每年仍有不少国内有志青年走申请奖学金走自费留学的学术职业发展道路。很不幸，每年都有不少这样的同学被拒之门外。回想起来，我当年在有限的信息资源下，很幸运地拿到奖学金得以在国外完成学业。现在看到有些优秀的同学因为“不懂套路”，在申请的路上没有得到应得到的机会，总是很着急。 今年我系申请时出现了一位国内985学校毕业的学生，本科平均86分却被我校评为B+，令人生疑。我在一方面和系主管研究生的主任和研究生院长交涉的同时，也提醒国内的同学们在申请时要注意一下GPA转换的事情。 GPA转换的事情呢，其实还是有些复杂。因为不同学校，其转换机制不一样。比如我现在的学校，80分以上就算A-，90分以上就算A+。而有些学校要85分以上才算A-，93分A+。不知道这几年国内程序是否有所改观，我在十年前的时候，由档案馆出具的官方成绩单上，也会装模做样附一个这样的成绩转换表，但是这个转换表通常只做A/B/C/D/F 而不再细分B-, B 或B+等。但这个转换表不是强制性的，如果你要求不附，档案馆是可以删除不用的。 我的建议是，为了避免不必要的错误，干脆不要提供这样的转换表。因为一个不恰当的、粗略的成绩转换表有可能会让你国内的加权平均86却在国外评为B+. 下面是我给系主任和研究生院长的信。回信没有授权，我就不贴了。 ************************************************* Dear xxxx, I am writing this email to raise my concern on our admission requirements. I know these might be out of your hands; however, I would like to let you know and hope that our graduate school could take a consideration of this concern in future. I suggest our graduate school rethinking the GPA conversion and the minimum requirement for English proficiency. I observed there was one student from China in the second circulation list who got 86% and was graded as B+. I don't think this is a fair assessment. If our R**** students could get an A with 85%, I don't understand why this applicant should receive only a B+; after all, the grading system before GPA transformation in most of the Chinese universities and R**** is almost the same except that we pass at 60% not 50%. I remember last year there was another student who graduated from another decent university from China. His overall four-year average was 82% or so, and graded by our admission office a B only. Because of this, last year I had to admit at Waterloo an international student who I believe would be rejected immediately at R**** because of this GPA requirement (average 83% at a slightly lower rank university). As a result, I had to arrange a contract and transfer R**** money to Waterloo. As another benchmark, my own undergraduate average was 85% and master's average about 88% if I remember correctly. I don't think I would be qualified at R**** . Another issue was the English requirement. I just received another email from a prospective applicant. He had a TOEFL score of 86. I told him in advance not to apply here because he would be rejected as we ask for 93. In today's email he told me that he received offers from SUNY Buffalo, University of Southern California, and University of Nebraska. GATech is also offering him an admission with only a partial funding support. On the other hand, many of our current graduate students from some country don't know what a binomial distribution is, not even mentioning Poisson! I realized that for another program at R**** , the minimum requirement for TOEFL is only 80. I didn't see why FEAS needs to put a higher bar than computer network. --- ********************************************** 给院长的信： Thank you very much for taking time reading my concern and replying to my colleagues' emails that have been flooded in within the past few hours while I was lecturing. So it does not seem to be my individual concern only. I agree with you that we should focus on attracting high quality applicants and retaining admitted students. So let us confine our discussion on admission. For admission, we are not only attracting students, but also competing other schools in attracting applicants! I agree with you that we do not attract students by "lowering the standards such that they are out of line with other Canadian institutions." In the meanwhile, I believe you would also agree with me that raising the bar itself does not automatically improve the program quality. Rather, it might deteriorate, if not kill, the program, because of the adverse selection that a couple of Colleagues have already revealed. In my humble opinion, minimum requirements are only minimum. Lowering the minimum requirements does not mean we will accept all of the applicants who pass the threshold. Faculty members clearly have a higher standard for admission. However, the current reality seems to suggest that for some applications from a certain country (e.g. China), the institutional minimum requirement for GPA is way higher than a faculty's expectation. On the other hand, the same requirement is way too low for students from another country. How do we resolve this dilemma? We either improve the grade conversion system, or eliminate the conversion system from the first place and impose country-specific threshold in GPA (example: Carleton). Neither is easy; but we need to do something. This discussion is not about domestic vs. international. A large portion of our domestic graduate students (at least at Civil Engineering) had international background and they have to meet the language requirement and be subject to the GPA conversion as well. Therefore, this issue is not marginal in your busy administration agenda.It is vital for program quality control. Since you mentioned other universities' practice, I list below some data that I just collected. By no means are they complete; I just want to give you some facts where R**** stands in terms of admission requirements. I trust you could direct your staff to do more investigation and finally lead YSGS, and our civil program particularly, to healthier development. Thank you for your attention to this important issue. ---------------------------------------- Minimum TOEFL requirements: Ryerson 93 Toronto 93 Queens 88 Western 86 Carleton 86 Waterloo 80 McMaster 80 ------------------- In terms of GPA requirement, Waterloo sets at 80% universally. Carleton has a country-specific requirement. For students from mainland China, it is 75% for PhD. At R**** , it says A- for PhD. And a student from China with 86% GPA received an equivalent R**** B+. Again, don't forget that 59% in China means a failure (F) in a course. Disclaimer: I have no interest whatsoever in getting that specific Chinese student that I mentioned in this email. ---
大多数学校都要求申请人提供二至三封推荐信。有力的推荐是录取的重要条件之一。推荐信要客观、公正、切忌流于形式，内容空洞，要与申请人的其它材料（如成绩单）等相符。推荐信也应注意格式、文法等。因为向来有"名师出高徒"之说。推荐信的格式与一般书信基本相同。有信头，发信日期，收信人姓名，称呼，正文，信尾谦称，签名，推荐人姓名，职称及工作单位等部分。但推荐信还应着重以下方面： 1. 为了便于校方查阅，必须提到被推荐者的全名。 2. 必须交待与被推荐者的认识期间（何时开始认识或认识多久），认识程度（偶尔见面或密切接触）及关系（师生关系，上下级关系，同事等）。 3. 对被推荐者的优点介绍及评价，这是推荐信的核心。主要包括被推荐者的天赋，学习成绩，研究能力，工作经验，学习精神，组织能力，品行及个性方面。 4. 必须表明推荐人的态度，是极力推荐还是有保留地推荐。 最近一些学校出于各种原因，设计了推荐表格，由推荐人填写，但其主要内容也和推荐信涉及的相同。 范例1 计算机教授推荐信 At the request of Mr. Xizhen Chen, my former student in the Department of Computer Science, Beijing Univ. of Sciences, I am glad to write this letter furnishing my evaluation of his academic aptitude for your reference. Mr. Chen is interested in your graduate program in Computer Science. I came to know him in September 1987 when Mr. Chen enrolled in my class on FORTRAN IV Programming, a three semesters' course.In the class he was one of the most outstanding students. At the semester final he earned a high grade of 81, which should be "A" according to our grading system. I also found him good at other studies. After the class, he had personal talks with me several times. He indicated a great interest in computer hardware, In my opinion, Mr. Chen has a potential in Computer Science, which can be further developed. In view of his previous achievements in this College, I am firmly convinced that Mr. Chen will make a successful graduate student.Your favorable consideration of his admission will be highly appreciated. 范例2 商管系教授推荐信 It gives me a great pleasure to recommend Mr. Cheng as a transfer to the School of Business Administration of your University in the summer quarter of 1989. During academic year 1980-1984, he was a student in our Department, World College of Journalism. I found him very diligent and intelligent. He often participated in extracurricular activities contributing a great deal to community affairs. Though Mr. Cheng graduated from this college 5 years ago, he keeps, contact with me very often. Worthy of mention also is his personality, honest, reliable, responsible and mature. I strongly recommend this promising young man and your favorable consideration and assistance to him will be very much appreciated. 范例3 法律系教授推荐信 I am pleased to write this letter for my former student Miss Nan Li, who graduated from this College with an L.B. degree in June 1978. Miss Li was admitted to the Department of Law of this College in 1974 through highly competitive entrance examination which is conducted annually and is open to the whole nation. Even in such a selective group. Miss Li made herself distinguished. As professor and dean of the College, I have access to her records of academic work and moral conduct, In her fourth year study, I instructed her in Anglo-American Laws on Trespass. So I have known her quite well. Miss Li's performance, like that in many other courses she taken, was excellent with a superior grade of 86 for the first semester, and 84 for the second semester. In our university and in other university here, 80 is considered "A" , the highest level. As far as I know, Miss Li wishes to continue her study in Law for an advanced degree. I am sure she has had sufficient prerequisite knowledge for the subject and certainly has the ability to undertake the study. I recommend Miss Li without reservation and shall appreciate your favorable consideration of her application.
标签: 成绩单
