如果你认为如同中国高考一样成绩决定一切，拥有傲人的SAT成绩和绩点4.0就可以进入美国顶尖名校？那我想说，还是别浪费生命了，你还是花点时间干点别的，早点放弃进名校的打算！因为美国名校也根本不需要只有好成绩的你！我想告诉你的是，带着优秀成绩单的申请塞满了各大顶尖高校的邮箱，说的再明白一些，好成绩只能说明你才刚刚有资格去申请美国名校。 或许你又要说你不仅有好的成绩，你还参加过很多社会活动，去过海外游学，拥有名企实习，大牛们的推荐信那应该没什么问题了吧？我想说，这也没什么了不起的，你只能说是刚刚有了那么点去和别人竞争资格而已，你的竞争者远比你想象的优秀。而且你知道的套路，别人为什么不知道？！我知道你们会问，那应该怎么办，最应该做什么才能让自己在申请中有竞争力，我想说，你需要庆幸自己在此刻读到了这篇文章，请仔细认真全神贯注阅读下面的内容。
当然，在中国，学生有无数的暑期项目以及课后活动来去海外游学。但是你以为参加这么些活动就能获得成功吗？未免太天真！你的竞争者如此优秀，如果你和他们一样学习，是什么给你的自信让你觉得你会脱颖而出？或许到最后你会发现，有一个此时被严重低估，很少被提起的项目：学习创业思维的软实力，这才是你最需要学会的技能！
在美国，学生参加与创业有关的训练营是很普遍的,而在国内很少有这样的机会。我曾经与美国基础教育和高等教育中的许多学校合作过，发现国内竟然鲜少有学校会开设针对创业的课程！因此，我带领CampusPM创立CYBF创习中心的最大动力就是为了填补这一空白，并且使它成为这一教育模式的先驱，你以为创习精神可以仅仅存在就好？我可以告诉你，它必将成为一个非常关键的因素！
习惯于死记硬背的中国学生应该开始感觉到恐慌了！毕竟当今有很多顶尖大学的招生官海外正在积极寻求有创业精神——勇敢和创新的学生，这对你们来说难道不是一个巨大的挑战吗？在现今全球化的世界，如果你正在尝试进入商业领域，踏上创业研究项目等，创业精神是必不可少的 （我对此非常无比认真！）。我们选择的最好的执行方式，是鼓励学生参加创业创新的辅导活动和比赛来证明自己认识问题和解决问题的能力。现在很多学术缺乏创造力，在这样的活动中，学生通常被分配进一个项目，在有限的时间内与团队成员完成该项目，学习如何在有限的时间内快速制定有效的解决方案。事实上，这些技能和经验可以受到顶尖院校的招生官的高度青睐，说不定你与众多竞争者之间的差距，正是这么一些新颖的技能呢！
以防还有人还不清楚，那我再次重申：创业思维的软实力就是一种关键的软技能，你敢于冒险吗？你具有很强的个性特征？你拥有很强的人际交往能力吗？那么批判性和创造性思维能力了？实践技能呢？以上这些才是真正的创业思维软实力！别再把创业叫做“创业”去迷惑别人了！创业的定义可不局限于商业的范畴！
并且很明显，对于想进入顶级院校的美国学生来说，参加创业辅导活动已成为一种新趋势，创新精神的存在感已经如此强大，你还在等什么！你会发现越来越多的中国学生努力增强竞争力；你会发现这些竞争力越来越趋向于那些在他们大学申请上写上的技能；你还会发现这些技能竟然多数都是从活动中获得！所以我可以毫不夸张地说，获得创业思维的软实力注定要成为最重要的终身技能之一 ！
最后，谁说的“关于培养创业精神最大的误解是鼓励学生经济独立和经营企业，而忽视学业”？听着，这显然不是我这篇文章的观点，并且我本人也觉得这是是一种极不负责任和令人难以置信的愚蠢态度！真正可取的想法是，把创业精神看成是高等教育为未来的职业生涯的所做的准备。如果有人固执认为，学生学习创业思维的软实力是鼓励他们去做生意，扔掉他们平时的学业，那显然不明白所这个技能的内涵所在，我觉得需要买一本书读读，多看看新闻.....否则也太令人感到尴尬了！
以下为英文原文：
Hidden secret to enter a top US university: Learn entrepreneurial skills
In hopes of getting accepted to prestigious colleges, students around the world engage in fierce competition to attain excellent grades and test scores. The problem is they are not the only ones who have the perfect SAT scores and 4.0 GPA. Inundated with applications that boast perfect test scores and grades, the best colleges now need other factors to distinguish bright, motivated candidates.
Oh, and let’s definitely not forget the countless summer programs and barrage of after school activities offered to students looking to study overseas in China.But you will find there is one that is extremely underrated at the moment and rarely mentioned: learning entrepreneurial skills.
It is quite common for students in the United States to participate in entrepreneurship-related boot camps. However, not many opportunities present for Chinese students in China.Given that I have worked with multiple schools as my clients across the K-12 and higher education field, I find it extremely surprising that barely any school focuses on entrepreneurial education for students, which is in stark contrast with what happens in the United States. Besides, the biggest motivating factor for creating CYBF in the first place was to fill that void and become the pioneer of this form of education for students.
Today many top-tier college admission officers overseas are actively seeking students who have entrepreneurial mindsets—both courageous and innovative.In a globalized world of today, it doesn’t matter if you are looking to enter the corporate world, embark on pioneering research projects etc, entrepreneurial mindsets are imperative (I’m totally serious about this).A great way to make this happen is if students participated in entrepreneurial workshops and competitions to demonstrate their ability to recognize a problem and creativity to solve problem, which there is a lack of. In such events, students are typically assigned a project to complete with team members within limited time. From this, they learn how to develop effective solutions quickly within limited time. These types of skills and experiences, indeed, are highly desired by admission officers of top-tier colleges.
In case anyone is confused, entrepreneurial skills are an assortment of critical soft skills - willingness to take risks, strong personal characteristics, interpersonal skills, critical and creative thinking skills and finally practical skills. Why call it entrepreneurial to confuse everyone? The very definition of entrepreneurial is not limited to the context of business.
Evidently, attending entrepreneurial workshops has become a new trend for American students who are aiming for top-tier colleges.More and more Chinese students strive to increase their competitiveness by including skills that were acquired from various events in their college application, so picking up entrepreneurial skills needs to be highlighted as one of the most important lifelong skills!
Finally, the biggest misconception about developing entrepreneurial mindsets is encouraging students to become financially independent, ignore their studies and run businesses.This is NOT what this article is trying to say and it is an extremely irresponsible and incredibly stupid attitude to adopt; rather the point that should be taken is the mindset that can be applied in higher education as well as future career lives. If anyone still thinks that students learning entrepreneurial skills means encouraging them to run a business and throw away their grades, clearly doesn’t understand what this skill actually means, and clearly needs to buy a book and watch the news more... embarassing!
Andy的简介：
- Multicultural and multilingual: Grew up and lived in a number of countries, American-born Chinese - （Third Culture Kid） 多文化和多语言: 在多个国家成长和居住；美籍华人 - 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 为企业培训和招聘人士提供领先评估体系和游戏化的项目式学习的职场教学法的领袖
- Decade of experience in education and training, and expert in China 十年以上的学生教育和企业培训的经验: 并被很多本土和国外人士称为“中国通”
- Regular community event organizer with expertise in workplace gamification for employees 定期社区活动的组织者: 游戏化员工体系的主题
- UC Berkeley Alumni Club Ex-Leader and Recruitment Ambassador 毕业于世界名校加州伯克利大学并担任校友俱乐部前任负责人和前任招生大使
- Third-party Interviewer for College Admissions 美国第三方面试官 (很多大学现在需要学生在提交申请书与第三方机构进行面试)
- Helped build a number of college admissions counseling departments 负责搭建多个海外升学指导中心
- 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相比其他所谓的“教育专家”，从小上过十几所学校，亲自体验过AP、IB、英国、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
在这一两年间，建立了中国第一个双语创新创业学习的活动平台: CYBF 创习国际交流中心