Every year, the Harvard Crimson newspaper interviews freshmen and publishes freshman portraits of current students, and many parents will use them as a typical portrait of elite students.
In the portrait of the 2027 (class of 2023) freshmen released by Harvard in November last year, there is such a data, in terms of extracurricular activities, 70.3% of the admitted students have participated in community activities, 53.0% have sports activities, and the rest have student unions, music clubs, science and other clubs, academic competitions, visual arts activities, etc., almost every student has participated in several different extracurricular activities at the same time, once again making parents aware of the universality of extracurricular activities among students admitted to prestigious schools:
图源：The Harvard Crimson
Some people may wonder, such a picture can't show that the results of the paper can't be applied to the Ivy League?
Let's take a look at another data, in the portrait of freshmen, 47% of students said that their grades were in the top 2% of their class, another 35% said that they were not ranked in high school (it does not mean that their grades were not excellent), 90% of the respondents had completed calculus AB or calculus BC, and no less than 35% of students had completed math classes at the level of calculus or above.
Really mentioning the results is just the threshold for participating in the Ivy League application game with other students, and in the competition of Chinese students, the most important thing is the test god, what is the result of the light roll results, the domestic postgraduate entrance examination has already given the answer, so if you want to be admitted to the big U, how should you go to the paper? What posture should you use to roll? How can you get an efficient roll?
Today, let's talk about how "activities" other than grades affect the Big U application.
01 Specifically, how does the admissions officer admit students?
Regarding the admission preferences of top universities, media such as "The Washington Post" and "Business Insider" often interview college admissions officers.
So to the point, what can you do to impress admissions officers?
Source: Pixabay
There are many different perspectives. To start with the mysteries, Dartmouth's admissions officers will analyze the student's personality, whether they are arrogant, mean, and selfish, or charming, funny, and generous, to make a choice, to the effect that it is not enough to be smart in a top institution, and the student's background will also determine what they will contribute to this society with their intelligence.
After all, from childhood to adulthood in the curriculum system, children have to be obedient, abide by the rules of the school, learn school knowledge and explore problem-solving skills to get a high score, if someone proposes that parents should let their children spend time and energy to socialize, do activities, and cultivate character, many parents are estimated to feel "too fake" and "space".
It's a pity that in overseas U admissions, this also has a great impact on the future growth of students, and it is a major condition for the admission factors.
Source: Pixabay
For example, Stanford's admissions officer said that when reading student applications, there are two marks: one is "SP" (standard positive), which means that the student is excellent, the application is generally promising, and meets the passing criteria, and the other is "angular", which means that the student is different and stands out from many applicants, and the latter is the student that the school wants to admit.
It can be understood that there has always been no shortage of "excellent students" in prestigious schools, and "outstanding" and "unique" are the core competitiveness of individuals.
Brown University evaluators also provide you with a figure that reads 5 applications per hour, and the application materials, standardized test scores, transcripts, personal statements, and supplemental essays must be read in just 12 minutes.
Therefore, parents are accustomed to thinking about the "sea of questions tactic" that mixes any activity, which is not in line with the taste of Big U, they prefer students with outstanding personalities and clear goals, because these students know better what they want to do.
02 Become a special person, art and design students are probably no strangers
As mentioned before, in the admission data of Cornell University, the financial admission threshold is roughly SAT1550, TOEFL 117, GPA4.0, and architecture majors are SAT1500, TOEFL 105, and GPA3.7.
But looking back at the admission criteria of the admissions officer, art design is not so much a "low threshold admission" as "one more comprehensive evaluation factor".
Source: Pixabay
Domestic education, we are too accustomed to the "exam" to determine the winner, the high score can go to Qingbei, which does maintain the fairness of the college entrance examination, so many people when applying for foreign institutions, will subconsciously embezzle this "fairness" to foreign institutions, thinking that I can enter a prestigious school with a high grade.
But that's a different grading system, and even those who study abroad for graduate school are not necessarily young men in their 20s, especially in art academies, but more people in their 40s and 50s come to graduate school -- what does this mean? This is the difference between Chinese and Western values in terms of educational values.
For example, Chinese students are accustomed to studying directly for graduate school without employment, and foreign universities prefer to recruit people with work experience; Chinese universities have the opportunity to go to prestigious universities if they have high enough scores, and it does not matter if foreign universities have high scores, internship activities, social practice, sports competitions, and life hobbies will become assessment factors.
Including Kang Shi Shi owner H· ART won the Harvard offer of D classmate, she has been interested in environmental protection since she was very young, she participated in not to mention a thousand but also a hundred activities, saw a variety of environmental protection models and produced her own opinions, in addition to compulsory courses during college, many electives are leaning in the direction of environmental protection, and later she won the design research major offer, which is a major with a high degree of relevance to environmental protection.
D同学 获 哈佛 Master in Design 宾大 Master of Landscape Architecture 哥大 M.S. Architecure and Urban Design offer
During the review, student D mentioned that there were many applicants in their class with a GPA as high as 4.0 (full grade), although at first glance her 3.88/4.0 GPA is not low, but it can only be said to be in the top 10% of the class, and in her personal opinion, the core competitiveness that really belongs to her is "consistent", that is, as a consistent person, she still cares about environmental protection for many years, so she has been favored by Harvard, Pennsylvania, and Columbia.
03 Back to the topic, how to prepare
To summarize the success path of student D, it is cheesy to say "creating a person", telling the admissions officer what you love, why you are willing to contribute, and showing your enthusiasm and determination.
If this is left in China, it is actually what the graduate school entrance examination and the tutor talk about in the 1-2 minute interview, which is not very important.
But for these big U tutors at Harvard, it's different, and their whole mental journey is probably as follows:
Look at your transcript: Oh, that's good.
Look at your paperwork: Well, there are thoughts, but is she telling the truth?
Look at your portfolio: interesting, I like it, but is this her own work?
Look at your undergraduate compulsory elective courses: God, in addition to repairing professional courses, she also chose so many environmental protection related courses, yes, the essay was written by her, and the depth of research is still good.
Look at your hundreds of practical activities and summaries: this portfolio must be completed by herself, with love and action, such students I like!
Look at the internship again: on the way to pursue personal hobbies, business thinking is also there, record!
This year, Kang Shi Shi Dongjia-H· ART launches a new internship program
【H· ART Internship丨Huawei, Tencent, Byte, Apple, Microsoft, NetEase, LVMH, Mercedes-Benz Official Internship!
You can contact Kang Shishi to register
Big U has never hidden his ambitions, and often on the school's homepage or new majors, you can see ambitious words such as "people who change the world" and "lead the development of the industry", and they always want people who have their own ideas and are unique.
Grades, skills, and professionalism only prove that "I have the ability to do well/execute this", and recruiting a "senior worker" is not the purpose of Big U.
康石石东家H· ART学员D同学 获 哥大 Advanced Architectural Design MS 圣路易斯华盛顿大学 Architecture MArch offer
In the employment reports of British graduates, universities such as Birmingham, Manchester and Nottingham are most popular among employers, rather than Oxbridge, because the missions of the two are different:
图源：《The Graduate Market in 2024》
Finally, I would like to share what Shi Yigong, former vice president of Tsinghua University and president of Westlake University, said in his speech, what is the mission of a famous university:
Source: China Science and Technology
Finally, if you are interested in sprinting to famous schools, studying abroad, or have more questions about postgraduate entrance examinations, art design, portfolio creation, and Shenbo, please contact Mr. Kang Shishi.