在过去特朗普任职期间，中国留学生们面临了前所未有的困境，国际间的学术交流被叫停，留学生签证审查力度加大，理工科等高新技术类的专业申请被限制。雪上加霜的是，新冠疫情肆虐的一年，美国种种抗疫不力的表现更是让许多准留学生家庭产生了放弃美本申请的想法。而如果拜登当选，第一步就是采取严格措施控制疫情，再加上本身他代表着自由开放的民主党，对于中国的准留学生来说，新的美国局面似乎预示着更多新的可能性。

｜Slide to see the translation

|向左滑查看英文

Chinese students faced many challenges under the Trump administration, where international academic exchanges were seized, visa became tougher, restrictions were put on polytechnic subject fields etc. COVID made things worse in the year of 2020, many families stopped looking at US universities due to the poor performance of the US government on the pandemic control. Joe Biden, being a Democrat representing the values of freedom and opening, has promised to carry out effective measures to take control of the pandemic the day he takes over the office. It seems to be more possibilities to the students from China.

许多家长和学生们最近都在问我：“我们是不是应该重新考虑美国申请。”作为升学指导老师，我在给出申请国家方向的建议时，常常让学生思考两个问题：

1. 这个国家本科教育的特色是什么？

2. 而你是否被这种特色所吸引，并且认为自己能成功融入这种环境并实现自我价值？

在此，我也想再一次将这个问题抛给考虑美国作为留学目的地的学生们。

｜Slide to see the translation

|向左滑查看英文

Many parents and students asked me recently, that if they should still consider universities in the US. As a guidance counsellor I usually request my students to consider two things first:

1. What makes a countries undergraduate education special?

2. Are you attracted to those things and do you think you can blend in the environment and become successful?

Today I’d like to share these questions to you all.

我个人，根据大学本科教育培养人才的方向，把大学分为三类：育才教育和育人教育。育才教育，以培养某一个领域的专业人才为方向，强调人才在这一领域的专业能力和毕业后的就业能力。以英国的本科教育为代表，申请大学时，学生明确自己要申请的专业，申请材料也是围绕如何证明自己有学习这一专业的潜力而展开的。

而所谓的育人教育，也就是我们经常听到的全人教育或博雅教育。这种教育强调的使命是赋予学生以广博的知识与可转换的技能、强烈的价值观、伦理观念和投入社会的精神。这种教育让学生对世界和人类面临的大问题进行挑战性的接触，在学习的过程中更多地强调一种学习的方法，而非某一门课程或某种专业领域的研究。这种典型的代表就是美国的大学。

｜Slide to see the translation

|向左滑查看英文

Personally, I categorize education into Talent Education and Holistic Education. Talend education is to develop talents for special professional fields, focusing on professional skills and employment rate. For example, the undergraduate education in UK, students are requested to choose their major with application materials supporting that choice.

Holistic Education on the other hand, is what we also call liberal education, which is to empower students with a wide range of knowledge and transferrable skills, strong values, ethics and sense of social responsibilities. Holistic education offers opportunities for students to deal with the real-life issues and challenges, and focuses on learning methods instead of a certain subject field. This is typically seen among the US universities.

在美国综合类大学和文理学院，学生在大一大二被要求广博地涉猎各个领域的知识，而到大三才开始选择自己想要深层次挖掘的专业。而像是专业性极强的医学和法律，学生本科阶段没有选择医学或者法学专业的权利，只能在研究生阶段学习。

博雅教育的课程具体是什么样的，我以哥伦比亚大学举例，在哥大，大一大二的学生必须修满九大学科里每一个学科里的学分。这个课程体系被成为哥大的核心课程（core curriculum）。那么哪九大学科呢？分别是：文学、现代文明、艺术人文、音乐人文、前沿科学、外语、逻辑与修辞写作、世界主要文化和体育这九个方面的学分。世界上几乎其他地区大学教育，无论法国还是英国，一个化学专业学者学的都仅仅只有化学。而如果你是一位哥伦比亚大学化学专业的学生，你还需要了解艺术音乐以及文学。引用哈佛大学英文文学系教授路易斯门纳德的语言：“博雅教育并不为职业技能，经济回报或某种意识形态而服务。

博雅教育考虑是整个人的建设，在博雅教育的体系下，学生们并不只是广泛地了解多个领域的知识，更多的是在不同领域知识的碰撞中，找出共性，从而追根溯源，在知识论层面获得启迪。也就是说，博雅教育所探究的是知识的产生过程，是对知识的溯源，而非接受现有的知识。学生不是吸收知识，而是对新旧知识进行思辨。无论其未来专业和方向如何，都需要培养出受益终身的思辨精神和跨学科的转化技能。

不难发现美国大学博雅教育的基础实际上是与IB教育理念是一致的。在IB 体系中培养出来的学生，早在大学之前就锻炼出来了批判性的思维，以及跨学科学习的能力。我与一些进入美国大学学习的青苗毕业生交谈，他们都表示很顺利很自然得就适应美国大学的教育，觉得美国本科教育就像IB教育的延伸。

｜Slide to see the translation

|向左滑查看英文

In the US comprehensive universities and art and science colleges, students are required to read widely in diversified fields in year 1 and 2, and only choose a particular subject field for advanced studying from year 3. For highly professional fields such as medical and law, students can only option at postgraduate stage.

Regarding the curriculum of liberal education, I’d like to use Columbia University as an example. Students must gain all credits of the 9 fields in the first 2 years, which is also known as the core curriculum, including Literature, Modern Civilization, Liberal Arts, Music Arts, Frontier Science, Foreign Language, Logic and Rhetorical Writing, World Major Cultures and P.E. In other countries, France or UK, a Chemistry student only learns about chemistry. But at Columbia University, the student must also learn about music, arts and literature. Liberal Education is not to train for jobs, economic returns or ideologies.

Liberal education is to build a whole person, under which students not only dip into knowledge of diversified fields, but also find the commonality among them and benefit from the interdisciplinary thinking. In other words, liberal education is to pursue the origin and process of knowledge. Students do not only absorb knowledge, but also critical-think between old and new knowledge. So no matter what their future professional career might be, they gain the critical thinking skills and the ability to transfer knowledge among various subject fields.

It’s not difficult to see that the US liberal education and IB share the same education philosophy. An IB student will gain critical thinking skills and interdisciplinary ability before going to university. Many BIBS graduates who are in the US universities told me they fit in their new environment smoothly. University was like an extension of their IB education experience.