申请斯坦福写作攻略
该文作者为斯坦福大学学生，曾获Gates奖学金和Questbridge奖学金。把他的观点分享给大家。 以下为正文： In my experience as a Stanford student,the questions and essay topics included in the Stanford supplement are meant to encourage the personality of the applicant to shine through. So,if that is the case, what kind of personality is Stanford looking for? 作为斯坦福的一名学生，我认为斯坦福补充申请文书中的问题和短文话题设置均旨在鼓励申请者突出自身闪光点。那么，斯坦福所寻找的到底是怎样的个性特点呢？
If there is one thing I have learned from my time here so far, it is that the students at Stanford value creativity and a playful mind above all else. I’m not saying that you must have invented a time machine or founded a couple of Fortune 500 companies by the time you apply. What I am saying, however, is that you need to show that you have the desire, creativity, and work ethic to someday accomplish great things on that magnitude.
自从我进入斯坦福读书起，我学到的最重要的一件事就是创造性与活跃的思维比其他一切都来得更有价值。当然，我的意思 不是说申请季开始前你必须得造出一台时光机或者创立一堆世界财富五百强的公司。重点在于，不论何种方式，你都必须表现出自己具备在未来某日成功闯出一番天 地的雄心、创造力和必需的职业道德。
Now let’s talk about the actual supplement. The individual questions have changed over the years, but there are still three main parts to the supplement. The first part asks you to write about one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences. After talking with other students, I have gotten the general sense that it does not really matter whether you choose an extracurricular or a work experience to write about. What does matter, is that you make sure to choose an experience that you are very passionate about.
我们再来聊聊申请 表补充问题。补充Essay每年都变，但是每年都会有3个补充问题。第一部分是要求你描述自己一次课外活动或工作的经历。在和其他同学交流过后，我发现其 实根本无需纠结于到底是选择课外活动还是工作经历，只要你写的是自己全情投入的一次课外活动/工作经历，就没必要庸人自扰。
Amazonian Research Trip = Win 亚马逊探索=赢
For example, when I wrote this essay, I chose to talk about my experience with the school band, which taught me many of the major lessons that influenced my work ethic in high school. Some of my friends chose to write about subjects as ordinary sounding as my band experience while others wrote about incomparable experiences like research trips to the Amazon.It does not matter as much what subject you write about, but more so that you can convey exactly how that experience helped you to grow as a person or how it revolutionized your outlook on something.
举 个例子，当我自己在写着一部分时，我记述了自己和校乐队的一次经历——这次经历可谓我高中时期一堂影响深远的有关职业道德的课程。我的一些朋友们也选择写 跟我这个乐队经历差不多的话题，吸引力远不如其他描述自己在亚马逊热带雨林开展研究之旅的大牛们。所以说，事件主题不是什么关乎生死的大事，它只有在你能 够通过讲述它表达出这件事在你成长道路上带来了怎样的影响、这件事如何改变了你对一些特定事物的看法等等时才会变得意义重大起来。
The second part of the supplement asks you to answer a few short questions about topics like your favorite books, how you spent your last two summers, etc.
补充申请表的第二部分会要求你对一些小问题作答，例如你最喜欢的书是什么、描述一下自己之前度过的两个暑假等等。
Stanford-worthy? Maybe!
The best piece of advice I can give you here is to simply be yourself. Contrary to what some may think, Stanford does NOT only accept students that read Shakespeare 24/7 or students that spend a majority of their time watching documentaries on the state of the US economy. Don’t be afraid to admit that you love reality TV or that you really enjoy reading Dr. Seuss books. I actually have a friend that listed Jersey Shore as one of their favorite shows and I, myself, listed the Captain Underpants series as some of my favorite books.
对于这一部分的问题回答，我所能想到 最好的建议就是：做真实的自己。与寻常人的想象不同，斯坦福可不会只招收热爱阅读莎士比亚英雄双行体或耗费大量精力观看美国经济状况纪录片的学生。即便你 喜欢真人秀节目——再退一步，就算你喜欢苏斯博士的书，大胆承认就好。我有一位朋友就光明正大地在“最喜欢的节目”一栏填上了《泽西海岸》电视剧，而我本 人也把“内裤超人”系列列入了我最喜欢的书目里。
Overall for this section, just remember to be honest and let the application readers see what you’re genuinely interested in outside of your academic life.
总体来说，应答这一部分题目时保证诚实即可，你要做到让申请表审阅官了解你学术生活之外真正感兴趣的领域在哪。
The third and final part of the supplement asks you to write on three essay topics. In my experience, this is where it is most important to show that you possess the characteristics that students at Stanford value so highly – creativity and a playful mind. Two of the essays deal with your intellectual development and what ideas matter the most to you. For these two essays, you need to show that you are intellectually stimulated by something and that you have a real vision for how you could improve that area of study in the future. For example, I wrote about the topic of nanotechnology and my vision for its future use in medicine. Some of my friends wrote about the future of subjects like computer science and international public health. I’ve found that a successful essay does not necessarily require that you even have experience in a certain field (I had never done any work with nanotechnology, but I had read a lot about it), only that you have the desire to flourish in that field of study.
第三部分—也是补充申请表的最后一部分，会要求 你就三个话题分别写三篇短文。就我个人经验来说，这部分是最关键的一环，因为这时你要做的就是告诉别人你拥有斯坦福大学最看重的性格特质——创造力，以及 活跃的思维。三篇文章中的两篇是用于考察你的智力发展过程、你对什么样的观点最感兴趣。要想处理好这两篇文章的写作，你就应当在写作的过程中表达出自己的 的确确对某一特定领域有敏锐触感，并且你确实对未来这一领域的提升有切实的观点。比如，我选择了纳米技术相关的话题，且进一步写到我个人对于这一技术未来 在制药业发展的看法。我的同学中有人写电脑技术的未来发展，也有写国际公共卫生领域日后发展的。总之，我认为有时候我们不必去亲身探索某一领域（我本人没 有做过任何有关纳米技术的项目，不过我确实阅读过这方面的大量资料），但一样可以写出成功的文章，只要你拥有希望为该领域的发展兴旺做出贡献的雄心，没有 什么不可能。
The third essay is the most enjoyable to write from my experience: the letter to your future roommate. For this essay, I’ve found that it doesn’t hurt to make a few jokes or be silly if you’re that kind of person. On the other hand, if you’re normally a more serious person, then be serious. I’m normally more of a silly person so I started off the essay writing about my skills in the “art of laundry.” You should really treat this essay as a letter you would want your future roommate to read. With this in mind, I’ve found that very few students I know used this essay to highlight more of their accomplishments. You’ve done enough of that in the rest of your application. Use this essay to expand on the things you weren’t able to list in the second part of the supplement (ex. Your favorite hobbies) and then reveal more about who you are as a person in your nonacademic life (ex. Your likes, dislikes, any of your quirky habits).
第三篇文章是在创作过程中最令人感到愉快的一篇——至少对我来讲是如此：给你未来的室友写一封信。对于这篇文章，我认为有时候开个无伤大雅的玩笑或偶尔犯蠢 不是不可以——如果你天生就是这样的人。当然，如果你平时就是个严谨认真的人，那么写得严肃正经点也没什么不好。我自己是一个偶尔犯二的人，所以我在信的 一开头就描述了自己在“洗衣艺术中的卓越能力”。写作的时候不要考虑其他，就把它写成你希望自己未来室友看到的样子。所以，很少会有学生在这篇文章里大夸 特夸自己的光辉成就。毕竟，你在完成申请文书的其他部分时已经在不遗余力地自我推销。这个时候你应当好好利用这篇文章，扩充一些申请表第二部分中未曾涉及 的话题进这封信里（例如，你的爱好），然后更深一步地剖析自己在课余生活是一个怎样的人（例如，你喜欢什么、不喜欢什么，或者写一写你的怪癖）。
At the end of the day, the best advice I can give from my experience for the Stanford supplement is to really highlight your curiosity and passion for learning in your essays. Do not be afraid to be totally honest and, most importantly, show that you have an open, imaginative mind as well as the work ethic to back any endeavors that you pursue.
最后，我对完成斯坦福申请表所能提供的最好建议就是在写作中凸显你的好奇心以及学习热情。千万不要为诚实而感到难堪，更重要的是，告诉录取委员会和斯坦福，你拥有一个开放且极富想象力的大脑，更能够坚守所求领域内的职业道德。
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