申请文章在申请奖学金过程中所起的作用远超过托福和GRE。要保证您的读书计划和推荐信独树一帜,获得奖学金评审委员会的刮目相看,可以参考以下的范例:
Growing up in a modest village in China,I hardly ever had the chance to see many examples of modern technology;people who dig wells by hand to obtain drinking water and use ox-driven plows to cultivate their fields don’t have much use for televisions and personal computers。But when my father gave me an old radio to play with,I wanted nothing more than to take apart the contraption and see what inside made such interesting sounds。Sitting on the floor with a confused grin,surrounded by wires and metal,I looked up at my father and asked where the noises were...(有删节)
点 评:合理地阐述了申请者学习电子工程的动机,学习动机是评审委员非常看中的。同时,读了这段文字,会使读者沉浸在对童年往事的美好回忆里,借此打动评审委员的心。
另外一篇修改过的文章开头用诗一般的语言写道(有删节):
......I first read this paragraph from Madame Curie as a 14-year-old child,and I still remember how wonderful I felt。I remember thinking,“What esteemed men they were!How hard they worked!” As I grew older,this paragraph became a source of encouragement in the face of adversity。I begin to feel a magical blue light twinkling in my heart,kindling a love of science,and encouraging me to charge bravely into the unknown world。
结尾呼应了开头,阐述了作者为什么要去美国读书:
I never forgot my adolescent idol,Maria Curie。As I re-read the book,another passage leaped out:“She was now 24-an age when some of her great contemporaries were to be on the brink of major discoveries... Maria took the train from Warsaw to Paris,the intellectual Mecca。”
For me,the intellectual Mecca is the United States。...I hope to continue my study and research,as detailed below。One day,I hope to find the pure esthetics of biology and reach its luminous summits。
点 评:我们可以想象地到,评审委员在读了这位女士的申请文章以后,脑海里肯定能栩栩如生地浮现出一个好学上进、充满远大抱负的未来女科学家的形象,怎么会不拍案叫绝,全力帮助这个女士登上前往学术圣地美利坚的飞机,成为第二个居里夫人呢?
总 结:
PS之所以重要就是反映学习动机。ps好的最基本条件就是要针对该学校具体情况。 要表现出你的背景是如何地适合这个学校。当然,胡吹是不行的,因此再怎么吹牛只要没作假柜子还是看的出高低的,比如你物理方面实力的确比电子方面强,所以MIT的EE只能把我放在waiting list里。我常见的申请者的通病就是一个同样的PS发给十几几十个学校。会申请的人都是一个学校一个PS的。UPenn的招生办主任就曾明确表示,我们最反感的是,我们看到的PS不加改动低可以适合于大半美国的其他学校。
一个好的PS,结合过去的经历和对专业的兴趣来谈为什么该校的教授和研究计划对自己特别有吸引力。可以点名指出感兴趣的教授或研究方向,这样论述就具体了,因而也就更让人信服。可惜就我所知的学生都没做到这点:大多数人实在是太忽视PS了。Princeton物理系博士计划的介绍说的好,我们关心的是申请者对物理学的兴趣和动机而不是现有的专业水平,至于以前物理学基础的薄弱环节可以在以后的博士学习期间弥补。所以有时PS表现出的对专业的兴趣比申请人实际具有的专业学术水平还重要。另外能说明申请者对专业兴趣的还可以通过推荐信来表现,这就是为什么推荐信和PS最最重要。