How difficult is it to be the winner in this "information war" for postgraduate study?
2024-08-11
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China Youth Daily and China Youth Network intern reporter Dana
Reporter Guo Shaoming
Intern Wu Yitian
During the hot summer vacation, a group of third-year students rushed to summer camps in different schools just to get another chance to be admitted to graduate school.
In recent years, more and more colleges and universities have opened summer camps for outstanding college students. The performance of the campers is an important basis for recommending graduate school. Some schools can even provide "pre-admission" qualifications, so it is also called "summer camp for guaranteed admission to graduate school."
As the summer vacation enters the second half, the summer camps of colleges and universities are gradually ending. Some students have won multiple titles of "Excellent Campers", and they have more possibilities in the upcoming September pre-recommendation stage. On the other hand, students who "failed" in the summer camp need the opportunity of pre-recommendation even more.
With the increase in the number of graduate students and the increase in the proportion of recommended students, the undergraduate admission to graduate school has received more and more attention. In addition to the news of "the whole dormitory is admitted to graduate school" and "the whole class is admitted to graduate school", many students who have been admitted to graduate school said that it is becoming more and more difficult to be admitted to graduate school, and they should start preparing for it from the freshman year and cannot relax at all.
Image courtesy of Visual China
For those who are guaranteed to study abroad, "every step must be taken carefully"
In July, Hou Jingyu from Wuhan University participated in a summer camp organized by a college of Peking University and was awarded the title of “Excellent Camper”.
"This is the most complicated summer camp I have ever been to." She said that the camp has a four-day schedule, including ice-breaking sessions, full-day thesis defense, a 20-minute English interview per person, quality development and welcome activities, etc. The intensive schedule made Hou Jingyu start to think about whether she really wanted to study, and she also met many outstanding people.
Summer camps in universities generally start in July and registration starts in May or June. In order to participate in this summer camp, Hou Jingyu gave up several summer camps with conflicting schedules. In the first three years of college, this choice means that there can be no slackness. For those who have been admitted to graduate school, "every step must be taken carefully."
The "hard foundation" for guaranteed admission to graduate school is the GPA ranking. Students must first obtain the qualification for guaranteed admission to graduate school based on their grades in the previous three years. After the rankings for the first semester of her freshman year were released, Hou Jingyu found that she had an advantage in guaranteed admission to graduate school, so she began to prepare for it.
Take courses to get points and "brush" your GPA higher. While completing the required courses, Hou Jingyu also took some higher-scoring courses through the introduction of seniors, keeping each subject above 90 points. "If any course is below 85 points, it may be difficult to be admitted to graduate school."
Selectively participate in competitions and win national and major awards. "In our college, the difference in grades between classmates may be a few tenths, but the extra points for competitions are accumulated one by one. If you don't have extra points for competitions, the last person in the class has 10 extra points, and you may be able to overtake them directly. Provincial awards are useless, and national awards have a greater bonus." After learning about the college's policy of guaranteed admission to graduate school, Hou Jingyu participated in several competitions and received the maximum extra points of 10 points for competitions.
Students who hope to be admitted to other schools will start their research early. Papers published in journals or papers that have participated in academic conferences are more valuable, and research reports on undergraduate innovation projects and Challenge Cup are also recognized by some colleges and universities. "This summer camp at Peking University has a one-day paper defense. If you don't have a paper, you don't even qualify to enter the camp." Hou Jingyu submitted a course paper to the school's journal, and it took a year to revise it and submit it twice before it was included.
English proficiency is also a quantifiable standard for guaranteed admission to graduate school. CET-6 or IELTS/TOEFL are the minimum requirements for guaranteed admission to graduate school in many universities. Some institutions' international programs explicitly require a CET-6 score of 550 or above, and "brushing for a CET-6 score" is a key task for some students. Hou Jingyu just passed the CET-6. She was very anxious because her English was not good. She turned to IELTS at the end of 2023 and scored 6.5 in May this year. "It was quite thrilling. If I got the IELTS score later, I would not be able to make it in time for the summer camp."
"You must have a plan for postgraduate study, and you really can't be lax at all." Hou Jingyu recalled her first three years of college life and told the reporter of China Youth Daily and China Youth Network. In this process, the acquisition and selection of information runs through the whole process, and many students believe that postgraduate study is an "information war."
In this "information war" for postgraduate study, the information is somewhat confusing
When she first decided to pursue postgraduate study, Hou Jingyu spent 20,000 to 30,000 yuan to enroll in a full-time class at an off-campus institution, but she found that the institution could not provide corresponding guidance according to her plan.
In February this year, Yan Xi, who had been recommended to Peking University, worked with her classmates to run a postgraduate tutoring class. Yan Xi believes that some off-campus tutoring institutions use anxiety marketing to gain more "customers". "They completely treat students as consumers, and don't really care about the students." She saw on social platforms that some institutions are not clear about the latest situation of postgraduate admissions, "a lot of information is completely wrong and misleading."
So Yan Xi decided to do the tutoring himself. The tutoring is divided into planning and knowledge. The former is to provide students with school selection suggestions and review plans, and the latter is the specific learning content, including explaining the knowledge that is not taught in undergraduate classes but will be tested in the postgraduate interview, sorting out the latest research hot topics, and guiding scientific research. In addition, Yan Xi also polishes personal statements, recommendation letters, resumes and other documents for students, and provides written and written interview simulations.
In Yan Xi's opinion, the most important thing is the GPA ranking of students. The ranking is not about the top percentile, but whether they are first or second. She explained: "Take our school as an example. If the first-ranked student applies to Tsinghua, Peking University, Renmin University, Fudan University or Jiaotong University, there is basically no problem. But if the second-ranked student is only a few tenths of a point behind the first-ranked student, if he wants to be recommended to another school, he will be no different from the third, fourth or fifth-ranked student in the preliminary review."
Liu Yuan, a student at a 985 university in Northeast China, believes that admission to graduate school is very dependent on students' background. "Universities are also raising their standards for students. They can recruit 100% of 985 undergraduates, so why would they recruit 211 and non-985 universities? Crudely limiting school background is the lowest-cost measure."
Yang Yan, who was admitted to Xiamen University last year, believes that the ranking of institutions and grades should be combined, "If the undergraduate institution is good, the grade ranking can be slightly relaxed." She explained that "985" universities have more recommended places, and students who may rank in the top 30% may also have the opportunity to be admitted to graduate school; students who rank first or second in "211" or non-211 universities may also get better offers than students with average grades in "985".
Although the importance of factors for admission to graduate school varies, most respondents believe that it is becoming increasingly difficult to get admission to graduate school. Yan Xi believes that in the past, people may have had information gaps or did not think that admission to graduate school was a big deal, but now, on the one hand, the entire evaluation system regards admission to graduate school as one of the best ways out, and students who plan to get admission to graduate school know that they need to have good grades, win awards in competitions, and publish papers. On the other hand, some students feel that they need to get a graduate degree to find a good job, or do not want to find a job after graduating from undergraduate school.
"Now there is basically no information gap. Everyone seems to be a hexagonal warrior without any shortcomings. If we compete at this time, it will be more difficult than before." Yan Xi sighed.
The competition for admission to graduate school beyond quantifiable factors
Some students revealed that the guaranteed admission to graduate school may make the relationship between classmates "delicate". On the Internet, some people expressed their dissatisfaction with the results of the guaranteed admission to graduate school being affected by malicious reports or rumors. Yuan Qi recalled that a classmate privately calculated her average score and ranking before the qualified admission to graduate school was announced. This behavior without a sense of boundaries made her feel uncomfortable.
Wang Xiang, a junior male student at a "985" university in western China, said that some of his younger classmates asked him about admission to graduate school as soon as they entered the university, as if their entire four years had already been planned.
You Xinyu, who is from a non-key university in Beijing, said that her college has few places for guaranteed admission to graduate school and the competition is fierce. In addition to the preparations mentioned above, students must not commit any violations of rules or disciplines during college. If the report is true, they will lose their qualification for guaranteed admission to graduate school. "The uncertainty and competitive pressure of guaranteed admission to graduate school will bring anxiety. Once there is a problem in one link, the guaranteed admission to graduate school will be in vain."
You Xinyu believes that there is definitely competition between classmates, but it is not necessarily vicious competition. "For example, in a summer camp, I met two classmates who were from the same school, major, and dormitory, but they had a good relationship. We can't generalize."
Wang Xiang applied for 10 summer camps and got into 4 of them, one of which was the summer camp of Shenzhen University. After Shenzhen University, a "non-985" and "211" university, announced the list of students admitted to the camp, people found that there were many students from "985" and "211" universities. Wang Xiang was also asked why he chose Shenzhen University.
Wang wanted to explain that Shenzhen University has three rare advantages: "a wealthy school, strong professional strength, and a good location", which few other non-key universities can achieve. Therefore, it attracted students from top schools to sign up, "but many students who entered the camp finally gave up on Shenzhen University."
In the summer camp of Shenzhen University, Wang Xiang was eliminated in the leaderless group interview, and finally he only got the offer of the summer camp of his own school. He said that he would continue to participate in the pre-recommendation, "There are still many opportunities for pre-recommendation. Many people also think that pre-recommendation is more friendly than summer camp."
Summer camp is the first chance to be admitted to graduate school. Students who are outstanding campers or temporarily fail can strive for more opportunities in the "pre-recommendation" and "nine-recommendation" stages which start in September. The former is a way for colleges and universities to grab high-quality students before the formal recommendation, mainly through written and written interviews; the latter is the last chance for those who are admitted to graduate school. The "recommendation service system" is officially opened at the end of September. At this time, only students who have clearly obtained the qualification for admission to graduate school from undergraduate colleges can participate.
Life is not a stressful game of life and death
Wang Bing, a doctoral student in mental health at Peking University, believes that students who are preparing for graduate school are more interested in gaining a first-mover advantage, rather than just relieving anxiety or gaining a buffer period before entering society. "Many people say that this choice is an escape, but I don't like the word escape. If I had the opportunity to escape, I would also like to find a place to stay for two years to get through an unfavorable employment cycle. Graduate school is the result of their weighing of various pros and cons."
"Students who excel in all aspects often hope to have the opportunity to give full play to their talents and abilities. If the motivation for self-realization comes from within, it is a kind of self-motivation. However, if the pain felt in the process far exceeds the hard work, and the driving force comes entirely from the outside, then this is a problem." Wang Bing believes that the latter will make people completely result-oriented and completely deny themselves because of failure to be admitted to graduate school. "If we work hard but do not achieve the expected results, does this effort have no value? If we cannot find meaning in the process and see growth from the efforts, then the binary thinking of success or failure will turn life into a life-and-death game full of pressure."
At work, Wang Bing often tells parents who attend lectures, "If you tell your child that the only way to live the life he wants is through studying, then other options besides taking the entrance exam are dead ends, or in other words, other than taking the postgraduate entrance exam, taking the civil service exam are also dead ends. The value and possibilities of life are compressed to the limit by taking the entrance exam." Wang Bing pointed out that if children are taught from an early age that the value of life, future destiny, and happiness in life are all determined by a certain thing, this is probably the greatest harm to young people. Despair is often born from thinking that life has failed because of a failure.
Wang Bing believes that in current educational practice, we often emphasize where a student is inferior to others, that is, his weaknesses and deficiencies, but they are not very clear about their own strengths and values. "On the track of exam-oriented education, many children regard themselves as the best tools, but not as the best friends, and lack appreciation and friendliness towards themselves. Paying too much attention to grades is like staring at the sun all the time, which may burn your eyes and make you no longer see other possibilities in life. Postgraduate study is indeed important for many students, but life is far more than postgraduate study."
After attending the summer camp at Shenzhen University, Wang Xiang sat in Shenzhen Talent Park and enjoyed the sea breeze. That was the most peaceful and happiest moment of his time. "There have not been many such moments in the past three years." He hopes to improve his academic ability in the master's program and do more interesting and valuable research.
"I still want to read a lot of books, participate in various school activities, fall in love, and take the classes I want to attend. The most important thing is not to rush around for further studies, not to just focus on GPA, and not to do meaningless things for utilitarian purposes." Wang Xiang said.
(At the request of the interviewees, Yan Xi, Liu Yuan, Yang Yan, Yuan Qi, Wang Xiang, and You Xinyu are pseudonyms)
Source: China Youth Daily
