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"some parents are really anxious!"

when talking about the experience of clerical guidance, ping yifan talked about his excitement and talked about an incident he experienced personally. a student followed him to experience academic research, and a high school student discussed humanities topics with graduate students and doctoral students. it was originally a good thing. but what surprised ping yifan was that in the end, the child proposed that he want to put ping yifan's research results into his own documents and display them as one of his achievements.

"the children themselves are of good quality and did participate in part, but the main thinking in the research came from a group of graduate students. this approach is tantamount to appropriating other people's results as one's own in order to gain the favor of university admissions officers."

ping yifan sighed, he had seen many similar examples. as for the next stop of high school - college, what he has lamented most often over the years is "students from elite universities are not necessarily talented.”。

he has encountered students who complained that they were caught cheating, resulting in a d in a course; some students relied on substitutes to take the toefl and gre exams; and some students were addicted to making vlogs to record their life in prestigious schools. , leaving studies behind...

"they spend millions to attend prestigious american schools, but elite education does not seem to guarantee elite talents."

ping yifan himself is an international student. he knows how much hardship a chinese student has to endure to successfully apply for a u.s. university, especially a prestigious school, and graduate with qualifications.

behind these honors, there are thousands of days and nights when he "forced" himself to learn more and better. he always had a reverence for learning and academics, but he also felt broken down countless times. he even once was unable to sit at the table for a long time due to severe spinal pain.

today, he is pursuing his second master's degree in the department of anthropology at the university of chicago. at the same time, his experience as an alumni interviewer and his two years of guidance on essay writing also allowed him to understand what kind of students american universities want from the perspective of practice and research.

in a flash, he has been overseas for 12 years. in his exchanges with thousands of students, he has increasingly felt that the current elite education can produce refined egoists, uneducated people, and sensationalists, but if you want to produce it is already too difficult to become a true elite talent.

universities have a responsibility in this. they are lazy and compromised. he often writes articles criticizing the shortcomings of prestigious universities. however, he also hopes that students, families and teachers can give more thought to the far-reaching significance of studying abroad.today, applying to study abroad is becoming more and more like a "hunger games", but the meaning of studying abroad should be much more than that.

graduated from oxford university

children who are planned to be assembly line products

it is difficult to become a true elite

"it would be so sad if the biggest hardship a child has to endure is studying." speaking of pre-college education, ping yifan sighed.

looking back on his educational experience, he felt that he could not compare with today's children. he is grateful for the favorable financial conditions provided by his parents, but there is not much they can do academically.

he still remembers that when he was talking to the interviewer about his interest in education, he said that the most impressive thing he had ever done was "put the textbooks of various subjects together and compare them to see the connections between the knowledge, just like a tailor threading a needle.”。

i read books because i really had nothing to do at that time. now, this experience is no longer enough for admissions officers to look at.

nowadays, many high-minded parents he comes into contact with are completely different. not only do they have a deep understanding of u.s. undergraduate applications, but they are also willing to use more resources to add to their children’s resumes. however, from ping yifan's point of view, they would rather let their children check in in arts and sciences, arts and sports, social practice, and international experience, but are no longer willing or dare to let their children grow up freely.

in his opinion, this exquisite sense of planning is one of the particularly conspicuous issues in the resumes of many children today. sometimes, even the children themselves don’t know why they are planning this way.

ping yifan said,he could feel that these children were losing interest in the world."do you know how exaggerated things can be? some children have a full schedule, and in the end the most exciting thing for them is to go home and sleep because they are too tired from participating in activities."

but this interest is precisely the essence of the ideal student in an elite university. universities like students to ask more "why" about the world.he once had a student who didn’t like to do homework at night, but was obsessed with the stars in the sky. there was also a student who was fascinated by niche clothing trends, but couldn’t figure out, “why sometimes wearing hanfu or jk uniforms would cause scoldings from passers-by. ?", and some students have personally experienced the renovation of the old city and are eager to know "what impact will the renovation of the old city have"...

the last student, ping yifan, was very impressed.

a distinct growth line grew naturally.

looking back at those neat and beautiful resumes like an assembly line, ping yifan said frankly: "sometimes admissions officers can see through the intentions behind them, and sometimes they can indeed hide the truth, but in the end they can't fool themselves."

why do so many students with gorgeous resumes end up willing to study a passable major in college, then study for a graduate degree that everyone is studying, and finally become a coder in the financial street that everyone works as, becoming a standardized product on the assembly line? perhaps this is the reason why my curiosity and desire to explore were quelled before i entered college.

willing to lie in the halo and sink

not every student from a prestigious school is worthy of his or her reputation.

if the assembly-line resumes and documents explain the "entrance" problem of elite universities that do not necessarily cultivate talents, then the "exit" problem stems from the university's training process.

it was also in the past few years that the talk of "disenchanting prestigious schools" began to appear more and more.

ping yifan is also paying attention to this topic. in his opinion, the disenchantment of prestigious schools should be done, but now he has a strange look——many students from prestigious schools, who should see and expose the shortcomings of prestigious schools, lie in the halo, and ordinary students who should be full of yearning for famous schools have become disenchanted with famous schools.

this view is not difficult to see from his usual social media speeches: as a student of a prestigious school, he often criticizes various problems of prestigious schools and students in prestigious schools, and even proposed that "prestigious schools have original sin."

is there something wrong with education in prestigious schools? yes, and many of the problems are deep-rooted.

in the process of interviewing high school students as senior fellow and alumni interviewer,ping yifan has personally experienced some unspoken rules that cannot be explained clearly.. there are also very outstanding students who failed to gain admission, or students who, in his opinion, have average learning and critical thinking abilities, were eventually admitted.

and,it is an indisputable fact that even for top universities, the quality of their education is poor.as herb childress, a ph.d. in environmental behavior at the university of wisconsin, once mentioned in "the death of a degree: the history of the demise of the american ph.d.", in order to reduce employment costs, many universities only sign short-term contracts with some teachers. for one academic year, even after only one semester, if the students want to communicate with the teacher later, they can only "find this person".

ping yifan also added that in order to improve their employment rate and attract more students to apply, some universities do not hesitate to write off unpopular humanities subjects and add popular subjects such as cs; moreover, university gpas are generally watered down, and some even know the "hidden rules" "students like this will ask professors to give them tough advice, and they can get high marks just by talking..."

in ping yifan's view, these practices run counter to the high standards and strict requirements for cultivating elites.and what about the students from prestigious schools among them? there is a part of me that is willing to sink and lie in the halo of a prestigious school and refuse to get up.

he said that he was by no means denying the strength of all students from prestigious schools, but he couldn't stand the current practice of some students from prestigious schools who just wanted to gain traffic by riding on the school's reputation and put their studies behind them.

to be fair, famous schools certainly have problems of one kind or another, but there is no doubt that famous schools are rich in resources and have high academic standards. ping yifan himself has personal experience.

when he first entered college, he was also confused about his future. with the help of course selection guidance, he started his exploration of anthropology. as a result, the elective courses were hard-core philosophy from the very beginning, not entry-level at all. the professor also said straight to the point that his essay writing was poor and he needed to learn writing from scratch. but it was the professors' unambiguous attitude of striving for excellence, coupled with his continuous research, that actually led to his own academic path.

before studying for a ph.d., he plans to do some work related to international development to combine what he has learned with social practice. after submitting many resumes, he realized that these jobs required references. in the end, also under the recommendation of an oxford teacher, a senior sister became his recommender, allowing him to go to france to participate in an internship at a unesco research institute.

internship at unesco

“the reputation of a school will make people feel that everything is easy to obtain, but knowledge and abilities will not be automatically obtained just because you are a student of a prestigious school.ping yifan said, "it is already a blessing to be able to enter a prestigious school. we should think about how to further our studies and improve our true abilities." instead of just relying on the title of a prestigious school student to attract attention to satisfy your own vanity. "

success narrative

narrowing the definition of excellence

after talking about the "entrance" and "exit" of elite universities, in fact, there is another underlying logic that must be discussed, which is also the reason why college application becomes more and more like the "hunger games" -the definition of excellence is narrowed。

in the past few years, ping yifan has met many extremely outstanding students, some with particularly high test scores, some doing professional scientific research, and some with small achievements in their favorite fields... ping yifan will secretly think about it every time. i’m glad “i was born early.

also keen on these successful experiences are the majority of prospective international students and their parents. everyone hopes to discover some winning strategies from a large number of successful cases.

in ping yifan's view, there is nothing wrong with sharing experience, but he is also very concerned about the invisible "pits" hidden in such success stories:

for example, the students who are the protagonists of the story may not realize it themselves, and they will intentionally or unintentionally increase their subjective initiative in their memories, giving people the illusion that "hard work will lead to success."

"i passed the toefl exam xxx by myself in x months; after working hard, my gpa counterattacked xx; i found a study at xx university and published xx..." this kind of experience was too familiar to ping yifan, and he had no intention of questioning it. the truth of the story, but he always felt, "life is always 100% upward. this kind of growth curve is too unreal.”

he asked rhetorically: "if a student who firmly believes in this also works hard, even ten times or a hundred times, but in the end does not get a successful result, then who should he blame?"

speaking of this, he mentioned a particularly common example: high school students are actually in an emotionally sensitive growth period, but he has rarely seen students share how to deal with relationships with their families.

another fatal logic is that the definition of excellence has been narrowed and equated with getting good scores and getting an offer from a prestigious school.

ping yifan himself has fallen into this logic. from high school to college, he worked hard for his standardized scores and gpa, until he finally got a high score. is this good enough?

but at this time, he was confused because he still had many doubts about what he had learned in class. he felt distressed and even fragile about what he could explore, what research he could do, and what he could do to change the world.

host education summit

"no. 1, no. 2, no. 3, we seem to have a tradition of 'creating gods' for the no. 1 in the exam."but scores are actually only a small part of excellence; on the way to success, you have to experience more failures.

on one occasion, he saw a "rejection wall" in a high school, which was covered with the memories of students who were rejected by their dream schools: "loved lightly", "run away", "it's not worthy"... internet buzzwords gave these messages a lighter tone and also expressed their attitude towards failure: although there are regrets, life never stops here.

of course prestigious schools are good. he said: "people always have to go up. if a famous school happens to be the higher platform, then you should go to a famous school."but there are many ways to be excellent, and excellence does not only come from getting an offer from a prestigious school.

there are too many factors that influence whether you can successfully apply to a dream school or a prestigious school. every child's situation is different. family background, interests, personality, habits, and sometimes uncontrollable luck are also part of success. although excellent children also have experiences worth learning from, they should not copy all experiences intact.

the same is true for school rankings. various lists have their own ranking rules, not to mention that there have been a lot of news in the past two years about "rising up" in the rankings by taking advantage of loopholes. a university that is ranked high must have a strong reason to be strong, but just because it is not ranked high on the list does not necessarily mean that the university has no advantages.

and,getting admitted to college is far from the end. it is just the beginning of another journey, and children are still waiting to explore more of their potential and possibilities in the new journey.

the world still needs a little sentiment

elites bear social responsibilities, this point of view was repeatedly emphasized by ping yifan in his sharing. however, this ideal seems to appear much more often in college application essays than when discussing life ideals after graduation.

compared with a hundred years ago, society has undergone tremendous changes, and higher education itself has also undergone many changes. but some feelings have not changed, and that is to influence and change the world, even if it is only from a small scale around us.

"this requirement is not too high," ping yifan said. "it is very common to want a diploma from a prestigious school to find a high-paying job.but in addition to pursuing financial returns, can there be higher pursuits?”

ping yifan gave an example: "although i always criticize the people around me, there are also many people i like. without exception, they have been working hard to make this society better."

some of them are devoted to climate change issues, mediating for the formulation of reasonable carbon emission targets at various international organization summits; others already have full-time jobs, but still devote a lot of their spare time to public undertakings such as environmental protection. ping yifan also hopes to use his voice to change everyone's biased understanding of prestigious schools...

when he was studying in oxford, he once mentioned the significance of studying in a prestigious school in his eyes - "we must not forget why we are here: to become a better version of ourselves. this internal and external conflict and tension will always exist, forcing us to find a balance of our own.”

as he said, if you want to achieve this balance, you can start with a mental training: if you feel that you lack the motivation to change, then don't regard the prestigious school as an honor, but regard the status of a prestigious school student as a "shame" ", think more"i am already a student of xx, i still have to do better”。

unless otherwise stated, pictures are provided by the interviewee and used with permission