升学顾问到底是不是刚需：一个美国高知家庭的升学故事

As I watched my friends with teenagers begin the college search process, I quietly judged those who hired a college admissions adviser. Certainly the admissions process is hard, but hiring someone to help your kid through the process? That’s something that “those” parents do, and we were not going to be those parents.

我身边有些朋友的孩子到了十几岁的年纪，开始经历申请大学的过程，我便也悄悄审视起那些聘用了升学顾问的父母。毫无疑问招生过程很艰难，但是雇人来帮助你的孩子顺利过关？那是“某些”家长才会做的事，而我们不会成为那样的父母。

Those are the parents, I assumed, who will spare no expense, effort, or browbeating to get their precious flower into a “good” college. The parents for whom “good college” means Ivy League, or at the very least, Amherst or Williams.

“那种”家长，我认为，是一些为了能把他们的宝贝孩子送进一所“好”大学而不遗余力、不计代价的人。而对他们而言，“好”大学意味着藤校，或者最起码也得是艾姆赫斯特学院或者威廉姆斯学院。

And then it was my son’s junior year, and there we were, writing a check to an advising company. I was more than a little embarrassed. Apparently, we are those parents.

然而后来当我的儿子升入高二，我们也开始忙着给申校咨询公司写支票了。这令我尴尬得不得了。显然，我们也成为了“那种”家长。

My husband and I have taken pride in not being overbearing helicopter parents. Our son Charlie has made it easy for us. He does very well in school and challenges himself, even without inheriting his parents’ perfectionism, so that we’ve never had to push or hover. He has attended our local public schools and we trust that they have given him a strong enough education and an excellent foundation.

我丈夫和我一直对我们并非是专制的“直升机父母”引以为豪。我们的儿子查理让这一点变得很容易实现。尽管没有继承我们的完美主义，他还是在学校表现优异、积极进取，这使我们根本不需要督促他学习。他就读于我们当地的一所公立学校，我们自认为已经给了他足够好的教育，打下了坚实的基础。

I did get a little nuts when Charlie was a freshman and couldn’t summon much interest in extracurricular activities. There may have been an outburst of “but you won’t be able to go to college!” It wasn’t my finest moment. Eventually he found activities that inspired him: Ultimate Frisbee, Key Club, volunteering at the food bank, balancing a healthy dose of video games and Snapchatting.

查理入学第一年的时候对课外活动兴趣缺缺，这一点的确令我有点抓狂。我可能冲他吼过“但你这样根本去不了大学啊！”这肯定不是我状态最佳的时刻。最终他找到了兴趣所在：极限飞盘，同青社领导力社团，在“食物银行”赈济处志愿服务，以及合理平衡好打游戏和使用社交网络的时间。

When it came time for him to apply to college, I assumed we were savvy enough to help him make his way through the application process. We had friends to guide us, and I’ve worked a little in college admissions, so I knew what was what. Charlie was realistic in his plans: an engineering program at a large university. No ivies, no small liberal arts colleges. We could do this.

当轮到查理申请大学时，我认为我们都有足够的知识能力帮助他顺利达成申请过程。我们有朋友咨询引导，我自己也曾短暂就职于高校招生部门，所以也对此较为了解。查理对他的目标也很实际：在一个大的综合型院校选择一个工程学项目。不申藤校，不申小型文理学院。这些我们完全可以办到。

At the suggestion of a friend, we consulted an adviser on some financial aid questions. That was to be it, but we were quickly wooed by everything the advising company had to offer. This wasn’t a guarantee of an admissions letter to Harvard or Yale. It was guidance in finding the right fit in a college, both academically and financially, so Charlie would graduate on the right track and without significant debt. They clearly knew where our soft spots were.

在一位朋友的建议下，我们就助学金问题咨询了一位升学顾问。这是我们起初想做的，但很快我们就陷入了招生咨询公司所提供的其他业务中。这并非一份你可以进入哈佛耶鲁的保证。它的作用在于综合考量学术和经济因素，引导你找到自己最适合的大学。这样查理在大学毕业的时候将不必承受沉重的贷款负担，而且能够念适合他的专业方向。显然这些升学顾问很清楚我们的软肋在哪。

In spite of our bravura, we had been in denial. We didn’t know what we were doing in the admissions process. I had applied to exactly one college. I knew I would get in, I did, and I went there. There were no college visits (I had been visiting my siblings at the school for years), no application essay and no interview. My husband did the whole shebang: long college road trips, selective private colleges, essays and interviews. He ended up at an excellent college, but it was never really a good fit — too conventional for an eccentric, nerdy artist.

除了找升学顾问这一勇敢尝试，我们一直在举步不前。我们并不清楚在录取过程中我们究竟应该做些什么。我自己只申请过一所大学。我知道我肯定能上，我的确被录取了，我后来也去了这所学校就读。我们并没有大学参观访问（我其实去这所学校拜访了我的兄弟姐们好几年），没有申请文书也没有面试。不过我的丈夫经历了这整个过程：长途的访校旅行，精挑细选的私立学校，准备申请文书和面试。他最终进了一所顶尖大学，但后来证明并不真正适合他——对一个行为古怪又书生气十足的的艺术家来说，这所学校太保守了。

So we have jumped into this advising process to have someone hold our hands and keep us from second, third and fourth guessing ourselves. Someone else can give Charlie feedback on his essay (as a writer, I try to stay as far away from his work as possible), tell him whether he should retake any of the tests, tell him he should take A.P. English rather than regular. Someone else can get him to consider schools he has never heard of, hear him in ways that we can’t, and encourage more self-discovery. More important, someone else can give him deadlines and take over the nudging.

所以我们最终还是决定找升学顾问，为了能有人握着我们的手给我们信心，免得我们再三怀疑自己。能有其他人对于查理的申请文书作出反馈指导（作为一名作家，我一直尽可能保持距离避免干涉他的写作），告诉他是否应该再多考几次试刷分，告诉他他应该参加AP英语考试而非常规的考试。有人可以帮他去考虑一些他之前没听过的学校，用我们无法做到的方式与他沟通，鼓励他进一步探寻真正的自我。更重要的是，能有其他人给他定下截止日期并接过原本由我负责的督促他的工作了。

Shortly after we signed up, Charlie had a long meeting with one of the advisers, to talk about his major and career interests, how he learned best, and what kind of environment he liked. In that time, the adviser convinced Charlie that engineering may be far too rigid a major and field for him. Even though he loves math and physics, he is also fascinated with history, politics, economics and world events. This is the kid who started teaching himself German when he was 14, has memorized every world capital, and could talk for hours about the battle of Stalingrad. The adviser suggested international studies. While Charlie was interested in engineering, he is giddy about this idea. Immediately after this meeting, my husband quipped, “I think we just got our money’s worth.”

我们签约后不久，查理就与我们的其中一位顾问进行了一次长谈，探讨他的专业与职业兴趣，他怎样能学得最好，以及他喜欢什么样的环境。在那段时间，这位顾问说服查理相信工程学这个专业或者领域对他而言过于死板僵化了。尽管他热爱数学核物理，他也同时被历史、政治、经济和国际新闻大事所深深吸引。毕竟这是个14岁起就能自学德语，记住了世界上所有国家的首都，并能对斯大林格勒战役滔滔不绝地讲上四个小时的孩子。招生顾问向他推荐了国际学研究专业。虽然查理对工程学很有兴趣，这个新建议也令他变得犹豫不决起来。这次会面一结束，我丈夫就讽刺道，“我想我们刚刚得到这笔钱花出去的值了。”

It is still early in the process. We have to get through many, many visits, essays, applications, interviews, more visits and financial aid forms. When I’ve sheepishly mentioned to friends that we’re working with an adviser, they haven’t judged; they’ve asked for the contact information. I won’t know for a long time (if ever) whether hiring the advisers was worth it, or whether we’ll all come through with our sanity intact.

现在，我们仍处于整个申校过程的初期。我们将会经历很多很多的学校参观，面对成堆的文书和申请材料，面试，还有更多的访问和助学金申请表。当我羞怯地像朋友们提及我们找了升学顾问的事，他们并没因此批判我，而是向我要了联系方式。我也许在之后相当长的时间里（或许永远）都不会知道雇佣一个升学顾问究竟值不值得，也或许我们都能做到凭借自己原有的才智就能完成这个过程。

Then we can decide whether to take this route with our younger son. Fortunately, we have four more years of denial before we have to decide.

之后我们就可以和查理一起决定他是否要走上国际学研究这条道路了。幸运的是，在作出最终决定前我们仍有四年时间可以反悔。

注：来源 |《纽约时报》

关于睿智国际教育（Insight Education）

睿智国际教育（InsightEducation）由孙颖博士创立。孙博士旅居美国多年，约翰霍普金斯大学教育学院校友（综合排名全美第十，教育学专业全美第一），获美国教师资格证。在美国马里兰州著名的Walt Whitman 高中执教（科学）多年，是国内少有的获得美国独立教育顾问协会（IECA）认证的美国升学顾问。

孙博士长期工作在美国高中教学和升学辅导的第一线，对美国升学指导、活动规划、大学申请，文书写作等方面有独特的见解和丰富的经验，擅长发掘学生的独特的特点与优势，鼓励并激发孩子的潜能，帮助孩子制定个性化的美国升学规划，并指导其成功申请，是目前国内少有的熟悉美国教育体系的美国大学升学专家。   

多年来，孙博士亲自拜访美国多所高校，参加各类国际中大教育会议，如美国国际学生教育协会年会（NationalAssociationof Foreign Student Affairs，简称NAFSA)、美国独立教育咨询顾问协会（Independent Educational Consultant Association，简称 IECA）年会、美国大学录取咨询协会 (NationalAssociation of College Admission Counseling, 简称NACAC）年会等， 及时掌握美国大学招生录取最新动态和进展，获取最新信息，并和招生官建立联系，从而为学生提供最专业的咨询和辅导，曾指导学生升入美国多所著名高校。

在创办睿智国际教育（InsightEducation）之前，孙博士已从事国内外教育和管理16年，曾任职于多家国内外等著名教育、科研机构。凭着她丰富的国内外学习和工作经验，以及对中西方教学体系、教育模式和国际化教学的深刻理解，她能从专业的眼光，帮助您规划孩子未来在美国的教育和培养，为您的孩子提供最专业及个性化的国际教育升学指导，并取得成功。

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