[征文]UIUC（伊利诺伊东亚系）的申请过程 [复制链接]

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电梯直达

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发表于 2006-4-18 20:18:22 |只看该作者 |倒序浏览

总的感觉是，东亚系这几年的申请趋势是越来越困难，一方面东亚研究尤其是中国研究在美国有变热的趋势，导致竞争的升温；另一方面，以往的中国学生的在美表现不佳，语言与学术能力的欠缺是其一（这和中国这些年来高等教育水准的退步关系很大），还有一点是学生到美国之后转其它专业的太多。而我所能说的申请东亚系的经验只有一点，即主动联系，国内名牌大学每年都会邀请一些中国研究的美国学者来讲学，可以利用这个机会主动认识他们，即使不能当时就有机会认识，我也建议参加他们的讲座，了解他们学术的方向与指要，方便以后在陶瓷的时候可以此为话头展开进一步的联系。

05年的暑假，在网上，我读到了一篇用英文写的关于张载的论文，而张载正是我的学术兴趣之一，GOOGLE了它的作者，是UIUC（伊利诺伊大学）历史系和东亚系的Kai-wing Chow教授（prof.Chow，原籍香港，1951年生，硕士毕业于大名鼎鼎的新亚学院，在UCDavis拿到的博士学位）。

11月10日，考完第二次GRE之后（第一次准备不足，verbal只有530，文科verbal低线大约需要600），我写了一封EMAIL给周教授，email的开头是，“I hope you will pardon a Chinese student for taking the liberty of writing to you. My name is XX, a master graduate student majoring in Chinese philosophy at Peking University in China.”然后写了一下我的研究兴趣，告诉他“ In collecting materials on Zhang Zai, I got access to your relevant articles on Zhang Zai from internet and was greatly impressed with your original work. So When I gave up the opportunity of the PhD program in our department, making up my mind to pursuit my PhD in American University, your esteemed name occurred into my mind firstly. ”接着问，“So would you mind kindly telling me whether you will accept graduate student in fall 2006?”信后又附了自己简短的发表文章。第二天，周教授很快回信，让我欣喜得的是他非常positive，他特别指出“It is most important that you have high GRE and TOEFL scores. Admission is very competitive and unless you meet the requirements in GRE and TOEFL scores, I will not be able to help you.”我的托福正好630分，系网页里要求的最低分，这就在申请上没有问题了。

11月15日，问周教授是否愿意看一下我的PS和CV，在他表示感兴趣之后，我便EMAIL了过去。在这几天里也完成了UIUC的网申。

12月6日，发出PS和CV后很久没有回音，不知道为什么，近期我才在网上看到原来这段时间周教授来了一趟国内，在清华参加一个国际会议。这天他给我发来回信，问了我一个问题，“For many professional philosophers, intellectual history is not philosophy. I am an intellectual-cultural historian. I am interested in philosophical issues and have written articles and books on Chinese philosophy. But my recent approach to thought, not just ideas, has been strongly cultural. Even though I continue to consider ideas and thought important, I now pay a lot more attention to the cultural and historical contexts in which thought arose. I just want to make this very clear to you so that you can decide whether I am the person you would like to study with.”这个问题的回答，将是非常关键的，这涉及到一个关键的研究路数问题，因为自己的专业是中国哲学，在美国学术界，中国哲学既不属于历史系，在东亚系和宗教系也处于边缘位置，治思想史和历史的关系其实更大，我其实之前已经考虑过怎样回答这样的问题，便回答道，“I think the question you raised in your last email is what I should have explained before. I’m very sorry for my carelessness not to have answered earlier. In my view, Chinese intellectual history is a bit different from Chinese philosophy. Unlike the studies of Chinese philosophy that mainly devoted to dealing with ideas, Chinese intellectual history has a broader scope. Perhaps you know, in Mainland China, it is philosophy department that provides appropriate program for those who are interested in Chinese intellectual history. Maybe this is the main reason why I entered a philosophy program when I decided to choose Chinese intellectual history as my academic career. But I believe unless it undergoes a thorough historical or cultural examination, the study of intellectual history would be either untenable or empty in some sense. For this reason, I believe the training in the department of EALC would be more suitable to me, where I could adopt an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural approach to pursue Chinese thought. On the other hand, applying to UIUC to study with you is not a hasty decision, but the result of my deliberations because the modernization of China is just another haunting issue of mine. I found your “Publishing, Culture, and Power in Early Modern China” an insightful work on studies of the origins and developments of "modern China." Your introduction of “literary public sphere” is also a very” significant attempt.

这是一个非常详尽的答复，个中真味，有心的读者应该能自己体悟吧。周教授很满意，他回信，“With your message, I am now confident that you have made the right choice in deciding to apply to study with me…… I will try my best to get you admitted if you fulfill the basic requirements of the EALC department.”

结果，如愿以偿拿到UIUC东亚系的OFFER. Offer是2月22日发出的（美国东亚系的录取通常在二月初到三月初），但伊利诺伊大学的录取用的是平信，我等了20多天才收到，中间我发信过去问，小米匆匆发给我一个电子本的录取信。建议大家申请时，到二月底没消息的逐一用EMAIL或电话问一下申请结果。另外UIUC等公立大学，由于本科生多，急需TA，所以最好在申请时就提供TSE成绩，50以上。当然过去考也可以，学校每学期都提供几次免费考试。除了TA，东亚系还提名它的新生参加各种FELLOWSHIP的竞争，我后来获得了Foreign language building的fellowship，$15800，另一种是学校的distinguished fellowship, 有1万8千多美元。

但最后还是没有去UIUC。UIUC实际上这几年来实际上是和中国人文社科领域交流非常密切的一个学校，每年都通过freeman基金资助大量国内学者去UIUC访学。今天我惊讶地发现台湾的傅伟勋，这位英年早逝的美国学术界的中国哲学先驱之一，正是毕业于伊利诺伊哲学系。

最后的话：

周教授是那么NICE的一个人，给了我那么多的帮助，最后我却选择了与伊利诺伊擦肩而过，让我实在赧颜，无以为报。以此文表示我诚挚的谢意与歉意！

[ 本帖最后由 gusuwu 于 2006-4-19 08:08 编辑 ]