像英国食物一样令人头痛的UCAS

　　对申请英国高校感兴趣的学生\家长\老师们，什么环节会让你们觉得把握不准和头痛无比?答案非UCAS莫属。在我多年在牛剑等英国牛逼高校升学系统担任导师的经历中，这个词会比考试还要让学生们感到惊恐。什么是UCAS?其实就是四个英文单词(Universities and Colleges Admissions Service)的首字母缩写，像NASA一样。 它代表英国高校申请过程中的重要一环。

　　众所周知，UCAS处理所有英国高校的申请材料。不管你是谁，你是奥巴马\科比\周杰伦的小孩也好，还是你聪明绝顶或富甲一方，你也得经历这一”阵痛”。事实上，UCAS的网站上每一学年都要处理近一百万新增用户。英国高校开放申请到次年1月15号，还不从现在开始盘算小心为时已晚!在这个专栏里，我会在1月份截止日期之前手把手教你申请秘籍，帮你破除申请道路中的孤单和恐惧。

　　复杂繁琐，是学生们害怕UCAS的主要原因。好不容易张罗完材料，等待或好或坏结果的过程又会时刻牵动你的心跳。等待高校录取通知的过程就像等待一纸诊断，决定着你的未来。面对如此重要的UCAS，想不想知道英国学生们会怎么做?每周刻苦勤奋地学习并准备申请材料?当然…不是!我来告诉你一个故事吧…

　　大不列颠及北爱尔兰联合王国(普及英国全称时间)是一个有着悠久历史文化\顶尖高校的美丽国度。英国人民美丽智慧亲切善良---看看我就知道了---但是，他们并不习惯提前计划。在组织性和耐性方面，就输给中国人了。为啥?还不是因为食物。中国的主食---大米，是用辛勤劳动和适应季节变化的科学分析种出来的，不是有句中国诗句叫做:谁知盘中餐，粒粒皆辛苦吗!

　　但是在英国，多少世纪以来的主食都是---土豆。这不是因为农民们的辛勤劳动，而是由英国复杂多变的气候所导致的---谋事不由人，成事全靠天!因此英国人多数都是宿命论者，相信冥冥之中天注定，一步步充分准备还不如掷骰子呢。

　　所以体现在UCAS上也是一样。在刚开始的几周里，每天的申请都是一千来封这样缓慢增长。敏感细心些的学生(比如中国学生)在递交申请的头两三个月，就已经开始每天准备材料了。你可以看到，在每年10月和11月，UCAS的网站访问量象小山一样，虽然有起伏，但总体是平稳的。但是，突然到了截至日期的头一天晚上---1月14号:网站访问量瞬间攀升!象垂直悬崖一样!然后，网络就瘫痪了…这全赖英国学生，一直拖着懒得动弹，直到最后一刻才着急申请。想象一下，一天之内搞定网站注册和材料填写---不是疯子就是天才吧!如果接下来每周，你看我的专栏更新的话，我会告诉你大量我曾经在指导学生们升学时遇到过的真人真事，指导你如何避免’最后一刻’的网络大塞车和心理恐慌，这样你就可以在’疯狂的英国人’面前偷着乐了。

　　作者简介：劳伦斯· 帕克布朗，英国牛津大学圣凯瑟琳学院政治哲学经济学学士、硕士。现为英国百福教育学术主任。曾于全英排名第一的国际学院——贝勒比斯学院担任经济、商学、大学和学院招生服务中心导师，任会计、商学和经济学部门主任，大学预科和专科项目总监，有着多年领导教师团队和指导学生升学的经验。帮助近80个国家和地区的学生升入牛津大学、剑桥大学和伦敦政治经济学院等顶级学府。（翻译：胡悦）

　　搜狐出国原创内容，转载请注明出处与作者。

　　What words scare you? Homework? Dentist? Spiders? For any student, parent and even teacher that is involved in applying to a British university there is a word that looms large over their psyche - UCAS. In my experience this words scares more young people than even exams. UCAS is an example of an acronym, a word created using the initial letters of a string of words; like NASA. UCAS stands for Universities and Colleges Admissions Service.

　　As you are probably aware UCAS handle all applications to British universities. I don't care who you are, whether you are the child of Barack Obama, Kobe Bryant or Jay Z you've got to go through this site. No matter how clever, rich or powerful you are it is the same process for everyone. That means the site handles nearly one million unique registrations each academic year. Registration for British universities runs from now until January 15th so in this column I'll hold your hand through the weeks as January rolls towards us. Try and laugh away the fear that comes our way.

　　People are scared of UCAS because it is complicated, it is hard work to complete and it brings news about your future that can be exciting or disappointing depending on your results. It is the site that informs you to which British university you have been accepted and as such forms a major part of a young person's future. Because it is important what do most British young people do? Work hard and sensibly each week to support their application? Of course not! Let me tell you a story...

　　The United Kingdom is a beautiful place with great history, culture and universities. It's people are nice and intelligent - look at me for instance - but they do not like to plan ahead. Not like you organised and patient Chinese people. It all comes from our food. In China the staple food is rice and rice is grown using diligence, mathematics and hard work. I think you have the saying that every grain of rice means hard work, yes. A good saying! In England the staple food for centuries was the potato. It grows according not to the effort of the farmer but to the vagaries of weather - ultimately the yield is more luck than judgment. As such the British are fatalistic people that believe in fate more than justice, rolling the dice more than steady preparation.

　　So with UCAS, every year their web traffic is steady with each day a few thousand people registering in the early weeks. These sensible students (like the Chinese!) get working on their applications each day for maybe two or three months before sending it off. The deadline for sending applications is the 15th January. So every day in October and November the site usage is like a small hill, undulating but quite flat. Then imagine the 14th January - the night before the final day. There is a high spike, like a vertical mountain on the web traffic. These are the English students that have been avoiding UCAS all winter that have had to register at the last moment. Anyone that can register and complete all the details in one day is either crazy or a genius! While you read this column each week I will help you avoid this late rush and give you lots of examples, stories and advice so that you won't be in a panic like the crazy English sometimes are. Thank you