情景:林芝和喬在聊在英國上大學的事。

Lin Zhi: My old university is having a reunion this weekend.

Joe: Really? Are reunions popular here?

Lin Zhi: Yes, quite popular. You know, people like to keep track of what their friends are doing.

Joe: I thought all that was handled by Facebook and that kind of site nowadays.

Lin Zhi: Well, you can see something of people's lives there, I guess, but it's still better to see them in person. I can't wait to see all of my old dormmates again.

Joe: How many dormmates did you have?

Lin Zhi: Eight! I mean, eight, including me. All in one room.

Joe: God, I can't imagine what that would have been like.

Lin Zhi: You didn't have a roommate?

Joe: No, most English universities you just live by yourself, especially a rich college like mine.

Lin Zhi: Really? Your school was very rich?

Joe: Yeah, well, I went to Oxford, and a lot of the colleges there are rich.

Lin Zhi: I'm a bit confused about the difference between the university and the college.

Joe: Oh, sometimes we just use college for university, but at Oxford, Cambridge, and a few other places, there are colleges within the university, and you spend most of your time at the college, like a school-within-the-school. And my college was very well off, so we had big rooms to ourselves, even bathrooms in the second year. I picked it because my dad and my granddad both went there.

Lin Zhi: How do people normally choose their universities? By where their parents went?

Joe: Not normally. That was just a bit of sentimentality on my part. Um, it depends on a lot of things. The most important is where will take you, of course – you have to apply before you do your final exams, so most of the offers are 'conditional' – that is, you have to get certain grades at A-Level before you take them. Like my offer was AAB – I needed to get 2 As and a B – to get in.

Lin Zhi: What would have happened if you didn't get them?

Joe: If you only miss it by a grade, you can normally persuade them to let you in anyway. Otherwise, you have to go to your backup choice – normally you pick one university with a high offer, and one that you're pretty certain you'll get the grades for. Like I picked Oxford and Manchester, where I had a BBB offer.

Lin Zhi: Is it the same in America?

Joe: I don't think so. I think there they just either accept you or don't, because they don't have as unified an exam system – well, they have the SATS, but you take those before you apply. And to get into the best universities you have to have a lot of extracurricular activities, doing charity work and hobbies and things, but that's much less important in the UK. Plus of course in the US you have to think about cost, whereas our universities are almost free.

Lin Zhi: Oh, of course. I had a friend who said his American education cost his family nearly $100'000.

Joe: Yeah, people have much bigger student loans than us. But they have more scholarships available if you're clever, I guess.

Lin Zhi: When did you pick your major? In the second year?

Joe: Nah, we don't have 'majors.' We pick our subject from the start, and we don't call it a 'major' – we say we're 'reading' something.

Lin Zhi: That's confusing!

Joe: I know! But you get used to it. Like, I read History at Oxford, my sister read Natural Sciences at Edinburgh. And our degrees are only three years, so they're more concentrated than the American ones.

Lin Zhi: So you have to decide straightaway when you apply? At 17? That seems too early.

Joe: Yeah, you just have to decide what you think is best for you. But it's very easy to switch once you're there – or even to do one year of one course, and two years of another. So you're not locked into it. I had a friend who switched from ASNAC to Law.

Lin Zhi: ASNAC?

Joe: Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic.

Lin Zhi: Wow, I bet his parents were happy he switched to Law.

Joe: Well, it certainly improved his job prospects …

林芝:我的母校要在本周末舉行一次聚會。

喬:真的么?聚會在這里很普遍么?

林芝:是啊,很普遍。你知道,人們想了解自己的朋友們都在做什么。

喬:我以為現(xiàn)在這些都由Facebook和其他類似的網站搞定了呢。

林芝:噢,你在那里(網站上)能看到別人的一部分生活,我覺得是這樣,但還是見到本人好些。我迫不及待地想再次見到我所有的室友。

喬:你有幾個室友?

林芝:八個。我的意思是,包括我。都在一個房間里。

喬:天哪,我無法想象那到底會是什么樣子。

林芝:你沒有室友?

喬:沒有,在大多數(shù)英國大學,你是一個人住的,特別是像我們那樣有錢的學院。

林芝:真的?你們學院很有錢?

喬:是啊,我上的是牛津,許多學院都很有錢。

林芝:我對于大學和學院的區(qū)別不太清楚。

喬:嗯,有時我們也稱大學為學院,但在牛津、劍橋和其他一些地方,大學里有包括很多學院,而你大多數(shù)時間是在學院里,就好像校中校。我的學院很有錢,所以我們有自己的大教室,第二年還有浴室。我選擇它是因為我老爸和我爺爺都是在那兒上的。

林芝:人們通常都是怎樣選擇大學的?家長上哪兒就上哪兒?

喬:這樣的不多。只是我對它有感情。哦,這取決于很多方面。當然,最重要的是哪里要你,你必須在期末考試前申請,所以多數(shù)的錄取機會都是“有條件的”,也就是說,你的預科成績必須達到一定分數(shù)才能去上。比如我大學要求的成績是AAB,因此我要取得兩個A和一個B,才能考上。

林芝:如果你成績達不到會怎么樣?

喬:如果你只差一分,你通?？梢哉埱笏麄冧浫∧?。不然的話,你就得選擇后備學?！ǔＤ氵x擇一家成績要求高的,以及一家你十分確定自己的分數(shù)達到要求的。比如我選擇了牛津和曼徹斯特,后者要求的成績是BBB。

林芝:美國也是這樣么?

喬:我覺得不是。我想在美國是要么錄取你,要么不錄取你,因為他們沒有統(tǒng)一的考試體制,他們雖然有標準成績考試,但你要先參加考試,然后才能提出申請。而且要想上頂級學府你還得有很多課外活動,參加慈善工作,有業(yè)余愛好,等等,但這些在英國就沒那么重要了。另外,在美國你還得考慮上學成本,而英國大學基本上是免費的。

林芝:哦,那當然。我的一個朋友說他上大學家里面將近花了10萬美元。

喬:是啊,他們的助學貸款比我們多很多。但在美國如果你聰明,會有機會獲得更多獎學金,我猜是的。

林芝:你是什么時候選的專業(yè)?大二么?

喬:不是,我們沒有“專業(yè)”。我們一開始就選了課程,但我們不稱之為“專業(yè)”,我們是說在“讀”什么。

林芝:這我就不明白了。

喬:我知道。但你得適應它。比如說,我在牛津讀歷史,我妹妹在愛丁堡讀自然科學。而且我們取得學位只需要三年,因此課程比美國密集。

林芝:那你得在申請時就做好決定?17歲時么?太早了吧。

喬:是啊,你得決定什么是對你最好的。但上大學后更換很容易,甚至可以一年上這種課程,另外兩年上別的課程。所以你不是固定在一個課程上。我的一個朋友從ASNAC轉到了法律。

林芝:ASNAC?

喬:盎格魯撒克遜語、諾爾斯語和凱爾特語。

林芝:我覺得他轉到法律他爸媽肯定很高興。

喬:嗯,這肯定改善了他的工作前景……

Notes

1. keep track of

意為“了解、記錄”。

例句:As a doctor James has to keep track of the latest developments in medicine.

作為一名醫(yī)生,詹姆斯必須了解醫(yī)學的最新發(fā)展動態(tài)。

Her mother used to keep track of every penny she spent.

她母親從前把自己所花的每一分錢都記下來。

2. in person

意為“親自”。

例句:You must come in person.

你必須親自來。

3. well off

意為“富裕的、闊綽的”。

例句:He was well-off materially.

他在物質上很富裕。

4. lock into

意為“受困于、陷于”。

例句:A large percentage of these groups remain locked in poverty.

這些團體里有很大一部分人仍然很貧窮。

The two countries are locked in a dispute over the islands off the northern coast.

兩國在北方沿海附近的島嶼上存在分歧。

5. Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic.

意為“盎格魯撒克遜語、諾爾斯語(古斯堪的納維亞語)和凱爾特語”,這三種語言是英語的主要來源。

Links

英國大學申請程序詳解

英國大學深受本國和外地留學生歡迎,是全世界留學的首選地點之一。一般來說,學生可以在申請表上填寫五個志愿。申請表填寫完畢后,學生可以單獨或集體在網上提交申請表。值得注意的是,在申請例如醫(yī)科一類的熱門專業(yè)時,學生們應該盡早提交申請,以免錯過申請截止日期。接下來,負責英國高校錄取工作的英國大學與院校入學委員會(UCAS)就會把收到的申請轉發(fā)到各個院校,然后由各院校做出錄取決定。

錄取決定

高校做出的錄取決定一般分為兩種,即無條件錄取(unconditional offer)和有條件錄取(conditional offer)。后者的意思是說,學生在被正式錄取之前必須通過某項考試或達到某些標準。對于國際學生來說,特定的語言考試成績往往是有條件錄取通知書中開出的前提條件。到了3月份,學生們就會接到來自一所或多所學校的錄取通知。如果被多所學校錄取,申請者可以選擇兩所院校,一所作為“第一志愿”,另一所作為“第二志愿”用來保底。這一過程大約會在5月初完成。8月是考試成績公布的時候,這個時候學生就會知道自己能否滿足錄取通知上的先決條件,并作出最終的擇校決定。如果考試成績沒能滿足任何一所理想學校的錄取標準,學生還會有機會在錄取名額未滿的大學中,選擇自己相對喜歡的學校。

申請時間

每年9月中旬到1月中旬,是英國大學的申請季節(jié)。但像牛津和劍橋這樣的英國名校,以及藥學、醫(yī)學和獸醫(yī)學等熱門專業(yè),往往在每年的10月15日就結束了下一年度的招生工作。此外,一些藝術和設計課程的申請時間也可能會有所不同,這些專業(yè)的申請截止日期往往較其他專業(yè)晚。相對而言,英國院校賦予海外學生的申請時間也相對較長,有的學校到6月底還繼續(xù)招收海外學生。

還有機會

一般來說,學生會在2月底收到自己第一批申報的院校發(fā)來的錄取通知書。但如果沒能被最初填報的5所院校中的任何一所錄取,別擔心,你還有機會。每年2月底到6月底,尚未被錄取的學生還可以再進行一次申請,但與之前不同的是,學生這次只能一次填寫一個志愿。

6月之后,各院校會開始最后一次“清倉”活動。在這個過程中,招生名額尚未用罄的大學可以和沒有拿到錄取通知的學生進行“配對”,最大程度地幫助學生實現(xiàn)接受高等教育的心愿。