申請文書是學(xué)生唯一可控的，能夠給錄取者留下深刻印象的最后機會。寫好這份文書因此成為大學(xué)申請過程中壓力最大的部分。
最強有力的文書不僅對人和事件有很好的描述,關(guān)鍵是要最終解釋了這些經(jīng)歷對你的影響。這不是一項可以到臨上轎才扎耳朵眼兒的活兒。需要思考,需要一些深刻的自我反省，需要打草稿,也需要專家、老師或家長幫忙修改。但是，過于依賴家長、輔導(dǎo)員或其他人來幫助寫作，也很有可能會面臨負面的后果。
教授們每年讀過數(shù)以萬計的申請文書。我們非常清楚一個十七、八歲的孩子的語言和思維邏輯。有時候一篇文書顯然被打磨拋光過，內(nèi)容卻不像任何一個我們見過的青少年的話語方式。我們并不希望看到大學(xué)畢業(yè)生的“人生理想”，也不想看到一個四、五十歲“人生導(dǎo)師”的雞湯文。我們想要看到一個對世界或許充滿不解，對人生或許充滿困惑，卻勇于探索，希望自我完善，決心自我奮斗去追尋未來的高中生。
但對于許多高中生來說,如何確定他們自己的聲音卻是一項挑戰(zhàn)，因為他們的生活經(jīng)驗還有限。在此刻之前，他們很可能一直是在高中教師的指導(dǎo)下寫命題作文，而不是為了自己，更不是為了與讀者分享自己而寫作。
先來看看下面這篇樣文。這篇從自己祖母過世寫起的文書，優(yōu)點并不在于講述了一個多么離奇的故事，只不過是截取了生活中一個常見的情節(jié)。開頭直接切入，交代緣由，語言也很簡潔，沒有過多的環(huán)境渲染，只充滿了自我的，私人的情感，立刻就能抓住讀者。在情感的基礎(chǔ)上進一步，重點講述這個事件對自己所產(chǎn)生的影響，而且用事實去說明；再進一步，形成結(jié)論。由于這種影響，自己的思維方式、行為方式或看待世界的角度發(fā)生了什么變化。行文的展開呈現(xiàn)出清晰的思維線索，最后歸結(jié)到的申請文書的永恒主題：“于是我就成了現(xiàn)在的我”。
BURYING MY GRANDMA
They covered the precious mahogany coffin with a brown amalgam of rocks, decomposed organisms, and weeds. It was my turn to take the shovel, but I felt too ashamed to dutifully send her off when I had not properly said goodbye. I refused to throw dirt on her. I refused to let goof my grandmother, to accept a death I had not seen coming, to believe that anillness could not only interrupt, but steal a beloved life.
When my parents finally revealed to me that my grandmother had been battling liver cancer, I was twelve and I was angry--mostly with myself. They had wanted to protect me--only six years old at the time--from the complex and morose concept of death. However, when the end inevitably arrived, I wasn’t trying to comprehend what dying was; I was trying to understand how I had been able to abandon my sick grandmother in favor of playing with friends and watching TV. Hurt that my parents had deceived me and resentful of my own oblivion, I committed myself to preventing such blindness from resurfacing.
I became desperately devoted to my education because I saw knowledge as the key to freeing myself from the chains of ignorance. While learning about cancer in school I promised myself that I would memorize every fact and absorb every detail in textbooks and online medical journals. And as I began to consider my future, I realized that what I learned in school would allow me to silence that which had silenced my grandmother.However, I was focused not with learning itself, but with good grades and high test scores. I started to believe that academic perfection would be the only way to redeem myself in her eyes--to make up for what I had not done as a granddaughter.
However, a simple walk on a hiking trail be hind my house made me open my own eyes to the truth. Over the years,everything--even honoring my grandmother--had become second to school and grades. As my shoes humbly tapped against the Earth, the towering trees blackened by the forest fire a few years ago, the faintly colorful pebbles embedded in the sidewalk, and the wispy white clouds hanging in the sky reminded me of my small though nonetheless significant part in a larger whole that is humankind and this Earth. Before I could resolve my guilt, I had to broaden my perspective of the world as well as my responsibilities to my fellow humans.
