私校 排名第一，ACT 36, AIME, Chemistry Olympiad, 4年 research club Co-Captain, Science Fair 州大奖, 私校International conference research paper, Rensselaer medal
钢琴弹了13年，获奖，Carnegie Hall表演，经常参加慈善与社区演出，学校Music department award, John Philip Sousa award, Concertmaster, and Junior John Hopkins book award，State History Day winner
One EC national individual champion (math 方面), 四年内义务coach 150+ 初中生, local non-profit youth volunteer committee co-founder & co_president, President volunteers services award 3 times, coca cola scholarship semifinalist
Robotics club Co_Captain, academic journal Chief-Editor, National Merit Scholarship finalist, US presidential scholar nominee ….
Just to clarify - “passion” isn’t exactly what we are looking for. You can be passionate about something - pretty much all of our applicants are “passionate” - but enthusiasm is not the same as ability.
By “talent in the subject” I mean ability in the subject - this isn’t demonstrated just by what you know, but how you think. That’s why we ask questions and give unseen problems to students at interview - they don’t have to have lots of knowledge or even get the “right” answer, if their thinking shows they have an aptitude for the subject.
To some extent doing extra work in the subject does help a bit - we’d want to see applicants seeking out extra reading and learning beyond the syllabus - but expensive courses and tutoring are not necessary. Just doing some additional reading off their own bat is fine. And even that isn’t strictly required. We are very aware that not everyone can afford such things and we deliberately ask questions that don’t rely on anything like that.
If anything, rather than “passion”, I would say one of the key skills we are looking for is the ability to synthesise new information quickly and then adapt a line of thinking accordingly. This is why tutoring and expensive preparation aren’t that useful. We give a student an idea, text or problem to work through that they can’t prepare for in advance. What we’re looking for is the combination of raw ability and the ability to synthesise existing knowledge into new thinking that gives someone talent at a subject.
Able and talented students tend to be enthusiastic and passionate about enjoying their work, but that doesn’t mean that enthusiasm and passion is the thing we’re measuring in the interview.
However, as a pp said, the UCAS form goes not just to us but also to other universities that (mostly) don’t interview, so it might be that your DC wants to think of how they demonstrate interest in the subject on the PS for those universities too.
PS - the tests used like BMAT, ELAT etc. really do not require tutoring to do well in (and I’d be pretty sceptical of anyone claiming to tutor a student in how to take one). Everyone in the process is well versed in screening out coaching and tutoring.
RA 进了 UPENN, Cornell, Duke, Caltech
WL: Columbia, Dartmouth
T5 全部面试，被拒， 非常遗憾; 梦校 MIT
Major: engineering
推荐信 strong， 学校，社区组织和钢琴老师
私校 排名第一，ACT 36, AIME, Chemistry Olympiad, 4年 research club Co-Captain, Science Fair 州大奖, 私校International conference research paper, Rensselaer medal
钢琴弹了13年，获奖，Carnegie Hall表演，经常参加慈善与社区演出，学校Music department award, John Philip Sousa award, Concertmaster, and Junior John Hopkins book award，State History Day winner
One EC national individual champion (math 方面), 四年内义务coach 150+ 初中生, local non-profit youth volunteer committee co-founder & co_president, President volunteers services award 3 times, coca cola scholarship semifinalist
Robotics club Co_Captain, academic journal Chief-Editor, National Merit Scholarship finalist, US presidential scholar nominee ….
Still quite an achievement! Congratulations!
耶鲁面试官对儿子说耶鲁就需要你这样的学生。哥大面试官是儿子高中的校友力推。。。还是没能进。
另外“State History Day winner”也应该进了“National History Day”吧？据说那个也和ISEF finalists是同级大奖啊。另外楼主儿子“Science Fair 州大奖”必然会是ISEF finalists啊。有这三项，T5应该横扫才对呀
听说过某顶尖名校往年出过类似的事情。哪个学校就不提了。
现在有些丝糕也开始搞政治正确这一套。
钢琴小提琴网球游泳同质性大， 集体性对抗性运动少
T5是不是给legacy挤掉了？
和我们普通或者绝大多数家长的视点是不一样的。
再有天赋都需要花功夫的。能做concert-master, 小提琴也应该到很高的水平，机器人club, 杂志编辑等等都很花时间。家长是不是让孩子们生活在旧社会了。
加这么多大奖， 太牛了
Just to clarify - “passion” isn’t exactly what we are looking for. You can be passionate about something - pretty much all of our applicants are “passionate” - but enthusiasm is not the same as ability.
By “talent in the subject” I mean ability in the subject - this isn’t demonstrated just by what you know, but how you think. That’s why we ask questions and give unseen problems to students at interview - they don’t have to have lots of knowledge or even get the “right” answer, if their thinking shows they have an aptitude for the subject.
To some extent doing extra work in the subject does help a bit - we’d want to see applicants seeking out extra reading and learning beyond the syllabus - but expensive courses and tutoring are not necessary. Just doing some additional reading off their own bat is fine. And even that isn’t strictly required. We are very aware that not everyone can afford such things and we deliberately ask questions that don’t rely on anything like that.
If anything, rather than “passion”, I would say one of the key skills we are looking for is the ability to synthesise new information quickly and then adapt a line of thinking accordingly. This is why tutoring and expensive preparation aren’t that useful. We give a student an idea, text or problem to work through that they can’t prepare for in advance. What we’re looking for is the combination of raw ability and the ability to synthesise existing knowledge into new thinking that gives someone talent at a subject.
Able and talented students tend to be enthusiastic and passionate about enjoying their work, but that doesn’t mean that enthusiasm and passion is the thing we’re measuring in the interview.
However, as a pp said, the UCAS form goes not just to us but also to other universities that (mostly) don’t interview, so it might be that your DC wants to think of how they demonstrate interest in the subject on the PS for those universities too.
PS - the tests used like BMAT, ELAT etc. really do not require tutoring to do well in (and I’d be pretty sceptical of anyone claiming to tutor a student in how to take one). Everyone in the process is well versed in screening out coaching and tutoring.
赞一个
在剑桥那边一个美国公司做SW 工程师。
PS其实牛剑不是要看你达到什么，而是你对你申请的学科的想法。
Keyboard final. 13岁进入音乐学院。 一个IPHO，一个著名智力游戏方面的世界排名 No.2（好像第一是个日本小孩）现在Cambridge 学数学。看来英国还是简单一些。
此娃的passion 是CS
Paper, documentary, website, etc. I heard paper is more important.
既然学业上没有spike, 觉得文书上也许应该要改进一下。