美国大学的奇葩申请文书主题：不明觉厉~有木有？

2017-06-28 作者： 212阅读

文书写作应该是申请过程中最令学生头疼的问题，大部分中国学生经过一段时间培训后，在和这种标准化的考试中凭借英语基础以及各种解题技巧能取得一个不错的成绩，但是碰到没有标准答案的开放式的文书写作题目会发现自己无从下笔，再加上有些学校的文书题目极为怪异，有时连题目的主旨可能都难以解析。马上开始准备申请的学生还有家长，让我们一起来看看你们在接下来的申请过程中会遇到些什么奇葩的文书题目吧。

以理工科和怪异的校园建筑著称于世的MIT，其文书题目倒是显得稀松平常，让学生描述自己来自于什么样的环境，这样的环境是如何塑造自己的，以及面对过的最大的挑战是什么自己又是如何来处理的。这样的题目你在申请大学时，百分之百会遇到!早早的开始思考吧!

MIT:

奇葩指数1.0

此外，斯坦福还要求学生给未来的室友写一封信，帮助室友进一步了解你;还需要让申请者用250个单词回答一个看上去很宏大的主题：什么对你是最重要的，以及为什么?

What historical moment or event do you wish you couldhavewitnessed? (50 word limit。)Stanford studentspossess an intellectual vitality. Rlect onan idea or experience that has beenimportant to your intellectualdevelopment. (250 word limit。)Virtually all of Stanford s undergraduates live on campus.Write anote to your future roommate that reveals something aboutyou or that will helpyour roommate -- and us -- know you better。(250 wordlimit。)What matters to you, and why? (250 word limit。)

加州理工十分强调自己的荣誉制度，即任何人都不应该不公平地利用他人，看上去很简单的原则，学校需要申请者根据自己的切身经历过的道德两难情景以回应这个问题。此外，加州理工还为自己学生群体古怪的幽默感和有创造性的恶作剧推崇备至，要求申请者讲讲自己有哪些不正常的寻开心的法子。推荐申请人查查历史上加州理工和麻省理工的互相攻击的恶作剧大战应该会有启发。

T恤就会发现T恤的背面印有 becausenoteverybody can go toCaltech(因为不是所有人都能进Caltech) 的嘲讽话语。

1.Members of the Caltech community live, learn, andworkwithin an Honor System with one simple guideline; No member shalltakeunfair advantage of any other member of the Caltechcommunity. Whileseemingly simple, questions of ethics, honestyand integrity are sometimeschallenging. Share an ethical dilemmathat has challenged you. How did yourespond? Your response is notlimited to academic situations. (100 words max)

奇葩指数2.0

等我当上了教授一定给学生上堂这样的课，绝对妥妥的!

Imagine you are a professor, charged with teaching anewcourse. Emory University offers over 1,000 courses in a wide rangeofacademic subjects. You are free to choose whatever subject youwant. What classwould you create? What would you hope studentswould leave your class havinglearned? (Don t forget to includeyour class title!) (250 word limit)

被誉为大众情人校，因为其EA阶段的申请人数量庞大，在中国地区的招生也较为宽松，但UVa的文书看上去也不是那么容易搞定哦。第一个题目就有点让人云里雾里，2006年一位名为RobertStilling的研究生在UVA的一所图书馆发现了著名诗人罗伯特福斯特的一篇未发表的诗歌，那你的Stilling时刻是在什么时候呢?

第三题则更加无厘头，将莎士比亚的名句To be or not to be改为To tweet or not totweet?可中国申请者根本就Tweet不了啊!

UVA

奇葩指数3.0

下面是推特的广告时间：

1. What outrages you? What are you doingabout it?Tell us about a time when you stepped up against anoutrage in your community。(150 words maximum)

3. Some say social media is superficial, withno roomfor expressing deep or complex ideas. We challenge you tody these skeptics bydescribing yourself as fully and accuratelyas possible in the 140-characterlimit of a tweet。

5. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, If I knowyoursect, I anticipate your argument. Describe a time when yourargumentchallenged a basic beli or viewpoint of your sect. (150words maximum)

不仅在文书内容上推陈出新，还在形式上给学生更多空间。申请者可以通过散文、视频、电子文件等来回答该问题如果你不讲述真实的自己你也不能认识其他的人。第四题用口号式的方式要求申请者：大大方方得向我们展示你书呆子的一面吧!中国学生会不会见到这一题之后喜大普奔呢?塔夫斯不仅有书呆子的一面哦，被华盛顿邮报评为2013年最讨厌的缩写词：YOLO(Youonly live once你只会活一次)也成了文书题目，你是如何看待这句带有及时行乐意味的流行语呢?

A) If you do not tell the truth about yourself youcannottell it about other people, Virginia Woolf. Respond to Woolf squote in the medium of yourchoice: prose, video (one minute)， blog, digital portfolio, slampoetry... For media other thanwriting, pleaseshare a link (video can be submitted via YouTube but werecommendusing a privacy setting) that is easily accessible。

C) Sports, science and society are filled with rules,theoriesand laws like the Ninth Commandment, PV=nRT, Occam s Razor, and TheLawof Diminishing Returns. Three strikes and you re out. I bore E exceptafter C。 Warm air rises. Pick one and explainitssignificance to you.

E) The ancient Romans started it when they coined thephrase Carpe diem. Jonathan Larson proclaimed No day buttoday! andmost recently, Drake explained You Only Live Once(YOLO). Have you ever seized the day? Lived like therewas no tomorrow? Or perhaps you plan to shoutYOLO while jumping into something in thuture. What does #YOLOmean to you?

北卡罗莱那大学倾向于用一些小问题来折磨你，比如你希望在彩虹之后发现什么?如果你能穿越到任何时空，你会去哪儿为什么?你的主题曲是什么?切片面包之后的最佳事物是什么?你最珍贵的财产是啥?你最希望拥有的超能力是什么?你想发明什么小玩意?

Most of us have one or more personality quirks. Explainone ofyours and what it says about you. What do you hope to find over therainbow?Why do you do what you do?If you could travel anywhere in time orspace, either real orimagined, where would you go and why?Tell us about a timewhen your curiosity led you someplace youweren t expecting to go.My themesong:Best thing since sliced bread:My most treasured possession:Super power I dmost like to have:Gadget that needs inventing:Biggest little worry:

Boston College

奇葩指数5

U Chicago

2.In a famous quote by Jos Ortega y Gasset,the Spanish philosopher proclaims, Yo soy yo y mi circunstancia (1914). Jos Quintans, master of the Biological Sciences Collegiate Division atthe University of Chicago, sees it another way: Yo soy yo y mimicrobioma (2012). You are you and your..? -Maria Viteri, Class of 2016

4.The mantis shrimp can perceive bothpolarized light and multispectral images; they have the most complex eyes inthe animal kingdom. Human eyes have color receptors for three colors (red,green, and blue); the mantis shrimp has receptors for sixteen types of color,enabling them to see a spectrum far beyond the capacity of the human brain.Seriously, how cool is the mantis shrimp: mantisshrimp.uchicago.edu What mightthey be able to see that we cannot? What are we missing? -Tess Moran, Classof

6.In the spirit of adventurous inquiry, posea question of your own. If your prompt is original and thoughtful, then youshould have little trouble writing a great essay. Draw on your best qualitiesas a writer, thinker, visionary, social critic, sage, citizen of the world, orfuture citizen of the University of Chicago; take a little risk, and have fun。