Currently I go to The Buckley School near Los Angeles, California. When I applied, my cumulative weighted GPA was 4.5, and my SAT superscore was 1590. I took the SAT twice, once in March of my sophomore year, and the second time one year after. Over the course of my high school career, I took a total of eleven AP tests: French, Chinese, Calculus AB, Calculus BC, English Language, English Literature, Studio Art 2D Design, Studio Art Drawing & Painting, Physics C Mechanics, Physics C Electromagnetism and Psychology. I took classes for all of them at school other than Chinese and 2D Design.

目前我在加州洛杉矶附近的一所高中 The Buckley School上学，当我申请的时候，我的累计加权GPA是4.5，SAT成绩是1590。我参加了两次SAT考试，一次是在10年级的三月，第二次是在一年后。在我的高中生涯中，我一共参加了11门AP考试：法语、汉语、微积分AB、微积分BC、英语语言、英国文学、Studio Art 2D Design、Studio Art Drawing & Painting、物理力学、物理电磁学和心理学。除了汉语和2D设计，其他课程都是在学校修的。

For all four years in high school, I was on the school swimming team. There is no distinction between a varsity or junior varsity team — sometimes I swam in varsity event entries and others times in junior varsity. My best event was the 100-yard breaststroke, and I tied the team’s time (1:08) with two other swimmers last year, one second off from qualifying for the regional championship meet. This year, though the swimming season abruptly stopped when the campus closed for quarantine, I was proud of my little achievements on the team.

高中四年，我都是学校游泳队的队员。其实校队和预备校队之间没有什么特别大的区别——有时我参加校队的比赛，有时参加预备的比赛。我最好的项目是100码蛙泳，去年我和其他两名游泳队员并列取得了1分08秒的成绩，只差一秒就有资格参加地区锦标赛。今年，虽然游泳赛季因校园隔离而突然停止了，但我还是为自己在队中取得的小小成就而感到自豪。

I worked on two separate mural projects. I worked on the first one in my sophomore year, titled Communications, with two other students for my school’s language building. We collected traditional sayings in different languages spoken on campus and combined them with other means of communication, like film, photography, music and architecture. The three of us designed and painted the mural over the course of a couple of months, and it remains visible from the windows of the Spanish and Chinese classrooms.

我还参与了两个独立的壁画项目。第一个项目是我在10年级的时候和另外两个学生一起为学校的语言教学楼创作的，名为“沟通（Communications）”。我们收集了不同语言的谚语，并将它们与其他沟通的载体结合起来，比如电影、摄影、音乐和建筑等。我们三人花了几个月的时间来设计和绘制这幅壁画，从西班牙语和汉语教室的窗户就可以看到它。

In my junior year, the second mural project was a collaboration with Grant High School, another local school. Twenty or so students from both schools talked about ideas about a mural that would encourage viewers to be more environmentally conscious in daily life. The non-profit that organized the project chose me to represent my school, and I designed the painting with a student from Grant. The final painting had a clean earth in the middle with different flora and fauna representing each region, surrounded by shards of polluted earth and a ring of calligraphic text that read “What I stand for is what I stand on”.

第二个壁画项目是在我11年级的时候与当地另一所学校Grant High School合作完成的。来自两所学校的大约20名学生讨论了关于壁画的想法，这幅壁画的目的是提倡在日常生活中更加注重环保。发起这个项目的非盈利组织选择了我代表我的学校，我和一个来自Grant High School的学生一同设计了这幅画。最后一幅画中间是一片干净的土地，不同的动植物代表着不同的地区，周围是被污染的土地碎片和一圈用英文书写体写着的“我所代表的就是我所站在的”。

图 | 和同学一起讨论壁画想法

图 | 壁画创作中

In September, I will be attending Swarthmore, focusing on art and art history. I chose to apply as an art major because I’ve been drawing and painting since I was little, and I want to explore the plethora of art media offered in a college setting. I enjoyed AP Art History class this year, how it gives cultural and social context to artworks, allowing me to create my own art with more intent.

今年9月，我将进入斯沃斯莫尔学院学习艺术和艺术史。我之所以选择申请艺术专业，是因为我从小就一直在画画，我想在大学的环境下探索丰富的艺术媒体。我很喜欢今年的AP艺术史课，通过这门课，我了解到如何给艺术作品赋予文化和社会背景，这让我有更多的想法和意愿去创作自己的艺术作品。

I remember last year, when I was just beginning my college search, I had no idea what major I wanted to study. I wanted to take art classes, but I also wanted the chance to learn more in other areas, like mathematics, linguistics and philosophy. Black, my counselor at APP-ARK, suggested that I look into liberal arts colleges, which would give me the kind of curricular flexibility that would work well for my academic goals. 

我记得去年，当我刚刚开始对所申请学校的研究，当时我还不知道我想学习什么专业。我挺想上艺术课的，但我也想有机会学习其他领域的知识，比如数学、语言学和哲学。Black是我的策略顾问，他建议我考虑一下文理学院，这样可以给我提供灵活的课程安排，对我的学术目标很有帮助。

At the time, I had a mental image of small colleges being secluded in the snowy middle of nowhere, but I was wrong. I discovered Swarthmore, which is a mere 20 minute drive from downtown Philly. The school has small discussion-based classes that I’m used to. However, being in a consortium with two nearby colleges, the variety of courses offered there is incomparable to my high school.

当时，我脑补了这样一个画面：一些小学院，孤零零地坐落在大雪纷飞的偏僻地方。但我错了，我发现了斯沃斯莫尔，离费城市中心只有20分钟的车程，学校有我习惯的以讨论为基础的小班，而且因为学校附近还有两所大学，所以课程的种类之多是我的高中无法比拟的。

Seeing Swarthmore’s selectivity, I knew I had to make my application as perfect as possible. Black helped me choose which AP classes and SAT Subject Tests to take, to make my profile more well-rounded. He also organised other APP-ARK counselors to give me mock interviews, in order to prepare me for the alumnae/i interviews in spring. I learnt to open up about my story more quickly, as well as guiding the conversations in a way in which I can showcase my achievements.

看到斯沃斯莫尔的挑剔，我知道我必须把我的申请写得尽可能完美。Black帮助我选择了AP课程和SAT科目考试，使我的资料更加全面，他还让其他的凭远顾问给我进行了模拟面试，以便我为春季的校友/毕业生面试做准备。我学会了更快地敞开心扉讲述我的故事，并以一种我可以展示自己成就的方式引导对话。

I think the most difficult part of my application process was the initial brainstorming phase for the essays. Because of the open-endedness of the prompts, I had trouble finding the topics that would most complement my profile. Fortunately, Richard was able to help me with both my Common App and school-specific essays. During my initial brainstorming phase, he gave me sample essays for reference. Although we had to abandon one of our ideas for the Common App essay, we included it in the Additional Information section. That goes to show how APP-ARK counselors are not simply concerned with completing students’ applications; they wanted them to be perfect too. In the end, I’m happy to say that I didn’t have any regret after submitting my applications, and I thank my counselors for that.

我认为申请过程中最困难的部分是最初头脑风暴阶段的论文。由于提示的开放性，我很难找到最能补充我个人资料的主题。幸运的是，Richard能够帮助我处理常用的App和学校的论文。在我最初的头脑风暴阶段，他给了我一些范文供我参考。虽然我们不得不放弃了共同应用论文的一个想法，但我们把它包含在了附加信息部分。这说明APP-ARK的顾问不仅仅关心学生的申请是否完成，他们也希望他们所做的是完美的。最后，我很高兴地说，在提交了我的申请之后，我没有任何遗憾，感谢我的顾问老师们。

I would tell future college applicants what I would tell myself from one year ago — it is not about getting accepted to “better” colleges, but rather finding a college that best fits me. That means not only living on a campus I would like, but also connecting with teachers and students with whom I would enjoy studying. I chose Swarthmore over other liberal arts colleges for that reason. From connecting with students online, I found that the abilities and knowledge of Swarthmore admits all give me an interesting sense of awe. These are the people whom I trust to stimulate me academically while being interesting.

我想对未来的申请者说的，就像一年前我对自己说的那样——不是为了被“更好”的大学录取，而是找到一所最适合我的大学。这意味着我不仅要住在我想住的校园里，还要和我希望向其学习的老师和同学们交流。所以我选择了斯沃斯莫尔而不是其他文理学院。通过与同学们的在线交流，我发现斯沃斯莫尔学院的能力和知识都让我产生了一种有趣的敬畏感。我信任这些人，他们在激发我学习兴趣的同时也让我感到非常有趣。

Going to liberal arts means that I have no idea what I want to do in the future, but I indeed have a rough idea of how my next four years would turn out. I am probably going to take art history and studio classes every year for my major. For the rest of the periods, I want to explore areas of study that I did not have the chance to in high school, subjects like film, linguistics, philosophy, critical theory and urban studies. I also want to go beyond my trilingualism and take classes on other languages. 

选择文理学院，因为我对未来抱着一个非常开放的态度，虽说没有定下来未来做什么，但我对未来四年确实有一个大致的想法。我可能每年都会选择艺术和艺术史的专业课程，而剩下的时间，我想去探索高中没有机会去研究的领域，比如电影、语言学、哲学、批判理论和城市研究。我也想超越我的三语能力，参加其他语言的课程。