以上两点谈论的都是高中时段可以做的准备，这一点开始讨论申请季的具体步骤。申请季其实是个对过去18年人生的总结。而对于兴趣面比较确定的同学，这一步骤尤其重要。因为这是你证明“I’m way more than that”的机会。假设你喜欢辩论，你可以说你钻研了一个关于干细胞研究道德与否的辩题来证明其实你的自然科学也不错。假设你和我一样表面上乍一看缺乏“caring & giving”（关怀与付出）的因素，我在梳理我的课外活动时意识到在不知不觉中我花了上百小时辅导模联辩论社的社员，这又何尝不是一种责任心的体现呢？比起偶尔去次养老院，三年来为一个社团做些事情在我看来是更有说服力的giving（付出）。在文书里，我也将自己的辩论经历与作为一个“aggressive female”的自我认知联系在了一起。静下心来思考，我相信你一定能从你的“真爱”里挖掘出比我更多、更精彩的意义。
这也许是决定你是否进入dreamschool最重要的一点。既然你兴趣明确，也准备好了相应的材料，请一定一定一定给自己挑两个在你喜爱的领域特别杰出的较为小众的类似“专科”的学校或者program。比如说，如果你和我一样喜欢政经，我强烈推荐你申请和我一样的哥大和巴政的Dual BA政经项目或者Georgetown的Walsh外交学院。这些信息需要你自己处处留心。不同于CommonApp上各种学校会问的比较general的文书问题，比如”Use five words to describe yourself”（请用五个词描述你自己）, ”what matters to you and why”（写出对你来说重要的事情及其理由），这类专科会在问过这些general question（综合问题）后问很多专业性学术性很强的问题，比如”Describe a global political issue and give solutions”（请描述一则全球政治问题并给予解决方案）。这些问题能够让你体现出你在你的擅长领域的超深知识面。更重要的是，这类学校会提供更多的面试机会，让AO有更多机会了解你，问你更多很学术的问题。比如Dual BA的面试官会和你大谈时政，针对某一事件问出各种尖刻的问题直到你语塞为止。
You can smell the mud and grass in the air, blended with the delicious scent of rice; smoke curls up the kitchen chimney of each house, and flies to the blue vast sky. You see a blanket of yellow over there, and when you walk closer you see tons of rapeseeds, blooming and swaying with the wind.
That’s the kind of village my parents came from, the rural of metropolis Shanghai.
Raised far from the city, neither of my parents received modern education, but they wanted the best for me. I started to learn English at three, and have attended foreign language schools since elementary school.
These educations shaped me into an entirely different person from my parents. I am shocked when they heat my salad in the oven, or ask for well-done steaks in the restaurant, and they laugh at me when I can’t tell “belly” from “poop” in Shanghai Dialect (they have similar pronunciation).
But there are also other differences. Although I told them no scientific evidence supported computer radiation could cause diseases, they still insisted to take all electronic devices out of the bedroom. I saw them comparing the prices of apples, while I was learning the macroeconomic policies of a country, or finding solutions to the world’s pollution problems. As more and more these similar incidents happened, I saw the ordinary trait in them. I realized that I don’t want to be like them; I want to be the one who makes great changes to the world, not just focusing on the trivial things.
To change the world, I must see the world first. So I travelled alone to America. I thought I would experience all the advanced things rather than the ordinary there, but I was wrong.
I stopped by a band in Washington Square, and the dancers dancing for children under the hot sun in Disneyland. I chatted and laughed with the taxi driver in Buffalo, listening to his immigration story from South Africa, and telling him in China some families can have a second child. I slept on the sofa in the waiting room of Nashville Airport, and woke up seeing the children and mother beside me hugging with the father. I sat alone at the beach in Santa Monica with the laughter of people behind me, hearing them depicting the happy reunion in ten years.
All I did were ordinary things, and all I saw were ordinary people. I realized that all around the world, most people just want to live ordinary lives. If I want to make great changes to the world, I must learn the ordinary things first, because billions of the ordinary make up the whole world. Only through understanding the small can I achieve something big.
After the trip, I began to value my parents’ opinions. The disagreements between us turned into exchange of ideas, like debates. We debate on the good and bad sides of Chinese education system, including the rigid curriculum and College Entrance Examination. We debate on whether or not should we care about what other people say. We debate on revolution, on socialism, capitalism, on how government should govern the country. Although none of us has ever made any concessions, we are always enlightened by each other, like two rubber balls with different wet paints, domestic and international, civilian and educated, collide with each other and soon bounce off, but both gain more colors.
My parents are now my source of inspirations and enlightenments. I established the media division in my chemistry club to debunk every scientific rumor my parents believed, and I evaluated the macroeconomic policies with the real-life concerns from my parents. I find that the more I listen to them, the more I benefit from their ideas.
I still dream big, but I know that to change the world, I must learn the world first, down to the core.
我的答案一定是“我喜欢的项目”。原因很简单：第一，AO一年看几万份申请，十几年了看了几十万申请了，他们啥项目都看过，大可不必一味追求新颖。不妨按照升学小助手Linda Wang一文中说的那样“follow your heart” 。第二，你喜欢的项目可以给你动力、想法与激情。这才是升学中评判的标准。第三，你喜欢的项目能够反映真实的你。最后，进入一所好大学并不是一个IB学生唯一的目标。人生中有许多乐趣，做你喜欢的项目，做你喜欢的自己，把高中三年过得精彩纷呈，想必这也是世外这个supportive的大家庭想要教给我们的人生态度。
我建议大家不要一直专注于综合排名，应该要更挖掘一下学校某项特殊的专业，或者说你最感兴趣的专业哪个学校有哪个学校没有。就比如说我一开始选校的时候我觉得这个专业也想学，那个专业也想学，也不知道到底哪个学校比较好。但是当我看到NYU的global liberal studies的时候我发现这个program可能是我目前为止最喜欢的一个项目了，它不算是一个专业，是有点像文理学院里面的课程，包括了文史哲等大多文科，虽然很多人对于这个项目的评价就是读完出来之后觉得整个人都升华了，但问你学了什么，你还真不知道你学了什么。但是这个项目特殊的地方就在于有几乎整整两年的时间study abroad。在任何一个角落你都可以进行文化研究等等。所以说我看中了这样一个项目从而坚定地ED申请了NYU。很多时候我们在选校的时候，更多需要关注的并不是排名，也不是一个学校的reputation，而是要了解学校的特色与亮点，在与自己的兴趣进行匹配，最后其实剩下的学校也就不多了。
“2014年的12月12号的凌晨5点，Wesleyan University ED成功的邮件，注定了这是个无法入睡的夜晚，一切的一切都在此定格。惊喜之余但一切又仿佛在意料之中。我们的孩子，一个托福100+，SAT拼分2000+，IB 预估38的普普通通的中等生，能取得这样的结果，除却孩子的不懈努力和家长的全程陪伴参与外，离不开留学指导的辛勤付出。这也再次印证了美国本科录取，标化成绩不是唯一看重的事实。”胡清扬妈妈在女儿被美国排名15的文理学院卫斯理安早期决定录取之后，充满深情地撰文，重新审视申请过程的点滴。
