杜克Fuqua MMS前录取官罗素叔来华全记录:前传-那些年罗素叔强调的Soft Skills

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注：此文轻安利向，欲看干货可直接往下拉

在惊喜得知大CD刚刚请到了从Duke Fuqua退休的罗素叔(也称Russell大大)来为大家普及招生规则以及材料准备(CV Essay 推荐信)的具体细节，我个人是非常推荐的，我觉得有必要在此跟大家轻安利一发（也可以无视安利直接到下方干货部分）。

罗素叔Russell大大活动介绍贴：

http://forum.chasedream.com/thread-1273779-1-1.html

Whydo you need Russell’s opinion and elaboration?

通过我跟Russell之前的接触，个人觉得Russell的公开课会是非常Beneficial to Chinese applicants的。Among众多的十分有个性的招生官们，Russell总能提出让我觉得更受用的观点，包括很熟悉他的历届的Fuqua MMS-FOB 和 MMS-DKU的小伙伴们，都和我有一样的感觉。基于此，Fuqua MMS项目也一直是Master项目中间考察Soft skill比较成功的一个项目。

想了下原因，基本是因为Russell在讨论一件事时，非常会Go deep and specify what on earth it is，比如，所有AO，所有的成功申请人，都会在文书材料以及面试中的经验中不断地强调这几个词：Leadership, Teamwork, Career Goal, Fitting School culture…… 但更深入一层，能继续深入阐述的很少很少，去思考怎么在这几个原则基础之上去differentiate yourself的，也很少很少。但是Russell，在高唱社会主义好的基础上，总是真正去思考如何将这些商学院特质落到实处，去讨论究竟如何探寻每个申请人在soft skills上如何突出自身的优势。

比如，在我和Russell讨论‘Team Fuqua’的时候，他反过来问我：非常多的商学院在强调Teamwork，你觉得我们的Team Fuqua和他们有什么不同？然后抛出了Team Fuqua的三个重要维度: 队友间甚至是校友间无条件的大力帮助，Keep humble but competitive，以及influence onothers。这样的清晰回答，基本上已经为Essay的很多内容提供了正确的方向以及思考维度。

轻安利部分结束，开始干货部分-这些问题罗素叔怎么看

(以下所有罗素叔的回答全为原话手动翻译成中文的)

1.      关于Teamwork：

问：Team Fuqua到底和别的商学院强调的Teamwork差别在哪里?

罗素叔：

There are many stories like that. You mighthear that a student at Fuqua reached out at midnight, stressed, to herclassmate, because she had an exam the next morning, and then she got someone whospent six hours with her, trying to help. And our student might set up a phonecall with a candidate answering the questions for an hour, even though thestudent is super busy. When you hear more stories like that, or even experienceit personally, I think you are going to feel that "I think I am startingto understand what they mean when they talk about 'Team Fuqua'.

关于team Fuqua有很多故事可讲。比如一个Fuqua的学生在半夜非常焦虑的联系她的同学，因为她第二天早上要有一门考试，然后她的同学会甘愿花6个小时来陪她帮助她。又比如我们的学生会在工作和学习百忙之中抽出一个小时的时间与申请人通话，并回答申请人的各种问题。如果你有所耳闻甚至有机会亲身感受这样的经历时，我想你就会明白“Team Fuqua”的含义。

Our students are friendly, helpful andsupportive. They know they are stronger because of the supportive communityaround them. I think there is a humbleness in them. But it doesn't mean thatour students aren't competitive. Actually they are, but they just are not goingto push anyone aside. They are competitive in that they want to succeed andthey also want their classmates to succeed. Then they gain satisfaction andgratification.

我们的学生友好互助。他们清楚地知道身处这样一个相互支持的群体中会让他们变得更强大。我们的学生谦逊，但这并不代表他们没有竞争力。他们只是不会抛弃团队中任何一个人。他们会变得更加有竞争力，不仅因为他们想成功,更因为他们希望自己的同伴也可以成功。基于此，他们才能获得巨大的满足。

And in our info session, we had a senioralumna, who is the head of a major business unit of a multinational companyhere in China. She has been out of school for over ten years. It's typical thatthe more senior you are, the less likely you are to engage with those who are10 or 15 years behind you, right? But Duke is not the case. Our alumni arehappy to engage, they remain passionate about their community at Duke. So candidatesget that hour-long phone call, that long Email with answers to so manyquestions in details, and our alumni are also happy to connect candidates totheir classmates or alumni who can even answer questions better. And these candidatesare not even members of the community yet. I tell them to imagine what it is likewhen you are part of the community!

曾经在一次宣讲会上，我们请到了一个女性校友。毕业超过十年的她已经是一个跨国公司在大中华地区业务部门的主管。通常情况下，职位越高的人越不屑和比自己小10或15岁的人互动交流。但Duke不同。我们的校友会很开心很热情地回馈Duke并帮助Duke的学生。正因如此，Duke的申请人在遇到问题时，才能够通过与这些校友通话一个小时或收到这些校友的长邮件等方式来获得详尽的答案。并且我们的校友会很乐意帮助申请人去联系其他能给出更好答案的同学或校友，尽管这些申请人将来不一定会成为Fuqua的一员。想象一下当你身处这样一个学生群体中是多么棒的体验吧！

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2.        关于communication和Interpersonal skills
问：哪一种类型的性格种类可能是不适合商学院的呢？
罗素叔:
I am going to give you some examples. Once I was in a conversation with three candidates, and we were talking about different opinions. When one said something, another then shared her perspective. However, the third one totally ignored this person and kept talking and in fact, completely dismissed what the others had said, only focused on what she had to say. Another example, I was doing a session several weeks ago, and there was one guy in the audience who acted like he was having a personal conversation with the panelists and giving no one else a chance to speak. He just kept talking and talking with follow-up questions even though there were another 10 or 12 people there. The master study experience includes intelligent conversation and respectful debate. Not everyone has the same opinion. There is a reason we put such value in business schools in the diversity of our students. It means students will have and want to share their different perspectives, and students in business schools are respectful of that.
我举几个例子：我曾经在与三个申请人一起交谈时，请他们各抒己见。第一个人发表自己的观点后，第二个人据此分享了自己的看法。但是，第三个人完全无视前两个人所说，自顾自的说着自己的想法。再举另一个例子：几周前我参加了一个宣讲会，到场的听众中有一个人表现得好像这是他一个人的演讲一样，他不停地发言、不停地提问，完全不给其他10-12人机会。商科硕士的课程中会涉及到智慧的谈话和礼貌的辩论。不是每个人都有相同的意见，所以商学院才会看重学生的多样性。这意味着商学院的学生要拥有、分享、并尊重彼此的不同观点。

We put great value on our Chinese students' interpersonal skills. Frankly, it is often a differentiator. The students from China that we admit have good self-awareness and interpersonal skills. They are respectful and know how to keep a conversation going. I think that's part of the reason why they are doing amazing in job search. You know we have lots of Chinese students doing quite well in the job search, they do well because they are making the most of their opportunity at Duke. They are not just developing their hard skills they are also honing their soft skills. They truly push themselves, and as a result of immersing themselves in the Team Fuqua culture, they are going to develop amazing soft skills that will separate them from the rest. It's what makes the difference. Now, I don't want you to think this is easy. It is hard, and for some of our Chinese students and other international students it is not natural and they have to work extra hard. But that hard work, and sometimes painful work, will yield results.
我们非常看重中国学生的人际交往能力。坦白地说,它通常是录取的一个主要标准。我们录取的中国学生都拥有良好的自我意识和人际交往能力。他们尊重其他人，知道如何将对话不断持续推进。我认为这是他们在就业环节表现如此出色的重要原因。Duke的管理学硕士有很多中国学生，并且在就业方面表现非常出色。他们做得如此好是因为他们最大化的利用Duke提供的机会。在这里，他们发展硬技术也磨练自己的软技能。他们真正地推动自己，让自己融入到Team Fuqua的文化中。他们提高自己的软技能，让自己变得与众不同。相反，对于一些中国学生和其他国际学生来说，这并不容易，甚至很难，会让他们感到很不自然。因此他们必须加倍努力，一分耕耘一分收获。

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3.        关于职业规划：
问：很多商学院都会强调要求学生在材料中表现他们的职业规划。但其实大多申请人都会有疑虑：我知道我要去读这个Master，但我不知道读完要干什么。

罗素叔: That is another question I get a lot. If a master program is going to show me opportunities and help me figure out what I want to do, then why do I have to tell you what my goals are? You have to be able to demonstrate to the Admissions Committee that you can tell us your story. Here's how I explain why. Even if you do tell us what you think you want to do and in fact, you really do think you know what you want to do there is a high probability that you are going to change your mind. But we need to see that you have a rational idea about where you want your career to go based on where you are coming from, professionally as well as personally. Because it demonstrates that you really thought about it. Even if you are not certain, you have been forced to think about: if I want to do that, what skills am I going to leverage or develop? Also, the student is ultimately going to have to be able to tell their story to a recruiter. And if they are looking to make a significant career transition, telling that story can be even more difficult. I talk to our Chinese students a lot while they are at Duke. I talk about what are the challenges they are having in the job search. For many, being able to 'tell their story' in a compelling way is one of the biggest challenges for them.

这是另一个我被问到很多次的问题：如果一个商科硕士的课程能让我明白我想做什么，那我为什么还要告诉你我的目标是什么？对此我的回答是：你必须向招生委员会讲述你的故事。即使你告诉我们你认为你想做什么，即使你真的知道你想要做什么，仍有很高的概率你会改变你的想法。但是我们需要看到你能够理性地根据过去的工作和个人经历去思考自己想要从事的职业。因为这可以证明你是否真正的考虑过职业发展的问题。即使你不确定职业目标,你也曾被迫去思考如果我要做这个职业，我需要哪些技能？同时，学生最终的目的是要给企业的招聘人员讲述自己的故事。如果他们想寻求一个重要的职业转换，讲述这个故事会变的更加困难。我跟我们的很多中国学生都聊过。我告诉他们在找工作时会遇到的挑战。对许多人来说，如何讲一个引人入胜的故事是他们面临的最大挑战之一。

So in the application it gives the candidate a chance to go through that exercise. They tell us where they are coming from, and where they want to go. And then we ask them to tell us in the 'Why our school' essay, how we can help them get there. This is where they get to demonstrate that they have really done their research on the school. For Fuqua, we want you to research us deeply. Because we feel like if the candidate does their research, and really digs into the resources and culture at Duke and it resonates with them, then they will know Duke is the right place for them, the right 'fit', which is the most important thing.
所以申请实际上是给申请人一个锻炼这项技能的机会。申请人告诉我们他们在职业路径上，来自哪里以及他们想要去哪里。在此基础上，我们会问他们我们学校能如何帮助他们。通过这样的方式，他们可以证明他们真的做了研究。对Fuqua来说我们希望申请人可以深入的研究我们，因为如果只有通过深入研究并与商学院的资源和文化产生共鸣，申请人才能确定Duke是正确、适合的去处，而“适合”是最重要的。

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4.        关于材料审阅：
问：招生官一般是如何审阅材料的？
罗素叔：
When I read an application, I have all the application components and my "reader work sheet" where I make all the notes, in front of me for a candidate. I start with the academics, and go straight down to work experience, leadership and involvement, essays, recommendations, and the interview. I make notes on the reader sheet for each component as I go. However, I often get insight from one section that adds insight to another section.
当我审阅一份申请时，我会把这个申请人所有的申请材料放在我面前，同时我还会准备一个“阅览式工作表格”以便我做记录。我会从学术教育经历开始看，接下来是工作经验、领导力和课外活动经历、Essays, 推荐信，以及面试表现。每审阅一部分，我都会在工作表格上做记录。然而,我经常从一个部分得到一些看法，接着又从另一部分得到一些补充的看法。从而得到一个完整的Story。

As a result I continue to add notes to all sections. Upon reading the entire file, then I make my summary write-up and recommend a decision. At business schools, we weigh all sections of the application equally.
因此我会持续的为所有部分都做记录。在审阅完所有的文件后，我会做个总结并针对是否录取提出我自己的建议。在商学院录取委员会里，我们平等的权衡申请的各个部分。

问：哪些东西出现在申请材料中会是禁区呢？比如Gap year？
罗素叔： It's not necessarily a red flag, but it's a question. But they can explain it to us in the optional essay. I would say once you complete your application, before you submit it, you need to look at it like you are a member of the admission committee. If there is anywhere you are going to have a question, you need to answer the question, and using the optional essay is a way to do that. A gap in employment is one example. Another might be why you don't have a recommendation from your current supervisor. It's ok for these things to happen, just let us know why.
Gap Year不一定是禁区，但是是一个悬而未决的问题。不过申请人可以在optional essay 中向我们做些解释。我认为一旦你完成你的申请，你需要在提交之前再像录取委员会的成员一样审阅一遍你的材料。如果有任何地方让你觉得招生官会提出问题，则你需要想办法回答这个问题。Optional essay就是一个办法。Gap year 是一个问题，另一个类似的问题可能是：为什么你的推荐人不是现在的上司。一旦存在这些事情，你需要进行解释，让我们知道其中的原因，我们会基于此考虑。

如今刚刚离开Fuqua的罗素叔，在这些问题上又会有什么不同的回答呢，亦或说会有没有更爆炸式的新闻呢。欢迎前来参加公开课来亲自听一听罗素叔的解答，我也会持续跟进每一堂公开课！！
最后再拉一遍活动传送门：
http://forum.chasedream.com/thread-1273779-1-1.html

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williw

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火钳刘明

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朝歌

有公开课的录音或视频吗？