THIS AFTERNOON,my office will sen out nearly 134,000 e-mail messages to high school seniors who are waiting with anticipation to learn whether they will be invite to spen the next four years at Stanfor.

在今天下午，我們的招生辦公室向 3 萬 4 千多名申請我們普通錄取的盼望著想在斯坦福度過自己四年大學生涯的高中學生發(fā)出了郵件。

While I have been in the amissions fiel for more than 30 years,I expect to be feeling quite a bit of pain at the en of this week (as I o each year) about the many exceptional youths who i not get offere one of the roughly 1,650 slots in the Class of 2011. I also expect that,in the following weeks,I will hear from parents who are unerstanably istraught that their sons an aughters with top high school class rankings,perfect 800 SAT scores an some truly impressive extracurricular?accomplishment s were enie entry.

即使我已負責招生工作 30 年之久，在這個周末，我依然為那些沒能如愿拿到 offer 的年輕人而感到遺憾。同時，我也能預見到很多家長會因為自己的孩子有著十分優(yōu)異的教育背景、很高的 SAT( 美國大學生入學資格考試 ) 成績但最終被斯坦福拒絕而感到心煩意亂。

Clearly,I believe that a Stanfor eucation is wonerful,but my experience suggests it’s often parents who are more upset about our amission ecisions than the kis. I can relate to their concerns: I fin myself getting jittery as my aughter waits to hear from the colleges she’s applie to this year. But given that toay’s teens alreay have enough pressure in their lives,I wish to impart three creos to these parents.

我一直相信斯坦福的教育水平是無與倫比的。但我的經(jīng)驗告訴我，當這些孩子被斯坦福拒絕的時候，他們的家長往往更感到沮喪。我能體會到這些家長的感受。當我的女兒在等待大學的錄取決定時，我也曾經(jīng)緊張和不安。鑒于孩子們已經(jīng)承受了太多的壓力，在這里，我想與你們分享三條理念。

First,it’s all relative. While the number amitte into the unergrauate class has remaine unchange for years,Stanfor,like many of its peer schools,has ha a recor number of applicants &nash; nearly 24,000. Regarless of arguments over whether too much preference is given to one category over another,thousans of stuents are going to be turne away,an there is no oubt that the vast majority of them coul have met the emans of a Stanfor eucation. We coul,for instance,have fille the incoming class four times over with applicants who achieve grae point averages of 4.0 or greater.

首先，一切都是相對的。雖然每年錄取的本科生人數(shù)已經(jīng)保持不變數(shù)年之久，斯坦福像其它同級別的學校一樣，每年會收到超過 42,000 份申請。暫且不管學校對某一學科的側(cè)重和傾向問題，每年都會有數(shù)千學生被無情拒絕。毫無疑問的是，這些被拒掉的學生中，絕大多數(shù)是符合斯坦福的申請要求的。實際上，有著 GPA 4.0( 平均績點，斯坦福大學認定的績點滿分為 5 分 ) 或以上的申請者數(shù)量是我們實際錄取人數(shù)的四到五倍。

I wish there were a formula to explain who is accepte an who isn’t,but the ecision-making is as much art as it is science. Each class is a symphony with its own istinct composition an soun; the final roster is an effort to create harmony,an that means that some?extraorinary?bass players on’t get a chair. What’s more,even among my staff there are legitimate ifferences about applicants. The bottom line: The worl is not going to juge anyone negatively because they in’t get into Stanfor or one of our peer institutions.

我也希望有這么一個公式來解釋誰能夠被錄取，誰會被拒掉，但決定是否錄取一名學生是一門藝術(shù)，而并非科學。每一個課堂就像一個交響樂團，需要其獨特的組合和聲音 ; 我們的目的是營造一個和諧而多元的環(huán)境，這就意味著額外的貝斯手是沒必要的。另外，即便是在我的同事內(nèi)部，也對申請者持有不同的看法和意見。但我想告訴你們的是：世界不會因為你被斯坦福拒絕了而否定你自己的價值和努力。

Secon,celebrate the bigger picture. Despite the constant meia buzz about the turbulent state of youth toay,most of the applications I reviewe &nash; as well as those reviewe by my colleagues at Stanfor an elsewhere &nash; are truly remarkable. An in most cases,those enie amission to some schools is amitte to others. The transition from high school to college is a monumental turning point,an it’s more important to focus on how a young ault is moving on to a new stage than where that stage happens to be. This is the moment when parents shoul mark the success of their chilren an rejoice in the excitement that the next four years will bring.

其次，看得長遠一些。即使現(xiàn)在的媒體稱年輕人是垮掉的一代，就我所審核的這些申請斯坦福的年輕人來看，他們無與倫比的出色。通常來說，這些被我們拒絕的學生最終會被其他同一級別的大學錄取。從高中升入大學，是人生的一個重要的里程碑。對于年輕人來說，如何完成這個轉(zhuǎn)變而從此走上人生新的階段要比在哪里完成重要得多。在這個時候，家長們需要注重自己孩子取得的成就以及享受大學四年中帶來的驚喜。

An that leas to my final point: Eucation is what a stuent makes of it. Of course,certain schools have resources that others on’t,but they all offer opportunities to learn an to grow.

這就要提到我要說的最后一點上了：教育成就人。不可否認，不同的大學之間教育資源的差距是存在的，但他們都能給予學生學習和成長的資源和空間。

I am remine of a teenager grauating high school in Sunnyvale,Calif.,in 1975,who applie to only Stanfor an one other school. He was unerstanably isappointe when enie amission here,but he later excelle as an unergrauate at the istinguishe university across San Francisco Bay,UC Berkeley. He went on to earn a octorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology an to become a research scientist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington an an ajunct professor at Johns Hopkins. In 2003,he joine the Stanfor University?School of Meicine an last year was the co-winner of the Nobel Prize in physiology or meicine.

這讓我想起了 1975 年加州 Sunnyvale 一名高中畢業(yè)生。他申請了斯坦福和另外一所學校。當他得知被斯坦福拒絕之后十分沮喪，但后來他卻被另一所名校加州大學伯克利錄取了。他后來在 MIT 完成了博士學位，隨后成了華盛頓卡內(nèi)基學院的研究員和 約翰霍普金斯大學 的教授。2003 年，他加入了斯坦福的醫(yī)學院，并在 2006 年獲得了諾貝爾獎。

Anrew Fire is not atypical when it comes to Stanfor applicants. Nor for that matter is John Etchemeny,the Stanfor provost an philosophy professor who also was enie amission as an unergrauate. Nor are any of the thousans of others who aren’t accepte into Stanfor an go on to have fulfilling lives.

An unergrauate egree from Stanfor,or an Ivy League college,may well en up being only one line at the bottom of a resume. What parents of college applicants across the country nee to remember this week is that the news their chilren are about to receive,whether goo or ba,is but a single step on a much longer journey.

一個斯坦福的本科學位，亦或是任何一所常青藤盟校的本科學位，在漫長的歲月中只會成為你簡歷中最不起眼的一行字而已。所有正在申請大學的學生和家長應該懂得的是：不論你是被錄取了還是拒絕了，進入大學，相對于漫漫人生路來說，只是一個簡單的紀念碑。真正能夠影響我們一生的，并不是你在哪里上的大學，而是你在哪里學到了什么，以及你與他人的與眾不同之處。

【微語】你踏上異國的土地,追逐夢想的翅膀,愿風總是順著你的方向,讓每一步都充滿力量。