智商只占七分之一：哈佛为什么录取他(摘录)
曾经有一位刚被麻省理工录取的女生惴惴不安地写信给录取委员会副主任麦克 • 杨(Mikey Yang)，她担心麻省理工学院会有太多的天才和疯子而跟不上别人的步伐。麦克很热心地做了答复并将回信贴在了麻省理工的录取博客②上面。
学生写道：
此时此刻，我因麻省理工(的录取)而倍感兴奋。但考虑到和我未来一起学习的同伴，我也有一些其他的顾虑。在申请之初，我就深知麻省理工吸引着全球最优秀、最聪明的学生，我有点担心不如他们那样光彩夺目。比如，几乎所有和我交谈过的人都曾参加过国际数学奥林匹克竞赛，至少也是美国数学奥林匹克竞赛，或者曾在一些科学竞赛中崭露头角(“西屋奖学金”、“本田青少年科学奖”、“英特尔科学奖”，随你挑)，要不就发过专利或参加过校级乃至国家级的科学俱乐部。而我却从未有过类似经历，我就是一个单纯地喜欢数学、猫咪、植物和一些水管装置的孩子，只知道麻省理工是个很棒的地方，那里的每个人都在不停地创造自己的杰作。
我担心自己赶不上这些孩子，因为缺乏科研、缺少大型数学竞赛的经历等，我会远远落后于其他同学。我必须拼死挣扎才能取得好的分数(我知道分数并非一切，但我依然想考取体面的分数以便日后申请研究生院)或是找到研究机会，至少也能向教授表明我有拿得出手的东西，可事实上，我不确定相比2011级的其他同学我能拿出来什么。
我一度做好了心理准备奔赴战场，不管未来的课业负担会有多重、有多繁忙，我确信我会热爱学习(其实我很享受这样的状态，比如我能从解决化学计量学问题和数学问题中获得乐趣，但是我真的没有天赋，我只是学生中的“农民”，而不是“诗人”，希望这种类比能说得通)，然而此时我非常纠结。如果您认为我这种人也能在麻省理工有不俗表现，那自然很好，但如果您不这么认为，请尽量坦白地告诉我。
您在麻省理工的感觉怎样呢？如果不介意，能告诉我一些关于您的亲身经历吗？比如，您也曾是美国数学奥林匹克竞赛的选手吗？
感谢您百忙之中阅读我的来信，希望我的语言不是很狂躁。
Mikey的回复：
别担心。
在来到麻省理工之前，我从没听过“英特尔科学奖”、“西屋奖学金”、“本田青少年科学奖”，更不知道什么“美国生物奥林匹克竞赛”、“美国化学奥林匹克竞赛”或者“美国物理奥林匹克竞赛”。我甚至连科学展览和研究竞赛都不知道。没有开玩笑，我参加了美国高中数学竞赛的预赛，成绩还不错，之后就没有更进一步的活动(我听说过美国数学邀请赛，但从没想过要参加)。在我申请麻省理工之前，也和你有同样的感觉。“麻省理工的学生比我可牛多了，我进来绝对是个意外，我估计是这里最菜的学生了。”这真的是我当时自言自语的内容。我也完全理解你的“诗人”和“农民”的比喻。他们会讨论“那个数学证明是多么迷人”、“这道物理题的解答优雅而有趣”，而我只能坐在那里说：“哦，至少我把单位写对了，是吧？”或者用笨办法花20倍的时间解一道题，然后说：“嘿，起码答案是对的。管我用了两个小时还是两分钟。”哈哈。
但不管怎样，我们言归正传。来到麻省理工之后，我找到的乐子比我想象的要多(和朋友外出、兜风，参加派对，看电视、电影，玩电子游戏，虽然不是一直这样，但大多数时间是这样的。别告诉我家长哦)。在4年的本科生活中，我参加了一个无伴奏声乐俱乐部，制作过两张唱片，在一个古典乐队唱歌，做过一个宗教俱乐部成员，定制了一个本科研究生机会计划，有了很多值得终身结交的朋友和难忘的回忆。
但是，等等，那学习呢？我以4.8的GPA(满分5.0)顺利毕业，并且玩得很开心。(不是我自大，我只是想让你知道你可以边玩边拿高分。)
相信我，确实是有很难的课业的(不全是玩乐和游戏)。但事实上，如果你不认为自己能够在繁重的压力下挺过来，并且在学业、社交、情感、体魄、思想等各方面“挺”得很好，那么你是不会被录取的。麻省理工讲究的是培养完整的学生，而不是学习机器，校园生活也不只是课堂，而是一切。在被录取之前，你至少经过了5轮不同的筛选：“她不仅能做得很好，而且能在其中十分享受，她将成为校园社区的一员，她能交到很棒的朋友，尤其是——她与麻省理工十分匹配。”情况基本上都是这样。
麻省理工的确有很多天才，有的甚至超越了麻省理工对天才的定义。我4年的大学生涯中见到过很多。但你知道吗？有些朋友，直到认识他们两三年，我才知道他们的特长和天赋(比如，我是大三还是大四才知道我的朋友中有加州任天堂游戏比赛冠军、儿童节目明星，有的去非洲帮助过视觉受损儿童，有人多次在普特南数学竞赛中名列前茅，有的参与过人类基因组计划，有人拥有自己的设计公司……)，但是当人们到了这里，很多人都把天赋收敛了起来(除非在特定的时间和地点)。他们就是普通的学生，渴望认识陌生人，并且对拥有和自己相似特质的朋友而感到超级兴奋。
所以不要担心。我知道你即将要经历的磨练，就像那些已经经历过全部并且已经登陆彼岸的人们一样，我知道你是一定一定没有问题的。
附原文
学生来信：
So, mainly at this point I am very excited for MIT, but I am having some second thoughts. Concerning my peers. When I applied, I was well aware of the fact that MIT attracts the best and brightest... and I'm a bit worried that I'm not as bright and shiny as the others. For example, almost all the people I've talked to have been to the IMO or at least the USAMO or have won some science competition or another (Westinghouse, YES, Intel, take your pick) or have patented something, or have taken their school's science club to nationals. And I've never done any of that... I'm basically a kid who likes math, cats, plants and some plumbing and thought MIT seemed like a cool place because everyone was always building one thing or another, all the time.
But now I'm worried that I won't be able to catch up to these kids and as a result, coming in with no research experience or major math competition experience or etc. will pull me far behind my classmates and I'll struggle to get good grades (I know grades aren't everything, but I'd like to get decent enough grades to apply for graduate school) or find research opportunities or basically show professors that I have something to offer... when in fact I'm not sure I have anything to offer in comparison to the rest of the class of 2011.
I was really psyched to go despite the notoriously huge workload because I was pretty sure that I'd love doing the work, no matter how much there was (I really enjoyed, for example, doing stoichiometry problems and math problems... they're fun for me, but I don't have any true talent for them... I'm a "peasant" of a student, not a "poet" if that makes any sense at all), but now I'm more worried than anything. Please feel free to be honest... if you think that my sort of person can still do well at MIT, that's great... but if not, be as brutally honest as necessary!
So how was your experience at MIT? If you don't mind, can you tell me a bit about yourself? Like, were you one of those USAMO kids?
Thanks again for your time, and I hope I don't sound too hysterical :)
麦克的回复
Don't worry.
I had never heard of "Intel", "Westinghouse", or "IMO" before coming to MIT. I did not know a USABO, USNCO, or USPhO existed. I didn't even know science fairs and research competitions existed. No joke. I took the "pre-AMC" (back then it was called the AJHSME, and the AMC was called the AHSME - American (Junior) High School Math Exam), did okay on it, and never went any farther (I had heard of the AIME but wasn't even close to being considered for that test). And I felt exactly like you even before I applied to MIT. "MIT students are way smarter than me... I must've gotten in by accident... I'll be like the dumbest one there" is what I seriously told myself. And I totally get your "poet" vs "peasant" analogy... people would talk about how "elegant" a math proof was, or how "neat and interesting" the solution was to that physics problem, while I would just sit there and say "heck, did I at least get the units right?" or use brute force to solve the problem in a way that took 20x longer than it should have and said "hey, I still got it right in the end, who cares if it took 2 hours instead of 2 minutes?" Haha.
But anyways, back to the original point. I came to MIT, and seriously, I probably had way more fun than I was supposed to. (Hanging out with friends in my living group, going on road trips, having spontaneous parties, watching TV shows and movies, playing video games... Not all the time, but most of the time. Don't tell my parents.) Over my four years, I sang with an a cappella group, helped record and produce 2 CDs, sang in a classical group, was part of a religious club, did a UROP, and made many lifelong friends and memories.
But wait... what about the academics?? I graduated with a 4.8 GPA (out of 5.0) - and I honestly had a blast. (I hope that didn't come off as arrogant - I just wanted to let you know that you can have a lot of fun and still get good grades in your classes!)
Believe me, there was definitely hard work involved (it was not ALL fun and games) but really, you wouldn't have been admitted if you didn't think you could not only survive but THRIVE here academically, socially, emotionally, physically, mentally (and every other "lly" way). MIT is about educating the entire student, not *just* the academics, and the college experience is not *just* the classes - it's EVERYTHING. You literally passed through *at LEAST* 5 different rounds of screening before you were definitively admitted to MIT; we said "not only can she do the work, but she's going to have fun, she'll add to the campus community, she'll be able to make great friends, and above all, she's a great match for MIT." Or something to that extent.
Yes, there are geniuses at MIT, even for MIT standards. I met plenty of them throughout my four years. But you know what? I couldn't even tell for most of them - I had plenty of friends where I didn't learn about their special and unique talents until after having known them for 2-3 years (examples: I didn't learn until junior or senior year that some of my friends consisted of: California State Nintendo Champion... a child TV show star... placed in the Putnam for more than one year... went to Africa to help vision-impaired children... worked on the Human Genome project... owned his own design company... etc... etc... etc...). But when people get here, everyone pretty much leaves a lot of that at the door (unless it comes up specifically). They're all students just like anyone, eager to meet new people... and it was incredibly exciting to have friends like them.
So don't worry. I know exactly what you're going through, and as someone who's been through it all and is on the other side now, I know you'll be juuuuust fine. :)
