如果你的申請被Yale “歧視”了 被Harvard 錄取了

來自LAB Reads 最近的一篇文章‍‍‍

Edited Mental Illness Out of My College Applications. I’m Not Alone.

By Emi Nietfeld ｜ NYT

文中談到的一個(ge) 我們(men) 申請中比較關(guan) 心的問題，在文書(shu) 裏麵要不要去涉及自己的mental illness 相關(guan) 的內(nei) 容，擴大點說就是要不要去說下自己成長路上的困難。

一般會(hui) 想要去講一些自己遇到的不容易，主要是要解釋一下個(ge) 別學期GPA 低的問題，所以這時候就會(hui) 有兩(liang) 難：不說自己的困難的話，這個(ge) GPA 說不過去；解釋了自己的困難的話，就覺得好像自己是個(ge) handle不了困境的人（因為(wei) 至少成績單上看，有困難了好像成績就差了。）‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

學校招生辦給的建議是常見的不用負責的官腔：表達你真實的自我就好； 但是太真實的自我，學校是會(hui) 怕handle 不了的。( Even if I was comfortable sharing everything, I suspected that the colleges were not comfortable hearing it. )

Officially, colleges say that students can share as much about their mental health as feels comfortable. But in practice, it seems clear that schools are nervous about accepting adolescents who divulge psychiatric histories. 

作者從(cong) 自身經曆和其他類似情況申請人身上得到的經驗‍‍‍‍‍‍

作者背景：

2009-2010 學年大學申請者，第一輪Yale 被拒，後修改文書(shu) ，錄取Harvard College ‍‍‍

作者申請時候的情況

在 Common Application 裏有點為(wei) 難要不要寫(xie) 上自己的mental health 的情況  

I wasn’t worried about my grades or extracurriculars. Instead, I agonized over a dilemma that’s familiar to more students than ever as the Common Application deadline looms: What should I disclose about my mental health? 

案例：

在第一輪的時候作者在Yale 的文書(shu) 裏麵，直白的說了自己成長路上家庭帶來的mental 問題，強調了自己目前情緒已經穩定。‍‍

... when I applied to Yale early, I attached a timeline detailing my mom’s hoarding and my overmedication, culminating with me regaining my emotional stability as a scholarship student at boarding school.

被拒。然後作者學校的申請顧問和作者找的校外顧問都問了下Yale 招生辦，招生辦表示因為(wei) 招過類似的，後來情況比較嚴(yan) 重，所以不敢再招了。

I was rejected. My school guidance counselor called Yale’s admissions office and relayed to me that though my grades and test scores were similar to other applicants’, as she put it in an email to me, “regarding the past issues, the list was daunting.” Dr. Kat also queried her network and surmised that Yale wanted to minimize its risk after several high-profile on-campus suicides of college students around the country. “It was just T.M.I.,” she told me — too much information.

這個(ge) 故事有意思的地方是，這篇文章不是要發表NYT 嘛，所以NYT 就得出麵求證Yale，然後下麵是Yale 目前的招生辦的回複

A spokeswoman for Yale this month said in a statement to The New York Times that she could not discuss my case because admission files are confidential. But she did say,“This account of an admissions decision from over a decade ago is at odds with our admissions practices and philosophy,” adding that Yale’s admissions process is “holistic.”

首先，出於(yu) 對於(yu) 申請者隱私的保護，所以不能細談具體(ti) 的申請情況（這個(ge) 理由有點太敷衍了，現在是申請人自己想了解啊，你談“隱私”？？？）。

然後，沒有給任何證據的情況下原地反駁：“你們(men) 描述的情況和我們(men) Yale 的招生原則不一致”。（態度到是滿滿的，證據是一點都沒有啊...）

回到作者的申請。‍

吸取第一輪Yale 的教訓以後，在第二輪的時候，作者把mental illness相關(guan) 的部分去掉了。

For my next round of applications, I wrote a simple explanation for why I had changed schools and thereby excised three years of my life: the diagnoses, the drugs, the self-inflicted scars. I became a parallel person who’d gone through the same things but come out unscathed. I hit “submit,” applying to 10 schools, including Harvard.

然後四月一日，Harvard 錄取

But after three months of nightmares, on April 1, 2010, I got into Harvard.

作者對於(yu) 申請的總結

I sensed that colleges wanted a pristine survivor who was not marred by trauma. 

下麵是作者對於(yu) 其他類似情況申請人的采訪：

同學： Jaimi Salone

背景：現就讀於(yu) Stanford （now in their final quarter at Stanford）

案例：去掉了12年級時候住院的部分

In their essay, they wrote frankly about depression, anxiety and shame after their mom’s cancer diagnosis and eventual death — providing context for why they “did not look like what was expected of a Stanford admit,” with a 3.06 G.P.A. and many absences. But at the suggestion of their college counselor, they omitted their sophomore-year hospitalization.

其它從(cong) 這篇文中了解到的：

1. 美國高中一位升學顧問的學生接待量

+ 公立學校一般是 1: 400-800

Even at Ms. Suo’s affluent suburban school, a single counselor could juggle more than 400 students at a time. 

...

At the time, a single guidance counselor was assisting 800 students with everything from class scheduling to college counseling. [rural Tennessee 的一所公立學校]

+ 私立學校（文中提到的是prep schools）是 1:30‍

Meanwhile, prep schools often employ former admissions officers as counselors, with caseloads closer to 30 students. 

2. 校外顧問的申請費用：

2009年的時候是 $16,000

The pro bono services I received would’ve cost more than $16,000 in 2009 dollars.