来源：《时代周刊》
原文刊登日期：2022年4月16日
Over the past few weeks, millions of high school students learned their own college admission fates. Today, it’s harder than ever to get into a selective college or university. Here’s what college-admission experts advise when things don’t quite work out:
在过去的几周里，数百万高中生了解了自己的大学入学命运。如今，要想进入名牌大学比以往任何时候都难。以下是大学招生专家在事情不太顺利时的建议：
Don’t take rejection personally. Most experts agree that record application numbers mean there’s no way for overwhelmed admissions offices to take the time applications deserve. “Yours maybe got eight minutes of their time and two minutes in a committee room, if they discussed you at all,” says Ron Lieber, author of The Price You Pay for College.
不要把拒绝当成是针对你个人的。大多数专家都认为，创纪录的入学申请人数意味着招生办公室无法为查阅申请书腾出足够的时间。《你为大学付出的代价》的作者罗恩•利伯说：“如果他们讨论过你的话，他们可能会有八分钟的时间讨论你的申请书，然后招生委员会用两分钟的时间表决是否录取你。”
Not all decisions are in your hands, but one thing in your control is your character. The first question Hafeez Lakhani, founder and president of Lakhani Coaching, a college-admission prep and consulting firm, asks clients is “How are you doing in cultivating a fulfilling high school career?”
不是所有的决定都掌握在你手中，但你能控制的是你的个性。大学入学准备和咨询公司拉卡尼辅导的创始人兼总裁哈菲兹·拉卡尼问客户的第一个问题是：“你在培育一个有意义的高中生涯方面做得怎么样？”
There’s often confusion. Fulfilling to whom? Admissions officers? Parents? “Then you see their eyes open up because they realize you must be fulfilling to you first. Then others will notice,” Lakhani says.
经常会有困惑。对谁有意义？招生人员吗？父母吗？“然后你会看到他们睁开了眼睛，因为他们意识到你必须先自己觉得有意义。其他人才会注意到，”拉卡尼说。
That’s not to say that those rejected from their dream schools had no character. But for both those who got in and those who didn’t, it’s wise to spend some time figuring out your “character story,” Lakhani says. The question of what you stand for is asked at life’s every turn: to get into classes, clubs, grad school, jobs, the boardroom.
这并不是说那些被理想学校拒绝的学生没有个性。但拉卡尼说，对于那些被录取和没被录取的人来说，花点时间弄清楚你的“个性故事”是明智的。人生的每一个转折点都要问你所代表的是什么：去上课、去俱乐部、去读研、去工作、去董事会。
Where to find that purpose? A gap year could help here. Research has shown that gap-year students get in less trouble, are more likely to graduate on time, and have higher GPAs, which in turn can lead to stronger job opportunities, Lieber writes.
在哪里找到目的？在这方面，空档年可能会有所帮助。利伯写道，研究表明，有空档年经历的学生遇到的麻烦更少，更有可能按时毕业，平均绩点更高，这反过来会带来更好的就业机会。
Jeffrey Selingo writes in his book Who Gets In and Why that graduates of so-called elite schools vs. state universities are barely distinguishable. “For 40 years, top-ranked institutions have sold us on these distinctions, telling prospective students and their families that the brand name on the degree is what matters most when it comes to success after college ... For economists, it’s a much more nuanced answer than before: majors and skills might count for more in the job market than the college itself.”
杰弗里·塞林戈在《录取资格和为什么录取》一书中写道，所谓的精英学校和州立大学的毕业生几乎没有区别。“40年来，顶尖学府一直向我们兜售这些区别，告诉未来的学生和他们的家人，学位上的品牌名是大学毕业后获得成功的最重要因素……对经济学家来说，这是一个比以前微妙得多的答案：在就业市场上，所学专业和技能可能比学校本身更重要。”
Employers are also rethinking elite institutions. For ages, the best internships went to students and graduates of top 20 colleges. That’s changing as diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts extend to the source of recruitment, looking beyond the Ivy League.
雇主们也在重新考虑精英院校。长期以来，最好的实习机会都给了前20名大学的学生和毕业生。随着多元化、公平和包容性的努力延伸到招聘来源，这种情况正在发生变化，雇主的目光不再局限于常春藤联盟院校。
Parents should also look beyond admissions. What if we focused less on admissions and instead on how to make high school as fulfilling as possible, or considered alternative options for the road ahead? “If we teach our young people that they are no ‘less’ because of a rejection—and no ‘more’ because of an admission,” says Becky Munsterer Sabky, author of Valedictorians at the Gate, “it can remind them what matters most is not the name on their college sweatshirt, but who is wearing it.”
家长们也应该把眼光放到招生之外。如果我们不那么关注招生，而是关注如何让高中生活尽可能有意义，或者为未来的道路考虑其他选择，会怎么样？《在大门口致告别辞》一书的作者贝基·蒙斯特尔·萨布基说：“如果我们教育年轻人，他们不会因为被拒绝而‘少些什么’，也不会因为被录取而‘多些什么’，这可以提醒他们，最重要的不是他们大学运动衫上的校名，而是谁穿它。”