受斯坦福幫助頗多。

這是一篇斯坦福招生官理查德·H·肖（Richard H. Shaw）寫給被拒絕的學(xué)生以及學(xué)生家長(zhǎng)的郵件。

下面是這封信的英文原文及中文翻譯。

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，我們斯坦福招生辦向3萬(wàn)4千多名遞交了常規(guī)申請(qǐng)的、期待著在斯坦福度過(guò)自己四年大學(xué)生涯的高中學(xué)生發(fā)出了郵件。

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.

即便我已經(jīng)負(fù)責(zé)招生工作長(zhǎng)達(dá)30年之久，在這個(gè)周末，我依然為那些沒(méi)能如愿以償拿到Offer的年輕人而感到遺憾。同時(shí)，我也能預(yù)見(jiàn)到很多家長(zhǎng)會(huì)因?yàn)樽约旱暮⒆佑兄謨?yōu)異的教育背景，很高的SAT成績(jī)但最終被斯坦福拒絕而感到心煩意亂。

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.

我一直相信斯坦福的教育水平是無(wú)與倫比的。但我的經(jīng)驗(yàn)告訴我，當(dāng)這些孩子被斯坦福拒絕的時(shí)候，他們家長(zhǎng)會(huì)比他們更感到沮喪。我能體會(huì)到這些家長(zhǎng)的感受。當(dāng)我的女兒在等待大學(xué)的錄取決定時(shí)，我也曾經(jīng)緊張和不安。鑒于孩子們已經(jīng)承受了太多的壓力，在這里，我想與所有家長(zhǎng)分享三條理念。

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(duì)的。雖然每年錄取的本科生人數(shù)已經(jīng)保持不變數(shù)年之久，斯坦福像他同一級(jí)別的其他學(xué)校一樣，每年會(huì)收到超過(guò)42000份申請(qǐng)。先不管錄取時(shí)對(duì)申請(qǐng)人資質(zhì)的側(cè)重和傾向問(wèn)題，每年都會(huì)有數(shù)千學(xué)生會(huì)被無(wú)情的拒絕掉。 毫無(wú)疑問(wèn)的是，這些被拒掉的學(xué)生中，絕大多數(shù)是符合斯坦福的申請(qǐng)要求的。實(shí)際上，有著GPA4.0的申請(qǐng)者的數(shù)量是我們實(shí)際錄取人數(shù)四到五倍。

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.

我也希望有這么一個(gè)公式來(lái)解釋誰(shuí)能夠被錄取，誰(shuí)會(huì)被拒掉， 但決定是否錄取一名學(xué)生是一門藝術(shù)，而并非科學(xué)。每一個(gè)課堂就像一個(gè)交響樂(lè)團(tuán)，需要其獨(dú)特的組合和聲音；我們的目的是營(yíng)造一個(gè)和諧而多元的環(huán)境，這就意味著額外的貝斯手是沒(méi)必要的。另外，即便是在我的同事內(nèi)部，我們也對(duì)申請(qǐng)者持有不同的看法和意見(jiàn)。但我想告訴你們的是： 世界不會(huì)因?yàn)槟惚凰固垢＞芙^了而否定你自己的價(jià)值和努力。

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，看得長(zhǎng)遠(yuǎn)一些。即使現(xiàn)在的媒體稱現(xiàn)在的年輕人是垮掉的一代，就我所審核的這些申請(qǐng)斯坦福的年輕人來(lái)看，他們是無(wú)與倫比的出色。通常來(lái)說(shuō)，這些被我們拒絕的學(xué)生最終會(huì)被其他同一級(jí)別的大學(xué)錄取。從高中升入大學(xué)，是人生的一個(gè)重要的里程碑。對(duì)于年輕人來(lái)說(shuō)，如何完成這個(gè)轉(zhuǎn)變而從此走上人生新的階段要比在哪里完成重要得多。在這個(gè)時(shí)候，家長(zhǎng)們需要注重自己孩子取得的成就以及享受他大學(xué)四年中帶來(lái)的驚喜。

▲ 斯坦福大學(xué)的創(chuàng)辦者斯坦福一家。曾擔(dān)任加州州長(zhǎng)的鐵路大王利蘭·斯坦福一世及其妻子創(chuàng)辦斯坦福的部分目的是出于幾年早夭的兒子利蘭·斯坦福二世

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.

這就要提到我要說(shuō)的最后一點(diǎn)上了： 教育成就人。不可否認(rèn)，不同的大學(xué)之間教育資源的差距是存在的，但他們都能給予學(xué)生學(xué)習(xí)和成長(zhǎng)的資源和空間。

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Sunnyvale的一名高中畢業(yè)生。他申請(qǐng)了斯坦福和另外一所學(xué)校。當(dāng)他得知被斯坦福拒絕之后十分沮喪，但后來(lái)他卻被另一所名校，加州大學(xué)伯克利錄取了。

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.

他后來(lái)在MIT完成了他的博士學(xué)位，隨后成為了華盛頓的卡內(nèi)基學(xué)院的研究員和約翰霍普金斯大學(xué)的教授。2003年，他加入了斯坦福的醫(yī)學(xué)院，并在2006年獲得了諾貝爾獎(jiǎng)。

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.

Andrew Fire在當(dāng)年申請(qǐng)斯坦福的學(xué)生中，并沒(méi)有什么過(guò)人之處。現(xiàn)在的斯坦福哲學(xué)教授John Etchemendy當(dāng)初也沒(méi)能拿到斯坦福本科的offer。實(shí)際上，他們和所有被斯坦福拒絕過(guò)，但仍然取得了輝煌的人生成就的人一樣。

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.

一個(gè)斯坦福的本科學(xué)位，亦或是任何一所常青藤盟校的本科學(xué)位，在漫長(zhǎng)的歲月中只會(huì)成為你簡(jiǎn)歷中的最不起眼的一行字而已。所有正在申請(qǐng)大學(xué)的學(xué)生和家長(zhǎng)應(yīng)該懂得的是， 不論你是被錄取了還是拒絕了，進(jìn)入大學(xué)，相對(duì)于漫漫人生路來(lái)說(shuō)，只是一個(gè)簡(jiǎn)單的紀(jì)念碑。

希望這篇文章能引發(fā)同學(xué)們的思考， 真正能夠影響我們一生的，并不是你在哪里上的大學(xué)，而是在哪里你學(xué)到了什么，以及與他人的與眾不同之處。

也希望大家今后無(wú)論是升學(xué)還是就業(yè)，都能夠淡定從容地面對(duì)人生的各種得與失。學(xué)歷永遠(yuǎn)都不是衡量一個(gè)人的唯一標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。

歡迎關(guān)注

視頻號(hào)“燈塔EDU.燈叔”

手持180億元現(xiàn)金，42歲張邦鑫離開(kāi)中關(guān)村

我，創(chuàng)業(yè)10年，熬過(guò)九死一生

在線教育，都去賣貨了？

俞敏洪 “認(rèn)慫”：道出多少教培人的心酸

一位清華父親真實(shí)感受：教育好自己的孩子，就是投資自己后半生的幸福

教育出海是不是一門好生意？

北大教授：中國(guó)教育為何容忍如此巨大的分化？

考研“高考化”的現(xiàn)象值得重視

被誤導(dǎo)和放大的普職分流與升學(xué)焦慮

回龍觀，一群985媽媽的反雞娃實(shí)踐

震蕩、波折、委屈，但他們選擇留守「在線教育」

俞敏洪對(duì)話尹燁：人生遇到特別難的事情，怎么辦？

找工作不順，我決定創(chuàng)業(yè)

中小學(xué)生要學(xué)煮飯修家電了！具體怎么學(xué)→

普通人用不著焦慮，你的資產(chǎn)不會(huì)縮水！

培訓(xùn)機(jī)構(gòu)主動(dòng)退費(fèi)別輕信！剛有一學(xué)員被騙四萬(wàn)五

俞敏洪：教育培訓(xùn)機(jī)構(gòu)要活下去，只有一個(gè)辦法！

這類證書，別考

關(guān)注備用號(hào)"教培行業(yè)參考、燈之塔留學(xué)"

掃一掃關(guān)注燈塔EDU

燈塔EDU的每一篇文章，都會(huì)注明作者和來(lái)源(除非實(shí)在找不到)，文章版權(quán)歸作者所有。原作者不同意請(qǐng)聯(lián)系微信：qq948645101