招生办公室的人员并不认识您的孩子

我能给家长们最好的建议是：

招生办公室的人员并不认识您的孩子。 他们最多可以根据您的孩子和其他人写的内容做出猜测，也许还可以进行网上采访或其他什么。 您的孩子与众不同的个人特点根本无法有效的展现给招生官来做评价。

作为招生委员会的一员，我可以说，任意和随机的事情已经深深地淘汰了原本很棒的候选人。

我看到一位候选人因为来自佛罗里达州而被拒绝。 令人棒的家伙，但委员会的一名成员否决了，因为候选人来自佛罗里达州，而这就是审稿人的心情。这位审稿人是一位高级学者医生。 但我猜他不喜欢佛罗里达。另一位候选人因为面试时紧张地跺着脚而被阻止。 

这就是为什么没有必要坚持你钟情的某一所大学。这有点像单相思。 到底是什么将 5% 的申请者与超过 50% 的申请者区分开来？ 本质上什么都没有。 我们谈论这些1-5个数字等等——事实是，这些招生人员只是即兴发挥。 他们有数以万计的人要削减，实际上他们已经筋疲力尽了。

当我申请医学院时，我的第一选择大学没有录取我。但是我被其他所有的大学医学院录取了。他们是全国学术竞争力最强的学校。 我很失望，但是我接受了。 我后来以班上第一名的成绩从另一所学校毕业，并获得了极好的经历。 我的职业生涯非常精彩。

您的孩子很特别，而申请过程是一种带宽极低、噪音很大的方式来传达这种特殊性。 如果您的孩子就读哈佛，那就太好了。 但如果没有，他们也将同样成功，并建立一条充满活力的道路。 所以不要有压力！

 

 

The best advice I can give to fellow parents is this:

The admissions people do not know your child. At best they can make a guess, based on what your child and others have written on papers, and maybe a zoom interview or something. Huge critical experiences of what makes your child unique and special simply do not transmit with anything like reasonable fidelity into the rigid format of the application.

Having served on admissions committee for selective educational programs, I can say that arbitrary and random things have deep sixed otherwise awesome candidates.

I saw a candidate rejected because he was from Florida. Incredible guy, but one of the committee members vetoed because the candidate was from Florida, and that’s the mood the reviewer was in. This reviewer is a high power Rhodes scholar physician. But I guess he dislikes Florida.

Another candidate blocked because he nervously tapped his foot during the interview. Next!

This is why getting into one special college is not worth stressing over. What actually separates the 5% who get in from the too 50% of applicants? Essentially, nothing. we talk about athese 1-6 numbers etc - the truth is, these admissions people are just winging it. They have tens of thousands to whittle down and truly they are just exhausted.

When I applied to medical school, I got into the most academically competitive schools in the country. Except for the single one that was my first choice. I was disappointed but let it roll off me. I went on to graduate first in my class from a different school and had a superb experience. My career has been wonderful.

Your child is special and the application process is an extremely low bandwidth, noisy way of communicating that specialness. If your child attends Harvard, great. But if not, they are going to be just as successful and build a vibrant path to follow. So don’t stress!