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与在中国上大学不同的是，无论你是否有可能被录取，你实际上有很多申请不同大学的机会（当然能否录取还是取决于你自己的实力）。去美国任何一所大学学习，是与从广西到北京或者从青海到武汉上中国国内大学学习，是种完全不一样的经历。
在你申请美国大学时，有很多因素需要考虑，无论你的理想学校是否是排名在前20的学校。去学校的路是不是太崎岖？学校设置是不是太分散？只是因为学校的排名很好，那是不是就意味着这可以保证以后的就业？我不在乎加州理工有多好，如果你选择了加州理工但是理想职业却是做一名历史学家，那很明显地，你没有充分做好对于学校的考察工作。还有，你有没有考虑过社交活动？记住你将离家上大学4年，但每周只有10-15小时是在课堂上的。这也就是说你所有其他的时间，将会生活在一个你可以接受并慢慢会爱上的环境，否则你将会度过很痛苦的4年大学生活并有可能影响到你的学业情况。通常情况下，对大多数中国学生而言，你唯一可以了解到不同大学的方式是通过令人置疑的大学排名，以及一些对于不同大学的二手资料以及已经过时的大学申请指导书。这些年来，读者可以从网上获取到许多甚至泛滥的大学资料。越来越多的大学资料欢迎人们阅读，QR阅读器应用程序在智能手机上都是免费的。尽管印刷的宣传册在大学招聘中一直占有一席之地，学生和大学都意识到数字信息所带来的好处，他们可以直接通过电脑获取大学信息。
当然，去参观学校是不可或缺也是非常必要的一种考察学校的方式。然而，大学也已经开始运用高科技来开展他们的参观学校项目。现在人们在家便可虚拟游览很多大学。大学设立了独立的网页可以让学生从任何地方游览不同的学校。而且，如果你的手机上还没有安装skype，那么你将错过很多东西。Skype现在是被很多大学广泛使用的，作为与校友、学生和教授交流一种工具。这种虚拟工具取代买飞机票的需要，避免了预订酒店的繁琐感，，并能帮你成功找出到达偏远校区的方法。尽管这种虚拟游览方式与实际游览还是不一样的，但这至少为中国学生提供了一种比完全不考察学校更好的方式。除此之外，美国现在也有很多平台可以帮助中国学生择校，我觉得应该要强烈考虑使用，毕竟可能比某些国内的平台更可靠(国内的确也有一些好的平台，但需要你自己慢慢筛选)。
除了公立私立大学外，文理学院（liberal artscollege）对一些学生来讲也是一个很好的选择。即使文理学院的学费相对一些公立学校会更贵一些，但是小型课堂相比公立学校更小的师生比也是很重要的。毕竟如果你在一个800人的教室里学习，你需要考虑你如何出彩，你如何和教授有良好的关系。当然啦，从另一方面，在大型学校里，你可以认识很多不同的人，而且学校里也有很多机会和资源。并且，对很多中国学生来讲，他们并不知道自己想学什么，所以也要考虑这所学校是否能提供很多不同的专业。
一旦你考察了很多学校，那么开始根据不同的因素筛选学校吧。这些因素包括但不限于那些影响你的社交生活、学生活动、天气、地理位置、多元性、设施、工作和实习机会等等。你应该有多个选择，向你的辅导员、或者已经出国学习的学长学姐，你的私人留学顾问或者任何你感兴趣学校的校友询问意见。如果你只从百度、微信和其他平台的文章，以及从比你年长的学长、学姐获取关于大学的信息，记住——这是个巨大的错误，因为他们的喜好不一定符合你自己，而且你应该要找专业的人协助你，帮你评估适合你的大学。即使你去了一个大的留学中介，不代表说那里的顾问个个都能替你分析大学，还是要看该顾问的个人能力。因此，选择好对的人协助你事关重要！
（大家不要忘记关注AndyZ 老师哦! 点击关注，欢迎分享文章，同时也可阅读已发布的其他文章。如果留言咨询国际教育和学习、职场发展和员工管理以及招聘方面的任何问题，没准下次推文你就能得到答案！）
——————————以下为Andy老师英文原稿————————
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