美国本科申请的优秀文书欣赏

大学入学申请文书使大学招生办的工作人员对学生的英文写作能力有所认知，更重要的是能对学生的个性、思考能力、成熟度、价值观等等，进行全面了解。他们希望，这些被录取的新生，不但在学业上能跟得上大学的要求，而且也能够积极参与大学的校园生活，提供正面的个人影响。更重要的是学生能够充分利用大学所提供的各种资源，找到自己的兴趣和发展方向，发挥自我潜能，将自己培养为一个未来的领袖。那什么样的文书更能吸引招生官的眼球呢？我们小站教育SAT频道挑选了几篇有代表性的成功申请文书，与大家一起赏析。

《集邮盛行时》

赏析：这篇文章给大家提了个醒：并不一定要写濒临死亡的经历或是在千钧一发之际取得冠军才能造就好文章，不少中国学生在写申请文书的时候有一个错误的观念：一定要惊天地泣鬼神，别人完全做不到的事情才能出彩。其实不然，Alex Callen就选了一个平凡的爱好-集邮-作为文章主题。开头巧妙地使用拟人手法，别开生面。集邮虽然没有那么时髦，听上去还有些呆子气，却满足了Alex Callen的需要，展示了他不顾他人闲言碎语、勇敢追随梦想的形象。大家可以特别留一下Alex Callen在写和同学的冲突时的细节描写，非常细致和传神，让申请官在阅读时感觉身临其境，仿佛都能感受到申请人的执着和热情。相比千百份大众常写的报纸编辑和大学运动队队长的文章，集邮者的文章确实引人注目。

Essay by Alex Callen

When I was ten years old, I met Vince Lombardi. I saw him at the post office. He was sitting quietly with George Marshall and Humphrey Bogart. Vince cast a triumphant smile in my direction. His excitement was so contagious that I could not help smiling with him. Mr. Marshall, however, seemed to stare right through me. His solemn gaze conveyed little more than that he had very important things in his mind. Then I looked to Humphrey Bogart, who, with a suave movement, simply cocked his head to one side, and sat there, just looking good. The three men seemed nice enough, so I took them home with me. Yes, they had all been dead for many years, but I didn’t really mind. In my room, armed with a pair of tongs, I gingerly slid each of them into the slots of homemade album pages, next to stamps of bright blue jays, waving flags, bursting flowers, a crooning Elvis Presley, and scores of others, which I had acquired over the past two years.

Philately caught my attention very early in my life. My grandfather hooked me with a stamp from the 1960s that commemorated the sesquicentennial of the Erie Canal. I was drawn to the small colorful pictures like a crow is drawn to shiny objects. I started saving every stamp that I could find. The hobby quickly developed into more than a haphazard accumulation of pretty paper labels. A closer examination of each stamp revealed new cultures, new languages, new people, new geography; new worlds, each competing to quench my inherent thirst for knowledge, steering my imagination to new heights.

As a group, stamp collectors have been categorically branded as wealthy, reclusive, boring, moldy old men. However, I’ve been an avid philatelist since age eight, and, as a seventeen-year-old in high school, I don’t fit the stereotype very well. It is true that few young people collect stamps. Though I know some exist I’ve never met another stamp collector my age. More often than not, my peers express disapproval for the hobby. In fact, when I told a friend that this essay would be about stamp collecting, he laughed and said“Man, you’re going to have a tough time making that sound cool.” I pointed to a pile of trading cards on his desk and replied,“Hey, at least I don’t collect Magic cards”(Magic is a fantasy card game similar to the Pokemon game that swept the country a few years ago). I understand how some could perceive the slow, tedious processes associated with stamp collecting, like sorting, classification, grading, and organization, as exercises in monotonous futility. I, for one, not only welcome the procedural structure of these processes, but also embrace the rare opportunity for uninterrupted solitude that accompanies them, using it to develop my patience and allow my imagination to lead me through exciting childhood realms of exploration and adventure-winning Super Bowls, rebuilding post-war Europe, making films-which are markedly absent from the high school experience.

I don’t think I will ever be able to make philately“sound cool,” but at the same time, I don’t feel like I need to. It’s not about being “cool.” I’m a philatelist, because stamp collecting gives me pleasure and peace of mind.

Alex Callen被康奈尔大学录取

《对拉丁语的热爱》

赏析：写作时，拉丁语是大多数学生最不愿选择的话题，这就是为什么这是个很好的话题。作者Andrew Rist真是个拉丁迷，他讲述的拉丁语对自己生活重要性的案例也是令人信服的。他的民族自豪感令人钦佩，更为突出的是虽然上了三所学校，安德鲁对于拉丁语的热爱却丝毫未减。安德鲁说“对于写文章的人，我唯一的建议就是追随自己的热情，否则文章将毫无生趣。”

Essay by Andrew Rist

I can say with certainty that there is nothing that has more of a positive effect on my life than Latin. Of course other things have grabbed my interest over the years, like poetry, math, singing, and women, but my true passion is for the Classics. I never would have thought that a civilization that lived over two thousand years ago could have excited me, but I have learned that many of the problems and concerns of Classical society are still widely applicable to our modern society. For example, in Plato's Republic, Socrates seeks the true definition of justice. Just like Socrates, we could never actually put such an abstract idea into a few words, but we still seek simplicity, as Socrates did. In Classics I see the basis for the majority of Western Civilization, and I yearn to explore it further.

I stumbled into this odyssey of classical discovery that I now call my life in the seventh grade. My Latin teacher was unusually eager to urge students into participating in Latin Club. I admit that she forced me into it, but from the very first time I competed I never regretted it. In middle school, Latin filled the void in my mind that was begging me to care about something, anything, so I kept working at the Classics, hoping I could keep the void full.

After middle school, I faced the inevitable transition to high school. My transition was rocky. Austin High is a huge school where I knew only a few people. On top of my trouble fitting in at this impersonal school, I found that the Latin program at Austin High was weak. My teacher had other problems to deal with and most of my classmates were too high to care. I realized how truly blessed I had been at my middle school. I decided to take more of a leadership role in the Latin program than I had in middle school. Unlike my middle school, Austin High tended to send only two or three people to Latin conventions. I was in charge of making sure the three of us got where we had to be during conventions. My freshman year was also the first year I won a spot on the state-bound Certamen team, which became a nationals-bound Certamen team when we won out over teams from San Antonio and Houston at the State competition. In this game of buzzers that tested both thumb-speed and Classical knowledge, I excelled, and our team took Third Place at Nationals. It was at Nationals that I had a close look at the students of St. Andrew's Episcopal School. Due to necessity, I traveled to Kentucky with St. Andrew's for Nationals. It felt like I fit with them. They impressed me with how close all the students were, both with each other and with their teachers, including one that, like me, was new to their community.

By the end of that summer I knew that I wanted more than anything to be a part of the St. Andrew's community. I toured the school, but even before that I think I was decided: if at all possible I wanted to go to St. Andrew. Thanks to the efforts of my parents and the Latin teacher I enrolled at St. Andrew's for my sophomore year, and I have never looked back. As a result of this change I started working harder in every subject at school，thus my grades went up, even in courses that were more intellectually challenging than the ones I had previously taken at Austin High. I also improved in my favorite area. At the Texas State Junior Classical League convention I was shocked to find that I had been named Texas Latin Student of the Year for having the highest score on the decathlon, a test that tested a range of subjects related to Classical civilization, such as Latin grammar, mythology, history, and literature.

My junior year was even better. Although classes were even more difficult, nevertheless I enjoyed the challenge and continued to excel. In Latin, where some thought I had little room to improve, I continued to climb. Again, I was named Texas Latin Student of the year; I got a 5 on the Catullus-Ovid Latin Literature AP; but the achievement I am most proud of came during the summer at the National Latin Convention in Richmond, Virginia. Not only did my Certamen team win first place, taking home the Maureen O'Donnell Traveling Trophy, but I had the highest score on the national decathlon, which came not only with a $500 scholarship, but also the title of Best Latin Student in the Nation. My parents, Latin teachers, and friends could not have been more proud.

Rome may have fallen 1,500 years ago, but I cannot help but think that the Classics live on. People still want to know the meaning of justice and they often consult Plato in their search. I want to find the answers in Classics like so many before me. The Classics may not have been my first love, but they will be something that will stay with me forever.

Andrew Rist被哈佛大学录取。