随着新冠病毒席卷美国，关于美国大学申请的一切也受到了不同程度的影响。近日，美国各地超过300所大学的招生办主任联合发布了一份声明，陈述了他们在2021年秋季入学的申请中，期望以及不期望看到的申请内容。哈佛教育学院周一发布了这份声明，告诉学生美国大学的招生委员会对申请人最关注点是什么。具体来讲，声明中提到招生录取中学校最重视的五个要点：3、服务和对他人的贡献 Service and contributions to others4、家庭贡献Family contributions5、课外活动和暑期活动 Extracurricular and summer activities.这个声明几乎颠覆了此前的美国大学招生导向政策，也有极大的可能成为以后的招生录取标准，甚至将深远地影响未来的高等教育招生模式。不管是对于准备今年申请，还是未来即将走上申请之路的同学及同学家长来说，这些都值得大家仔细研读。下面我为大家透过表面看实质，逐一解读。
表面意思：声明中最短却最重要的一条，朴实无华的陈述出学校对申请人的殷切期望。新冠疫情给社会带来了前所未有的挑战，甚至危机。在这种全球性的危机中，学生是否能够照顾好自己，成为学校最为重视的一点。含蓄暗示：新冠病毒疫情尚未完全结束，大家要做好保护措施，身体健康，才能全心投入学习，才能提交申请及录取后顺利入学。梦想固然能筑起万丈高楼，但是身体健康才是地基，牺牲地基质量建起的高楼，无论多高，无论建的有多快，最终都将倾覆。表面意思：大学是做学术的地方，自然格外看重学生的学术表现。但在目前的疫情背景下，招生委员会在评估学生学术成就时，会把它放在整个大环境下进行考量。举例说明，录取会评估学生在疫情前和疫情后的学术成就，也就是说，要看到学生为克服困境做出的努力。另外，招生官在评估学术成就时，会放在课程、学术资源、能得到的支持等各个维度的因素上进行考量。含蓄暗示：总体来讲，这一条符合美国学校一贯的招生审核政策。以学术成就的最主要评估载体高中成绩（GPA）为例，你的GPA评估并不是单纯的看分，而是需要对照，查看你所在学校这一届学生的整体情况来判断你的优秀程度。需要记住，学术成就评估，不是直接评估你，而是评估你在你们学校处于什么样的位置/水平。同时，国内高中教学体制与方式和美国相差甚大，国际学校的教学质量又参差不齐。美国大学很大可能会在此项目中有意识的降低国内高中的评分，这也就解释了为什么美高学生录取美国名校几率更高，而国内学生更多要拼SAT的分数来体现自身的学术表现和潜力。3. 服务和对他人的贡献 Service and contributions to others表面意思：这一点是声明中阐述最多的部分。“我们不是要让学生在公共服务的“奥林匹克竞赛”中去比拼，对我们而言重要的是，学生的贡献或服务对他们和他人是否是真实的和有意义的，不管该贡献是向前线工作人员提供帮助，还是与被隔离的邻居取得联系。我们将根据学生面临的障碍来评估这些贡献和服务。”从上述声明中可以看出，招生委员会强调看重学生对社区的贡献，强调学生的参与：可以是与疫情相关的贡献，这部分范围很广，可以是普及疫情知识、病例接触追踪、帮扶老年人、帮助送餐等；也可以是与疫情无关的，譬如保护环境等。招生委员会还会评估学生在做这些服务时面临的具体的困难，学生从这些活动中学习到什么，对他/她自己、对所在社区甚至是对所属的国家的价值。含蓄暗示：不要把它看成一个推荐活动清单来看待，活动也不一定非要和疫情扯上关系。本质上来说，招生委员会是想通过你参加的课外活动来深度了解你本身的特质（整个过程往往是非常主观，快速，且常常带有偏见的），以便于预测你未来大学成功的潜力和可能性。比如，判断学生在高中阶段参加的学术活动，是否有强烈的学术欲望和学术的规划？是不是真的为了学术追求而不断挑战自我？学生是否真正的（passion）对学术有兴趣？因此，越是个性化风格突出，辨识度高的，越能体现你独特的个人品质的，再小的事情和活动都是有参与价值。4. 家庭贡献Family contributions.表面意思：很多的学生和家长，长久以来有一个申请上的误区，认为课外活动应该是那些高大上的，譬如去某个加勒比海岛保护海龟这样的活动。实际上，为家庭做贡献，比如做家务、照顾生病的亲人、打工赚钱为家里补贴家用等这样的活动，也是受到招生委员会的认可。生活在贫困家庭的孩子，能帮忙准备一日三餐，照顾兄弟姐妹，就是他/她最大的贡献。所以，在这份声明里招生委员会专门纠正了这个长久以来的误区，能在疫情期间照顾好自己的同时照顾好家人，这也是一种贡献，并且丝毫不比其他形式的贡献逊色。含蓄暗示：这个主要针对美国学生，国际学生不要太认真。你若真在申请中体现家庭贫寒，通过打工才能维持生计，你就傻逼了。这一点本质上，主要是考察学生是否具有独立性，自信心，团队合作意识以及冒险精神来判定，能否适应多元化的大学学习和生活环境。5. 课外活动和暑期活动 Extracurricular and summer activities.表面意思：疫情影响下，各种活动和比赛都被迫取消了。声明里列出这一点，是想告诉学生，你们的申请不会因为没有参加课外活动或者暑期活动而在录取时受影响。招生委员会也强调，大学招生从来没有看重某些特定的课外活动或者暑期经历，并且一直认为学生将时间用在功课和家庭责任上是非常有价值的，这点在疫情的大环境下尤其重要。含蓄暗示：这并不是一个好消息。降低亮眼的课外活动和顶级的暑校在申请中的评估权重，对于大部分中国学生而言，标化成绩反而变成一个具有唯一重要区分度的参考指标。较高的SAT或者托福分数将有助于帮助大学，快速甄别优秀的来自中国地区的学生。今年有许多因为疫情不强制要求SAT成绩的美国大学，但不代表招生官会忽略你的SAT成绩（当然考的过低就没必要提交了，只会起到反效果，可以把托福分数刷高，用以替代SAT申报）。大家要尝试理解招生官这个群体，在申请季，招生官的工作负荷和压力超乎想象，甚至赶超在金融行业里连夜奋战工作的华尔街精英们，但是拿到的报酬却远远不及后者。尽管招生委员会每一位工作人员都会尽其所能保证申请审核的过程合理，但是不排除部分带着自己固有的偏见，或者有色眼镜看待大量来自中国地区的申请者，尤其是新冠病毒肆虐、美国“黑人文化大革命“和美国总统大选混杂在一起的特殊历史背景下。招生工作并不完美，招生官也是不完美人群中的一员，在高负荷且限定时间的审理过程中，非常可预见的就是对于国际学生（尤其是中国学生）审理而言，标化成绩是众多指标之中最可信赖的决定因数，因此，有能力的学生最好还是争取考一个好的分数出来，增大自己的录取概率，疫情期间尽量少做些虚无缥缈的活动/竞赛，用高标化来重新定义你的申请价值。What We Care about in this Time of Crisis: A Collective Statement from College Admission DeansAs admission and enrollment leaders, we recognize that we and the institutions we represent send signals that can shape students’ priorities and experiences throughout high school. This collective statement seeks to clarify what we value in applicants during this time of COVID-19. We are keenly aware that students across the country and the world are experiencing many uncertainties and challenges. We primarily wish to underscore our commitment to equity, and to encourage in students self-care, balance, meaningful learning, and care for others.More specifically, we value the following:Self-care is of high importance, especially in times of crisis. We recognize that many students, economically struggling and facing losses and hardships of many kinds, are simply seeking to get by. We also recognize that this time is stressful and demanding for a wide range of students for many different reasons. We encourage all students to be gentle with themselves during this time.Your academic engagement and work during this time matters to us, but given the circumstances of many families, we recognize that many of you face obstacles to academic work. We will assess your academic achievements in the context of these obstacles. In addition, we will assess your academic achievements mainly based on your academic performance before and after this pandemic. No student will be disadvantaged because of a change in commitments or a change in plans because of this outbreak, their school’s decisions about transcripts, the absence of AP or IB tests, their lack of access to standardized tests (although many of the colleges represented here don’t require these tests) or their inability to visit campus. We will also view students in the context of the curriculum, academic resources, and supports available to them.3. Service and contributions to others.We value contributions to one’s communities for those who are in a position to provide these contributions. We recognize that while many students are not in this position because of stresses and demands, other students are looking for opportunities to be engaged and make a difference. This pandemic has created a huge array of needs, whether for tutoring, contact tracing, support for senior citizens, or assistance with food delivery. We view responding to these needs as one valuable way that students can spend their time during this pandemic.We also value forms of contribution that are unrelated to this pandemic, such as working to register voters, protect the environment, combat racial injustice and inequities or stop online harassment among peers. Our interest is not in whether students created a new project or demonstrated leadership during this period. We, emphatically, do not seek to create a competitive public service “Olympics” in response to this pandemic. What matters to us is whether students’ contribution or service is authentic and meaningful to them and to others, whether that contribution is writing regular notes to frontline workers or checking in with neighbors who are isolated. We will assess these contributions and service in the context of the obstacles students are facing. We also care about what students have learned from their contributions to others about themselves, their communities, and/or their country (Please see Turning the Tide for additional information about the kinds of contributions and service we value). No student will be disadvantaged during this time who is not in a position to provide these contributions. We will review these students for admissions in terms of other aspects of their applications.Far too often there is a misperception that high-profile, brief forms of service tend to “count” in admissions while family contributions—which are often deeper and more time-consuming and demanding—do not. Many students may be supervising younger siblings, for example, or caring for sick relatives or working to provide family income, and we recognize that these responsibilities may have increased during these times. We view substantial family contributions as very important, and we encourage students to report them in their applications. It will only positively impact the review of their application.5. Extracurricular and summer activities.No student will be disadvantaged for not engaging in extracurricular activities during this time. We also understand that many plans for summer have been impacted by this pandemic and students will not be disadvantaged for lost possibilities for involvement. Potential internship opportunities, summer jobs, camp experiences, classes, and other types of meaningful engagement have been cancelled or altered. We have never had specific expectations for any one type of extracurricular activities or summer experience and realize that each student’s circumstances allow for different opportunities. We have always considered work or family responsibilities as valuable ways of spending one’s time, and this is especially true at this time.Reporting information that is important to students and to us. We will gather information from schools themselves about curriculum and academic resources and supports, but encourage students to communicate any factors specific to their circumstances that impeded their academic performance.Those factors might include, for example, lack of access to the internet, no quiet place to study, or the various family responsibilities described above. We encourage students to describe concretely how any of these circumstances have negatively affected their academic performance or ability to engage in activities that matter to them. It is helpful to know, for example, how much time students spent per week taking on a family responsibility, such as taking care of a sick relative. This information will be treated completely confidentially.Both the Common Application and the Coalition for College application provide opportunities for students to describe how they have been impacted by the pandemic.附：粉丝福利
哈佛教育学院相关报告
本号粉丝回复“哈佛报告”即可领取哈佛大学教育学院发布的标题为“Turning the Tide, Inspiring Conern for Others and the Common Good Through College Admission”的最新报告, 该报告系本文涉及声明的理论依据，全文22页，对于希望深入了解美国高校招生理念的家庭具有较高的参考价值。
报告作者：布伦南·巴纳德（Brennan Barnard）系哈佛大学“普及关爱”项目的招生顾问，也是新罕布什尔州德里菲尔德学校（Derryfield School）的大学咨询主任。理查德·魏斯伯德（Richard Weissbourd）系“普及关爱”项目的教务主任，也是哈佛教育学院的高级讲师。罗斯·安德森（Trisha Ross Anderson）系“普及关爱”的大学招生计划主任。
相关阅读：
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美国高校招生制度的最新改革趋势
世界一流大学的学生是怎样学习的？
作者：岳锟，天道教育董事总经理。本文经作者授权发表，版权归属作者和本号联合所有。
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