BETWEEN the last application season and the current one, Swarthmore College, a school nationally renowned¹ for its academic rigor², changed the requirements for students vying³ to be admitted into its next freshman⁴ class.

从上个申请季到目前的这个申请季，以学术严谨闻名全美的斯沃斯莫尔学院(Swarthmore College)改变了对需要通过竞争才能就读该校的申请者的要求。

It made filling out the proper forms easier.

它简化了填写相关表格的流程。

A year ago, applicants⁵ were asked to write two 500-word essays as supplements to the standard one that’s part of the Common Application, an electronic form that Swarthmore and hundreds of small colleges and big universities accept. This was slightly more material than Swarthmore had previously⁶ requested, and it was more than many other highly selective schools demanded.

一年前，除了填写标准化的电子表格，申请者还需要提交两篇500字的文章。该表格是“通用申请应用程序”(Common Application)的一部分，被沃斯莫尔学院及数百所小型学院和综合性大学所接受。斯沃斯莫尔学院要求的申请材料比之前要求的还多了一点，也超出了许多录取十分严苛的学校。

Not coincidentally, the number of applicants to the college dropped, and its acceptance rate in turn climbed, to 17 from 14 percent, making Swarthmore seem less selective.

不出所料，该校的申请者人数出现了下滑，反过来，录取率则出现上升，从14%增长到了17%，这让沃斯莫尔学院显得不那么难进了。

This year, it’s asking for just one supplemental essay, of only 250 words.

而今年，沃斯莫尔学院只要求申请者提交一篇额外的文章，字数要求也只有250词。

Swarthmore is hardly alone in its desire to eliminate impediments to a bounty⁷ of applicants. Over the last decade, many elite⁸ colleges have adjusted their applications in ways that remove disincentives and maximize the odds⁹ that the number of students jockeying to get in remains¹⁰ robust¹¹ — or, even better, grows larger.

并非只有斯沃斯莫尔学院想要为申请者消除一些障碍。过去10年，许多精英学校对申请规则进行了调整，去除了一些抑制性因素，尽最大可能让存有侥幸心理的申请者热情不减，而且要是能增加一些申请者，那就更好了。

In one sense, that’s a commendably¹² egalitarian approach and a sensible attempt to be sure that no sterling¹³ candidate is missed.

在某种意义上，这是一种值得称赞的平等主义的举措，也是一个确保优秀申请者不会被错过的聪明办法。

But there’s often a less pure motive¹⁴ in play. In our increasingly status-oriented society, a school’s reputation is bolstered¹⁵ by its glimmer¹⁶ of exclusivity and by a low acceptance rate, which can even influence how U.S. News & World Report ranks it. And unless a school is shrinking the size of its student body, the only way to bring its acceptance rate down is to get its number of applicants up. So, many colleges methodically generate interest only to frustrate¹⁷ it. They woo supplicants for the purpose of turning them down.

但人们的动机常常并那么单纯。在我们越来越重视身份地位的社会，学校如果比较难进，录取率如果偏低，它就越发声名鹊起，这甚至可以影响它们在《美国新闻与世界报道》(U.S. News & World Report)中的排名。但是，除非学校减少招生规模，让录取率下降的唯一办法就是吸引更多的申请者。因此，许多大学有条不紊地先是激起申请者的兴趣，然后再使其希望破灭。这些学校吸引申请者的目的就是拒绝他们。

It’s a cynical¹⁸ numbers game that further darkens the whole admissions process, a life juncture¹⁹ that should be exhilarating but is governed these days by dread²⁰.

这是一个处心积虑的数字游戏，让整个招生过程变得更加灰暗，对于学生们来说，这个人生中的关键时刻本来应该是令人兴奋的，但如今却被忧虑所笼罩。

It depersonalizes the process, too. Ideally, colleges should want students whose interest in them is genuine, and students should be figuring out which colleges suit them best, not applying indiscriminately to schools that have encouraged that by making it as painless (and heedless) as possible.

这种做法也让招生过程变得机械和冰冷。在理想的状态下，大学应该想要录取那些真正对学校感兴趣的人，而学生则应该想清楚哪些学校最适合自己，而不是不加区分地申请那些尽可能地让申请过程变得简单（且无需思考）从而来吸引你的学校。

“Colleges are actively²¹ saddling themselves with a whole group of applicants about whom they know little and who, in turn, know little about them,” Lauren Gersick, the associate director of college counseling at the Urban School of San Francisco, told me. “You have a whole bunch of people fumbling²² along and freaking out.”

“高校正在积极地吸引那些它们并不了解、也不了解它们的申请者，”旧金山城市学院(Urban School of San Francisco)招生咨询副主任劳伦·盖尔西克(Lauren Gersick)告诉我。“有很多人只能毫无头绪地摸索，十分焦躁。”

In a story in The Times last weekend, Ariel Kaminer observed that it’s not uncommon²³ these days for an anxious, ambitious student to submit applications to 15 or more schools. Kaminer rightly cast this as a consequence of the overheated competition for admission to the most elite ones. Students spread their nets wider in the hopes of a good catch, and the Common Application abets²⁴ this.

在《纽约时报》上周末发表的一篇报道中，阿里耶尔·卡米纳(Ariel Kaminer)指出，如今，一些焦虑不安、野心勃勃的学生会申请15所甚至更多学校，这种情况不在少数。卡米纳说的没错：这是精英学府在招生过程中竞争过于激烈的结果。学生们更大范围地撒网，希望能进入好的学校，而“通用申请应用程序”则助推了这一趋势。

But so do the schools, which hawk²⁵ themselves more assertively²⁶ than ever. They fly in counselors²⁷ like Gersick and give them elaborate sales pitches. They send their own emissaries out into the world, armed with glossy²⁸ pamphlets. They buy data to identify persuadable applicants and then approach them with come-ons as breathless as any telemarketer’s pitch.

但学校也在这样做，它们比以往任何时候都更加积极地推销自己。学校让吉思克这样的咨询顾问飞到各处，向大家发表精心准备的推销演说。他们派出使者，散发光鲜的宣传册。他们还购买数据，来确定哪些申请人可以争取，然后用一套流畅度不输于电话推销的说辞去打动他们。

A recent email that Rensselaer Polytechnic²⁹ Institute sent unbidden to one high school senior invited him “to apply with Candidate’s Choice status!” (The boldface letters and the exclamation³⁰ point are Rensselaer’s, not mine.)

伦斯勒理工学院(Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)最近主动向一所高中毕业班学生发去一份电子邮件，邀请他们“用‘优选申请’方式申请入学！”（黑体字字母和感叹号是照搬伦斯勒的，不是我添加的。）

“Exclusively for select students, the Candidate’s Choice Application is unique to Rensselaer, and is available online now,” the email said, after telling its recipient³¹ that “a talented student like you deserves a college experience that is committed to developing the great minds of tomorrow.”

“伦斯勒独一无二的‘优选申请’，专招优秀学生，现已开放网上申请，”这份电子邮件告诉收件人，“像你这样才华横溢的学生，大学生涯理应在一个致力于培养未来杰出人物的地方度过。”

“The marketing³² is unbelievable, just unbelievable,” said Kay Rothman, director of college counseling at the NYC Lab School, in Manhattan. “There are places like Tulane that will send everyone a ‘V.I.P.’ application.” She told me that she routinely had to disabuse³³ impressionable students of the notion that they’d won some prized lottery³⁴ or been given some inside track.

“营销活动令人难以置信，简直难以置信，”曼哈顿纽约市实验学校(NYC Lab School)的升学辅导主任凯·罗斯曼(Kay Rothman)说。“像杜兰大学(Tulane)这些高校，给每个人都发送‘VIP’申请邀请。”她告诉我，她常常不得不给那些易受影响的学生解毒，让他们不要有抱有错误的念头，以为自己中了大奖，或获得了一些内幕消息。

A certain amount of outreach and promotion³⁵ is necessary, even commendable³⁶.

一定程度的宣传和推广是必要的，甚至是值得称道的。

“I don’t think colleges are guilty for marketing their product,” Kathleen McCartney, the president of Smith College, said when I spoke³⁷ with her last week. “Colleges need to explain to students what their product is about.”

“我认为，大学推销自己的产品没有什么不妥，”史密斯学院(Smith College)的院长凯瑟琳·麦卡特尼(Kathleen McCartney)上周与我交谈时说。“学院需要向学生解释，自己的产品是什么。”

And there can be other rationales for what looks like a loosening of application demands. Smith and several other similarly prominent colleges no longer require the SAT or ACT, and McCartney said that that’s not a bid for more applicants. It’s a recognition that top scores on those tests correlate with high family income and may say more about an applicant’s economic advantages — including, say, private SAT tutoring — than about academic potential.

看上去这些学校似乎放宽了申请要求，这样做也有另外的理由。史密斯学院和其他一些同样著名的高校不再要求SAT或ACT成绩，麦卡特尼说，此举不是为了吸引更多的申请者，而是基于这样一个认识：在这些测试中获得高分和拥有较高的家庭收入有关，它们展现的可能主要是申请者的经济优势——比如说，获得SAT备考私人辅导——而不是学术潜力。

JIM BOCK, Swarthmore’s dean of admissions, said that by lightening the essay load for its current applicants, the college was less concerned about boosting its overall number of applicants than about making sure candidates of great merit didn’t miss out on Swarthmore and vice³⁸ versa. He mentioned the hypothetical example of a high school student from a low-income family who works 10 or more hours a week and doesn’t have ample time to do different essays for different schools.

吉姆·博克(Jim Bock)是斯沃斯莫尔学院的招生负责人，他说，该校为申请人减轻入学文书的负担，目的不是增加申请人数，而是确保有突出优点的学生不会错过斯沃斯莫尔，反之亦然。他举了一个假设的例子：一个出生于低收入家庭的高中生，每周工作10小时以上，没有充裕的时间针对不同的学校写作不同的入学文书。

“Sometimes asking too much is asking too much,” he said in an interview on Friday.

“有时候真的是太疲于应付了，”他上周五接受采访时说。

But will Swarthmore’s applicants this year give quite as much thought to its suitability for them, to whether it’s the right home? I’m betting not.

但斯沃斯莫尔学院今年的申请人，会充分考虑它是否适合自己，去那里读书是否去对了地方吗？我打赌不会。

When it’s a snap for a student to apply to yet one more college and each school is simply another desirable cereal on a top shelf that he or she is determined³⁹ to reach, there’s inadequate⁴⁰ thought to a tailored match, which is what the admissions process should strive for. It’s what the measure of success should be.

当学生多申请一所大学不费吹灰之力时，当每所学校都不过是货架最上层的一盒学生迫切想够到的美味谷物食品时，他们就不再充分考虑学校与自身的匹配度了，而那本应该是招生工作努力争取的目标，应该是衡量成功的标准。

That was the feeling expressed by a group of counselors and consultants⁴¹ in a thread of Facebook comments last July about colleges doing away with supplemental essays.

今年7月，一些顾问和咨询师在Facebook上就院校废除入学文书一事发表评论，就表达了这样的看法。

One of them, Laird Durley, wrote that students insufficiently⁴² motivated to write something extra for a school “probably shouldn’t go to those schools anyway,” and he rued⁴³ the extent to which simply gaining admission to a school with a fancy name — any school with a fancy name — ruled the day.

其中的一位评论者莱尔德·达利(Laird Durley)写道，一个学生如果不愿主动花费额外精力写申请某所学校的文书，“或许本来就不应该去那所学校”。学生们只想获得一所知名学校的录取书——无论是哪所知名学校——的心态，如今正在大行其道，让他很是唏嘘。

“It is harder than ever to sell ‘fit’ as opposed to ‘logo affixing,’ ” he wrote, adding that “what you will learn there” has taken a back seat to a different consideration: “Look at my brand!”

“推销让学生找到合适自己的学校的理念，而不是宣扬品牌，比以往任何时候都更困难，”他写道：“你在那里能学到什么”的考虑，已经让位于“看看我校的牌子”。