助力留学申请，或许你该开一个LinkedIn账号

Chinese students applying to Western universities have a higher burden of proof when it comes to convincing admissions officers that you and your application are authentic. Why? Several reasons:

中国学生申请西方高校时，总会面临比他人更大的一项负担——让招生官相信你的申请材料时真实的。为什么呢？原因如下：

1. 

Many of the “social proof” indicators that can help admissions officers investigate the background of an applicant are not available in China—Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, etc.

招生官有时会通过Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube这些社交平台来调查学生的背景（想不到吧，确实有很多招生官会这样做？），但这些平台往往在中国都不可用。

2.     

Most instances of cheating on standardized tests like SAT, ACT, or TOEFL (you know, like when an entire group of students’ SAT scores get canceled because cheating was discovered?) occur in Southeast Asian test locations.

许多SAT、ACT和TOEFL等标化考试的作弊现象（比如有些地方整场的考试被取消）都发生在东南亚地区。

3.

China is known for having a huge and very advanced application agency industry, and many of those agents write the entire application for students.

招生官都清楚中国有非常庞大的留学中介产业，许多中介会帮学生写全部的申请材料。

4.

The Chinese language barrier! Unlike international applicants from English-speaking countries like Canada, the UK, Australia, or even Singapore, it’s impossible to search for details about a student in a country as large as China and that uses Chinese characters on websites.

汉语障碍。与来自加拿大、英国、澳大利亚、甚至新加坡的申请人不同，招生官不可能用汉字在中文网站上搜索每个学生的情况。

5.

Not all Chinese high schools are known to admissions officers, even some of the really good ones. As you know, China is a very big country, so it’s almost impossible to know details about every high school in China, which means it’s sometimes difficult to know if your GPA is from legitimate schoolwork or some kind of grade manipulation.

招生官并不了解所有的中国高中，哪怕顶尖的也有不知道的。中国是个大国，要想了解每所高中的具体情况根本不可能。所以你的GPA的价值，以及是否存在造假的可能，就很难判断了。

All of these factors put Chinese students at a higher risk of some unlucky Chinese students not being taken seriously by an admissions officer.

这些因素会让中国学生面临更高的风险——招生官没有认真对待你的申请。

About 36% of university admissions officers in the United States admitted in a recent survey that they search for applicants’ social media accounts and other online evidence about applicants. My guess is that the number is much higher than 36%, but even if it’s not, that’s still a big number!

大约36%的美国高校招生官在近期的调查中承认，他们会搜索申请人的社交网络账号和其他线上的证明。个人感觉，这个数字可能没有36%这么高，但即便如此，也不可小觑。

But a Chinese student applicant is almost unsearchable, unless he/she attended high school in the U.S. and established accounts while there or was written about in their school or local newspaper. But there is one way you can make yourself searchable in a way that makes you look good and also can potentially give you early access to fellow students who are already at your dream school.

不过，中国学生基本上都是搜不到的，除非他在美国读高中，或者他们的高中设立了社交账号。但是有一种方法是你自己可以做的，并且能让你和梦校的学生提前接触到。

Beginning this year, every CourseWest student will be given the option to have a LinkedIn profile created for them. This will give students a full six months or more to begin crafting their student image on LinkedIn by highlighting accomplishments, joining groups that demonstrate your interests and talents, writing LinkedIn articles that demonstrate your writing skills and ambition, and other ways to give college admissions officers a clearer picture of who you are.

从今年开始，我们会帮助每个CourseWest的学生建立一个领英账号（LinkedIn）。学生可以有半年的时间，经营领英账号，展示自己的成就，并加入各种线上组织，展示自己的兴趣爱好和才能。学生还可以在网上发表文章，展示自己的写作技能。这样，招生官可以通过这些渠道了解更全面的信息。

In fact, just having a professional looking photo for admissions officers to look can help you build trust with them and help them visualize whatever story you choose to tell in your personal statement. One study by an American job recruiting company that 41% of companies will try to look at an applicant’s photo before a job interview. Imagine how much more you would trust a stranger you’re about to meet if you could actually see their face beforehand.

实际上，哪怕只放一张职业照，都可以增加招生官对你的信任，帮助他们脑补你在个人陈述中提到的内容。最近一项研究显示，41%的企业会在面试前看一下申请人的照片。想象一下，你在见陌生人之前，如果看到他们的照片是不是也会增加信任感呢？

Every student wants to provide as much information as possible in their college applications. In fact, many of our students CommonApp essays every year will use exactly 650 words. It’s often very difficult to choose which experience from your life you want to talk about in your application. But by having a LinkedIn profile, you can write articles to share your perspective on different hot topics or demonstrate your interest and knowledge in various subjects that you might not have a chance to include in your application. Of course, there is no guarantee that admissions officers will read your LinkedIn article or even scan your profile, but imagine if you are one of those students on the bubble and admissions officers are trying to decide whether you or another student should get accepted, wouldn’t it be tempting for them to check out your LinkedIn profile that you included a link for in your application?

每个学生都想在申请时提供尽可能多的信息。事实上，每年我们的学生在写CommonApp的文书时，都会写满650字。选择哪段经历写进文书里总是非常艰难。但是有了领英的简历，你可以在上面分享一切你感兴趣，但是又无法写进申请材料里的话题。当然，不是说招生官一定会阅读你的领英资料，但设想一下，假如招生官真的在将你和其他学生进行比较，然后选择一人录取，此时他们会不会更想看一下你的领英网呢？

So, before you start working on your applications this summer and fall, consider creating a LinkedIn profile for yourself. You can even learn how to use LinkedIn via this great (and free) Coursera Course: https://www.coursera.org/projects/create-a-profile-and-network-on-linkedin

因此，在今年夏秋季的申请开始之前，不妨先考虑创建一个领英账户。这里有一个Coursera的免费课程，可以教你如何使用领英网：https://www.coursera.org/projects/create-a-profile-and-network-on-linkedin

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