哪4種學(xué)生最容易進(jìn)哈佛？

For three weeks in October, Harvard’s admissions system was on trial before an often standing-room-only crowd in a federal courtroom in Boston. Harvard was accused of discriminating against Asian-American applicants, but the university firmly denied this throughout the trial, which ended last week.

在10月份的三個(gè)星期里，哈佛大學(xué)的招生系統(tǒng)在波士頓聯(lián)邦法庭接受審判，審判廳總是擠得水泄不通。哈佛大學(xué)被指控歧視亞裔申請(qǐng)人，但在上周結(jié)束的整個(gè)審判中，該校一直堅(jiān)決否認(rèn)這一點(diǎn)。

Through testimony and internal documents, the case provided an eye-opening look into the often guarded and opaque admissions process at Harvard. With some 40,000 applicants and about 1,600 available seats, Harvard argued, some students would inevitably be left out.

通過證詞和內(nèi)部文件，該案件讓人大開眼界，了解哈佛大學(xué)那些經(jīng)常保密且不透明的錄取過程。哈佛大學(xué)認(rèn)為，有大約4萬(wàn)名申請(qǐng)者，而入學(xué)名額只有1600個(gè)，一些學(xué)生將不可避免地被排除在外。

How admissions officers went about that sifting process seemed to some in the gallery like an exercise in cynicism, which perpetuated the established ruling class, and to others like a noble pursuit, which lifted “diamonds in the rough,” of all backgrounds, into the future elite. Here’s what we learned about who gets an admissions edge:

旁聽席上的許多人認(rèn)為，錄取官員以一種玩世不恭的態(tài)度進(jìn)行篩選過程，使得現(xiàn)有的統(tǒng)治階級(jí)長(zhǎng)期延續(xù)下去，也有人認(rèn)為他們?cè)谧非笠环N崇高的行為，將各種背景中的“粗糙鉆石”提升為未來(lái)的精英。以下是我們了解到的誰(shuí)有入學(xué)優(yōu)勢(shì)：

‘A.L.D.C.’s “A.L.D.C.”

Harvard gives advantages to recruited athletes (A’s); legacies (L’s), or the children of Harvard graduates; applicants on the dean’s or director’s interest list (D’s), which often include the children of very wealthy donors and prominent people, mostly white; and the children (C’s) of faculty and staff. ALDCs make up only about 5 percent of applicants but 30 percent of admitted students.

哈佛優(yōu)先考慮的申請(qǐng)人包括其招募的運(yùn)動(dòng)員(A)、哈佛大學(xué)畢業(yè)生的子女(L);院長(zhǎng)或主任興趣清單上的申請(qǐng)人，通常包括非常富有的捐贈(zèng)者和知名人士的子女，大多是白人(D);以及教職員工的子女(C)。ALDC申請(qǐng)人只占申請(qǐng)人的5%左右，但是占入學(xué)學(xué)生的30%。

While being an A.L.D.C. helps — their acceptance rate is about 45 percent, compared with 4.5 to 5 percent for the rest of the pool — it is no guarantee. (One of those rejected despite being a legacy was the judge in the federal case, Allison D. Burroughs. She went to Middlebury College instead.)

有ALDC身份的申請(qǐng)人的入學(xué)率約為45%，而其余學(xué)生的入學(xué)率為4.5%至5%——但擁有ALDC身份也不能保證入學(xué)。(這起聯(lián)邦案件的法官艾莉森·D·巴勒斯[Allison D. Burroughs] 也是被拒絕的校友子女。她后來(lái)去了米德爾伯里學(xué)院[Middlebury College]。)

Harvard’s witnesses said it was important to preserve the legacy advantage because it encourages alumni to give their time, expertise and money to the university.

哈佛大學(xué)的證人表示，保留畢業(yè)生子女優(yōu)勢(shì)非常重要，因?yàn)樗膭?lì)校友向母校投入時(shí)間、專業(yè)知識(shí)和資金。

Students from ‘sparse country’

來(lái)自“匱乏鄉(xiāng)村”的學(xué)生

Every year, Harvard sends out thousands of recruitment letters inviting high school juniors to apply, based in part on their P.S.A.T. scores. Students who take Harvard up on the invitation are about twice as likely as other applicants to be admitted.

每年，哈佛都會(huì)發(fā)出數(shù)千份申請(qǐng)邀請(qǐng)信，邀請(qǐng)高中三年級(jí)學(xué)生申請(qǐng)?jiān)撔?，部分是基于他們的PSAT分?jǐn)?shù)。哈佛邀請(qǐng)的學(xué)生入學(xué)率是其他入學(xué)申請(qǐng)者的兩倍。

In “sparse country” — 20 largely rural states where relatively few apply to Harvard — the university drops the P.S.A.T. score cutoff for white students to qualify for an invitation. In 2013, white applicants with P.S.A.T. scores of 1310 were invited to apply from sparse country, compared with 1350 for white and Asian-American women and 1380 for white and Asian-American men outside of sparse country. Black, Hispanic, Native American or other minority students needed an 1100 or better to be invited to apply, regardless of location.

在“匱乏鄉(xiāng)村”——20個(gè)以農(nóng)村為主的州，申請(qǐng)哈佛大學(xué)的人相對(duì)較少——該校不以PSAT分?jǐn)?shù)作為向白人學(xué)生發(fā)送邀請(qǐng)信的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。 2013年，在匱乏鄉(xiāng)村，白人申請(qǐng)人在PSAT考試中獲得1310分便可獲得申請(qǐng)，而“匱乏鄉(xiāng)村”之外，白人和亞裔美國(guó)女性則需獲得1350分，白人和亞裔美國(guó)男性則需要1380分。無(wú)論身處何地，黑人、西班牙裔、美國(guó)原住民或其他少數(shù)族裔學(xué)生都需要1100分或更高才能被邀請(qǐng)申請(qǐng)。

Effervescent (or reflective) applicants

活躍(或內(nèi)向)申請(qǐng)人

Admissions officers are urged to look for applicants with “unusually appealing personal qualities,” which could include “effervescence, charity, maturity and strength of character.”

招生人員受到鼓勵(lì)，錄取具有“異常吸引人的個(gè)人品質(zhì)”的申請(qǐng)人，其中包括“活躍、仁愛、成熟和個(gè)性優(yōu)勢(shì)”。

Outgoing students seemed to benefit most, according to court documents and testimony.

根據(jù)法庭文件和證詞，外向的學(xué)生似乎受益最多。

But new guidelines issued days before the trial began last month caution officers that character traits “not always synonymous with extroversion” should be valued, and that applicants who seem to be “particularly reflective, insightful and/or dedicated” should receive high personal ratings as well.

但是該校在上個(gè)月審判開始前幾天發(fā)布的新指南警告招生官員，應(yīng)該重視“并不總是等同于外向性格”的性格特征，并且那些似乎“特別具有反思力、洞察力和(或)專注力”的申請(qǐng)人也應(yīng)該獲得較高個(gè)人評(píng)定。

At trial, Harvard did not dispute that Asian-American applicants received, on average, lower personal ratings than applicants of any other race or ethnicity. The plaintiffs said this was evidence of Harvard’s stereotyping of Asian-Americans as industrious but dull. Harvard said it was not the result of discrimination; rather, it was partly because of weaker support from high school teachers and guidance counselors.

在審判中，哈佛并未否認(rèn)亞裔申請(qǐng)人收到的平均個(gè)人評(píng)定低于任何其他種族或族裔申請(qǐng)人。原告表示，這證明哈佛對(duì)亞裔美國(guó)人的刻板印象是勤勞而沉悶。哈佛說(shuō)，這不是歧視的結(jié)果;相反，部分原因是高中教師和輔導(dǎo)員對(duì)這些申請(qǐng)人的支持較弱。

“We do not endorse, we abhor stereotypical comments,” the dean of the Harvard admissions office, William Fitzsimmons, testified.

“我們不認(rèn)可這一點(diǎn)，我們厭惡陳規(guī)定型的評(píng)論，”哈佛大學(xué)招生辦公室主任威廉·菲茨西蒙斯(William Fitzsimmons)作證說(shuō)。

Those with a compelling life story, who have overcome obstacles

有令人信服的人生故事的人，克服了某些障礙的人

Court documents, including guidelines issued to admissions officers, repeatedly showed clear advantages given to poor students and those from disadvantaged circumstances. But stories of besting challenges of other kinds also gave applicants an edge.

法院文件，包括發(fā)給招生人員的指導(dǎo)方針，一再顯示對(duì)貧困學(xué)生和弱勢(shì)群體給予明顯優(yōu)勢(shì)。但是，其他類型的最佳挑戰(zhàn)故事也能給申請(qǐng)人帶來(lái)優(yōu)勢(shì)。

In his application, Thang Diep, a Harvard senior who came from Vietnam as a child, talked about being bullied for his accented English, and how affirming it was when a Harvard professor was the first teacher to pronounce his name correctly.

在申請(qǐng)中，小時(shí)候從越南來(lái)到美國(guó)的哈佛大學(xué)大四學(xué)生葉勝(Thang Diep，音)談到自己因?yàn)橛⒄Z(yǔ)有口音被欺負(fù)，以及一位哈佛教授成了第一個(gè)正確念出他名字的老師時(shí)，他感到多受鼓舞。

Sarah Cole appeared in court to testify that as a black student from Kansas City, Mo., she had worked hard to get a scholarship to a prestigious private college-prep school, but suffered socially for it. She said white teachers told her she was not smart enough to excel, and customers at her job laughed at her for wearing a Stanford T-shirt. She graduated from Harvard College in 2016, and is now a public school teacher.

出庭作證的莎拉·科爾(Sarah Cole)是一名來(lái)自密蘇里州堪薩斯城的黑人學(xué)生，她曾努力獲得一所著名私立大學(xué)預(yù)科學(xué)校的獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金，卻因此在社交方面受到影響。她說(shuō)，白人老師告訴她，她不夠聰明，無(wú)法出類拔萃，在她工作的地方，客戶因?yàn)樗┧固垢４髮W(xué)的T恤而嘲笑她。她于2016年畢業(yè)于哈佛大學(xué)，現(xiàn)在是一名公立學(xué)校教師。

Mr. Fitzsimmons, the admissions dean, said that a candidate’s race was given weight only if it was reflective of life experience, such as “the fact that they had overcome and surmounted these kinds of obstacles.”

招生主任菲茨西蒙斯說(shuō)，申請(qǐng)人的種族只在反映其人生經(jīng)歷時(shí)才會(huì)被考慮，比如“他們克服并解決了那些類型的困難”。

And Mr. Fitzsimmons, whose parents had run a gas station, spoke of how he had applied to Harvard, hoping to be the first person in his family to go to college. He got in.

菲茨西蒙斯的父母是一家加油站的老板，他說(shuō)自己當(dāng)初申請(qǐng)哈佛時(shí)，在申請(qǐng)信中寫道，希望自己是家族中第一個(gè)上大學(xué)的人。他被錄取了。