Discussing Top Colleges and How to Get in from Ningbo
with Dr. Gordon Tonner
和戈登·东纳博士一起讨论顶级学府包括怎么从宁波考入这些学校
Written by?(作者):?Vincent R. Vinci 魏文深
Photos by?(图片来源):Dr. Gordon Tonner, BigStock
In this day and age, nothing is more rewarding than having the privilege or opportunity to attend college and get a degree. Finding the best school to study at or how to get into such an institution can be a daunting task, though, and that’s where people like Dr. Gordon Tonner, Director of College Counseling at Ningbo Huamao International School, come in. With over 30 years of college counseling experience, Dr. Tonner is an expert in the field. Furthermore, he enjoys helping students with their placement goals and finds time for it amongst his many careers, including teaching and serving as headmaster of two private schools. Still, he feels as if as if he has never worked a day in his life.
It is this joy for what he does that Dr. Tonner seeks to instill in students when talking about college and career goals. “I enjoy what I do; I enjoy not only college guidance and counseling itself, but also the opportunity to open doors and windows on new horizons and opportunities unimagined by the student or his family.” The ultimate reason he got into college counseling was because of his father’s experience going into college. Dr. Tonner’s father grew up and went to high school in a suburb of Cleveland, where he graduated second in his class of 400. Among his friends there were sons and daughters of lawyers, doctors and industrialists who went to the top, most selective and prestigious US universities and colleges. His father, on the other hand, was counseled to attend a local college, because his father’s family was relatively poor and unfamiliar with the other college options available, not telling him that he could have gotten scholarships to go to any of the Ivy League schools or Stanford.
Remembering this injustice, Tonner tells me that in the 1960s, students at a school his wife was teaching at were facing the same problem: they were brilliant and in the top of their class, but were being told to go to small, undistinguished schools or in-state, public universities based on the economic status of their families. This was when Tonner first wrote Tonner’s Shorter College Guide, which radically changed the placement pattern in his wife’s school and another school in the area.
After publishing the Guide, Tonner went on to see various careers revolving around curriculum design, school management, and finally college placement counseling. “What I do changes people’s lives,” he tells me. “I found, comparing my undergraduate students at the University of Michigan at the time, and high school students I was working with, that I could make a greater impact, I could really change the high school students’ lives.”
Tonner began working at Ningbo Huamao in August of 2013. Along with teaching at the school, Tonner knows a lot about the college entrance field in regards to Ningbo and for students who wish to study abroad for their college careers. Tapping into his knowledge of the field, he provided insight on where students want to go and what they need to do in order to get there.
The Top Countries
Currently, the top three countries students from Huamao International School generally wish to go to are: the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Tonner tells me that every once in a while there will be students who show interest in and get accepted into schools in Singapore and Hong Kong among others. “The UK is more popular in Ningbo than it is in say Suzhou or Tianjin, but it still comes in third as a place to go for college. Students who are less ambitious unfortunately sometimes choose a country and university based on the simple fact that it does not require the SAT or ACT. I think that’s a poor decision,” Dr. Tonner says.
Tonner posits the popularity of the U.S. and Canada as stemming from the two countries’ status and popularity around the world. “I think it’s because of technology, international trade, music, movies, dress, style. These are the things that affect the world and this is why” Tonner chuckles, “English is a required language in China.”
As for foreign students who attend Huamao, they generally want to go back to their home countries rather than staying in Ningbo. The University of Nottingham in Ningbo, China is more of a back up, Tonner says, even though the school provides a British education. If not their home country, many students pick the U.S. because it is the only country where private colleges and universities provide need based financial aid and merit scholarships for international students.
This includes, of course, Chinese students. “The sums of money given to these international students by private colleges in the U.S. amazes most parents: between $10, 000 and $50,000 per year for four years. They are a gift, not a loan to be repaid! Why? Because these colleges seek ethnic and national diversity on their campuses and they have large endowments to draw upon to achieve those academic and social aims.”
This certainly bodes well for students who attend Ningbo Huamao International School. This year alone, Tonner proudly revealed that the school raked in just under $1 million in merit scholarships for six students alone. This is due to the fact that all the curriculum taught at Ningbo Huamao is based on the prestigious International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum, which is without a doubt the most highly regarded high school diploma for admission to highly selective, elite colleges and universities in the U.S., Canada, and Britain.
Getting into the School You Want
When students first come to Dr. Tonner to meet with him about college entrance, from the 10th grade onwards, the first thing they usually tell him is their desire to go abroad. The first thing Tonner or one of the other counselors asks them is if they are involved in any extracurricular activities at or outside of school.
“This is something the Chinese are not exposed to, and yet the types of colleges and universities to which they want to be admitted require extracurricular activities.” Tonner provided me of an example of a student who came to him and said he wanted to go to Harvard. Tonner asked him jokingly “‘are you a concert-level pianist, do you speak Farsi, and have you been off to Asia someplace and helped to exterminate some rare disease?’ because this is what they’re looking for.” Harvard and the other Ivies admit only 5% of applicants. “That’s a long shot and I’m not a gambler,” Tonner laughs. “There are schools just as good and in some respects better than the Ivies where the odds of admission are much, much more favorable,” he smiles.
Although places like the U.K. and Australia are less keen on extracurricular activities, Tonner tells me that if students carry on with a particular interest, like playing an instrument or dance, this carries on into college and they will often pick up another activity while there. “These people have greater success than those people who always sit in their dormitory and work at the desk.” Students that are involved on campus whether in high school or in college, Tonner explains, turn out to be more successful later on in life.
The path to college isn’t easy, but getting into the right place requires determination and more than just a good grades in school. It isn’t just about getting into the top universities either. Small liberal arts colleges, generally scorned by Chinese parents, are often the best choice. For more on colleges vs. universities and advice for students prior to the application process, tune in next month for more of Dr. Tonner’s wisdom.
现如今，读大学并获得学位的机会是非常难得且珍贵的。找到一所好学校并且成功入读是一个难题，但，华茂国际学校大学咨询部主管戈登·东纳博士可以为大家指点迷津。东纳博士有超过30年的本科咨询经历，是这方面的专家。更可贵的是，他善于在自己的职业生涯中找出适合帮助不同学生的部分，包括在两个私立学校做老师和校长的经历，这些对他更像是育人而不是工作。
对教育的热情也是东纳博士想要在谈话过程中传输给学生们的。“我喜欢我做的事情，不只是本科指导和咨询这一部分，更包括了给学生还有他们的家庭打开未知大门的机会。”真正让他从事本科咨询的原因是他爸爸读大学的经历。东纳博士的父亲在克利夫兰郊区长大并读高中，毕业的时候在400人的学校里名列第二。他的朋友中，有来自律师家庭的孩子，医生家庭，商人家庭，他们都去了美国顶尖的学府。他的爸爸，和这些人不一样，听从了咨询去了本地的大学，因为他们家并不富裕，对其他学校的选择也不熟悉，根本不知道其实自己可以拿奖学金去常春藤或者斯坦福。
将这不公正铭记在心，东纳告诉我在六十年代，他太太教书学校的学生们也在面临一样的问题：他们都很聪明在班级里名列前茅，但是却被告知去一些没有名气，本地的，小的公立学校，因为他们家庭的经济状况。东纳在他第一本书里写过《东纳的本科入学指南》，该书旨在改变在他太太学校包括该地区其他学校的这一既定的模式。
出版了这本指南之后，东纳深入调查了围绕着课程设置，学校管理，本科入学咨询建立的各种职业选择。“我该怎么做来改变人们的生活，”他告诉我。“我发现，通过比较那时在密歇根大学的本科学生，还有我接触的高中生，我能产生更深刻的影响，我真的可以改变高中生的人生。”
东纳在2013年八月开始在华茂工作，除了在学校教书之外，他对宁波的本科入学情况很了解，还有那些想去海外留学的学生。通过他的专业知识，他给学生们提供了很多深刻的建议，该做哪些准备才能去到目标的学校。
热门国家
现在，华茂国际学校的同学们最通常选择留学的三个国家是：美国，加拿大，英国。东纳告诉我，时不时的会有同学对新加坡和香港的学校有兴趣。“英国在宁波比较受欢迎，和苏州或者天津比较而言，但对于读大学来说，英国通常是第三位的选择。那些不太有野心的同学通常选择一些不要求SAT或者ACT的国家，我觉得这不是明智的选择。”东纳说。
东纳认为美国和加拿大的受欢迎是因为这两个国家的国际地位包括国际性的流行程度。“我觉得可能是因为科技的原因，国际的贸易，音乐，电影，服饰，潮流，这些都是相关影响因素。”东纳笑了，“英语是中国人的必修语言。”
对于上华茂学校的国际学生来说，他们通常会选择回到自己的国家而不是呆在宁波。例如宁波诺丁汉大学，中国更像起一个支撑作用，东纳说，虽然这个学校提供英国的教育，如果不是在自己的国家，多数的学生会选择去美国，因为这是唯一一个提供私立学校并对国际生提供经济资助和奖学金的国家，包括中国学生。“美国私立本科教育给国际学生发放的奖学金的数量会震惊很多家长，在1万和5万美元之间每年，持续4年。这些都是礼物而不是将来要还的贷款。为什么。因为这些学校都需要多种族国籍的多样性的学生，他们对教育的投资巨大，并且想要获得更好的学术成绩和社会效果。”
这些都说明选择上华茂国际学校是一个明智的选择。仅仅这一年，东纳就可以很骄傲地宣布学校拨款100万美元来作为奖学金奖励6个学生。因为华茂国际学校选用的课程都是根据正规国际学士课程进行设置，广受认可的的高中课程，专门为那些准备去美国，加拿大，英国的名校学生准备。
去你想去的学校
当学生们一开始来找东纳博士谈本科入学的事，从高三开始，他们最先倾诉的一定是出国留学的愿望。东纳包括其他咨询教师问的第一件事，是学生是否愿意参加课堂之外的校外活动。
“这是中国人不太熟悉的部分，但他们想去的学校恰恰要求这些东西。”东纳给我们举了一个例子，有一个学生说他想去哈佛，东纳开玩笑地问他，“你是一个演奏会级别的钢琴家吗？你会说波斯语吗？你去过亚洲或者其他一些地方帮助那里的人们战胜疾病吗？因为这些都是哈佛需要的。”哈佛和其他常春藤只招收申请者的5%。“这是很有风险的而我不爱冒险，”东纳笑道，“有很多好学校，甚至比常春藤更好，被录取的可能性也更大，我比较推荐这些院校。”
虽然英国和澳大利亚的学校对校外活动的要求比较少，东纳告诉我们如果学生有特别的兴趣爱好，比如演奏某一种乐器或是跳舞，这些都是他们挑选学校的资本。“这些有类似经历的学生比那些只呆在寝室坐在书桌前的人更有优势。”在高中和大学积极参与校园活动的学生在今后的人生中会更成功，东纳解释说。
上大学的路并不容易，但比起好成绩，去到对的地方更需要你的决心。这并不只是去好的著名学府，通常被中国家长不屑的文科院校其实通常是更好的选择。想要更多关于大学还是院校的意见，请关注下期来自Tonner博士的智慧之道。