WENTING TANG is quick to laugh, listens to high-energy bands like Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and OK Go, and describes herself on her Facebook page as “really really fun” and “really really serious.” Ms. Tang, a junior majoring in management and international business, speaks confident, if not flawless, English. That wasn’t always the case. When she applied to the University of Delaware, her English was, in her estimation, very poor.

唐文婷(Wenting Tang,音譯)很愛笑,她聽RedJumpsuit Apparatus和OK Go這類勁爆樂團(tuán)的歌曲,并在她的Facebook主頁上說自己“真的真的很有趣、真的真的很認(rèn)真”。她是管理和國際商務(wù)專業(yè)的三年級學(xué)生,說起英語來自信十足,雖然還不是完美無瑕。但事情并非一貫如此。按她自己的評價(jià),當(dāng)初申請?zhí)乩A大學(xué)的時(shí)候,她的英語非常糟糕。

Ms. Tang, who went to high school in Shanghai, didn’t exactly choose to attend Delaware, a public institution of about 21,000 students that admits about half its applicants — and counts Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. among prominent graduates. Ms. Tang’s mother wanted her to attend college in the United States, and so they visited the offices of a dozen or more agents, patiently listening to their promises and stories of success.

唐文婷在上海讀了高中,當(dāng)初并沒有特意要選特拉華大學(xué)。這所公立大學(xué)有大約2萬1000名學(xué)生就讀,錄取率大約是50%,杰出畢業(yè)生中有美國副總統(tǒng)拜登。唐文婷的母親想讓她到美國念大學(xué),于是她們跑了十來家中介公司,耐心聽取了他們的承諾和成功案例。

Her mother chose an agency that suggested Delaware and helped Ms. Tang fill out her application, guiding her through a process that otherwise would have been bewildering. Because her English wasn’t good enough to write the admissions essay, staff members at the agency, which charged her $4,000, asked her questions about herself in Chinese and produced an essay. (Test prep was another $3,300.)

她的母親選定了一家推薦特拉華大學(xué)的中介,他們幫她填寫了申請材料,指導(dǎo)她完成申請程序,不然她會(huì)是一頭霧水。由于她的英語還沒好到能寫申請論文,中介公司收取了4000美元費(fèi)用后,用中文問了一些關(guān)于她本人的問題,替她寫了一篇論文。(他們還另外收取了3300美元準(zhǔn)備考試的費(fèi)用。)

Now that she can write in English herself, she doesn’t think much of what the employees wrote. But it served its purpose: she was admitted, and spent six months in the English-language program before beginning freshman classes. And despite bumps along the way, she’s getting good grades and enjoying college life. As for allowing an agent to write her essay, she sees that decision in pragmatic terms: “At that time, my English not better as now.”

如今她能夠自己用英文寫作了,她覺得當(dāng)初中介寫得并不怎么樣。但那已經(jīng)達(dá)到了目的:她被錄取了,花了6個(gè)月時(shí)間參加英語語言項(xiàng)目,然后開始學(xué)習(xí)大一的課程。盡管一路磕磕碰碰,但她現(xiàn)在成績不錯(cuò),也享受大學(xué)生活。她用很實(shí)用主義的說辭來解釋為什么要讓中介替她寫申請論文:“那時(shí)候,我的英語沒現(xiàn)在這么好。”

Most Chinese students who are enrolled at American colleges turn to intermediaries to shepherd them through the admissions process, according to a study by researchers at Iowa State University published in the Journal of College Admission.

愛荷華州立大學(xué)的研究人員在《大學(xué)錄取期刊》(Journal of College Admission)上發(fā)表的研究稱,絕大多數(shù)在美國大學(xué)念本科的中國學(xué)生都求助于中介來指導(dǎo)他們完成申請程序。

Education agents have long played a role in sending Chinese students abroad, dating back decades to a time when American dollars were forbidden in China and only agents could secure the currency to pay tuition. Admission experts say they can provide an important service, acting as guides to an application process that can seem totally, well, foreign. Application materials are frequently printed only in English. Chinese students often are baffled by the emphasis on extracurriculars and may have never written a personal essay. Requiring recommendations from guidance counselors makes little sense in a country where few high schools have one on staff. Many assume the U.S. News & World Report rankings issue is an official government publication.

教育行業(yè)中介一直在對外輸送中國留學(xué)生方面扮演著重要角色,這可以追溯到幾十年前,那時(shí)候中國還禁止自由兌換美元,只有中介能確保提供美金支付學(xué)費(fèi)。申請專家們說他們可以提供重要的服務(wù),為看似完全陌生的申請程序擔(dān)任指導(dǎo)。申請材料通常都是全英文的,而中國學(xué)生常常會(huì)因?yàn)槊绹鴮W(xué)校強(qiáng)調(diào)課外活動(dòng)而一籌莫展,并且可能從來沒有寫過個(gè)人自述文章。在中國,向輔導(dǎo)員要推薦信也行不通,因?yàn)楹苌儆懈咧袝?huì)有這樣的人員。不少人還以為《美國新聞與世界報(bào)道》(U.S. News & World Report)的排名是正式的政府出版物。

But while there are certainly aboveboard agents and applications, other recruiters engage in fraudulent behavior. An administrator at one high school in Beijing says agents falsified her school’s letterhead to produce doctored transcripts and counterfeit letters of recommendation, which she discovered when a parent called to complain about being charged a fee by an agent for documents from the school. James E. Lewis, director of international admissions and recruiting at Kansas State University, says he once got a clutch of applications clearly submitted by a single agent, with all fees charged to the same bank branch, although the students came from several far-flung cities. The grades on three of the five transcripts, he says, were identical.

雖然肯定有光明磊落的中介和申請人,但很多留學(xué)中介都參與了弄虛作假的行為。北京一所高中的一位行政人員說,中介假造了他們高中的信紙?zhí)ь^來制作篡改過的成績單并偽造推薦信,直到一名家長打電話來投訴說中介對學(xué)校出具的文件都要收費(fèi)的時(shí)候,她才發(fā)現(xiàn)這回事??八_斯州立大學(xué)國際錄取和招生主任詹姆斯·劉易斯(James E. Lewis)說,他曾經(jīng)收到過一批顯然是同一家中介提交的申請材料,因?yàn)樯暾堎M(fèi)都是從同一家銀行支行扣除的,而這些學(xué)生卻來自幾個(gè)相距甚遠(yuǎn)的城市。他還說,5份成績單中,有3份的分?jǐn)?shù)都是一模一樣的。

Zinch China, a consulting company that advises American colleges and universities about China, last year published a report based on interviews with 250 Beijing high school students bound for the United States, their parents, and a dozen agents and admissions consultants. The company concluded that 90 percent of Chinese applicants submit false recommendations, 70 percent have other people write their personal essays, 50 percent have forged high school transcripts and 10 percent list academic awards and other achievements they did not receive. The “tide of application fraud,” the report predicted, will likely only worsen as more students go to America.

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