英国生鲜电商:美国高校：在中国招生很划算

爱荷华州，格林奈尔镇 —— 在格林奈尔学院招生办公室里，高堆着光亮的彩色手册，每本都贴满了照片，展示了一个个中国学生从出生到青年卓有成就的人生。

“Hi Professors!” one young woman announced in her bound booklet, sometimes known in China as a “brag sheet,” which included a photo of herself as a baby. She characterized her childhood as “naïve and curious,” and described herself now as “sincere, kind and tough.”

“您好，教授！”，一位年轻女士在她的附件简历中这样称呼道，附件简历在中国有时也被叫做“自夸表”。在附件简历中收录了她自己一张婴儿时期的照片。她描述自己的孩提时代“天真好奇”，并把现在的自己形容为“真诚，友善，坚强”。

The brochures, though they are almost never read by admissions officers, are a sign of Grinnell’s success marketing itself in China — a plan that has paid off in important ways, like diversifying the student body and attracting students who can sometimes pay full tuition.

尽管招生办工作人员几乎从不读这些手册，但它们标志了格林奈尔在中国的自我市场营销所获得的成功——这场营销计划获得了不少重大回报，如促成了学生群体多元化，以及吸引来了支付全额学费的学生。

At rural Grinnell, nearly one of every 10 applicants being considered for the class of 2015 is from China.

在格林奈尔镇这样的村镇，几乎每十个会被招入2015年班的申请人中，就有一个是中国学生。

Dozens of other American colleges and universities are seeing a surge in applications (and similar brochures) from students in China, where a booming economy means that more families can pursue the dream of an American higher education.

不少其它的美国大学和学院收到的来自中国学生的申请书（以及类似的手册）也数量猛增。中国腾飞的经济意味着越来越多的家庭可以实现获得美国高等教育的梦想。

But that success — following a 30 percent increase last year in the number of Chinese studying in the United States — has created a problem for admissions officers. At Grinnell, for example, how do they choose perhaps 15 students from the more than 200 applicants from China? After all, the 11-member admissions committee cannot necessarily rely on the rubrics it applies to American applications (which are challenging enough to sort through).

然而随着去年中国学生赴美学习人数增加了百分之三十，这种成功也给招生办人员带来了一个问题。例如，对于格林奈尔学院，他们要怎样从超过两百名来自中国的申请人中挑选出十五名学生？毕竟，这个十一人招生委员会不能依靠对待美国申请书的办法（来对待中国申请书）——因为那样的话，无论是挑战性还是工作量都太大了。1

Consider, for example, that half of Grinnell’s applicants from China this year have perfect scores of 800 on the math portion of the SAT, making the performance of one largely indistinguishable from another.

举个例子，想象一下，今年格林奈尔学院来自中国的申请人中，有一半在学术能力评估考试（SAT）的数学部分获得了八百分的满分，导致了各人的成绩非常相近无法拉开。

But the most accomplished applicants will have grades in the 70s or 80s, because Chinese schools tend to grade on a far less generous curve than American high schools. Few will have had the opportunity to take honors or Advanced Placement courses to demonstrate their ability to do college work, since such courses are rare in China.

但最富成就的申请人成绩反而只有七八十分，因为在给分上，中国高中远不如美国高中慷慨。中国申请人很少有机会通过获得荣誉或跳级上课来证明他们已有能力学习大学课程，因为在中国这样的课程几乎没有。

Then there is the challenge of assessing an applicant’s command of English, since some Chinese families have been known to hire “agents” to write the application essay. These are the same advisers who counsel families to spend money on the fancy brochures. “They should save their money,” Seth Allen, the dean of admission and financial aid at Grinnell, said as he glanced at the full-color brag sheets stacked on a nearby desk.

另外，评估申请人的英语能力也是一项挑战，因为众所周知，一些中国家庭在写申请论文时会雇佣“代理”。也正是他们建议这些家庭花钱制作那些精美的手册的。“他们应该省点钱”，格林奈尔招生和经济资助办主任赛斯·艾伦说道，一边扫视着堆在身旁的桌子上那些全彩页自夸表.

Mr. Allen said that few would actually be read by the overworked admissions officers as they plowed through nearly 3,000 applications over all. In fact, the next stop for the brochures, said Jonathan C. Edwards, Grinnell’s coordinator of international admission, would be the recycling bin.

艾伦先生说，招生办工作人员总共收到了近三千份申请，已经超负荷工作的他们很少会去认真读那些册子。事实上，，格林奈尔国际招生协调人乔纳森·C·爱德华说，这些手册很快就会进入垃圾桶。

Mr. Allen, Mr. Edwards and their colleagues said they spend most of their time on Chinese applications trying to parse the essays — paying particular attention, as they might with an American candidate, to whether they detect the authentic voice and sensibility.

艾伦，爱德华和他们的同事都说，他们大部分的时间都被花在对中国学生申请书进行语法分析上——就像对待美国申请人一样，他们尤其注意文章是否体现了真情实感。

A young woman from Shanghai, for example, who had scored 800 on the math portion of the SAT, and nearly 600 on the main verbal section, impressed Mr. Edwards with an essay that described her volunteering at a rehabilitation center, where a young autistic boy captured her heart.

例如，一位来自上海的年轻女子，在学术能力评估考试的数学部分获得了八百分，并在主要的语言部分获得了近六百分。她写了一篇论文，给爱德华先生留下了深刻印象。文章描述她在康复中心做志愿者的经历，在那里一个自闭症男孩抓住了她的心。

“Such a hopeless boy evoked my strong feeling to help him and love him,” she wrote. “As time passed by, I found he was interested in hearing the special sound of the piano and was gifted in playing piano.”

“一个如此无助的男孩激起了我想要去帮助他和爱他的强烈感受”，她写道。“随着时间的流逝，我发现他很喜欢聆听钢琴声，而且在弹奏钢琴方面也很有天赋。”

The applicant was admitted to Grinnell in its early decision round last fall.

Another Chinese applicant who wrote about her community service made a less favorable impression, at least with her essay, by writing about her own hardship while helping others after the earthquake in 2008 in Sichuan Province. “Every day, I showered and brushed my teeth using cold water,” she wrote. “It was unbearable.”

另一个中国申请人写的关于她的社区服务则给人留下了不那么好的印象，至少从她的文章看来是这样。她写了在2008年四川省地震之后她帮助灾民时自己遭受的困难。“每一天，我都用冷水洗澡和刷牙”，她写道，“那让人难以忍受。”

The admissions officers sometimes reach out to teachers and counselors at the applicants’ high schools — especially those that have emerged as “feeders” to Grinnell and other American colleges.

招生办工作人员有时候也会向申请人就读高中的老师和导师了解情况，尤其是那些经常向格林奈尔和其它美国高校输送学生的高中。

Such relationships have been further cemented during each of the last two summers, when Mr. Allen barnstormed China — stopping in Beijing, Zhengzhou, Changsha and Shanghai — on a recruiting tour with representatives from a handful of other liberal arts colleges, including Franklin & Marshall and Williams. (Grinnell’s applications from China were down slightly this year, as were its applications over all, but still greater than they were five years ago.)

这样的关系经过去年和前年两个夏天被更加巩固了。当时艾伦先生作为好几所文学学院——包括富兰克林和马歇尔学院以及威廉姆斯学院——的代表，先后到北京、郑州、长沙和上海四个城市做了巡回演讲。（格林奈尔学院今年无论从中国收到的申请书还是总共收到的申请书数量上都有轻微下降，不过和五年前比还是增长了许多。）

For the colleges, such tours are motivated at least partly by money.

对于这些学院来说，这样的巡回演讲至少部分是因金钱所驱。

Grinnell, for example, is “need-blind” when considering American students — who are evaluated regardless of their ability to pay — but its process for admitting international students is “need-aware.”

比如格林奈尔学院，在评估招收美国学生时并不考虑他们对于学费的支付能力，但在招收国际学生的时候，学生的支付能力则成了考虑因素。

So an applicant from China or another country could have an edge if he or she can pay full tuition.

因此，对于中国或其他外国学生来说，有能力支付全额学费的就占了优势。

And yet, in the name of socioeconomic diversity, Grinnell also has a dozen full scholarships set aside for international applicants, including those from China, who need help paying tuition.

还有，借着社会经济情况不同的名义，格林奈尔也有不少全额奖学金不对国际申请人开放，这其中包括了中国申请人，他们得帮忙付学费给学院。

"I realize what regional differences there are in China," Mr. Allen said. "Lumping students into this amorphous Chinese applicant pool really isn't doing them justice."

“我意识到了中国的区域（经济）差别，”艾伦先生说。“笼统地把所有中国申请人扔在一块确实对他们不公平。”

Grinnell started seeing a steady stream of Chinese applications in the early 2000s, and says it can point to strong academic accomplishments among those applicants it has accepted.

在21世纪初，格林奈尔学院收到的中国申请书数量稳定。他们表示在接收的中国申请人身上，体现了他们强大的学术成就。

Their graduation rate has been comparable to the 1,600-member Grinnell student body over all — about 84 percent of those who enroll graduate in four years — and most Chinese students at Grinnell do “very well” in economics, math or science, the subjects in which they are most likely to major (and usually double-major), Mr. Allen said. Help with writing English papers is also available in a writers’ workshop.

艾伦先生说，中国学生的毕业率比得上在格林奈尔一千六百名学生的总体毕业率（他们中大约84%能在入学四年后完成学业）而且大多数在格林奈尔的中国学生在经济学、数学或科学上表现“非常好”。这些也是他们最喜欢主修（而且常常是双主修）的学科。而如何撰写英文论文也可以在作家讲习班获得帮助。

“Chinese students are required to devote significantly more time to their studies than American students, and this generally carries through when they come to college in the U.S.,” he said.

“和美国学生相比，在中国，学生被要求在学业上花多得多的时间，当他们来到美国学院读书时，通常仍保持着这一习惯。”

Chinese applicants have also been learning about Grinnell and other American colleges and universities through a popular Chinese Web site, cuus.cn — which stands for Chinese Undergraduates in the United States, but the letters are also meant to be shorthand for “See You in the U.S.”

与此同时，中国申请人们也通过一个著名的中国网站——cuus.cn——了解着关于格林奈尔以及其它的美国学院和高校。cuus代表“中国在美研究生”，同时也可以是“到美国见”的英文缩写。

“Grinnell in My Eyes,” an article written in Chinese and posted on the site by a recent graduate, is a big bouquet to the school; the writer pays tribute to Grinnell’s flexibility (“if you don’t like the current major, you may also choose independent major”) and the dining hall (“glorious French windows.”)

《我眼中的格林奈尔》，是一位新近毕业的中国留学生写在网上的中文文章。文章对这所学院高度称赞，作者夸奖了格林奈尔的灵活性——“如果你不喜欢目前的专业，你也可以选择独立的专业”——和食堂——“壮丽的法式窗户”。

If there is an attribute that American and Chinese applicants share, it may be the ardor they often demonstrate toward Grinnell and the other highly selective colleges they hope will find a place for them.

如果要说美国和中国申请人有什么相同处的话，那就是他们经常表现出的那种对于格林奈尔以及其它精挑细选希望能够进入的学院的热情。

“A girl from China called the other day after lunch, which was 2 or 3 in the morning for her,” Mr. Edwards said. “She said she was calling to make sure everything in her application was complete.”

“前几天，一个中国女生在我午饭后，也是她那里凌晨两三点时打来电话，”爱德华先生说，“她说打电话来只是为了确认下她的申请书中是否资料齐全。”

“I had to tell her to go to bed,” he said.

“我不得不对她说，去睡觉吧。”他说道。