许多大学申请人都有过夏令营的经历。在这篇常见的申请论文中，Max讨论了他与一个难相处的学生之间富有挑战性的关系，最终他有很多贡献。

文章提示

Max的文章最初是为2013年之前的“普通申请论文提示”撰写的，该提示写道，“指出对你有重大影响的人，并描述其影响。”有影响力的人选项不再存在，但在2018-19年的普通申请中，有很多方法可以用当前的七种论文选项来描述一位重要人物。

Max的文章最近进行了修改，以适应当前通用应用程序中新的650字长度限制，它将与2018-19年的提示2很好地配合：“我们从遇到的障碍中吸取的教训对以后的成功至关重要。讲述你面对挑战、挫折或失败的经历。这对你有什么影响，你从中学到了什么？”

这篇文章也适用于常见的申请论文选项#5，“讨论一项成就、事件或认识，这些成就、事件或认识激发了一段时间的个人成长和对自己或他人的新理解。”

马克斯的共同申请论文

Student Teacher Anthony was neither a leader nor a role model. In fact, his teachers and his parents were constantly chastising him because he was disruptive, ate too much, and had a hard time staying focused. I met Anthony when I was a counselor at a local summer camp. The counselors had the usual duties of keeping kids from smoking, drowning, and killing each other. We made God’s eyes, friendship bracelets, collages, and other clichés. We rode horses, sailed boats, and hunted snipe. Each counselor also had to teach a three-week course that was supposed to be a little more “academic” than the usual camp fare. I created a class called “Things that Fly.” I met with fifteen students for an hour a day as we designed, built, and flew kites, model rockets, and balsawood airplanes. Anthony signed up for my class. He was not a strong student. He had been kept back a year at his school, and he was larger and louder than the other middle school kids. He talked out of turn and lost interest when others were talking. In my class, Anthony got some good laughs when he smashed his kite and threw the pieces into the wind. His rocket never made it to the launch pad because he crumpled it in a fit of frustration when a fin fell off. In the final week, when we were making airplanes, Anthony surprised me when he drew a sketch of a sweep-wing jet and told me he wanted to make a “really cool plane.” Like many of Anthony’s teachers, and perhaps even his parents, I had largely given up on him. Now he suddenly showed a spark of interest. I didn’t think the interest would last, but I helped Anthony get started on a scale blueprint for his plane. I worked one-on-one with Anthony and had him use his project to demonstrate to his classmates how to cut, glue and mount the balsawood framework. When the frames were complete, we covered them with tissue paper. We mounted propellers and rubber bands. Anthony, with all his thumbs, created something that looked a bit like his original drawing despite some wrinkles and extra glue. Our first test flight saw Anthony’s plane nose-dive straight into the ground. His plane had a lot of wing area in the back and too much weight in the front. I expected Anthony to grind his plane into the earth with his boot. He didn’t. He wanted to make his creation work. The class returned to the classroom to make adjustments, and Anthony added some big flaps to the wings. Our second test flight surprised the whole class. As many of the planes stalled, twisted, and nose-dived, Anthony’s flew straight out from the hillside and landed gently a good 50 yards away. I’m not writing about Anthony to suggest that I was a good teacher. I wasn’t. In fact, I had quickly dismissed Anthony like many of his teachers before me. At best, I had viewed him as a distraction in my class, and I felt my job was to keep him from sabotaging the experience for the other students. Anthony’s ultimate success was a result of his own motivation, not my instruction. Anthony’s success wasn’t just his plane. He had succeeded in making me aware of my own failures. Here was a student who was never taken seriously and had developed a bunch of behavioral issues as a result. I never stopped to look for his potential, discover his interests, or get to know the kid beneath the facade. I had grossly underestimated Anthony, and I am grateful that he was able to disillusion me. I like to think that I’m an open-minded, liberal, and non-judgmental person. Anthony taught me that I’m not there yet.

马克斯公共应用论文评析

一般来说，Max为普通应用程序写了一篇很有说服力的文章，但它确实冒了一些风险。下面你会发现一个关于这篇文章的优点和缺点的讨论。

话题

关于重要人物或有影响力人物的文章，如果聚焦于高中生的典型英雄：父母、兄弟姐妹、教练、老师，很快就会变得可预测和陈词滥调。

从第一句话开始，我们知道Max的文章将有所不同：“Anthony既不是领导者，也不是榜样。”Max的策略很好，读过这篇文章的招生人员很可能会很高兴读到一篇文章，而不是关于爸爸如何成为最伟大的榜样或教练如何成为最伟大的导师。

此外，关于有影响力的人的文章通常以作者解释他们是如何成为更好的人或者他们所有的成功都归功于导师而结束。马克斯把这个想法带到了另一个方向；安东尼让马克斯意识到他并不像他想象的那么好，他还有很多东西要学。谦逊和自我批评令人耳目一新。

标题

写一篇获奖的文章标题没有一条规则，但马克斯的标题可能有点太聪明了。“学生教师”立即暗示一个正在教学的学生（Max在他的叙述中正在做的事情），但真正的意思是Max的学生给了他一堂重要的课。因此，安东尼和马克斯都是“学生教师”

然而，这种双重意义直到读完这篇文章后才显现出来。标题本身并没有立即引起我们的注意，也没有清楚地告诉我们这篇文章的内容。

语气

在大部分情况下，马克斯在整篇文章中都保持着相当严肃的语气。第一段确实有一个很好的触感，它把所有典型的夏令营陈词滥调的活动都逗乐了。

然而，这篇文章的真正优势在于，马克斯控制了语气，避免听起来像是在吹嘘自己的成就。对文章结论的自我批评似乎是一种风险，但可以说对Max有利。招生顾问知道没有一个学生是完美的，所以马克斯对自己缺点的认识可能会被解读为成熟的标志，而不是性格缺陷的一面红旗。

文章长度

马克斯的论文共631字，处于250至650字的一般申请长度要求的上限。这不是一件坏事。如果一所大学要求一篇论文，那是因为招生人员想更好地了解申请人。一篇600字的文章比一篇300字的文章能让他们从你身上学到更多。你可能会遇到咨询师，他们认为招生官非常忙，所以越短越好。这几乎没有证据支持这样的说法，你会发现顶级大学（如常春藤盟校）的申请者中，很少有人会因为没有充分利用所允许的篇幅而被录取。

理想的文章长度当然是主观的，部分取决于申请人和叙述的故事，但马克斯的文章长度绝对不错。这一点尤其正确，因为散文从不冗长、华丽或过度。句子往往简短明了，因此整体阅读体验并不费力。

文字

开场白吸引了我们的注意力，因为它不是我们对一篇文章的期望。结论也令人惊喜。许多学生会想让自己成为这篇文章的英雄，并说明他们对安东尼有多么深远的影响。马克斯扭转了局面，强调了自己的失败，并赞扬了安东尼。

这篇文章的平衡并不完美。马克斯的文章花在描述安东尼身上的时间比描述安东尼的影响要多得多。在理想情况下，马克斯可以从文章的中间删去两句话，然后进一步发展两个简短的结论段落。

最后的想法

马克斯的文章和费利西蒂的文章一样，也有一些风险。招生官可能会因为马克斯暴露了自己的偏见而对他做出负面评价。但这不太可能。最后，马克斯将自己塑造成一个领导者（毕竟，他正在设计和教授一门课程），一个意识到自己还有很多东西要学的人。这些品质应该对大多数大学招生人员有吸引力。毕竟，大学希望招收那些渴望学习、有自我意识的学生，让他们认识到自己有更大的个人成长空间。