各位新浪的网友大家好，我们穿越了半个地球，我们开了很长时间的车，我们终于来到了斯坦福大学的招生委员会。坐在我身边的就是非常神秘的肖恩主任。肖恩主任掌握着斯坦福大学的本科录取，以及奖学金。

1. Alex: So he is the dean of the Stanford admission committee and also the financial aid, right?

Many Chinese graduates, especially high school graduates are looking forward to get into Stanford. It’s their dreams. So can you tell us how many Chinese students get into Stanford in 2008?

Shawn: We admitted 14 students from the People’s Republic of China, and 9 are coming, we are very excited about that. Over the last number of years, we have seen tremendous interest from the People’s Republic, and a growth in the number of candidates that are interested in studying in the United States and Stanford, we have quite pleased that we are on their radar screen. We have actually traveled to China a number of times, visited students. Also they have discovered us on the World Wide Web, and certainly through your online web show. And we are pleased they are interested in us. It’s a very competitive process, but we have a number of students from the People’s Republic who are here now. It seems to be the number is growing.

张扬：这位是斯坦福大学招生委员会主任，同时也掌握奖学金的发放。很多中国学生，尤其是那些高中毕业生都渴望能够被斯坦福大学录取。这也是他们的梦想。您能告诉我们2008年被斯坦福录取的学生有多少吗？

肖恩：这次我们从中国大陆录取了14名学生，其中9人正准备来斯坦福就读。我们非常欢迎他们。在过去几年中，我们发现想留学美国和想就读斯坦福的中国学生数量迅速增长。看到他们对我们如此的感兴趣，我们也非常高兴。我们曾数次访问中国，并接见过中国学生。中国学生也通过互联网和在线媒体，以及您这样的访谈节目了解到了我们。中国学生对我们这么感兴趣，我们也非常高兴。尽管竞争非常激烈，仍有学生成功被录取并已经开始在斯坦福学习了，而这个数字看起来还在上涨。

2. Alex: I have researched the statistic and I know the admission rate is 9.8 for the universal student. But how many (Chinese) students applied for students? I mean the Chinese students that applied for Stanford last year.

Shawn: It’s in the hundreds. It’s probably somewhere between percentage of 3 hundreds. It’s very very competitive. Our admit rate actually went down this year, so it’s just around 8%. So you know these young people are competing for very rare fight positions; it’s probably something in percentage only one of the every eleven candidates that applies gets in. But we are tracking the world’s best. And many of the world’s best are in China.

张扬：我查阅过一些统计数字，因此我知道只有9.8%的申请者能被斯坦福所录取，那么，我想问您去年有多少中国学生向斯坦福提出了申请呢？

肖恩：几百个吧，差不多有300多名学生。竞争真的是非常非常的激烈。其实我们今年的录取率降低了，可能只有8%。这些年轻人是在竞争一个及其稀少的位置，因此可能11个人中只有一个最终被录取。但是我们始终在寻求全世界最优秀的学生。而且中国的确有很多全世界最优异的学生。

3. Alex: Here comes the most important question, many Chinese students are very concerned about who can get the chance and get into Stanford, in addition to the universal criteria like the  intellectual quality and something, what kind of Chinese students are you looking for?

Shawn: Well I think it’s an interesting question, our system is much different than those in China, and another parts of the world. And many of them are formulaic, that is you meet certain conditions; and you are automatically admitted to those universities. In the case of Stanford, we look at all of the credentials, we look at the quantity that measures, we look at the testing. To the extent of we can get testing, and certainly we have a policy whereby students can’t take the respective tests we asked for. Then they will waive those. But in reality, we also look at the whole person. So in fact, beyond quantity that measures, beyond the numbers, we read essays, we ask for recommendations from faculty members at the secondary school level. And we take a holistic view of the candidates. So we are really interested in their motivation, what it is they would like to accomplish if they were to have the opportunity to have a Stanford education, why they are interested in us, we certainly look at what kind of academic area that they are interested in, And then we read these files, we had over thirty thousand four hundred candidates last year. And by reading these files, we are trying to make a good match that is, we are trying to understand. Why standford education will be valuable to the students. But also what the student will bring to us. So interestingly, it’s not just a matter of understanding the subject material or which is reflected often in the testing, it’s also a matter of creativity. It’s also a matter of the desire to do something with that to take a broader view, in terms of the way you are going to approach your undergraduate education. And in our case, we read for that, so students can present us with extraordinary credentials, but the difference between the systems that they come up in . The automatic nature of their being admitted into many of the great universities in China or another parts of the world is that we are looking for a human being behind all these. We are trying to understand what they will do with this kind of education. And we actually read also for creativity, those young people would have done something very special, not only in the classroom but also out of the classroom as well

张扬：接下来是最重要的一个问题, 许多中国学生在关注的是，是什么样的人能够被斯坦福录取？除了那些普遍的标准，如智力等外，你们寻求的是具备什么样条件的中国学生？

肖恩：这是个有趣的问题。我们的教育体系与中国和世界其他国家的存在很多不同之处，我想你知道，他们有些标准非常公式化，只要学生具备某些条件，学校会自动录取。但在斯坦福，我们会考虑学生基本上所有的，个个方面的品质。我们也会看那些考试分数和成绩。关于考试成绩，当然对于一些无法参加我们认为有必要的考试的学生，我们也有相应政策，我们可以免除那些考试。但在现实中，我们也非常看重学生整体素养。除了那些数量测评以外，我们还要读他的文章，要求提供中学教师的推荐信，总之我们要全方位的了解这个候选人。我们对学生的动机很感兴趣，想知道他来斯坦福学习要实现什么目标，为什么想来斯坦福，当然还有他感兴趣的学科等。我们会审阅所有这些资料，去年有30400多名申请者。通过这些资料的分析，我们真正想了解的是这堆材料背后的人，还有就是为什么说在斯坦福的学习对你有价值和你能给斯坦福带来什么这些问题。所以，有意思的是，这不仅仅是一个了解学生材料和学生考试成绩的过程，更重要的也是体会他们创造力的过程。通过这些我们也能了解他们完成一个目标的愿望，和斯坦福学习得计划。对我们来说，这正是我们想了解的东西, 因此，来自世界各地不同体制中出来的学生才能给我们展现一些非凡的能力和资质。学生被中国或其他国家优秀学府被录取的本质是，在这些资料背后我们看到了一个活生生的人。我们想知道的是，从这里毕业以后他们想做什么。我们看资料时也要看那些创新点，这些年轻人一定有一些很特殊的成就，而且这些成就并不限于课堂，也包括课外。

4. Alex: Many Chinese parents are not very familiar with the admission procedure of American universities, especially top universities like Stanford, Could you just briefly introduce to them how the procedures look like? Because they have so many applications?

Shawn: Yeah, absolutely, it’s so wonderful to have World Wide Web. Because students from China can apply online, through what we use, our primer vehicle is the common application, it is completely accessible around the world, and that’s the way they come into us. There are two parts of this, one is they can learn about the university through our website, which is very sophisticated and tells them a lots of things about our academic enterprise, availability of financial aid and so forth. But then from that site they can go right into the application itself and apply online. It gives very elaborate explanations about how they go about doing this, and it’s a pretty clear process seems to work pretty well for the students. There are a number of short questions and there are actually three longer questions. Our application is actually considered probably the most comprehensive in the nation. Much to the frustration of those that are applying, it takes more time to apply the university. But we are really trying to get to know you from a lot of different angles as a candidate. So all of that happens on the World Wide Web, so you never have to mail anything, it’s not a matter of worrying about country’s respective mailing systems. (Alex: Even the transcripts?) It depends; probably the transcript will have to be, (be) sent or it can be faxed to the university. You know we need to get official transcripts, in order to render the kind of judgments that we do. But in reality, you can get the application started. We have two systems, one is early, so if you are interested in Stanford, even apply by November 1 and learn about your status by the middle of December, or you can apply by January 1 and learn about your status by April 1^st. So you have two different cycles, and there is no difference in them. Most students did apply from China and international students in general would apply for the second. They would apply during the January 1.