文書是美本申請中至關重要的一環，也是很多同學在申請過程中最頭疼的一項。每年，哈佛大學校報（Crimson）都會公布10篇優秀的新生文書，為申請者提供參考。
隨著2023屆申請季開始，同學們陸續進入了主文書的構思和寫作階段。為此，智友留學為大家整理了哈佛大學最新發布的優秀文書及專家點評，一起來看看吧！
Successful Harvard Essay:
Homeless for Thirteen Years
I sat on my parents’ bed weeping with my head resting on my knees. “Why did you have to do that to me? Why did you have to show me the house and then take it away from me?” Hopelessly, I found myself praying to God realizing it was my last resort.
For years, my family and I found ourselves moving from country to country in hopes of a better future. Factors, such as war and lack of academic opportunities, led my parents to pack their bags and embark on a new journey for our family around the world. Our arduous journey first began in Ku?ov?, Albania, then Athens, Greece, and then eventually, Boston, Massachusetts. Throughout those years, although my family always had a roof over our heads, I never had a place I could call “home.”
That night that I prayed to God, my mind raced back to the night I was clicking the delete button on my e-mails, but suddenly stopped when I came upon a listing of the house. It was September 22, 2007 —eight years exactly to the day that my family and I had moved to the United States. Instantly, I knew that it was fate that was bringing this house to me. I remembered visiting that yellow house the next day with my parents and falling in love with it. However, I also remembered the heartbreaking phone call I received later on that week saying that the owners had chosen another family’s offer.
A week after I had prayed to God, I had given up any hopes of my family buying the house. One day after school, I unlocked the door to our one-bedroom apartment and walked over to the telephone only to see it flashing a red light. I clicked PLAY and unexpectedly heard the voice of our real estate agent. “Eda!” she said joyfully. “The deal fell through with the other family—the house is yours! Call me back immediately to get started on the papers.” For a moment, I stood agape and kept replaying the words in my head. Was this really happening to me? Was my dream of owning a home finally coming true?
Over the month of November, I spent my days going to school and immediately rushing home to make phone calls. Although my parents were not fluent enough in English to communicate with the bank and real estate agent, I knew that I was not going to allow this obstacle to hinder my dream of helping to purchase a home for my family. Thus, unlike a typical thirteen-year-old girl’s conversations, my phone calls did not involve the mention of makeup, shoes, or boys. Instead, my conversations were composed of terms, such as “fixed-rate mortgages,” “preapprovals,” and “down payments.” Nevertheless, I was determined to help purchase this home after thirteen years of feeling embarrassed from living in a one-bedroom apartment. No longer was I going to experience feelings of humiliation from not being able to host sleepovers with my friends or from not being able to gossip with girls in school about who had the prettiest room color.
I had been homeless for the first thirteen years of my life. Although I will never be able to fully repay my parents for all of their sacrifices, the least I could do was to help find them a home that they could call their own—and that year, I did. To me, a home means more than the general conception of “four walls and a roof.” A home is a place filled with memories and laughter from my family. No matter where my future may lead me, I know that if at times I feel alone, I will always have a yellow home with my family inside waiting for me.
誠實的、令人心碎的、強大的。
這是我們閱讀Eda的文書后，首先想到的三個詞。
我們喜歡Eda的文書的地方在于，它有令人耳目一新的脆弱性。太多的申請文書“太”完美了，而Eda不會扭曲真相，即使承認她的內心想法可能會給她帶來負面的印象。例如，她以她在父母床上哭泣的場景開始整篇文書，并將自己的不幸歸咎于他們。通過如此誠實的描述，Eda展示了她隨著時間的推移，得到真正的成長。
在整篇文書中，她的個人聲音也很強烈。當她談到愛上“那棟黃色的房子”時，我們腦海中會自動浮現出這棟房子的形象；當她談到得知“那棟黃色房子”被賣給另一個家庭時所經歷的心碎時，我們也感到心痛。她故意選擇“播放”發送給她的語音郵件，隨后展示了她的真實想法，這進一步促使我們與她一起重溫她的經歷。
然而，她不僅僅分享了她的經歷，還強調了這段經歷是多么不尋常。她沒有和其他13歲同齡女生一樣閑聊化妝品或鞋子，而是與房產中介談論固定利率、抵押貸款和首付……雖然她沒有明確說明這一點（她不需要這樣做）：很明顯，Eda不得不快速成長，成為一個更強大的人。
她對“家”這個詞的理解，從她頭頂上物理意義的屋頂演變為更抽象的屋頂。家，就是她的“回憶和歡笑”所在的地方。最后，她接受了父母做出的犧牲，并學會為自己的成長感到自豪。
Eda是一個能夠克服任何挑戰的人，這使她從眾多申請者中脫穎而出。
Successful Harvard Essay: Yukta
Garishly lined with a pearlescent lavender, my eyes idly scanned the haphazard desk in front of me, settling on a small kohl. I packed the ebony powder into my waterline with a shaky hand, wincing at the fine specks making their way into my eyes.
The girl in the mirror seemed sharper, older, somehow. At only 12, I was relatively new to the powders and blushes that lined my birthday makeup kit, but I was determined to decipher the deep splashes of color that had for so long been an enigma to me.
After school involved self-inflicted solitary confinement, as I shut myself in my bedroom to hone my skills. The palette’s colors bore in, the breadth of my imagination interwoven into now-brittle brushes. Much to my chagrin, my mom walked in one day, amused at my smudged lipstick, which congealed on the wispy hairs that lined my upper lip.
“Halloween already?” she asked playfully.
I flushed in embarrassment as she got to work, smoothing my skin with a brush and filling the gaps in my squiggly liner. Becoming a makeup aficionado was going to take some help.
“What’s this even made of?” I asked, transfixed by the bright powder she was smattering on my cheeks.
“You know, I’m not sure,” she murmured. “Maybe you should find out.”
Hours down the internet rabbit hole, I learned that the shimmery powder was made of mica, a mineral commonly used in cosmetics. While the substance was dazzling, its production process was steeped in humanitarian violations and environmental damage. Determined to reconcile my burgeoning love for makeup with my core values, I flung the kit into the corner of my drawer, vowing to find a more sustainable alternative. Yes, I was every bit as dramatic as you imagine it.
Now 17, I approach ethical makeup with assured deliberation. As I glance at my dusty kit, which still sits where I left it, I harken back on the journey it has taken me on. Without the reckoning that it spurred, makeup would still simply be a tool of physical transformation, rather than a catalyst of personal growth.
Now, each swipe of eyeliner is a stroke of my pen across paper as I write a children’s book about conscious consumerism. My flitting fingers programmatically place sparkles, mattes, and tints across my face in the same way that they feverishly move across a keyboard, watching algorithms and graphs integrate into models of supply chain transparency. Makeup has taught me to be unflinching, both in self expression and my expectations for the future. I coat my lips with a bold sheen, preparing them to form words of unequivocal urgency at global conferences and casual discussions. I see my passion take flight, emboldening others to approach their own reckonings, uncomfortable as they may be. I embark on a two-year journey of not buying new clothes in a statement against mass consumption and rally youth into a unified organization. We stand together, picking at the gritty knots of makeup, corporate accountability, and sustainability as they slowly unravel.
I’m not sure why makeup transfixes me. Perhaps it’s because I enjoy seeing my reveries take shape. Yukta, the wannabe Wicked Witch of the West, has lids coated with emerald luster and lips of coal. Yukta, the Indian classical dancer, wields thick eyeliner and bright crimson lipstick that allow her expressions to be amplified across a stage. Deep rooted journeys of triumph and tribulation are plastered across the surface of my skin — this paradox excites me.
Perhaps I am also drawn to makeup because as I peel back the layers, I am still wholly me. I am still the young girl staring wide-eyed at her reflection, earnestly questioning in an attempt to learn more about the world. Most importantly, I still carry an unflagging vigor to coalesce creativity and activism into palpable change, one brushstroke at a time.
這個學生通過一個像化妝品一樣常見的家庭用品，展開了獨特且接受度高的敘述。這個物品被賦予在她個人和文化身份的方方面面，使讀者能夠立即了解到這個學生的個性。她通過對周圍環境的觀察，帶我們走進她的世界，并在不偏離主題的情況下，講述了一段成長的故事。
這位學生在敘事性和創造性寫作元素之間取得了平衡，而這正是成功的個人陳述所不可或缺的。作者讓我們瞥見了她多年來的個人發展，將化妝作為自我反省和發現的媒介。她巧妙地利用化妝品系列的顏色和元素，展開了生動的描述。她對于意象的靈活運用也成為這篇文書成功的關鍵。她利用一個很容易與消費主義、“膚淺”聯系在一起的物品，來支持她所倡導的社會和道德的斗爭。
我們還看到，這篇文書的作者有一個明確的聲音。當許多學生試圖通過各種各樣的描寫來提升寫作水平時，這位作者能夠操縱一種充滿活力的寫作風格，并保持吸引力、節奏和分寸。通過這篇文書的每一個字，我們了解到作者關心什么：有意識的消費主義、創造力和行動主義；我們也了解到她是如何思考的：好奇、無私，并帶有女權主義色彩。
作者在這篇文書的開頭采用了一個文書寫作的成功策略，即用豐富的形容詞詳細描述了一個小的場景，并對本人及其在社會中的地位給出更廣義的評論。最后，這名學生的文書對自己的申請形象進行了補充，幫助讀者了解她多年以來的倡議、可持續性實踐、以及她想要為身邊的人帶來積極的影響。
Successful Harvard Essay:
Beauty in Complexity
Gazing up at the starry sky, I see Cygnus, Hercules, and Pisces, remnants of past cultures. I listen to waves crash on the beach, the forces of nature at work. Isn’t it odd how stars are flaming spheres and electrical impulses make beings sentient? The very existence of our world is a wonder; what are the odds that this particular planet developed all the necessary components, parts that all work in unison, to support life? How do they interact? How did they come to be? I thought back to how my previously simplistic mind-set evolved this past year.
At Balboa, juniors and seniors join one of five small learning communities, which are integrated into the curriculum. Near the end of sophomore year, I ranked my choices: Law Academy first—it seemed the most prestigious—and WALC, the Wilderness Arts and Literacy Collaborative, fourth. So when I was sorted into WALC, I felt disappointed at the inflexibility of my schedule and bitter toward my classes. However, since students are required to wait at least a semester before switching pathways, I stayed in WALC. My experiences that semester began shifting my ambition-oriented paradigm to an interest-oriented one. I didn’t switch out.
Beyond its integrated classes, WALC takes its students on trips to natural areas not only to build community among its students, but also to explore complex natural processes and humanity’s role in them. Piecing these lessons together, I create an image of our universe. I can visualize the carving of glacial valleys, the creation and gradation of mountains by uplift and weathering, and the transportation of nutrients to and from ecosystems by rivers and salmon. I see these forces on the surface of a tiny planet rotating on its axis and orbiting the sun, a gem in this vast universe. Through WALC, I have gained an intimate understanding of natural systems and an addiction to understanding the deep interconnections embedded in our cosmos.
Understanding a system’s complex mechanics not only satisfies my curiosity, but also adds beauty to my world; my understanding of tectonic and gradational forces allows me to appreciate mountains and coastlines beyond aesthetics. By physically going to the place described in WALC’s lessons, I have not only gained the tools to admire these systems, but have also learned to actually appreciate them. This creates a thirst to see more beauty in a world that’s filled with poverty and violence, and a hunger for knowledge to satisfy that thirst. There are so many different systems to examine and dissect—science alone has universal, planetary, molecular, atomic, and subatomic scales to investigate. I hope to be able to find my interests by taking a variety of courses in college, and further humanity’s understanding through research, so that all can derive a deeper appreciation for the complex systems that govern this universe.
Tony的文書以在觀星為開篇，向讀者展示他對自然界、無生命體和生命本身的無限好奇心。這種天真的奇思妙想被藝術性地呈現出來，但這篇文書成功的原因是，作者能夠思考深刻的概念而不至于迷失。
故事圍繞一個看似毫不相干的事情展開：一次隨機的選擇將Tony分配到荒野藝術方向，而不是他更喜歡的法律，因此他很痛苦。
我們從他承認自己受制于 "以野心為導向的范式"，而不是學習他最感興趣的東西中，看到了他的脆弱。然而，通過文書的其余部分，我們發現，Tony繼續學習荒野藝術的決定徹底改變了他。他的視角從“簡單化思維”轉變為沉迷于“理解我們宇宙中的深層聯系”。
Tony的文字中蘊含著力量，讓我們看到了他潛在的思想廣度和熱情。從想象 "冰川山谷的雕刻 "，到陶醉于自然系統的復雜機制，這篇文書展示了Tony對整個世界的贊賞。
觀察到Tony對生命關聯性的知識渴求，我們更加堅信，他不斷廣闊的視角將引導他的學習進入更多令人興奮的未知領域。
My Ye-Ye always wears a red baseball cap. I think he likes the vivid color—bright and sanguine, like himself. When Ye-Ye came from China to visit us seven years ago, he brought his red cap with him and every night for six months, it sat on the stairway railing post of my house, waiting to be loyally placed back on Ye-Ye’s head the next morning. He wore the cap everywhere: around the house, where he performed magic tricks with it to make my little brother laugh; to the corner store, where he bought me popsicles before using his hat to wipe the beads of summer sweat off my neck. Today whenever I see a red hat, I think of my Ye-Ye and his baseball cap, and I smile.
Ye-Ye is the Mandarin word for “grandfather.” My Ye-Ye is a simple, ordinary person—not rich, not “successful”—but he is my greatest source of inspiration and I idolize him. Of all the people I know, Ye-Ye has encountered the most hardship and of all the people I know, Ye-Ye is the most joyful. That these two aspects can coexist in one individual is, in my mind, truly remarkable.
Ye-Ye was an orphan. Both his parents died before he was six years old, leaving him and his older brother with no home and no family. When other children gathered to read around stoves at school, Ye-Ye and his brother walked in the bitter cold along railroad tracks, looking for used coal to sell. When other children ran home to loving parents, Ye-Ye and his brother walked along the streets looking for somewhere to sleep. Eight years later, Ye-Ye walked alone—his brother was dead.
Ye-Ye managed to survive, and in the meanwhile taught himself to read, write, and do arithmetic. Life was a blessing, he told those around him with a smile.
Years later, Ye-Ye’s job sent him to the Gobi Desert, where he and his fellow workers labored for twelve hours a day. The desert wind was merciless; it would snatch their tent in the middle of the night and leave them without supply the next morning. Every year, harsh weather took the lives of some fellow workers.
After eight years, Ye-Ye was transferred back to the city where his wife lay sick in bed. At the end of a twelve-hour workday, Ye-Ye took care of his sick wife and three young children. He sat with the children and told them about the wide, starry desert sky and mysterious desert lives. Life was a blessing, he told them with a smile.
But life was not easy; there was barely enough money to keep the family from starving. Yet, my dad and his sisters loved going with Ye-Ye to the market. He would buy them little luxuries that their mother would never indulge them in: a small bag of sunflower seeds for two cents, a candy each for three cents. Luxuries as they were, Ye-Ye bought them without hesitation. Anything that could put a smile on the children’s faces and a skip in their steps was priceless.
Ye-Ye still goes to the market today. At the age of seventy-eight, he bikes several kilometers each week to buy bags of fresh fruits and vegetables, and then bikes home to share them with his neighbors. He keeps a small patch of strawberries and an apricot tree. When the fruit is ripe, he opens his gate and invites all the children in to pick and eat. He is Ye-Ye to every child in the neighborhood.
I had always thought that I was sensible and self-aware. But nothing has made me stare as hard in the mirror as I did after learning about the cruel past that Ye-Ye had suffered and the cheerful attitude he had kept throughout those years. I thought back to all the times when I had gotten upset. My mom forgot to pick me up from the bus station. My computer crashed the day before an assignment was due. They seemed so trivial and childish, and I felt deeply ashamed of myself.
Now, whenever I encounter an obstacle that seems overwhelming, I think of Ye-Ye; I see him in his red baseball cap, smiling at me. Like a splash of cool water, his smile rouses me from grief, and reminds me how trivial my worries are and how generous life has been. Today I keep a red baseball cap at the railing post at home where Ye-Ye used to put his every night. Whenever I see the cap, I think of my Ye-Ye, smiling in his red baseball cap, and I smile. Yes, Ye-Ye. Life is a blessing.
Yueming的文書是一篇申請文書的完美范例，它準確地完成了它應該做的事情：它豐富了Yueming的形象，并讓招生委員會了解到其他申請材料中沒有展現的東西。Yueming用他爺爺的棒球帽的故事，向讀者講述了對他來說重要的東西，并展示了他獨特的人格特征。
盡管大部分文本都是專門講述爺爺的傳記，但這篇文書不僅僅是關于爺爺的。爺爺的整個故事是最后幾段的前奏，揭示了Yueming性格中最重要的方面。就像在生活中一樣，我們祖先的過去是后代歷史的前奏，而后代的歷史還在不斷上演。這種微妙的平行，乍看之下并不明顯，但能讓讀者深刻了解Yueming的個性，以及他洞察事物本質的天賦。
在這篇文書中，Yueming展示了自己從他人經驗中學習的能力，突出了自己的韌性，以及從爺爺那里獲得的積極心態。這些品質對于未來的哈佛學生來說是必不可少的。而且“生活是一種祝福”，這一能力將在校園內外都得到展現。
James was not fitting in with everyone else. During lunch, he sat alone, playing with his own toys. During group activities, the other campers always complained when paired with him. What was wrong? As camp counselor, I quietly observed his behavior—nothing out of the ordinary. I just couldn’t fathom why the other campers treated him like a pariah.
After three days of ostracism, James broke down during a game of soccer. Tears streaming down his cheeks, he slumped off the field, head in his hands. I jogged toward him, my forehead creased with concern. Some campers loudly remarked, “Why is that creep crying?” Furious indignation leaped into my heart. They were the ones who “accidentally” bumped into him and called him “James the Freak.” It was their cruelty that caused his meltdown, and now they were mocking him for it. I sharply told them to keep their thoughts to themselves. I squatted beside James and asked him what was wrong. Grunting, he turned his back to me. I had to stop his tears, and I had to make him feel comfortable. So for the next hour, I talked about everything a seven-year-old boy might find interesting, from sports to Transformers.
“I have a question,” I asked as James began to warm to me. I took a deep breath and dove right into the problem. “Why do the other campers exclude you?” Hesitantly, he took off his shoes and socks, and pointed at his left foot. One, two, three … four. He had four toes. We had gone swimming two days before: All the campers must have noticed. I remembered my childhood, when even the smallest abnormality—a bad haircut, a missing tooth—could cause others, including myself, to shrink away. I finally understood.
But what could I do to help? I scoured my mind for the words to settle his demons. But nothing came to me. Impulsively, I hugged him—a gesture of intimacy we camp leaders were encouraged not to initiate, and an act I later discovered no friend had ever offered James before. Then, I put my hand on his shoulder and looked him straight in the eyes. I assured him that external features didn’t matter, and that as long as he was friendly, people would eventually come around. I listed successful individuals who had not been hindered by their abnormalities. And finally, I told him he would always be my favorite camper, regardless of whether he had two, five, or a hundred toes.
On the last day of camp, I was jubilant—James was starting to fit in. Although the teasing had not completely disappeared, James was speaking up and making friends. And when, as we were saying our good-byes, James gave me one last hug and proclaimed that I was his “bestest friend in the whole wide world,” my heart swelled up. From my campers, I learned that working with children is simply awesome. And from James, I learned that a little love truly goes a long way.
在這篇文書中，Charles Wong講述自己看到他人被排擠的常見事件，并解釋了他如何與之抗爭。在描述自己做營地輔導員的經歷中，Charles不僅表達了對他人的深切關心，還展示了自己解決問題的思維過程。他不只是向讀者講述這些個人特征，而是通過事例來展示。有針對性地“展示”而不是“講述”，這是一項絕佳的寫作策略。
首先，Charles從他對具體場景的描述作為文章的開頭，語氣隨意而直接。他在事例中了包含重要的細節，但文字并不冗余，整篇文書簡潔易懂。雖然這種方法似乎不夠成熟，但它反映了Charles原始、真實的想法。讀者能感受到他的關心；Charles的文書帶領我們走進他真正的困境。此外，他描述的善舉——鼓舞人心的談話、擁抱——都讓我們深入了解他的性格。這些在文書中展現出的細節，描繪了Charles善良而聰明的形象，而這兩點在任何大學校園里都是很重要的。
此外，Charles不僅分享了他如何解決這個問題，并將其擴展到日常生活中。他從看似平凡的經歷中領悟了意義，并解釋了這段經歷如何改變了他的整個心態。這種有意識地成長的能力，表明Charles擁有從生活中學習的動力，而不是只會讀書的學生。
下期，智友留學將為大家分享剩余五篇優秀文書，敬請期待！
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