加州大学教授对非英语学生的申请学校的建议（译完）

 虽然老师是写给cs  major的，但我觉得对于申请其它专业的学生也非常有帮助。算是对ol的一点儿贡献吧。

翻译使我自己弄得，主要是表达意思，不一定直译。其实，我建议看原文。

转自 http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/~ejw/advice/   (有删减 Courtesy of Jim Whitehead, University of California, Santa Cruz)

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Advice for Foreign Students Wishing to Pursue Graduate Study in Computer Science at UCSC

对于海外学生申请加州大学加州大学圣克鲁兹分校计算机专业研究生的建议

Jim Whitehead
Last updated: December 8, 2005

Jim Whitehead

最后更新时间: 2005年12月8日

I frequently receive email from non-US citizens who wish to pursue graduate study in Computer Science at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Instead of replying individually to these messages, I have created this page to collect my personal advice on this matter. These are my own personal views, and certainly should not be viewed as official policy of UC Santa Cruz. That said, I have tried to be as accurate as possible.

我经常收到非美国学生来申请加州大学圣克鲁兹分校的计算机专业研究生。我不对于每一封邮件进行回复，而是写了这些文字来阐述我对于ps的一些想法。这些只是我个人的观点，因而不是加州大学圣克鲁兹分校的观点。但是，我还是希望越准确越好。

Note that I am not currently seeking additional students, since I have six PhD students. I am not able to take on additional students without sacrificing the attention I can pay to each student, and the quality of the research we perform.

我现在有6个博士生，所以请注意，我现在不想要招收新的学生。我做不到保证科研质量的情况下指导更多的学生。

My goal in writing this is to help you, the foreign graduate student applicant, better understand the process of applying to graduate school at UCSC, and to be able to provide the best possible representation of your capabilities. The Department of Computer Science is actively interested in enrolling foreign graduate students, since they bring unique skills, and diverse viewpoints to our program. We derive considerable strength from the many active foreign graduate students currently studying and performing research at UCSC.

我写这些文字是想帮助你们----海外学生，能够更好的了解ucsc的研究生申请流程，从而能够更好的展现你们的能力（译的不好）。计算机学院很喜欢招收海外学生，因为他们带来了独特的技术和多样的观点。我们从现在在ucsc学习和研究的众多活跃的海外学生那里得到了很好的发展。

Relevant Links

• School of Engineering Graduate Admissions


• UCSC Division of Graduate Studies


• Department of Computer Science


• Computer Science Graduate Program Requirements


• Networking on the Network: A Guide to Professional Skills for PhD Students, by Phil Agre


• Advice for Undergraduates Considering Graduate School, Phil Agre


• A graduate school survival guide: "So long, and thanks for the PH.D!", Ronald T. Azuma


• eduPASS: The SmartStudent Guide to Studying in the USA

一些相关的连接，我点进去看了看，感觉都是很好的东西。（这个section就不用翻译了吧）

Some Facts of Life （这一段对于写ps没有用处，我省略了）

Foreign Students and English Expression

One common issue with foreign students is their ability to express complex technical ideas in Engligh, in both written and verbal form. This is a very complex activity even for native English speakers, and is doubly so for people whose native language is not English. Writing a dissertation (typically 5,000 - 60,000 words) is a requirement for receiving the PhD degree. Writing articles and giving presentations at technical conferences are critical elements in developing a reputation in a research community. Written and verbal communication are central activities in Computer Science research. If you don't like to write and give presentations in front of groups, you should think seriously about whether you want to go into research.

外国学生面临的一个共同的问题是用英文书写和口语表达复杂技术观点的能力。即使对于母语为英语的学生来讲，这也是很复杂的事情，何况对于母语不是英语的学生。博士生的毕业论文一般要求写5000（疑心写错了,估计应该是50，000）到60,000个词。在一个研究的团体中，写论文和做演讲是一项必须的技能。在计算机科学的研究过程中，书面和口头的交流尤其重要。如果你不喜欢写文章和做演讲，那么，你应当慎重考虑你是否适合做研究。

From a research advisor's perspective, having non-native speakers as students frequently means that any written document by such students requires an additional 1-2 reviews just to get the English expression correct. Even after putting this additional effort into the document, it is generally of lower quality than a document produced by a native speaker. This is due to issues such as less interesting choice of words, less varied sentence structure, and poor control over the rhetorical structure of the paper.

从一个导师的角度来看，由一个非英语为母语的学生常常意味着这个学生的论文需要比其他人多1-2次的修改以达到英文的使用正确。即使对于附加了这些努力的文章，相对于native speaker质量还是有些偏低。这是由于诸如词汇的枯燥，句式结构的单一，和缺乏修辞训练。

Who Makes Admission Decisions for Graduate Students？

到底谁来决定是否录取一个研究生？（这个问题是不是很重要，哈）

In the Department of Computer Science, all admissions materials are digitally scanned, and made accessible via a Web-based system that allows the faculty in Computer Science (as well as Computer Engineering, Bioinformatics, and Electrical Engineering) to see and review all files. Each file is reviewed by multiple faculty members. Generally students are admitted when they are either visibly outstanding and exceptional students, or when an individual faculty member makes a personal commitment to accepting the student, and providing financial support. Administrative staff typically have a advisory role in admissions decisions, usually by informing faculty that there is a student who might be a good fit for their program.

在计算机学院中，所有的申请材料都会被扫描成电子版的，并且放到在线系统上供所有的老师和科研工作者（faculty）看。每份申请材料都由很多人来看。通常来讲，一个学生如果被认为相当出色或者出众，则会被录取，或者又一位导师基于个人的因素录用了他/她，并给予资助。招生委员会中的工作人员通常可以给出录取的参考建议，比如通知老师教授等说某一学生很适合某位教授的研究方向。

The most important point is individual faculty make graduate admissions decisions.

重要的一点是：单独的一个教授可以决定接受一个学生。（这句话最好的理解看原文，感觉这句重要）。

Some Advice

一些建议

Since foreign graduate students cost twice as much, and frequently produce research papers of lower quality than native students, it is critical that applications for graduate study address these two issues. From a research advisor's perspective, a foreign student needs to be outstanding and exceptional to justify the extra financial and time cost (all those extra paper reviews take time) of admitting a foreign student.

由于培养国外学生花钱多，而做出的文章质量又不算高，因此，国外学生在申请材料中应当着重于这两个方面进行展开。从一个做研究的人的观点来看，外国学生需要特别优秀且出众来弥补接受一个外国学生所花费的额外的时间（修改他/她们的文章需要花费时间）和金钱。

There are several things you can do to improve your chances of gaining admission. Contacting a faculty member is critical, since they make decisions on who is admitted. However, when contacting a faculty member, there are several key points to remember:

你可以做很多事情来增加自己被录取的几率。和导师联系非常重要，因为他们能够决定是否录取。但是和导师联系（陶瓷）的时候，有下列几点需要注意：

1. English expression must be perfect. Consider the following excerpt from an email I received from a prospective student:

1 英文要非常好. 看看下面这一段从我收到的预科学生（就是希望到某所大学去读书的正在申请的学生）的电子邮件的摘录：

I did my undergraduate studies at {XXX} University, one of China's the most famous universities with a history 100 years, and kept on ranking in the upper 10 percent among 92 students in the department.

我在{***}学校读的本科，这是一所有着100年历史的，在中国（汗，还是中国学生的）最著名的学校，我在92个人中一直都排在前10%。（我靠，这句写得也太外行了，我都看出来了）。

Just in this one sentence there are at least four grammar and expression errors. This clearly says to me that the student does not have a firm command of English expression, and their papers will definitely need multiple reviews. As a Professor I want to bring in students who will make less work for me, not more.

这一句话里至少有4个语法和表达错误。 这清楚的说明了这个学生没有坚实的英文基础，因此在指导他/她的过程中，论文需要额外的修改。作为一个教授，我希望能够使自己工作减轻的学生，而不是相反。

2. Show a clear and sincere interest in the faculty's research area. Faculty have very specialized research interests, and are looking for students with demonstrated capacity to perform excellent research in their specialty. If you approach a faculty member and say that you want to perform research in an area outside their specialty, they will show little interest. Additionally, faculty often indicate research interests that are very broad. I personally state that I have a research interest in "Software Engineering." However, this is a very broad field. My more specific interest is in Software Configuration Management systems. Hence, if you send me email stating you're interested in Software Engineering, that is much less interesting to me than an email stating you're interested in Software Configuration Management.

2。对于教授的研究方向和领域有着清晰的了解。教员（教授）都有着特定的科研方向，并且在寻找能够在这个特定领域有着出色科研能力的学生。如果你跟一个老师联系说希望学习ta领域之外的方向，ta肯定不感兴趣。另外，老师们经常指定一个非常宽泛的研究方向。我自己说我自己的研究方向就是“软件工程”。但是，这是一个很泛的领域。我更关心的是软件配置管理系统。因此，如果你跟我说你喜欢软件配置管理比说你对软件工程感兴趣跟能引起我的关注。

Of course, just listing a few buzzwords doesn't impress much either. Some emails I receive appear to be form letters, with a fill-in space for research interest buzzwords. These are pretty easy to spot, and don't demonstrate any sincere interest in performing research in that field. If you want to rise above the crowd, you will identify potentially interesting faculty, then go and read one or two of their recent papers. This will give you a very good idea of their research specialty (you may find you don't like it!) and will allow you to write a customized letter that speaks directly to that faculty's current research interests.

当让，仅仅罗列一些时髦词汇也不能给人留下什么好印象。有些我收到的邮件就好像填出来的表格，仿佛把研究兴趣加入到空格中。这个很容易看穿，也不能给出任何能够从事这一领域研究的证据。如果你想鹤立鸡群，你需要知道导师潜在的研究兴趣（自我感觉这一点很重要），然后阅读这人近来发表的一两篇文章。这样，你将能够很好的了解这个导师具体的研究方向（估计你不喜欢这样做！），然后写一封很合这个教授胃口的邮件。

Here's another example email I received:

这儿有我收到的另外一封邮件：

Checking into the web site, I have found that your research areas cater to my type of research interests.

通过留言你们的页面，我发现你的研究方向和我的研究兴趣契合的非常好。

I interpreted this as follows. First, the student doesn't know or care what research they want to perform, since they didn't state their research interests. This is a red flag, since such a student might be accepted into the program, chew up a year of grant support, and then discover they are really interested in some other research area and switch to another research group. While students often do switch research areas as their interests mature, as a Professor I look to reduce the possibility of this happening, since this is disruptive to a research agenda.

我是这样理解这封邮件的。首先，这个学生不知道，或者说不关心他们的究竟想做哪个方向，因为ta根本就没有说ta的研究兴趣是什么。这是一个危险信号，这个学生有可能被录取，然后在吃掉了一年的资助之后发现“我原来不喜欢这个东西”，然后跑到其他的研究小组中了。很多学生的研究兴趣成熟了之后，确实有换方向的现象，作为一个教授，我希望尽量降低这种事情出现的可能性，因为一旦出现，将会对研究计划带来很大的冲击。

Second, the prospective student obviously didn't do their homework. They didn't bother to read my web site enough to determine my current research interests.

第二，显然，预科学生不做作业。他们可以很容易的通过网络找到我的科研兴趣。

Right now you may be thinking, "Reading all these papers takes too much time, especially for a preliminary email." This is true, it does take more time to really understand the research agenda of a faculty member. However, by applying for graduate school, you are asking a professor to make a large financial and time investment. My attitude as a faculty member is, "Why should I admit a prospective student who is not willing to spend 1-2 hours to determine my current research interests?" On the flip side, you are looking to make a commitment to a particular research area, and this can have significant impact on your career and happiness. Doesn't it make sense to have a good idea of what you're getting into?

你可能现在觉得，“为了一封不知道什么结果的最初的陶瓷信，去读这么多文章，这也太花时间了吧”。确实是指个样子的，深入了解一个老板的研究方向确实要花费一些时间。但是，申请一个研究生，意味着你在要求一个教授给你大量财力和时间的投入。我，作为一个老板的观点，“我为什么要录取一个连花费几个小时来了解我的研究兴趣都不肯的学生呢？”。另一个不太重要的方面上来讲，你是在寻求做研究的方向，这个选择关系到了你将来的人生和幸福（哈，这个地方，作者似乎夸大了点儿）。花时间来了解你要做什么难道不是非常有必要的吗？

3. Use an ASCII-representable name in your email if your native language is ideographic. A lot of spam email has "from" addresses that are not ASCII. Many faculty receive over 100 spam email messages a day. To ensure your message isn't ignored as spam, use an informative Subject line, and an ASCII From address.

3. 在电子邮件中用ASCII字符可以表示的名字（这个适用于中国学生）。

很多店子邮件的from栏中显示的不是ascii字符。很多老板每天收到多于100封的垃圾邮件。为了保证你的邮件不被当作垃圾邮件来处理，请使用表意的邮件标题，并使用ascii字符表示from栏的内容。

4. Check to see how many students the professor currently has. Research groups are hard to scale up. Generally, faculty members do not like to have more than 3-10 students. If a faculty member has a lot of students already, even if you're Albert Einstein they still might not be interested.

4. 看看这个老板现在有多少学生。

科研小组的人数很难成比例的增加。通常来讲，老板很难收多于3-10个的学生。如果一个老板已经有了很多学生，而不幸的是你又不是Albert Einstein，所以ta们就没有兴趣了。

Some Advice for the Actual Application

If you have decided to formally apply for graduate student in Computer Science at UCSC, you will be asked to provide a personal statement (an essay), letters of recommendation, GRE and TOEFL test scores, and your undergraduate transcript.

实际申请中的一些建议

如果你打算正是的开始申请UCSC的计算机（其它学校也大同小异），你需要提供个人陈述（俗称ps），推荐信（也有英文叫letters of reference），gre和托福成绩，和本科成绩单。

Personal Statement

By now it should go without saying that the English in the personal statement needs to be perfect. Have a native speaker review your essay. Pay money to get such a review, if necessary. I frequently see high GRE verbal and TOEFL scores accompanied by a poorly written personal statement. This says to me that the student takes tests well, but still has problems with written English expression.

个人陈述（ps）

现在可以勿容置疑的说，个人陈述中的英文需要非常完美。找个母语为英语的人来改你的ps。如果有必要的话，花点儿钱也未尝不可。我就经常收到能考gt高分的人写出很差的个人陈述。我于是认为这个学生就会考试，但英文表达还是有问题。（我靠，难道作者认为ps不好就否定了人家的英文了？这个还是要注意一下）

In the personal statement, I personally look for evidence that the student has the capacity to perform high quality research. Specifically, I look for evidence of critical thinking, and discussion of prior relevant research or project experience. I also like to see students make a strong case for why they are well suited for graduate study, especially at UCSC.

在个人陈述中，我个人希望能够看到这个学生能够有出色的科研能力的证据。特别的是，我希望学生能够展示ta们批判性思维（critical thinking）和ta们以前的相关的科研和项目经历。我还非常希望看到学生能够用事实说明ta们为什么很适合做研究生学习，特别是在UCSC（其实其它学校的老师就是希望看到，为什么特别适合ta们的学校）。

Many prospective students write about how they have wanted to study Computer Science since they were a small child, and how it's a lifelong dream and ambition. In extreme moderation this is fine (1-2 sentences at maximum). However, it is reasonable to assume that nearly all prospective students willing to spend the time and effort to apply to the Dept. of CS for graduate school have a deep and sincere interest in Computer Science. One deduction you can make is that spending valuable space in your personal statement on this matter does not differentiate you from the other applicants.

很多预科学生写他们从小就对计算机感兴趣（其它方向类同），并且做这个是ta们的毕生梦想和追求。这个最多写上一两行就足够了。然而，有理由认为几乎所有申请计算机学院的预科学生对于计算机科学都有着浓烈的兴趣。因此，你在个人陈述中宝贵的空间来写这个根本不能把你跟其它的学生区分出来。（即，说白了，没有意义）

I personally would like to hear about the difficult aspects of some project you worked on. Tell me how you displayed excellent problem solving skills, were a leader, or showed initiative. Especially if you have done research before, tell me about that research experience, and what you learned from it. Finally, tell me why UCSC is the best place for you to study. There are many universities in the US; why is UCSC the best match for you?

我个人希望看到你关于从事项目的不同方面的介绍。告诉我你解决问题的技巧，或者是一个项目领导者，或者非常主动。特别是，如果你做过研究的话，告诉我你科研的经验，和你从中学到了什么。最后，告诉我为什么UCSC是你希望进一步学习的地方。美国有那么多的学校，怎么你就愿意来UCSC呢？（其实我觉得这个问题特难，因为每申一个学校都要找到一个好的理由来说明为什么这个学校最适合我，nnd，太难了）

Don't Send Every Award You've Ever Received

不要把你获得每个奖都发过来

Last year, one student sent a copy of their karate black belt certificate as part of the supplemental materials for their application. While this is a commendable achievement, one that implies a significant degree of discipline, it doesn't say very much about the student's ability to perform graduate studies. In fact, it's a negative, since it indicates the student doesn't have the critical analysis skills to determine what information can truly help their application. We threw the karate certificate in the trash. If you send supplemental information, make sure it is directly relevant to the pursuit of graduate study in Computer Science.

去年，你个学生把ta空手道黑带的证书（靠，很猛）作为申请材料的一部分发了过来。这个很值得称道，因为它显示了非凡的自律能力，但是这个并不能说明这个学生能够很好的进行研究生学习。事实上，这个还起到了负面效果，因为这个学生缺乏判定什么是真正能够帮助他申请成功的材料的 批判性思维的能力。（这句翻译的真扯，其实这个老板想说，这个学生缺心眼儿）我们把黑带证书放到垃圾筐里了。如果你寄来了补充材料，一定要确信它与你申请研究生密切相关。

Make Sure Your Letters Arrive on Time

The recommendation letters are critically important to your case. Make sure they arrive on time. Letters from academic sources are preferable to those from industry, and a letter from an advisor on a research project is the best, so long as it directly addresses your performance on the research project, and your skills as a researcher.

确信推荐信能够按时来

推荐信在你的申请材料中尤为重要。要保证它能够按时来。学术机构出具的推荐信比从工业界来的更有价值（意思就是学校的老师的信比公司老板同事的更有价值）。如果有科研项目的导师的推荐信就太好了，因为它能够直接的说明你在科研工作中的表现。

（额贼，终于最后一个section了，努力，搞完了再吃饭，做个有始有终的人）

Make Your Point Fast

In the preliminary review of files, the typical application receives 2-8 minutes of consideration by each faculty member that reviews it. Follow-on reviews are typically more detailed, since there are fewer files at this point. Personal statements are first scanned, then carefully read if they seem interesting. Your personal statement should ensure that the most important points are made in the first 1-2 paragraphs.

使你的观点可信，站得住脚

在审阅申请材料的前几轮中，每份材料每个老板大约看2-8分钟。接下来的审阅将会更加细致，因为很多的材料已经被淘汰了。老板们首先浏览个人陈述（ps），如果觉得有意思就仔细阅读。你的个人陈述（ps）要保证最重要的部分出现在1-2段。

You may be thinking, "This isn't very fair. I'm going to spend hours putting together my application, only to have it reviewed very quickly." In defense of the practice, I'll make two observations. First, we receive many hundreds of applications, and must make rapid decisions on them. In order to provide timely response to applicants, each application cannot be reviewed for very long. Second, after reviewing hundreds of applications, faculty get very good at making rapid assessments of academic records. Does this mean we never make mistakes? No. It's an inherently error-prone process, since it involves making highly subjective decisions based on a small number of data points about a person's future academic abilities. Predicting the future is hard.

你可能回想，“这个不公平，我弄了好几个小时（其实很可能好几天）把我的材料准备好，就被人家一扫而过”，我来为这个抱怨辩护一下。首先，我们收到上千份申请，并且需要很快的决定是否录用。为了及时的给申请者以答复，每份材料不可能有很长的审阅时间。再者，看了上百份材料之后，老板们能够很快的判定一个申请者的学术能力。这说明我们不犯错误码？不是的。其实这本身就是一个容易出错的过程，因为它要老板们依据较少的数据来判定一个人未来的科研能力。预测未来是很难的。（这句话说得怎么像是电影里的，哈哈，似乎透着一种无奈）

Hopefully you've found this advice useful. My sincere best wishes to you in your pursuit of graduate study in Computer Science!

希望我的建议能够有所帮助。我衷心的希望你能够继续在计算机科学领域（其它的一样）继续深造！

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靠，终于翻完了。大家凑合着看吧。我翻译这篇文章也是希望它能够对于马上就要开始申请的同学们有帮助，即使只对一个人有帮助也好。同时，我也希望ol中能够有更多的有价值的帖子出现。总之，尽自己之所能吧。

别说俺是标题党，打击积极性的。

接下来我一个section一个section的翻译。中文在原帖中加入。各位看官莫急，待我慢慢写来。

谢谢夸奖 ，还真有点儿多，我先歇会儿。

终于完了，大家凑合着看。以后找到好东西再发。

已给你发送站内信。