揭开“神秘而强大”的狄邦华曜国际学校升学指导面纱：大学录取，仅仅是起点……

Unveiling the "mysterious and powerful" in-house college counselling:college admission is only the starting...

在狄邦华曜，校内升学指导可谓是“神秘”而又强大的存在。在我们往期的采访中，几乎每一位学者都提到了升学指导老师在他们的选课规划、大学申请、职业探索甚至学习生活方方面面的支持和帮助。

狄邦华曜也的的确确重视每一位学者的个人成长与未来规划——

从服务体系而言，我们将升学服务前置，从7年级起就开启职业初期探索，至11年级便为每一位学者配备升学指导，在此期间协助他们认识自己、找到适合自己专业和大学，并与之匹配。

从体系设计及团队配置而言，狄邦教育是国内第一个将美国中学通行的大学升学及职业发展指导计划引入中国公立高中的机构，我们的升学指导在国际教育、升学指导方面拥有丰富经验。同时我们的老师也是国际升学指导协会（IACAC）的成员，因此更能掌握一手升学趋势信息，与各院校、招生官的联系也更为紧密。

那么，这个“神秘而又强大”的团队是如何运作的，又有着怎样的体系规划与具体服务？我们与校内升学指导负责人周老师开展了一场深度的对话。

The in-house college counselling team at Dipont Huayao School (hereinafter as “Dipont Huayao” or “the School”) is somehow mysterious and powerful. In our previous interviews, almost every scholar mentioned the support and help they got from the college counsellors in terms of course selection, college application, career exploration and even their studies.

Dipont Huayao School indeed values the personal growth and future planning of each scholar.

In terms of the service system, we move the initial career exploration forward to as early as Year 7 and we assign college counsellors to each scholar at Year 11. During this period, we help scholars to better understand themselves so that they could find the majors and universities that suit them and reach the standards.

In terms of system design and team configuration, Dipont Education was the first institution in China to introduce the college counselling and career development program commonly used in American high schools into Chinese public high schools. Our counsellors have rich experience in both international education and college counselling. At the same time, our counsellors are also members of the International Association for College Admission Counseling (IACAC). Therefore, they have access to first-hand information on college entrance, as well as closer contact with colleges admissions officers.

So, how does this "mysterious and powerful" team operate, and what kind of system planning and specific services do they provide? We carried out an in-depth conversation with Ms. Zhou, who is in charge of in-house college counselling at Dipont Huayao School.

1清晰完整的升学指导体系

从College Eligible到College Ready

Clear and complete college counselling system

From College Eligible to College Ready

狄邦华曜重视每一位学者的升学意愿，并按照年级划分，定制了一条清晰的申请准备路线——

G7-9

职业探索，初高衔接

G10 

学科探索，大学展望

G11 

大学探索，打造履历

G12 

大学申请，留学准备

在这样的完整路线中，学校也会根据学者们在不同阶段的心理特点与个性化需求来制定指导内容以及授课形式，逐步实现从College Eligible至College Ready的进阶。

具体而言，对于7至8年级的学者，老师在形式上会选择互动性、趣味性较强的体验类活动，9年级则以职业探索的PBL项目为主，包括家长职业访谈的调研以及后续实地考察的实践活动等，并进行成果展示，与其他学者互相交流信息。在此阶段，为学者们打开视野，形成初期的方向。

通过职业探索确定了未来方向，心理逐渐成熟的10-12年级学者将会迎来一系列讲座，讲座将根据学者年级围绕不同特定的主题展开，包括不同国家院校的升学需求、标化考试等。学校为10年级的学者开展了Comparative Subject Exploration的项目，让学者在寒假期间进行有关学科探索的深度调研，以启发学者思考学科之间融合的可能性以及哪些职业需要跨学科的能力。

“11年级是距离申请季最接近的一年，也是最关键的一年，我们将升学指导的重心放在大学探索和未来申请履历的打造方面。” 周老师强调：

“ 每一位11年级学者都有一位固定的升学指导老师为他们提供点对点的指导，定期了解每一位学者目前的进度、标化出分以及未来计划当中是否有考试或活动，从而提出适当的建议，引导他们进行反思，丰富大学申请的素材与履历。”

同时，学校也提供互动性极强的通识课程与活动。比如，在“模拟大学招生委员会”活动中，学者会扮演大学的招生委员会，帮助学者更好地理解和反思大学招生的考量。通过角色扮演和完全真实的申请材料如申请表、文书、标化成绩、在校成绩、老师推荐信等，让学者代入招生官视角，就实际样例进行讨论。通过视角切换让学者对申请者家庭背景、申请材料中的亮点和劣势等方面进行分析，结合大学实际看重的方向对申请者进行评估，判断申请者是否适合该校、是否能够充分地利用自己所能够到的机会来达成最大的成就，都是招生官在阅读申请材料的重要考量。

此外，对于申请材料的准备，学校会通过集中性的答疑和讲座协助学者对从任何渠道获得的信息进行筛选、甄别，以锻炼他们的批判性思维。11年级的学者也需要在X Term期间开展一项学校的调研项目，内容包括申请材料的准备如自我评估、申请推荐信等文书写作。

升学指导老师们更注重12年级学者的个性化发展，除了设置了一些以大学申请为主题的工作坊，比如说论文的写作、如何选定自己想要申请的大学等。在12年级，老师更多是为学者进行一对一的辅导，并对其在申请过程中遇到的问题进行答疑、监督和把关。当学者获得院校录取通知后，也提供一系列以海外留学生活为主题的讲座。

值得一提的是，面对申请美国和英国大学的学者，升学指导老师们也有不同的策略。比如，因为英国大学必须申请确定专业，所以老师会鼓励英国方向的学者能够尽早确定自己的专业选择，针对性地准备申请和面试；而美国院校本科第一年的课程灵活性普遍较高，主要强调跨学科的能力，因此我们对于美国方向学者给予的建议是先找到自己感兴趣、擅长的大方向后，再去积累必备或是相关的课外活动经验和学术专业能力。

目前，狄邦华曜也在探索更多适合中小学生的升学指导，包括通过Career Awareness活动培养学者对职业的意识、进行MBTI、霍兰德心理测试等职业测评以及职业体验类的活动等。

The Dipont Huayao School attaches great importance to each scholar's goal for college entrance and has developed a clear application preparation route according to the year each scholar is in:

G7-9

Career exploration, progressing from Middle School to Upper School

G10 

Subject exploration, university prospects

G11 

College exploration and resume-building

G12 

University application, study-abroad preparation

Along this complete route, the School also customizes the counselling content and format based on the psychological features and individual needs of scholars at different stages, and gradually help scholars to move from College Eligible to College Ready.

For Year 7 to 8 scholars, counsellors will choose interactive and fun career activities for them to experience. When they reach Year 9, counsellors would design career exploring PBL projects, including career interview research of parents and subsequent on-the-job field practice, which would be presented to other scholars for communication and exchanges. At this stage, the counselling work opens the horizon for scholars and help form their initial direction.

After deciding the future direction through career exploration, scholars in Year 10 to 12 will take a series of lectures, focusing on different topics according to scholars’ year groups, including college entrance requirements in different countries, standardized examinations, etc. The School has launched a Comparative Subject Exploration program for Grade 10 scholars to conduct in-depth research on disciplinary exploration during the winter vacation, so as to enlighten scholars on the possibilities of integration between disciplines and the interdisciplinary ability required by different professions.

"Year 11 is the last and most critical year before the application season, and we focus our counselling on college exploration and resume building for future applications." Ms. Zhou stressed that-

“ Every scholar in Year 11 would have a designated college counselling teacher to provide customized guidance. Counsellors would regularly learn about the progress of each scholar, results of scholars’ standardized tests, and planning of future exams and activities, so as to put forward appropriate suggestion to guide scholars to reflect on and enrich the materials and resume for their college applications.”

At the same time, the School also offers highly interactive general courses and activities. For example, in the "Model College Admissions Committee" activity, scholars play the role of college admissions committee so that they’re able to better understand and reflect on college admission considerations. Through role-playing and completely authentic application materials such as application forms, personal statements, standardized tests, school grades, and reference letters, scholars would discuss actual application cases in the perspective of admissions officers. In this way, scholars assess the applicant's family background, advantages and disadvantages of the application materials based on what the university value the most, to evaluate whether the applicant is suitable for that university. All these elements are crucial when admissions officers evaluate an application: weather the applicant is a good fit for the university, whether s/he is able to make full use of the opportunity for the greatest achievement, etc.

In addition, for the preparation of application materials, the School will help scholars screen and identify information obtained from different source through intensive Q&A and lectures, so as to develop scholars’ critical thinking. Scholars in Year 11 are also required to carry out a research project during the X Term, including the preparation of application materials such as self-assessment and reference letters, etc.

In addition to offering workshops on topics such as essay writing and choosing universities to apply for, college counsellors would focus more on scholars’ individual needs when they reach Year 12.  Counsellors would provide more one-to-one tutoring for scholars, and would help scholars tackle problems during their application process while providing monitoring and check-ups. A series of lectures on study-abroad will also be offered to scholars who have received offers from overseas universities.

It is also worth noting that career counsellors have different strategies for scholars applying to US and UK universities. For example, since UK universities require applications to a specific major, counsellors would encourage scholars to determine their major choice as early as possible and prepare for the application and interviews accordingly. However, the courses in the first year of undergraduate studies in US universities are generally quite flexible, focusing on interdisciplinary abilities. Therefore, our advice for scholars applying for US universities is to find the broad academic field that they are interested in and good at first, then accumulate necessary or relevant experience in extracurricular activities and academic ability.

At present, Dipont Huayao is also exploring more counselling services suitable for elementary and secondary school students, including Career Awareness activities, career assessment tools such as MBTI, Holland Psychological test and career experience activities.

2赋能学者，引导思考

走出留学申请的盲目“内卷”

Enabling scholars and guide their thinking

Get rid of the excessive competitiveness of overseas university application

“狄邦华曜的升学指导注重结果，更注重过程。”

采访中，周老师这样总结。

比起告诉学者如何更容易被录取，我们更重视如何为他们赋能，让其从多方面为自己未来的升学以及职业生涯规划奠定基础。“现今的大学申请者容易受到外部的影响，形成内卷，但说实话，‘卷’的方向不一定正确。”周老师说，“我们校内升学指导的目的之一就是协助学者有方向、有意义地‘卷’，而非盲目陷入拼GPA、拼比赛成绩等等的恶性循环中。”

何为有方向、有意义地“卷”呢？周老师以学校一位学者的申请经历为例：

A同学很早就坚定了修读兽医专业的升学方向，当时老师们也查询了国外院校的相关升学要求——英国大学要求有相关的实习、工作经历，而美国本科则无法申请兽医学的专业，只能以动物学或生物学作为相关课程进行修读。

值得一提的是，A同学经常到苏州小动物保护协会（SZSAPA）担任志愿者，为流浪动物做一些护理工作，同时也加入了以外国志愿者为主的小分队。校内升学指导老师给予她的建议是，在这个基础上赋予活动更多的意义以及影响力。于是，在此建议下，A同学先是将志愿者小分队引入学校，进行公益宣讲，让更多感兴趣的学者和外教能够参与到这个活动中，将活动的影响力从校外扩散到校内。

同时，因为A同学很擅长也很喜欢生物、化学学科，所以老师建议她将志愿活动与学术结合，进行动物疾病的调研。在实际调研的过程中，A同学深入研究了关于小动物的一些常见疾病和后续护理的事项，发现其实这些小动物在被治疗后都有一些事后注意事项，以往协会采取的治疗、护理措施不一定有效，于是便提出制作相关知识科普的手册，发放给保护站的志愿者，让小动物得到更妥善的保护。由此获得灵感，她也正在和化学老师商量开设一个关于小动物疾病知识科普的Life Block，提案也已经写好。

此外，这项活动也意外地为选择其他专业方向的学者提供了展现自己能力的平台。比如，在周老师与B同学家长的面谈中了解到，热爱艺术和视觉设计的她缺少一些积累经验的平台，而A同学的活动恰好就需要设计宣传。周老师便提议B同学可以帮忙做一些活动的海报，或是科普手册的平面设计工作，既能够参与活动，也为自己的专业方向打好基础。

由始至终，A同学都是在老师的引导下，主动地推进每一项工作，包括将SAPA的外国小分队引进学校、动物疾病的调研以及Life Block的开办等。通过自己的能力扩大SAPA的影响力，让更多人参与进来，同时也把自己的学术知识应用到实际生活中，为小动物带来福祉。比起到校外报名活动，利用已有资源去完成指定的工作，这样带有思考的行动对学者未来升学和就业更有帮助。

我们鼓励学者去发现更多活动和项目，也支持学者做自己想要做的事情，并提供适当的建议。学会观察世界、观察周围人的需求，只要有能力，总能找到让自己发光的平台，这也是学者完成大学学业后，进入社会所需具备的本领之一。

"Dipont Huayao's counselling is results-driven yet focusing more on the process."

During the interview, Ms. Zhou summed it up like this.

Instead of telling scholars how to get an offer more easily, we focus more on how to empower them to lay the foundation for their future college and career life in different ways. “Nowadays college applicants are susceptible to excessive competitiveness, but to be honest, that kind of competitiveness is not even in the right direction.” Says Ms. Zhou, “One of the purposes of our in-house college counselling is to help scholars to compete with meaning and in the right direction, instead of blindly falling into a vicious cycle of competing for higher GPA, competition results and so on." Zhou said.

How to compete with meaning and in the right direction? Ms. Zhou took the application experience of a scholar at Dipont Huayao as an example:

Scholar A firmed up her decision to study veterinary medicine quite early on. At that time, counsellors inquired about the admission requirements of overseas universities -- internship and work experience were required by UK universities, while in the US, there is no specific major of veterinary medicine at undergraduate level and students could only take zoology or biology as relevant courses to study.

It is worth mentioning that Scholar A often worked as a volunteer in Suzhou Small Animal Protection Association (SZSAPA), doing some care work for stray animals. At the same time, she also joined a small team consisting mainly of foreign volunteers. Her counsellor gave her advice to give the charitable activity more meaning and influence, which propped Scholar A to bring a team of volunteers to the School to conduct information seminars on animal protection, so that more interested scholars and foreign teachers could participate in this endeavor, extending the influence of the external activity into the School.

At the same time, since Scholar A is very interested in and also good at biology and chemistry, her college counsellor suggested her to combine the volunteer work with academics and conduct research on animal diseases. In the process of field research, Scholar A did an in-depth study of some common diseases and after care of small animals. She found that all small animals who have been treated need certain aftercare actions, but the treatment and nursing measures previously taken by the association is not necessarily effective. So, she came up with the idea of making brochures about the aftercare knowledge and hand them out to volunteers at the animal protection stations, so that small animals get better recovery. Inspired by this, she is also discussing with her Chemistry teacher to open a Life Block course on the science of small animal diseases, for which a proposal has been written.

In addition, these activities unexpectedly provided a platform for other talented scholars to showcase their abilities. For example, in the interview with Scholars B's parents, Ms. Zhou learned that Scholar B loved art and graphic design while lacking an opportunity to gain experience, and Scholar A's proposal needed design and publicity. Ms. Zhou suggested that Scholar B help make some posters for Scholar A’s events as well as the aftercare brochure. In this way, Scholar B is able to participate in the activities, as well as laying foundation for her future major.

Right from the start, Scholar A actively pushed forward every step along the way under the guidance of college counsellors, including bringing in SAPA's foreign volunteer team into the School, the research on small animal diseases and start of the Life Block course. She managed to expand the influence of SAPA through her own ability to engage more people, and at the same time to apply her academic knowledge to real life, and bring welfare to small animals. Instead of signing up for external activities, using existing resources to complete designated work is a more thoughtful action that would better benefit future study and employment of scholars.

We encourage scholars to discover more activities and projects, and we give full support and provide appropriate advice to they want to achieve. To learn to observe the world and the needs of people around you is very important. As long as you have the ability, you can always find a way to shine. This is also one of the competences that scholars need to possess after completing university studies and entering the society.

3升学指导是教育，不是产品

海外大学的录取，仅仅是起点

College counselling is education, not a product

Admission to overseas universities is just the starting point

在完整的服务体系之下，升学指导老师还将根据学者的课表合理安排升学指导课程，并提供针对性的一对一辅导。除了会主动约谈学者，也欢迎学者随时找指导老师咨询一些简单的问题，不需要特别预约。

“此外，我们也开放对家长或家庭的三方面谈，家长若有疑问可通过邮件或是微信和我们预约时间进行面谈。定期的升学家长会也在我们的课程当中，内容着重讲述学者升学方面重点关注的事项，让学者和家长对未来的规划更有目标感。”

周老师向我们介绍。

她提到，在沟通的过程中，也发现家长们难免会将校内升学指导与校外升学机构进行比对。“校外机构毕竟是商业机构，通常来说更强调包装，比起过程更注重结果，因此会直接给出一个升学的硬性标准，是立竿见影、短平快的成果，其本质是一个产品。”周老师解释道，“而校内升学指导是一个教育过程，我们鼓励学者自行探索，锻炼学者的批判性思维，除了获得好的结果，也能在过程中提升自己各方面的能力，同时也在学部的家长大学去给家长做一些国际教育和海外升学相关知识的科普，旨在传递正确、正统的声音，让家长和学者能够真正理解海外升学究竟看重哪些条件，而不是被一味的消费主义、或者说被市场宣传的各种噪音所误导。”

为了帮助学生与家长做到信息对称，狄邦华曜发动各项资源，为大家带来一手、权威的信息共享。比如，升学指导老师们正在进行连接海外大学的工作，包括拓展与国外大学招生办公室和招生官之间的关系。依托于狄邦教育集团的资源，学校在今年上个学期安排了20多场的海外大学线上展览，也成功在今年9月23日举办了线下的大学展览，共有十来所大学参展，提供了学者和招生官面对面交流的机会，更好地帮助学者了解到相关信息。

此外，也会定期开展一些海外生活分享的讲座，旨在让学者了解并不是被录取了之后就能轻松度过大学生涯，而是希望把大学生活真实的一面呈现给学者，并让学者清楚地认识自己，了解自己适合什么类型的学校。最终，尽可能地将这些全面的信息纳入到整个升学指导过程中，进而完成不仅仅是针对学者，同时也包括家长对于海外升学的教育工作，因为这涉及了一个家庭的选择，包括留学国家、费用预算、学者未来的发展等等细节。

“之后只要条件允许，我们也会持续去做这些方面的活动。”

周老师说。

通过一系列的活动，狄邦华曜的升学指导老师们希望帮助学者们为大学以及职业生涯做好准备（College and career readiness）。因为即使是录取了海外大学，也并不代表学者已经具备足够的能力去胜任未来大学所带来的挑战；而升学指导的目标，便在于赋能学者，让其从知识、技能、态度、思维和成熟度上做好升学和往后就业的充分准备。

Under the complete service system, college counsellors will also arrange counselling sessions according to scholars’ academic schedule, and provide one-to-one tutoring. In addition to schedule sessions, scholars are also welcome to consult the counsellors for simple questions without appointments.

"In addition, we also have three-way sessions with parents or families. If parents have questions, they can make an appointment with us via email or WeChat. Regular parent-teacher college counselling meeting is part of our curriculum, which covers key issues of college application so that scholars and parents could be more focused and targeted in terms of future planning."  Ms. Zhou introduced to us.

She said that in the process of communication, it was also found that parents would inevitably compare the in-house counselling with the external counselling agencies. "After all, external agencies are commercial institutions, usually with more emphasis on how to ‘package’ a student, i.e. focusing more on the result than the process. They would directly give clients fixed standard for admission, leading to quick results. In essence, it is a product." Ms. Zhou explained, "But the in-house counselling is an education process: we encourage scholars to explore and to develop their critical thinking. In addition to getting a good result, we also emphasize on developing scholars’ all-rounded abilities. We try to provide correct and straightforward information about international education and overseas studies via the University for Parents in different year groups. We hope that parents and scholars can truly understand what is valued most by overseas universities, rather than being misled by consumerism or the noise of marketing."

In order to help scholars and parents achieve information symmetry, Dipont Huayao School mobilizes various resources to bring first-hand and authoritative information to scholars and parents. For example, college counselors are working to connect with overseas universities, including expanding relationships with admissions offices and officers. Using Dipont HQ’s resources, the School managed to arrange more than 20 overseas university online exhibition in the last semester, and also successfully held an offline university exhibition on September 23, which was attended by more than a dozen universities, providing opportunities for scholars and admissions officer to communicate face-to-face.

In addition, lectures on life of overseas studies are also held regularly to let scholars know that they cannot waste their college life away after being admitted. These lectures aim to present the real overseas college life to scholars, and let scholars have a clear understanding of themselves and the kind of university that is a good fit for them. Finally, all these comprehensive information would be incorporated into the whole college counselling process as far as possible, so as to complete the understanding of overseas studies not only for scholars, but also for parents, because it involves a family's choice, including the destination country, the costs, the scholar's future development and so on.

"We will continue to conduct these activities as long as conditions permit." said Ms. Zhou.

Through the series of well-designed activities, Dipont Huayao’s college counsellors aim to help scholars achieve “College and career readiness”. Even if a scholar is admitted to an overseas university, it does not mean that s/he has enough ability and competence to meet the challenges in future overseas studies. The goal of college counselling is to empower scholars, to make them fully prepared for college life and future career in terms of knowledge, skills, attitude, thinking and maturity.

采访最后，周老师为我们总结了狄邦华曜校内升学指导项目的优势所在：

提前规划

持续、长线的升学指导，贯穿7-12年级，提早树立学者的生涯规划意识；

关注个体

升学指导与学生比稳定在1:15，实现定期约谈，全面关注的个性化辅导；

授之以渔

以学生为中心的多样化项目式学习，融合导师关顾体系给予学者全方位支持；

为我所用

共享狄邦集团的优质资源，举办大学宣讲会，建立招生官人脉网与升学专家顾问团。

由此， 帮助狄邦华曜的每一位学生，笑傲未来的学习与生活。

At the end of the interview, Ms. Zhou summed up the advantages of Dipont Huayao’s in-house counselling program for us:

Planning Ahead

Continuous and long-term counselling throughout grades 7-12 to establish the awareness of scholars' career planning in advance;

Focus on individuals

Stable ratio of college counsellors to students at 1:15, in order to conduct regular sessions and personalized counselling with all-rounded attention;

Teaching students to fish

Student-centered diversified project-based learning, integrated with the mentor system to give scholars full support;

For my use

Share the quality resources of Dipont Education Group and hold university information seminars, establish a network of admissions officers and college entrance expert advisory group.

We’re here to help every scholar at Dipont Huayao to embrace their future studies and life with confidence and a smile.

昆山狄邦华曜学校原(昆山市上海华二学校)2022-2023学年 招生计划

幼儿园至高一 (10年级)

5年级开始提供住宿

2-16岁中外籍学生

由狄邦教育集团与华东师范大学第二附属中学共同创办，以”勇于探索、追求卓越”为使命，融汇中西、着眼未来的创新型、双语学校。

文章转载自：【狄邦华曜学校 原上海华二昆山】