休学一年的TA，在没有标化成绩的情况下，如何获得UCLA的青睐？

学生信息

INFORMATION

C同学

高中学校: 上海美国学校

本科录取院校：

UCLA
UC Irvine
Pepperdine University
Bard College

Hello everybody，My name is Camille, and I just turned 18 years old. I am currently taking a gap year here in Shanghai, and through this year I will apply to colleges. Some of my interests include Visual arts, ballet as well as learning various languages. With the help of Xueimei this year, and I have gotten many offers including UCLA, and Pepperdine University with an 80,000-dollar scholarship as well as UC Irvine.

译文：大家好，我叫Camille，我今年刚满18岁。我目前在上海休学一年，并通过这一年去申请大学。我的兴趣包括视觉艺术，芭蕾舞以及学习各种语言。今年我在学美留学的帮助下，拿到了非常多的录取通知。包括加州大学洛杉矶分校，还有佩珀代因大学8万美元的奖学金，以及加州大学欧文分校。

Q: 关于结缘学美

I think we first discovered Xuemei, because my mother had gotten a lot of recommendations from the agency, because I think the agency has always had a very good reputation here in Shanghai, so we set up a meeting with them. And my family and I were all very impressed with the level of professionalism that everybody showed at the agency. And I remember we also set up meeting with Ms. Di from the art department to discover aspects of my portfolio because I applied for a visual arts major.

译文：我们第一次了解学美留学，是我妈妈从很多人的推荐中得知的，我觉得学美在上海这里一直都有非常棒的口碑，所以我们就约了和他们见面沟通。之后我们一家人都对学美的每位老师所表现出来的专业水平印象深刻。我对我们和艺术部邸老师的会谈记忆犹新，去探讨我作品集的各个方面，因为我申请的是视觉艺术专业。

Q: 关于困难和挑战

I think that looking back on my academic journey is definitely being very rocky. I attended a French school for my first two years of high school and then transferred to an American high school to pursue the IB diploma program. That transition was definitely very difficult for me, because English is not my first language, and I had to adapt to a lot of things, especially studying in a brand new school as a junior. And the application process has also been very difficult for me because I applied entirely on my own last year, and didn’t get offers that I thought were good enough and that I wanted to attend. Therefore I took a step back and kink of decided to take a gap year, and refocus on my goals because I applied last year without knowing what I really want to study. I wasn’t sure and didn’t feel prepared to attend college. I didn’t see the point in rushing to such a decision, so I decided to take this year to reset myself and everything. That’s from my mum’s perception and told me that she suggested that we get hope. So we reach out to Xuemei, and they accepted to help us which we are very grateful for it.

译文：回顾一下我的学业历程，这段经历是非常坎坷的。我高中前两年在上海法国高中读书，然后转到上海美国学校 (SAS) 去读IB课程。这个转变对我来说绝对是非常困难的，因为英语不是我的第一语言，我必须适应很多东西，尤其是在一个全新的学校读11年级。而申请的过程对我来说也是非常困难的，由于去年我完全是自己申请的，并没有拿到我认为足够好的、我想去的学校offer。因此，我退一步，纠结了一下，决定休学一年，重新关注自己的目标，因为我去年申请的时候，还不知道自己真正想学什么。我不确定，也不觉得自己已经做好了上大学的准备。我不认为急于做出这样的决定有什么意义，所以我决定用这一年的时间来重置自己和一切。在我妈妈的观念看来，她告诉我她建议我们获得希望。所以我们联系了学美，他们也同意来帮助我们，我们是真的非常感激。

Q: 关于进步和成长

I think Xuemei helped me on a variety of aspects including my portfolio which was definitely an important part of my application. I think that we looked at every single school and different majors, and shifted my portfolio according to the schools’ needs which was definitely a very important thing to do. We also spent a lot of time choosing schools, because my high school has a limit, only being able to apply to ten schools. Making that decision of having enough safety schools, target schools, and reach schools was definitely something that was very important as well.

译文：我觉得学美在各个方面都对我的帮助很大，包括我的作品集，这绝对是我申请中非常重要的一部分。我们研究了每一个学校和不同的专业，针对不同学校的需求来调整我的作品集去匹配，这绝对是重中之重。我们也花了很多时间在择校上，因为我的高中有院校申请数量限制，只能申请十所大学。所以在制定选校名单上，确定足够数量的保底学校、目标学校和冲刺学校，这绝对也是非常重要的事情。

Q: 印象最深刻的事和最有价值的帮助

Apart from that，I think Xueimei also helped on something that might not seem very important but actually in aspect made a big difference on my application. For example, all of the teachers and counsellors in Xuemei helped us and suggested us, and also suggested me to apply to as many interview sessions as I could, to join info sessions, to really deeply research different schools that I decided to apply to, so that I felt well prepared and also invested that I showed my interest in the different schools. I think that they lifted those a big wave of my shoulders, by giving me all these little tips that I didn’t know last year when I applied on my own and I think that is for me the biggest difference. In my application, also gave me confidence, when I was applying, and which also, in the end, lifted a lot of stress off my shoulders.

译文：除此之外，我觉得学美还帮助了我一些看似不重要，但实际上对我的申请起到了很大作用的细节方面。比如说，学美所有老师和顾问都在帮助我们，建议我们，也建议我尽可能多地申请面试，参加面试辅导，真正深入地研究我决定申请的不同学校，让我觉得自己准备得更充分，也投入地表现出对不同学校的兴趣。我觉得他们把我肩上的重担抬起来了，给了我这些去年自己申请时不知道的小技巧，我觉得这对我来说是最大的不同。在我的申请中也是，帮助我建立了信心，在申请季的时候，最后也减轻我很多的负担。

Q: 关于经验分享

So looking back, I think that I definitely made the right choice in terms of taking a gap year and taking my time on refreshing into such a big decision that is to attend college for the next four years. I think if anybody out there needs a little bit of encouragement. I think that if you have a goal set in mind, and you really want to reach it, you just have to do a lot of self-reflection, a lot of planning, and I think that everything could be achieved. If you do that, your benefit takes longer than what I take others to achieve the same goal. I think that this whole process took me maybe two or three years total. Working through high school and then into the application season, and the gap year, probably taking me three years. So I think that these three years have also helped me to grow a lot as a person, and it has made me a better student. And also I feel more prepared to attend college now.

译文：因此，回顾过去，我认为这绝对是一个非常正确的选择。好好利用间隔年，花些时间重新思考一个重大的决定，也就是即将要在未来四年内上的大学。我想如果大家需要一点鼓励。我想说的是，如果你心中有一个既定的目标，并且你真的想达到这个目标，你需要做很多的自我反思，很多的规划，我想一切都可以实现的。如果这样做，你获得的收益将比我为实现目标所花费的时间回报更大。我认为整个过程总共花了我两到三年的时间。从高中开始启动，然后到申请季，还有间隔年，大概花了我三年的时间。所以我觉得这三年也帮助我这个人成长了很多，这让我成为一个更好的学生，而且也让我觉得现在上大学的准备更充分了。