市面上有许多关于如何写出高质量大学申请短文的优秀书籍与参考资料。根据个人经验，有一些重要的注意事项想要和同学们一起分享。第一个注意事项是语法检查。学生们通常都知道语法检查非常重要，却可能没有意识到一旦犯错的严重后果。如果在大学申请短文中被发现有显而易见的语法错误，学生申请成功的概率会大打折扣。学生们必须格外用心、付出百分之两百的努力来检查写作中的语法问题。一定要记住，在短文中出现任何语法错误都是不可原谅的。第二，短文不应仅仅停留在简单描述的层面，而需要体现出更深层次的分析与反思。换句话说，学生不能只满足于陈述“是什么”，应该继续进一步地揭示“为什么”和“怎么样”。第三，慎重考虑选用很可能与同校、同地区同学“撞车”的话题。来自同一班级或学校的学生很容易写到共同的获奖活动经历，因此学生们应警惕招生官可能会阅览到许多千篇一律的相同故事。第四点是展示自己在智力层面上有恍然大悟的认识，让招生官眼前一亮。尽管这非常有挑战性，不过永远值得学生尽最大的努力去尝试。最后，在语气和态度上不要过于害羞谦卑，也不能太过自吹自擂，在短文的每一段都使用“我”开头。

There are many good books and references about how to prepare a high quality college application essay. Given my limited experiences, there are a few important reminders I would like to share with students. The number one is grammar check. Normally students know grammar check is very important but they may not know its gravity as “deal breaker”. It means if you were found in your college application essay with any grammar mistake, you application will be likely dead. You have to put extra and more than one hundred percent efforts on checking your grammar in writing. Keep in mind that you just could not afford any grammar mistake in your essay. Number two is your essay should not end in descriptive level. You have to go further to analytic and reflective level. It means you could not satisfy with illustrating “what” is going on, instead, you should continue on revealing “why” and “how” that happened. Number three is being aware of writing a topic which could be written by a group of students from your school or community. It is natural that to write a successful and prize winning event or activity attended by a group of students from your class or school. You should pay attention to the probability that the admission officers may read repetitive story from a number of applicants of the same school. Number fourth is to try to show something intellectual epiphanies which can bring the “Ah-ha” moments to the admission officers. It is difficult to achieve but always worth your best trial. Finally in tone and attitude, don’t be shy, but don’t be braggadocio as well, starting every paragraph with the letter I.

DIY(自己动手)在这里是指那些独立完成大学申请，没有选择中介或入学顾问等商业化服务的一类学生。在美国，DIY学生的比例远远高于中国学生。美国学生往往比中国学生更独立，在大学申请时也更加自信。有部分原因是他们在获取意向大学的信息时更直接、更有优势，而这也反映出中美两国教育系统与理念的不同。

据我观察，中国的DIY学生或是最优秀的学生，或是对申请服务不够了解或经济实力有限不足以支付中介费用的学生。那么，对于最出色的学生来讲，有没有必要为他们提供辅导？作为专业人士，我们能为他们做些什么呢？

既然许多美国学生能够独立完成大学申请，来自中国的优秀学生也同样可以做到。不过，作为专业的入学顾问，我仍认为非常有必要为DIY学生提供一些指导和帮助，这将使他们受益匪浅。只要我们确保世界一流的服务质量，并严格恪守商业诚信。

我们可以在三个重要步骤上协助DIY学生准备申请。第一步是评估定位。从经验丰富、独立的专业人士视角出发，我们能帮助学生在申请大学的过程中进行反思、分析以帮助他们确定申请策略和自我定位。第二部分是短文工作室。我们为DIY学生提供为期7天的短文工作室培训项目，通过短文写作指导、头脑风暴、范文分享与校对检查等服务，辅导学生完成全美排名前30位大学的7种类型申请短文。第三步是针对宣讲与面试的高级进阶训练。在这个项目中，我们为即将参加大学入学面试的学生精心准备了五大相关主题的培训。上述三个项目是一套相辅相成的完整培训课程，能行之有效地为DIY学生提供帮助。我们的课程辅导是一对一教学，指导老师包括资深专业顾问与来自世界顶尖大学的在校生，如哈佛大学、普林斯顿大学、耶鲁大学、杜克大学及麻省理工学院等。

DIY (Do It Yourself) here refers to a group of students who help themselves with their college application without receiving commercialized services from agents or admission advisers. The percentage of DIY students in USA is dramatically higher than that of in China. Normally the students from states are much more independent and confident on college application than Chinese students Part of reasons is they have advantage in access to information and direct knowledge about colleges and universities they may apply. It is a reflection of differences of educational system and ideology between two countries.

From my observation, DIY students in China are either top tier students or students who have not much idea about application services or have no financial ability to hire agent services. For those top tier students, is there any necessity to help them and what can we do for them as a professional?

As many American students who independently handle their college application, the top tier students from China can definitely do the same thing. However, as professional admission adviser, I still think it is necessary and absolutely helpful to provide some guidance and coaching for those DIY students, as long as our quality of advices equals to first class of the world and our operational integrity is strictly obeyed.

We can help DIY students in three critical steps. First part is Evaluation and Positioning. As experienced and independent professional, we can help students to reflect, analyze and build up their strategy and positioning themselves well for their college application cases; Second part is Essay Workshop. We have a 7-day essay workshop training program for DIY students which can guide them on how to address 7 typical prompts asked by top 30 universities of USA through brainstorming, sample sharing and proofreading services etc. Third step is Advanced Training for Presentation / Interview. In this program, we have 5-topic oriented training for students who will have interviews with their applied colleges or universities. Our three programs are integrated as a package and it serves as assistance for DIY students. Our package will be delivered on one on one based set up by experienced professionals and current college students from top tier universities like Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Duke and MIT etc.

众所周知，成功入读美国医学博士课程并不容易。尤其是对外籍申请者来说，许多难以把控的因素，往往会进一步加大了他们的申请难度。

国际学生想要进入美国医学院到底有多困难呢？在2010年，共有42742位申请者报读医学博士课程，当中有1300位（3%）为非美国公民或非永久性居民。最终，44%（18665名）的申请者获得录取并入学，而其中仅有0.4%（171名）为“外籍申请者”。

绝大多数医学院都会在入学申请书中清楚注明，他们只会录取极少量的外籍申请者，或者完全不予以考虑。不过，各所医学院对何为“外籍申请者”有着不同的定义。大多数院校会将非美国公民或非永久性居民的申请者视为外籍申请者，不管他们在美国学习或生活了多久。然而，加拿大申请者是一个例外。在入学甄选过程中，部份学校将拥有加拿大国籍的申请者视作美国公民，比如凯斯西储大学、宾夕法尼亚州立大学、乔治华盛顿大学、爱因斯坦医学院、威斯康辛医学院以及耶鲁大学等。所以，医学院可能表面上录取了许多国际学生，但实际上其中大部分可能是加拿大籍公民。不过，医学院在考虑助学金时，加拿大学生与其他外籍学生并无区别。

外籍学生面临的另一个挑战是财务安排问题。培养一名医师的真实费用远远高于医学生所付的学费。在美国，几乎所有的医学院都由联邦政府出资补贴。因此，外籍申请者通常需要提供足够的资金证明来支付巨额的培养费用，数额甚至可能高达50万美元。

综上所述，想要进入美国医学院学习的国际学生需要仔细考量自己的学习、移民与经济状况，并在开始申请时尽早寻求专业建议。

Most people would agree that getting into a MD degree program in the United States is an uneasy task.  For foreign applicants, the challenge is even larger due to many hurdles beyond their control. 

How difficult is it for international students to gain admission to US medical schools?  In 2010, there were 42,742 applicants of which 1,300 (3%) were not US citizens or permanent residents.  Overall, 44% (18,665) of all applicants were accepted and enrolled.  Among them, only 0.4% (171) were “foreign applicants”.

The majority of medical schools state clearly in their application materials that they admit very few, if any, foreign applicants. Definition of “foreign applicants”, however, differs from schools to schools.  Most schools specify that non-citizens and non-residents of the US are foreign applicants, regardless of how long they have been living or studying in the US.  One exception is Canadian applicants.  Those who hold Canadian citizenship are considered US citizens for admission purpose in certain schools (eg, Case Western, Penn State, George Washington, Albert Einstein, Medical College of Wisconsin and Yale).  Hence, a medical school may have apparently accepted a large number of foreign students who may turn out to be mostly Canadian nationals.  For financial aid consideration, however, Canadian applicants as well as other foreign applicants are treated the same way. 

Another hurdle faced by many foreign applicants is financial arrangement.  The true cost of training a physician is much higher than the tuition paid by a medical student.  Almost all medical schools in the US are subsidized by the federal government.  Consequently, foreign applicants are often asked to provide evidence of sufficient funds to cover the expenses of their trainings.  The amount could run as high as half a million dollars.

In view of the above circumstances, foreign students who wish to pursue medical studies in the US should carefully evaluate their academic, immigration and financial situations, and seek proper professional advice early on in the admission process.

在高中和大学阶段，我的梦想是成为一名像爱因斯坦一样的物理学家。当我离开大学的时候，我意识到自己并没有想象中的那样天赋异禀。因此，即使仍怀揣着对科学尤其是物理的纯粹的热爱，我还是放弃了这个梦想。从那时起，我开始了一段新的人生旅程——从一名在应用技术研究所工作的工程师，到光学信息领域的研究生，从回到本科毕业的母校成为大学讲师，到全息应用技术创业公司的经理和副总经理，再从科技巨擘公司的销售员和高管，到麻省理工学院斯隆商学院的MBA毕业生，最终成为了肯特咨询集团的创办者。一路走来有艰辛也有喜悦，正是这样的经历成就了今天的我，也让我领略到人生的丰富与复杂。

回过头看，当年梦想成为下一个爱因斯坦的我过着简单纯净的生活。而后来的事业与生活带给了我截然不同的多元化体验，这是学生时代的我曾难以想象的。尤其激动人心的经历是我与我的大学老师来到深圳一起创立新公司，随后进入华为从事销售工作，更不用提我在这家急速发展的公司里成为了最好的销售经理和高层管理者之一。我的生活开始变得丰富多彩，也在很多方面变得复杂。通常，我只是随着时代的潮流不断地努力前行，很少仔细地回顾自己走过的路并思考未来的人生。

经营自己的教育咨询公司已有四年多，每天为年轻学生提供辅导和服务，我感觉那种简单而纯净的生活又回到了我的身边。当我看到自己在北美长大的儿子回国过暑假，他合理地节制饮食、按计划规律健身、与朋友在网上愉快地聊天和玩耍、真诚地关心他人，我感觉回到了18岁，不理会整个世界的纷扰，只是专注于生命中最简单的一些事：健康饮食、积极锻炼身体、大胆地在精神世界上和学术上进行探索、保持清晰的头脑判断对与错……或许我还不能完全确定我已经找到了心灵的归宿，但如此简单纯净的生活将是我余生的追求。

My dream as a high school and college student was to be a physicist like Albert Einstein. That dream ended when I came out from school and realized that I was not that talented as I had assumed, even though I still held some extent of sheer interest on science, specifically on physics. From then on, I started a journey as an engineer of optical instrument in an institute of applied technology, a graduate school student, still in optical information area, a lecturer at my undergraduate university, a manager and deputy general manager of a startup company of applying holographic technology, a salesman and executive manager at a technology giant company, a graduate from MIT Sloan Fellow Program and finally, as founder of Kent Consultancy Group. Here I am, a man who has gone through some storms and up and downs of life, witnessing some amount of its richness and complexity.

Retrospectively, I found myself lived very pure and simplified life as a student when I was dreaming like a next Einstein. My later experiences in career and life has brought me diversified journey which I could hardly imagined previously. This was especially astonishing when I came to Shenzhen to start a new company with my professor from university and later joined Huawei as a salesman, needless to say I later became one of the best sales managers and executives in that fast growing company. My life has been colorful and pretty complicated in various facets. Normally, I moved ahead and followed the flow without deliberate reflecting on what I went through and foreseeing what will be the next ahead of me.

After running my small educational consulting firm for more than four years and coaching and serving younger students on daily basis, my feeling about simplified and pure life has come back to me. When I saw my son coming back to China from college during summer vocation as a grown-up in North America, eating on diet, exercising on scheduled base, enjoying himself fully by talking and playing with his friends online, caring people with genuine sincerity, I envisioned myself at age 18, ignoring the whole world as irrelevant and dedicating only few simple things in life: healthy diet for your stomach, active exercises for your body, bold exploring something spiritually and academically for your head and bearing crystal clear mind for right and wrong…I may not entirely sure that I have found my destiny, yet I embrace this pure and simplified picture as a pursuit for the rest of my life.