第十三章 打造真实亮丽的申请文本
65.申请美国大学的文书范例
以下是恺癉提交给哈佛大学、斯坦福大学和麻省理工学院申请文书，仅供参考。
1 请在下面容许的空间内，简要地阐述你的一个课外活动或工作的经历。
［答］ On the last day of school,when others were dreaming about a carefree summer,I enjoyed my first day as a student researcher at a nearby university-I wanted to be able to pursue my own questions and ideas in the field of computer science. I studied the motion-planning problem in robotics and familiarized myself with the lab's motion-planning library. Within weeks,I began developing a new method to solve the problem. My first attempts were flustered by inconsistencies in performance. I soon developed a skill required of every good scientist :knowing how to persevere through disappointments and identify directions for improvement. Through stepwise refinements of my algorithm,I kept improving my results,and I rej oiced when finally it experimentally outperformed all other methods tested. I wish to continue scientific research after high school-countless other methods wait to be discovered by those who have the courage to ask questions and the resolve to investigate them.
2.请在下面挑选一个主题，写一篇 250 ～ 500 字的短文。这篇短文将有助于我们了解你本人在课程、成绩、考试分数和其他客观资料以外的情况。它也将显示你的构思和表达能力。
1）评估你的一个有意义的经历、成就、冒险或你碰到的伦理困境，并阐述它对你的影响。
2）探讨个人、地区、国家或国际所关注的问题，以及它对你的重要性。
3）指出谁对你有过重大的影响，并描述这个影响。
4）描述对你产生过影响的一位小说中的人物、一位历史人物或一个创作（如在美术上、音乐上或科学上，等等），并解释那个影响力。
5）多重学术兴趣、个人观察角度和生活经验会给教学增添不同的元素。鉴于你个人背景，描写一个经历来说明你会给大学社区多样性带来什么或表明多样性对你的重要性。
6）你自选的主题。
［挑选的短文题］ 探讨一个个人、地区、国家或国际所关注的问题，以及它对你的重要性。
［答］“I hate math.”Quite often I heard this complaint from my classmates. Mathematics is one of the most feared school subjects but the most beautiful to those who understand it. For a long time,this paradox puzzled me. Why did so many complain that math is boring or stupid or contrived,that math is about memorizing formulas and completing loads of repetitive homework,while I found math interesting,elegant,and-most impressive of all-unwaveringly consistent？ I had skipped several years of school math classes, so others often sought my help in math. A friend once asked me,“Why is the quadratic formula so complicated？” I replied,“Did your teacher show you where the quadratic formula comes from？You know,completing the square？” He answered,“We completed the square,but she never said how that's related to the quadratic formula．．．” I was stunned. Our math teachers make students memorize the quadratic formula without showing them its derivation？Worse,they teach students how to complete the square without explaining that the quadratic formula is j ust a generalization？Something was missing. Last year,I stumbled upon the article“A Mathematician's Lament”by Paul Lockhart,who argues that mathematics is the art of finding patterns and making discoveries. Lockhart claims that students find mathematics unappealing because the school curriculum reduces math to a mere set of problem types that students must master one by one. No creativity or experimentation is necessary;for each problem type,students simply memorize a series of steps that solve it,and are thus denied the j oy of unraveling beautiful mathematical relationships. I agreed wholeheartedly-this explained why my friends never tried to answer their own questions through experimentation and manipulation:they were never encouraged to do so. I immediately began to battle this injustice to mathematics by initiating a weekly math seminar in the school math club, volunteering to present over a wide range of relatively advanced topics. Differing from the standard public school math curriculum,my teaching focuses mainly on critical-thinking and problem-solving techniques. I assign practice problems,most of which do not resemble each other at all. This allows participants to continually experiment with different techniques,often combining multiple principles in unique ways. Thus,each problem is a seed for a distinctive mathematical journey that culminates in a new revelation about mathematics. I was happy to notice Math Club participation skyrocket. Even on a day-to-day basis, I enjoy sharing my mathematical passion with others. After noticing a classmate's frustration with math formulas that“made no sense,”I offered to help. After I walked her through a simple derivation,her expression lit up with enlightenment. Although she might not have believed it then,she was one step closer to understanding that mathematics does,in fact,make sense. This experience has taught me to understand others' perspectives,but my perspective should be understood as well. I await the day when math classrooms are a haven for creative thinkers,not human algebraic calculators with a limited number of commands.
如对英文内容感兴趣，可自行翻译。从中感受一个美国学生如何应对大学选拔中的冰山一角。
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