斯坦福全奖？集齐牛津等12所高校Offer的学姐竟然分享了她的原版申请文书？| Sparking L...
我们向已从SKT各项活动生态中毕业的你，已收到令人心动的大学Offer的你，已在大学就读和职场中探索的你发出分享邀请，一起聊聊这些年的成长时光。
USAD Alumni来了！
你的学姐已上线@Helen Deng
接下来...
请欣赏OFFER合集
👇🏻
（向上滑动启阅）
Congratulation!🎉
”
Alumni Profile /学姐档案
姓名：Helen Deng
所在学校: 重庆某普高国际部
录取学校:
- 斯坦福大学全奖(哲学)
- 牛津大学(PPE)
- 芝加哥大学(经济)
- ⻄北大学(经济)
- 莱斯大学(工程学院)
- 乔治城大学(商学院)
- 加州大学洛杉矶分校
- 加州大学圣地亚哥分校
- 弗吉尼亚大学
- 伦敦大学学院
- 爱丁堡大学
- 伦敦国王学院
相关语言成绩：托福 116，SAT1570
GPA:年级前5%
录取阶段：均RD
SKT生态内的活动经历
2020 年学术十项全能(Scholastic Category，Division III): USAD 个人总分第一
· USAD 团队全国第六
· USAD Essay 学科金奖
· USAD Science 学科金奖
· USAD Music 学科金奖
· USAD Art 学科金奖
· USAD Social Science学科铜奖
”
做一个
勇敢直面悲剧的英雄
接下来请观摩Helen学姐
「芝加哥大学」申请文书节选
👇🏻
01
“I think, therefore I am.” The Eureka moment where Descartes outwitted the Evil Genius, the
seemingly beautiful entailment of being from consciousness, to me, however, is an inescapable trap, like the luring forbidden apples presented by the serpent, bringing tragedy to the Adams and Eves who have fallen for it:
He who has tasted the forbidden fruit is vulnerable. The self-aware Adam revealed his nakedness, his need to toil and struggle to eat, and his future destiny of one day returning to dust. He hides behind a bush, trying to shield his terrible vulnerability and hide away from the haunting troubles.
He who has tasted the forbidden fruit is separated from the pure and unadulterated form. No longer can Adam use a magnetic sense like whales to migrate, but must rely on a compass. Without instinctual resources at his disposal, he is left to be calculating and cold to survive.
He who has tasted the forbidden fruit is now deafened to the whispers of nature. Trails of stars and chirping of birds are nothing but gibberish if not interpreted and translated with Adam’s power of deduction and induction. Nature’s authentic messages, however, are distorted during translation, and Adam is pained by the distance between nature in its true form and his perception of it.
Adam cannot uneat the apple, just as knowledge cannot be unlearned, and a conscious mind cannot return to innocence. Once established, consciousness becomes like the eternal and unchanging Platonic forms—a transcendent precondition for living and a binding curse.
Expulsion of Adam and Eve | painting by Masaccio
02
Tragedy evokes awe for an entity much bigger than ourselves:
Perhaps it's the progression of history, relentlessly crushing over every civilian and emperor under its wheels. In 'Where is Armo? ', the weeping motif of strings alludes to history as waves of an ocean and figures in history mere particles of sand—nothing but powerless when facing a wave. The young Puyi, last emperor of the Middle Kingdom, desperately chanted 'Armo! Armo!' while running towards his wet nurse. Even holding the highest of positions, he cannot stop Armo from leaving, just as he cannot hold together the Qing dynasty, then crippling slowly but steadily.
Perhaps it's the magnificence of the cosmos. Our technology limits us from exploring the totality of the gigantic universe, and our psychology limits us from even comprehending its full awesomeness. Our lifespans are less than a blink compared to that of the universe. Not being able to witness the death of the earth and the sun, the end of the age of starlight, proton decay, and more, can't possibly not produce an overwhelming FOMO, the ultimate fear of missing out.
Perhaps it's futility. Sisyphus is punished by the gods to roll a boulder up and down the steep hill, only to see that boulder roll down, waiting to be pushed it up again. The cycle continues until eternity. When 'everything moves, everything revolves, everything flies and goes away,' it is near impossible to find meaning through what seems to be a futile practice.
Sisyphus | painting by Titian
03
If tragedy is the precondition for being, then being is the interplay between the finite precondition and the infinite possibilities. One can approach being differently: to be one who is resentful and arrogant towards what cannot be changed, to be one who dumbifies others in the name of 'ignorance is bliss,' or to be the Ubermensch who not merely live each day with no meaning, but bravely and cleverly navigate the interspace between finitude and infinity--When one sees the world as it is and still decides to love it, a true hero is born.
The heroes are scientists. Although haunted by the tragic precondition that Kant characterized: 'We cannot know the thing in itself,' they erect a magnificent scaffolding around the subject of study, triangulate it, and contemplate it obliquely.
The heroes are economists. Though tagged as selfish and greedy, they intend to answer which and what quantity of goods to produce, how to distribute, and what distribution is the most efficient, building on the precondition of scarcity to do the hard and noble work of constrained optimization.
The heroes are philosophers, coming to terms with humanity's imminent death, echoing the last lesson taught by Socrates, the philosopher of Athens, that death is nothing to fear but an apotheosis of the soul.
Nicolaus Copernicus | painting by Matejko
申请季
- 一些感受 -
每次听见人反复强调在写文书的时候“be yourself”时，我总是在心里暗笑——离申请截止日期只有几周时间了，难道我能用这短短几周的功夫去否认高中三年以来的自己，突然成为其他人吗？在文书里，我是我自己，也只能是我自己：如果平时没有组织丰富的社团和义工活动，我会缺少申请季的素材；如果平时没有去波士顿iGEM答辩的经历，我会缺少荣誉列表的重量；如果平时没有消化SSHI、YYGS、IYWS等好多好多的人文课程，我会缺少英语写作的流畅度……
我认识有的申请者面对自己反复修改后产出的文书仍然焦虑不满，我猜测那是因为他们想发挥出150%的力量，却不得不面对自己只有100%力量的现实，而那个名为“灵光一现”或“神来之笔”的Buff也迟迟不来。我想我申请季前的点滴努力与坚持，就是为了将这种“关键时候后悔自己不够努力”的可怜感受给最小化。
“结果”顶多只是副产品罢了 | 出自《排球少年！！》
FUTURE
展望未来
以下为『斯坦福大学』申请文书节选
👇🏻
Prompt：Name one thing you are looking forward to experiencing at Stanford.
Answer: The wonderful campus atmosphere for philosophizing, namely tolerance (what Prof. Bobonich referred to as present in Stanford but now less common in US universities) and confrontation (what John Stuart Mill called the competition of ideas, which is achieved at Stanford campus composed of diverse, sagacious, and outspoken peers).
Palm Drive | 明天快点到来吧！
最后学姐想说的话 / 对学弟学妹们说
黑压压的一片选手，强手如云的活动大厅，很难预知谁会是今年那个啃透了上千页的资料书，组织了系统性的复习，将带领团队走向胜利的人。
但我坚信，能在USAD学术十项全能这个活动中胜出的学生一定都不是安于现状、固步自封的老古董，而是对探索未知事物抱有无穷无尽的兴趣的年轻人；不是不知恐惧为何物的莽汉，而是了解并克服恐惧的勇者；不是逃避面前一道道高墙的懦夫，而是勇敢直面悲剧的英雄。请你相信，自己就是那个英雄。
“人类的赞歌就是对勇气的赞歌” | 出自《JOJO的奇妙冒险》
这里是【 Sparking Lives 】专栏
我们向已从SKT各项活动生态中毕业的你，已收到令人心动的大学Offer的你，已在大学就读和职场中探索的你发出邀请，一起聊聊这些年的成长时光。
活动之内，你发现自己
活动之外，你成就自己
我们仅在一场活动不期而遇
却因热血和留恋足以陪伴彼此到万物可期的未来