学校介绍：

哈佛大学坐落于美国马萨诸塞州剑桥市，是一所享誉世界的私立研究型大学，是著名的常春藤盟校成员。这里走出了8位美利坚合众国总统，上百位诺贝尔获得者曾在此工作、学习，其在文学、医学、法学、商学等多个领域拥有崇高的学术地位及广泛的影响力，被公认为是当今世界最顶尖的高等教育机构之一。

哈佛是美国历史最悠久的高等学府，在2017US news世界大学排名中名列第一，美国大学排名第二。2017年1月，《泰晤士高等教育》公布2017年度全球CEO母校排名，哈佛大学排名第一。

文书案例：

In my mother’s more angry and disillusioned moods, she often declares that my sisters and I are “smarter than is good” for us, by which she means we are too ambitious, too independent-minded, and somehow, subtly un-Chinese. At such times, I do not argue, for I realize how difficult it must be for her and my father—having to deal with children who reject their simple idea of life and threaten to drag them into a future they do not understand.
For my parents, plans for our futures were very simple. We  were to get good grades, go to good colleges, and become  good scientists, mathematicians, or engineers. It had to do with being Chinese. But my sisters and I rejected that future, and the year I came home with Honors in English, History    and Debate was a year of disillusion for my parents. It was   not that they weren’t proud of my accomplishments, but     merely that they had certain ideas of what was safe and      solid, what we did in life. Physics, math, turning in homework, and crossing the street when Hare Krishnas were on our  side—those things were safe. But the Humanities we left for Pure Americans.
Unfortunately for my parents, however, the security of that   world is simply not enough for me, and I have scared them  more than once with what they call my “wild” treks into unfamiliar areas. I spent one afternoon interviewing the Hare Krishnas for our school newspaper—and they nearly called the police. Then, to make things worse, I decided to enter the Crystal Springs Drama contest. For my parents, acting was something Chinese girls did not do. It smacked of the bohemian, and was but a short step to drugs, debauchery, and all the dark, illicit facets of life. They never did approve of the experience—even despite my second place at Crystal Springs and my assurances that acting was, after all, no more than a whim.
What I was doing when was moving away from the security my parents prescribed. I was motivated by my own desire to see more of what life had to offer, and by ideas I’d picked up at my Curriculum Committee meetings. This committee consisted of teachers who felt that students should learn to understand life, not memorize formulas; that somehow our college preparatory curriculum had to be made less rigid. There were English teachers who wanted to integrate Math into other more “important” science courses, and Math teachers who wanted to abolish English entirely. There were even some teachers who suggested making Transcendental Meditation a requirement. But the common denominator behind these slightly eccentric ideas was a feeling that the school should produce more thoughtful individuals, for whom life meant more than good grades and Ivy League futures. Their values were precisely the opposite of those my parents had instilled in me.
It has been a difficult task indeed for me to reconcile these two opposing impulses. It would be simple enough just to rebel against all my parents expect. But I cannot afford to rebel. There is too much that is fragile—the world my parents have worked so hard to build, the security that comes with it, and a fading Chinese heritage. I realize it must be immensely frustrating for my parents, with children who are persistently “too smart” for them and their simple idea of life, living in a land they have come to consider home, and yet can never fully understand. In a way, they have stopped trying to understand it, content with their own little microcosms. It is my burden now to build my own, new world without shattering theirs; to plunge into the future without completely letting go of the past. And that is a challenge I am not at all certain I can meet.

名师点评：

申请人在文书中把自己塑造成一个“叛逆”的形象。通过描述在生活、学习和课外活动中与父母产生的冲突，来表达自己身处中美两种不同文化给她带来的困境。面对保守和传统的父母，希望挣脱这种枷锁，去探索未知的世界，用一种积极的、挑战的生活态度去尝试新的生活方式。申请人通过文书向读者传达了作为第一代美国人所承受的压力。

虽然申请人也直白的表达了她不能理解她的父母并且不能接受他们为自己规划的未来，但是申请人并没有一味的否定她的父母，用这样的方式来突出自己挑战权威以及“我的未来我做主”的野心。而是学会站在父母的角度去体谅他们的脆弱，去理解他们在一个和过去完全不一样的文化当中感受到的挫折和不安全。这时，申请人的困境和挑战已不再是反抗她的父母，而是如何平衡她和父母的观点，如何糅合她和父母之间的文化冲突。这样的结尾非常的引人注目，同时让读者感受到一丝温情。

文化冲突是学生在选择文书素材时比较常见的一个话题，比较常见的形式就是如何在一个新的文化环境中克服文化差异学会适应环境或者体会到多元文化的魅力。但是，客观来讲，文化并没有好坏之分，重要的是学会包容和接纳。如何把这个话题写出新意，值得学生对自己的经历进行深刻的反思。