一封邮件

Had just sent this email, which can and should be considered a reply to the email “How To Apply To MIT”, that I received an hour ago.
Thanks Nero Liao for helping me modify the draft.

Title: My apology for not finishing the college application

Dear admission officers,

Hello.
I’m a Chinese student who started the application of MIT, but was unable to finish it.

I have been dreaming for going to a nice college in the US.
In my sophomore year I went to US to visit my mother, who stayed there as an exchange visitor. She brought me to college campus, which she sincerely hoped me to study in. The beautiful scenery, earnest faculties and the enthusiastic students all impressed me a lot, and I planned to study there, believing it’s never wrong to set my ambition high.
Since then I’ve been intensively preparing for applying colleges abroad. I, together with my friends, swept away the tiredness and worked happily, as we knew we’re all fulfilling our dreams.
Our school has offered us a great freedom to choose what to learn and what to do. The only limit is that “everyone is responsible for his own future”. During years of studying I discovered my interest in Science and Engineering; I started to dig into it and studied beyond the exams. I also won competitions like RoboCup Junior and Science Invention Contest etc, filling them into a plentiful curriculum vitae. Everything went smoothly and I was getting closer to the future plan of going to top institutions abroad.

However, things rapidly changed in my senior year. For interest’s sake I took part in the Physics Olympiad and was ranked provincial 8th, elected into CPhO Team Guangdong, and then national 29th, elected into IPhO Team China Training Camp in Tianjin; ironically, my original target was a First Prize (provincial top 40th).
According to the system, I was immediately “protective-delivered”, to a top domestic college of my choice, and my parents picked Tsinghua University. The policy intends to make student concentrate on the Training Camp, which started immediately and last throughout 2012, and during which student will be too busy to do anything else, including preparing for college entrance. I missed the December SAT and now the essay-writing period, just like others will miss Gaokao, the National College Joint Entrance Exam; Applying abroad became an arduous task which I (and other two similar students) have to give up. Luckily I do have some spare time to write this email.
Teachers in my school all felt relieved while moving my profile to Beijing, as “that student don’t have to worry about Gaokao anymore!” Bypassing The Exam was a lot of Chinese students’ dream, some of whom even cheat for that. It’s not mine though.

Sometimes I felt sorry for a portion of students in my country, who treat going abroad as a way to escape the reality that every student need to work hard to get accepted by a good college, mostly through Gaokao. They simply cheat during the application process or even in standardized tests, buying school seal, modifying their transcripts, and writing recommendation forms themselves. Sadly the society doesn’t value integrity as much.
My school, the best high school in the province, forces its students to behave upright, even if doing so brings disadvantages when compared with so-called liars. My friends and I who got transcripts with scores of 60 or 70 in some subjects (out of 100, a typical Chinese exam score that most people will modify) are not facing the so-called dilemma; we’re just worrying about the honest application will fail.
Now they all congratulate me that I don’t have to worry anymore. I somewhat feel sad.

My plan for future abruptly changed. People persuade me that it’s good enough to study here, but I still believe I’ll pursuit higher education in US. I’m just walking on another path.

TOEFL, SAT, AP and so on… I’ve sent a lot of score reports to your college, which do show my interest but aren’t good enough to get me accepted, and please forget about them. Just remember that a student loves your college; he still holds his dream and will be back a few years later.
Please wait for me!

—
Xiaoqi Chen, The Affiliated High School of South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China

2012-12-15 @ Physics Dept of Nankai University, Tianjin, China

2012 年 12 月 15 日

SAT

叽叽歪歪