主持人的話:本期《留學》給大家推薦文書的作者是一位工作兩年的白領。他成功獲得了紐約大學碩士項目的錄取。這篇文書對于大部分的申請學生都很有參考性—它不是傳說中的“神文”,與大部分優秀學生的文書功力差不多,相信從這篇文章中,您不僅可以得到寫PS的啟發,也能發現自己之前尚未覺察的寫作問題。
NYU, MS in Management and Systems
Personal Statement
I worked as a Project Manager at Beijing Founder Securities, one of the biggest security companies in China. In the last two years at Founder Securities, my excellent performance at my job brought me both the recognition of the management and a rewarding package. However, I felt that I need to further hone my management skills related to both the application of advanced information technology and the management of people. For improvement, Ive read books, studied online and even attended the MBA bridge program at California State University, Fresno. However, all these efforts only allowed me to see more clearly that I do need systematic study on management skills related to technology. I wish to pursue a master degree in Management and Systems in the US in order to further my career, whether to become a professional IT Project Manager, or develop my own start-up in the future.
I did my internship at a well-known e-business company ‘Fishing Supplies Online Shopping. My work involved in analyzing users products, designing the website frame according to users requirement, developing website structure, maintaining website development, operation, and programming. This three-month internship exposed me to the management of website development projects. My abilities in development, design, and maintenance improved greatly by working with experienced French colleagues.
When I worked at Founder Securities, I got an opportunity to lead the project -Monitoring System for Securities Transactions and Funds Settlement. To complete this project within its short time limit of six months, I conducted a lot of researches on project management to prepare myself for this task.
Firstly, I developed personnel profiles to know my team members and their expertise and developed a process to engage customers to identify their needs. I also picked up the brains of experienced colleagues from other teams. Then I organized the kick-off meeting, laid out the team management structure that consisted of people from three different departments, and developed work plans and breakdown plans so each one know their roles clearly. I also tried to set up a regular communication plan among our team to ensure that problems were dealt with in a timely manner.
With a cross-functional project team that consisted of people from product design, development, testing, DBA and operation maintenance functions, we took a flexible development process and divided the development stage into twelve two-week segments. The overall task was broken down to allow more efficient execution. We also adopted an interactive approach to engage project stakeholders and get their feedback so as to adjust our work to their suggestions more efficiently. We also moved the debugging and quality control process into earlier segments to shorten the entire development cycle.
During the development process, we encountered many disagreements but because the multi-stakeholder way we manage our decision-making process, our team worked smoothly and the project was successfully completed within the time limit.
This success was a great motivation for me and it also triggered my enthusiasm to manage and lead. However, I felt that I need some formal management training before I can shift up another gear in my career path. With my previous experience and academic preparation, I believe that I am qualified, both in terms of experience and in terms of mentality, to pursue a higher degree of education in Management and Systems.
The program at New York University can provide me with an opportunity to gain management skills in Management and Systems. It would be an important step on my career path from a developer to a manager. I consider my masters study in information technology as another opportunity to further enhance my abilities so that I can become more competitive. For these reasons, I deeply urge your consideration of my academic achievements and research skills, as well as my passion and dedication in furthering my career. Also, I am sure that with my background, I will benefit your graduate program with my diverse cultural background and experience. I am looking forward to starting a new journey towards success with the Management and Systems program at New York University.
(注,本文由櫻知葉留學提供)
《留學》雜志明星顧問高靜老師點評
首段申請者旨在表述自己的申請緣由和愿望,提到了兩年的工作經驗,提到了讀書和橋梁課程,出發點非常好,卻忽略了PS寫作中極為重要的一點,即簡明扼要,而這一段顯然信息量大的同時有點混亂,且management 和MIS不是一個專業,申請者為什么申請MIS,沒有表達出來。
Firstly開頭的段落講了申請者作為一個leader的準備工作,為了更好地發揮此段的作用,給ad committee留下深刻的印象,建議增加一點細節,比如,收集到的別人的經驗之談是什么,如何安排團隊管理,等等,可以不用把自己做的都寫出來,但只要寫一點就要寫清楚,這樣才能達到效果。
實習、工作經驗、領導經歷,這三方面是此篇PS的突出點,那么我們是不是可以這樣重新整合一下:關于MIS的實習經歷增強了申請者在這方面的興趣,同時出色的實習表現為找工作奠定了基礎,工作中表現優秀,贏得了leadership的機會,雖然做得很好,但想要做得更好,這個時候MIS的學校是必須的,所以要申請。如果能圍繞這個line寫下來,我覺得會更加順暢。
另外需要提一下,整篇PS中沒有提交申請者的本科背景,這點很危險,如果committee沒有時間去翻閱你的簡歷,那么他可能會忽略這位申請者。值得我們學習的是,這位申請者一開始就先把自己的工作經歷和準備都擺出來,讓人能瞬間感受到這不是一個普通的剛剛畢業的申請者,這點也很重要。
除了這些我們所謂的硬件,那么也順便曬一曬自己的軟件吧,比如溝通能力、人際交往能力,比如曾經有位申請到Chicago的學生寫,我每天都會接到朋友的電話,有讓我介紹咖啡廳的,有問我要另外一個朋友的聯系方式的,有讓我給出幾份工作的參考意見的,看似普通的事件反映出的是良好的人際交往的能力。而恰好,無論是哪個領域的manager,溝通和交流能力都是極為重要的。
《留學》雜志明星顧問田淑敏老師點評
作為一篇申請美國研究生的申請文章,該文章并沒有局限于傳統的用冗長事例、素材堆砌背景的模式,而是簡潔有效地將優秀的國內外經歷,體現在不同的段落之中。全文構思新穎,主題鮮明,語言精練。整篇文章行文流暢,一氣呵成,招生官在不經意間就已通讀全文,一個優秀的申請者的形象就躍然紙上。
文章開門見山,直奔主題,言簡意賅地闡述申請的原因,明確了自身的申請目標和目的。第二段緊接上文闡述在實習工作中如何培養及提高自己的專業知識和能力。海外公司的實習經歷大大提升了申請背景,側面映襯出申請者的適應能力、學習能力。中間部分更進一步闡述其在國內知名公司的工作經歷,并以工作中的一個具體項目為例,突出申請者的優秀特質。
由海外實習到國內工作經歷層層遞進,一個優秀申請者的輪廓清晰明朗地展現在招生官面前。文章最后的點睛之筆,強調在面臨事業瓶頸之后尋求突破,堅定申請動機,讓招生官對學生的申請意愿更加確定,為日后錄取留下非常好的印象。
文章美中不足在于篇幅略短,建議適當把申請目標與申請者所處的事業瓶頸具體加以闡述。
《留學》雜志明星顧問王嘉蔭老師點評
本篇文書印證了申請者和學校之間是雙向選擇的這種關系,更好地設計這篇文書的結構,除了要闡明申請者自身符合院校要求的背景外,同時也要交代清楚學校的什么東西為我所需,也就是要交代清楚所選學校和自己的匹配程度。
對于研究生的招生,研究生院負責硬性指標的審核,如GT成績,而文書部分是由該專業的老師來審核,申請者在文書內容提供上只需簡述工作的內容,通過工作過程中想到的方法、解決的問題展示取得的成績,進而得到獨立的第三方客觀的評價或認可。
我們寫任何一篇文書都必須有針對性,要清楚學校要什么?細看紐約大學對于“陳述目的”的要求,即要從學術和專業兩方面闡述適合申請者的原因。申請者作為學生,今后對這個研究項目可能做出的貢獻。顯然這篇文書過于強調申請者的工作背景,而沒有完全扣題的去呈現學校想看到的東西。
整段文字語言比較簡單,內容雖交代清楚了,但稍欠缺一些文采。
主持人辣評:
文章讀完了,各位老師的點評也學習過了,主持人也不用怕影響閱讀,可以直抒胸臆講講自己的讀后感了。
盡管幾位老師都提到了文章文采稍遜,但主持人可以很負責任地說一句,在留學文書的書寫中,文采確實只是錦上添花之物,無需死磕。但這篇文章的問題在于,信息量大且細碎,缺少場景感和細節,不少語句拗口,不是常見的英語用法。這些問題在中式英語的文章中常見,雖然不可怕,但確實會影響閱讀體驗;尤其對于一些習慣用法的誤用,是可以通過請教資深老師或外教來避免的。
人物簡介
高靜
啟德教育北京分公司美國部文案主管,從事美國留學咨詢工作六年,能準確分析申請者的背景,幫助申請者挖掘強勢,規避弱勢,成功俘獲招生委員會(Ad Committee)的青睞。
田淑敏
櫻知葉大學部申請中心經理,從事留學行業六年多,善于從學生角度分析劣勢與優勢,為每位學生量身定做打造個性化申請方案。
王嘉蔭
伯樂留學資深顧問,精通美國名校申請流程,通過自己獨特的背景提升方法和輔導方式,多次成功的幫助不同背景的學生取得名校的錄取通知書。
語錄TA說:
編輯:李夢夢 王楠
【1】“當看到某些學生心靈田園荒蕪的時候,心靈被役使的時候,自然會感到我們的人格教育是有缺陷的?!?/p>
“‘以學生為中心的教育還未落到實處;教師與學生的距離沒有明顯縮短;我希望‘讓學生自由發展,但總體上多數學生可能還是未脫離那種類似教育生產線的培養模式;對這些我不能不表示遺憾和歉意。”
——華中科技大學校長“根叔”李培根卸任華中科技大學校長。在離任演說中,李培根離職報告中的19次述及遺憾之事遺憾一共有19處。
【2】“不是每個人都必須上大學。我們必須鼓勵求學的年輕人探尋其它路徑?!?/p>
——英國女王次子約克公爵(Duke of York)在一次報刊編輯年會期間發表講話時近日評論英國教育制度之弊,表示,英國的教育制度認為過度傾向于將年輕人引導年輕人進入大學系統,不利于教育的全面健康發展。
【3】“我只想說:我們每個人都有選擇和決定自己生活的權利。小天是我見過最單純善良的人,很遺憾自己沒能保護好她。感謝大家關心,只求以后可以正常牽手而行。祝大家幸福!”
——京東掌門人劉強東和“奶茶妹妹”章澤天傳出忘年戀緋聞,更被網友拍到二人擁抱照,劉強東隨后首度微博上公開二人戀情。二人在劉強東游學哥倫比亞大學時結實,網友戲稱“都是留學惹的禍”。
【4】“沒有目標,因為想追美國想都別想,我這輩子可能都看不到。我想,在我有生之年,如果能把耿丹學院做成中國私立大學的第一名或者前五名,我覺得就很好了。”
——俞敏洪日前在接受采訪時表示,中美教育差距太大,不把美國大學作為耿丹學院的目標。
【5】“海外學生對英國教育的質量、研究以及我們的社群來說非常重要,他們是創新者和朋友。我們確信國際學生不是、也不應該被劃分為移民之列。“
——謝菲爾德大學校長伯內特爵士對于海外學生被計入“凈入境移民”(net immigration)人數的統計方式深感不滿,發起“We Are International”計劃支持國際學生,目前獲得劍橋大學、圣安德魯斯大學等100家機構的支持。承認和奶茶妹妹章澤天的戀情,目前章澤天正在哥倫比亞大學做交換生