这就是你应该选择斯坦福的理由

这是Belinda Tang在2010年申请斯坦福大学时写的一篇论述文。每位斯坦福的申请人都必须以论述文的形式回答数个申请问题，其中一个开放式的问题就是“你为什么选择斯坦福?”(Why Stanford?)。Belinda现在已是斯坦福大学二年级的学生，我们来看看当时她的精彩回答吧!

Many ideas that came out of Silicon Valley now define society—the personal computer, the search engine that has democratized knowledge, and, in Stanford’s own Industrial Park, the once tiny company, HP, that is now the world’s largest technology corporation.[1] Last year, I, too, got into the game, creating a patent for live services delivered through a cell-phone. Though I was not familiar with the science behind phones, I provided insight toward the user’s ability to interact with the handset.[2]

By merging knowledge of the technical aspects of phones with a humanities-based analysis of its usage, an IKain research engineer and I together created a successful patent.[3] Though this patent will not be as earth shaking as Google’s search engine, it shares a common theme with other Silicon Valley innovations: the interaction of technology, humanities, and information.[4]

Stanford is a place where miracles take place every day—in the student dorms, in the underground labs, and in the garages of rented houses.[5] All these miracles, all these super creativity, are not just happening because of the smart collection of people Stanford has assembled[6]. It is also its unique culture that Stanford has fostered[7] . Specially, Stanford has an open attitude toward knowledge interaction and integration[8] in the broadest sense. When discipline boundaries are obliterated, when knowledge from many disciplines freely intermingle, miracle happens.[9]

I want to go to Stanford for just this reason: Stanford is a university that uniquely integrates liberal arts[10] with science and technology advances. Stanford is not only a place where students go just to get a good liberal arts education. It is also a place where liberal arts interface with the revolution of cutting-edge technology.[11] Public policies have been studied by many, each in its finest detail, but they pertain to the old society when yesterday’s technologies reign.[12] As society enters the Information Age and the Post-genomic age[13] , we need new policies, new legislatures, new humanity-oriented social structures and order.

These major changes of tremendous humanity concerns will not arrive by themselves. But rather, it will require leading thinkers of our era, fully equipped with the cutting-edge knowledge on science and technology, plowing hard at this volatile, virgin territory.[14] It is toward this end that I have prepared myself. Not just practicing writing essays, participating in debate tournaments, but also I have taken Advanced Placement Tests in Calculus, Statistics, Physics, and Chemistry.[15] I am a student with broad interests, and a deep thirst for every kind of knowledge human kind has produced.

I could envision myself, a liberal art major, someday, lying back on the green Stanford lawn, discussing freely with friends of science and technology majors, about the possible ramification of a new piece of biotechnology on society, which I have just heard from the Stanford Genome Center Symposium from a Nobel Laureate.[16]

产自硅谷的许多创意塑造了我们今天这个社会，例如个人电脑、推动知识平民化的搜索引擎，还有，在斯坦福的工业园里，惠普从一家小企业现在已成长为全球最大的技术公司。去年，我也参与了一个项目，发明了一项通过手机提供即时服务的专利。尽管我不太了解手机背后的技术知识，但是我贡献出了用户能够与手机互动这个好点子。

我和爱侃公司的一位研发工程师合作，通过把手机技术方面的知识与手机使用方面的人性化分析结合起来，创造了一项成功的专利。虽然这个专利不像谷歌的搜索引擎那么惊天动地，但是它却拥有与硅谷的其他创新成果相同的主旨：技术、人性化与信息的互动。

斯坦福是一个每天都会发生奇迹的地方，在学生宿舍、地下实验室和租来房子的车库里。所有这些奇迹和绝妙创意的产生，不仅仅是因为斯坦福所汇聚的能人智士，还因为斯坦福营造的独特文化氛围。特别是斯坦福对于知识互动与融合所持有的那种最广义的开放态度。当学科界限得以消除，当多门学科知识能够自由混合在一起时，奇迹就发生了。

我想要入读斯坦福仅仅是出于如下原因：斯坦福是一所将人文学科与科技进步巧妙独特地结合在一起的大学。斯坦福不仅仅让学生获得了良好的文科教育，同时还实现了人文学科与尖端技术革新的结合。虽然已有很多人都研究过那些维护公共利益的政策，且每一项研究都极尽详细，但它们只适合那个由过时技术所主宰的社会。随着社会步入信息时代和后基因组时代，我们需要新的政策、新的立法和以人为本的新社会结构及秩序。

这些与人类息息相关的重大变革不会自动发生，而是需要我们这个时代优秀杰出的思想家们，同时还要拥有充足的先进科学技术知识，在这个瞬息万变的处女地里辛勤开垦耕耘。而我正朝着这个方向不断地努力作好准备，我不仅要练习写作，参加各种辩论赛，而且还参加了微积分、统计学、物理和化学的大学学分先修课程考试。我是一名兴趣广泛的学生，对于人类创造的一切知识都求知若渴。

我想象着有一天，自己作为一名人文学科专业的学生，躺在斯坦福绿茵茵的草坪上，与科学技术专业的朋友们畅谈，探讨某项新生物技术可能对社会产生的影响，而这项技术正是我在斯坦福基因组研究中心举办的研讨会上从一位诺贝尔奖获得者那里听来的。