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與在中國上大學不同的是，無論你是否有可能被錄取，你實際上有很多申請不同大學的機會（當然能否錄取還是取決于你自己的實力）。去美國任何一所大學學習，是與從廣西到北京或者從青海到武漢上中國國內大學學習，是種完全不一樣的經歷。
在你申請美國大學時，有很多因素需要考慮，無論你的理想學校是否是排名在前20的學校。去學校的路是不是太崎嶇？學校設置是不是太分散？只是因為學校的排名很好，那是不是就意味著這可以保證以后的就業？我不在乎加州理工有多好，如果你選擇了加州理工但是理想職業卻是做一名歷史學家，那很明顯地，你沒有充分做好對于學校的考察工作。還有，你有沒有考慮過社交活動？記住你將離家上大學4年，但每周只有10-15小時是在課堂上的。這也就是說你所有其他的時間，將會生活在一個你可以接受并慢慢會愛上的環境，否則你將會度過很痛苦的4年大學生活并有可能影響到你的學業情況。通常情況下，對大多數中國學生而言，你唯一可以了解到不同大學的方式是通過令人置疑的大學排名，以及一些對于不同大學的二手資料以及已經過時的大學申請指導書。這些年來，讀者可以從網上獲取到許多甚至泛濫的大學資料。越來越多的大學資料歡迎人們閱讀，QR閱讀器應用程序在智能手機上都是免費的。盡管印刷的宣傳冊在大學招聘中一直占有一席之地，學生和大學都意識到數字信息所帶來的好處，他們可以直接通過電腦獲取大學信息。
?當然，去參觀學校是不可或缺也是非常必要的一種考察學校的方式。然而，大學也已經開始運用高科技來開展他們的參觀學校項目。現在人們在家便可虛擬游覽很多大學。大學設立了獨立的網頁可以讓學生從任何地方游覽不同的學校。而且，如果你的手機上還沒有安裝skype，那么你將錯過很多東西。Skype現在是被很多大學廣泛使用的，作為與校友、學生和教授交流一種工具。這種虛擬工具取代買飛機票的需要，避免了預訂酒店的繁瑣感，，并能幫你成功找出到達偏遠校區的方法。盡管這種虛擬游覽方式與實際游覽還是不一樣的，但這至少為中國學生提供了一種比完全不考察學校更好的方式。除此之外，美國現在也有很多平臺可以幫助中國學生擇校，我覺得應該要強烈考慮使用，畢竟可能比某些國內的平臺更可靠(國內的確也有一些好的平臺，但需要你自己慢慢篩選)。
除了公立私立大學外，文理學院（liberal?artscollege）對一些學生來講也是一個很好的選擇。即使文理學院的學費相對一些公立學校會更貴一些，但是小型課堂相比公立學校更小的師生比也是很重要的。畢竟如果你在一個800人的教室里學習，你需要考慮你如何出彩，你如何和教授有良好的關系。當然啦，從另一方面，在大型學校里，你可以認識很多不同的人，而且學校里也有很多機會和資源。并且，對很多中國學生來講，他們并不知道自己想學什么，所以也要考慮這所學校是否能提供很多不同的專業。
一旦你考察了很多學校，那么開始根據不同的因素篩選學校吧。這些因素包括但不限于那些影響你的社交生活、學生活動、天氣、地理位置、多元性、設施、工作和實習機會等等。你應該有多個選擇，向你的輔導員、或者已經出國學習的學長學姐，你的私人留學顧問或者任何你感興趣學校的校友詢問意見。如果你只從百度、微信和其他平臺的文章，以及從比你年長的學長、學姐獲取關于大學的信息，記住——這是個巨大的錯誤，因為他們的喜好不一定符合你自己，而且你應該要找專業的人協助你，幫你評估適合你的大學。即使你去了一個大的留學中介，不代表說那里的顧問個個都能替你分析大學，還是要看該顧問的個人能力。因此，選擇好對的人協助你事關重要！
（大家不要忘記關注AndyZ?老師哦! 點擊關注，歡迎分享文章，同時也可閱讀已發布的其他文章。如果留言咨詢國際教育和學習、職場發展和員工管理以及招聘方面的任何問題，沒準下次推文你就能得到答案！）
——————————以下為Andy老師英文原稿————————
Why?Research?Schools?–?Enhancing?your?school?research?skills
Unlike attending universities in China, you actually have the option of which universities you apply to regardless of your credentials (though of course your credentials ultimately gets you admitted). Going to any school in the United States is definitely a whole lot different than attending school in Beijing if you are from Guangxi, or attending school in Wuhan if you are from Qinghai.
There are many factors to consider when applying to American universities, beyond whether or not your school is ranked top 20. Is the school too hilly, is everything too spread out? Just because this school is ranked really well, does it provide the appropriate career prospects? I don't care how great of an institution Cal Tech is, but if your career goal is to become a historian, then obviously you have not done your research well enough. Have you even considered it's social life, remember you are going to be away for about at least 4 years of life, and only 10-15 hours a week are spent in the classroom. This means that all the other times, you will need to be in an environment where you are able to accept and grow to love, or else it will be an extremely miserable 4 years of your life, that would even in turn hurt your academics dramatically. Traditionally, for most Chinese students the only way they were able to learn about different universities was through questionable college rankings, second-hand narratives of different schools and outdated college book guides. ?These days, there is a plethora of information online and available to readers. More and more, colleges make their information readily accessible, and QR reader apps are available for free on all smartphones. Though printed material will always have a place in college recruitment, students and colleges recognize the multiple benefits of digital information, putting the college search directly into students’ hands.
Of course, visiting schools in person is irreplaceable and is still the most recommended way to However, colleges are evolving their visit programs with changing technology. Today, many colleges offer a virtual tour around their historical campuses within the comfort of your home. There are also independent sites that allow students to tour multiple schools from all corners of the country. Also, if you haven't installed Skype yet on your phone then you are missing out, Skype is now widely used by many colleges as a substitute to speaking with alumni, current students and professors of a particular school that you are interested in. These virtual tools reduce the need of buying a plane ticket, frustration over which hotel to book and figuring out how to get to that one isolated campus 5 hours away. Though it is still extremely different from actually physically being there, this offers many alternatives for Chinese students and at the very least is better than not doing any research at all.
Besides the national university, the liberal art college is a good choice for some students. Even though the tuition of liberal art college is more expensive, comparing to some public university, the small-sized class and the ratio of students and professors are still important. If you are studying in an 800-people class, you need to think about how you can stand out, how you can have intimate relationship with your professor. On the other hand, you can know a lot of different people and have more resources and opportunities in a bigger environment. Also, for lots of Chinese students, they don’t know about their majors, so it is necessary to consider whether the school offers lots of
Once you have researched at least quite a number of schools, now is the time to start filtering schools down based on different factors. The factors include but not limited to all the different factors affecting your social life, student activities, climate/location, urban versus rural setting, diversity, facilities, job and internship opportunities etc... You should definitely get more than one opinion, speaking with your counselor, your private study abroad consultant and/or alumni of the university that you are interested in. If you only read articles from Baidu search, WeChat and others, as well as use testimonials from your older friends to judge universities, this is a huge flaw, remember: what they think may not necessarily apply to you because they are not experts, also just because you go to a brand name agency, the consultant himself may not be professional enough to analyze this for you. Therefore, it is imperative you .
Andy的簡介：
-?Multicultural?and?multilingual:?Grew?up?and?lived?in?a?number?of?countries,?American-born?Chinese?-（Third?Culture?Kid）多文化和多語言:在多個國家成長和居住；美籍華人-典型第三文化人士(TCK)
-?Leader?in?empowering?corporate?training?and?recruitment?professionals?with?assessment?methodologies?and?project-based?learning?andragogy為企業培訓和招聘人士提供領先評估體系和游戲化的項目式學習的職場教學法的領袖
-?Decade?of?experience?in?education?and?training,?and?expert?in?China十年以上的學生教育和企業培訓的經驗:并被很多本土和國外人士稱為“中國通”
-?Regular?community?event?organizer?with?expertise?in?workplace?gamification?for?employees定期社區活動的組織者:游戲化員工體系的主題
-?UC?Berkeley?Alumni?Club?Ex-Leader?and?Recruitment?Ambassador畢業于世界名校加州伯克利大學并擔任校友俱樂部前任負責人和前任招生大使
-?Third-party?Interviewer?for?College?Admissions美國第三方面試官(很多大學現在需要學生在提交申請書與第三方機構進行面試)
-?Helped?build?a?number?of?college?admissions?counseling?departments負責搭建多個海外升學指導中心
-?Unlike?most?“education?experts”,?personally?attended?more?than?a?dozen?schools?growing?up?and?personally?went?through?the?AP,?IB,?British,?Singaporean?and?Hong?Kong?education?systems相比其他所謂的“教育專家”，從小上過十幾所學校，親自體驗過AP、IB、英國、新加坡和香港的教育制度
-?Recently,?created?China’s?first?bilingual?entrepreneurial?and?innovation?educational?events?organization:?Center?for?Youth?Business?Facilitation
在這一兩年間，建立了中國第一個雙語創新創業學習的活動平臺:?CYBF創習國際交流中心
