Editor's note: For part two of our tips for applying to American colleges, we visited George Mason University. George Mason University is the largest public research university in the state of Virginia. It has about 33,000 students studying over 100 different majors and specializations. Its students come from all 50 US states and 130 different countries. About 7 percent of its students are international. We sat down with Jennifer Tkacz, Director of International Admissions. She shared her views on financial aid, rankings, and visas. Click on the video above to hear Ms. Tkacz in her own words.
编者按：在申请美国大学建议的第二部分，我们访问了乔治·梅森大学。乔治·梅森大学是弗吉尼亚州最大的研究型公立大学。该校现有大约3.3万名学生在100多个不同的专业就读。其学生来自美国全部50个州和130个不同国家。其中大约7%的学生是国际生。我们同该校国际招生办的Jennifer Tkacz坐了下来。她分享了自己在助学金、大学排名和签证上的观点。
Why are American universities so expensive?
美国的大学为什么这么贵？
First of all, I'll say that American education is expensive for Americans. I spent the good part of my twenties working to pay off college loan debt. So, American education is very expensive, but you're getting a high-quality education from some of the best professors in the world with some of the best resources and facilities in the world. American universities have state-of-the-art laboratories, computers, research systems, classrooms and all that is expensive. And also at many U.S. universities, you're learning from leading researchers and people who are at the top of the line in their field so it's also expensive for universities to have those people as professors. So, you're paying for a quality product—that's why it's very expensive.
首先我要说，美国教育对美国人来说都不便宜。我二十来岁的大好年华都花在偿还大学贷款上。所以说美国教育非常昂贵。但是你能通过世界上最好的师资接受到高质量的教育。美国的大学拥有最先进的实验室、电脑、研究体系和教室，这一切都很昂贵。同时在美国许多大学里，你师从在各自领域最顶尖的研究人员。各个大学要请他们担任教授也耗资不菲。所以你是在为高质量的教育买单，这就是为什么美国大学非常昂贵。
What kind of financial aid is available?
能够提供什么类型的助学金？
It really depends on the university what kind of financial aid is available. There are a lot of opportunities out there for international students. There are some universities that have merit-based scholarships. Many have scholarships in general for international students. There are athletic scholarships, scholarships based on a specific talent. It really depends on the individual university, but if the students give themselves sufficient time and really do their research, I think that they can find a university that fits their financial profile, that might have scholarships available, different, you know, work opportunities on campus for individual students.
能够提供什么类型的助学金取决于各个大学。国际学生有很多申请助学金的机会。有些大学设有基于学业成绩的奖学金。很多大学为国际学生提供了一般奖学金。此外还有体育奖学金以及基于特殊才能的奖学金。这完全取决于各个大学，但如果学生们给自己足够时间真正研究，我认为他们就能找到一所适合自己财务状况的大学，这所大学可能设有奖学金。此外还有针对个别学生的校园工作机会。
Are school rankings important?
学校排名是否很重要？
I know that rankings matter to a lot of parents and students worldwide, but here in the U.S. we pay very little attention to rankings. The rankings that are produced are actually the opinion of several different magazines. They're not really official government rankings. The U.S. doesn't have a universal ranking system. So the way that we see it is that rankings are, just produced by several magazines. Usually the same schools are typically listed as the top 10 or top 20 year after year. So in the U.S., they don't really have that much credibility. With that said, we know that to many families abroad and outside the United States, rankings are very important.
我知道世界各地的家长和学生们都很重视学校排名。但在美国，我们不太关心排名。所发布的学校排名实际上只是几家不同杂志的观点，它们并非是真正的政府官方排名。美国并不具备一个通用排名体系。所以我们认为排名只是几家杂志发布的。通常同一所大学每年的排名往往都在前十或前二十名。所以在美国，它并没有什么可信度。不过，我们知道对海外很多家庭来说，排名非常重要。
So as a university, we try to make that information available so that students can see our rankings. But I think that they really should understand how little value they have in the United States in terms of determining whether or not a university is a quality institution and if it would offer a very good education. There are many US universities that don't show up on any rankings that are fantastic and have some of the best researchers in the world and best facilities in the world offering really high-level quality education that students might never hear of if they're just looking at magazines that tell you the top 50 U.S. universities. So I think that international students really need to keep that in mind.
所以作为一所大学，我们尽量提供这类资料，这样学生们就能看到我们的排名。但我认为，学生们确实应该明白，在美国，排名在决定一所大学是否合格，是否能够提供良好教育方面价值不大。很多美国大学未参与任何排名却很了不起，它们有着全球最好的研究人员和最好的设施，能够提供真正高水平的教育。学生们永远不会知道它，如果他们只看发布美国大学前50名的杂志的话。所以我认为，国际学生真的需要牢记这点。
How can I prepare for the visa interview?
如何准备签证面试？
In terms of the student visa, I know that that generates a lot of anxiety for many students around the world and my tip for that would be, as long as you are a genuine student, it's likely that you will receive your visa. When you go for the interview they're looking for generally three things.
在学生签证方面，我知道这让世界各地很多学生感到焦虑。对此我的建议是，只要你确实是名学生，很可能就能获得签证。当你去面试时，他们一般想弄明白三件事。
One, of course, is that you're a genuine student, that you're coming to the United States to study your education program to get your degree. So when you go into that visa interview, you should really know things about the university that you're going to, why you're going there, why you want to study, what you want to study—that's how you show that you're a genuine student.
第一，当然，你确实是名学生，来美国是为了学习并获得学位。所以当你进入签证面试时，你应该知道你要读的大学的情况，你为什么选这所大学，你为什么想学习，你想学习什么，这就是你如何证明你确实是名学生。
The second thing that they're looking for is to be sure that you have the finances to cover your educational program. You'll have to submit the same bank documentation you used in order to get your I-20 to the U.S. Embassy as part of your interview to prove that you are able to pay for your education in the U.S.
他们想探究的第二件事是确保你有足够资金覆盖你的教育计划。作为面试的一部分，你必须向美国大使馆提交用于申请I-20表格的银行单据，以此证明你能担负起自己在美国的教育费用。
The next thing that they're mainly looking for is to be sure, again, that you're a legitimate student and that you're not looking to move to the United States, that you have a reason to return to your home country, whether it be your family, a home; prospective employment. So if you go into the interview thinking of all those things and prepare yourself to answer those questions and that you really are legitimately coming to the United States to get an education, I think that the visa interview will be no problem.
接下来他们主要想弄明白的事就是再次确认你是一名合格的学生，你不是为了移民美国，你有合理理由回国，这个理由不管是家人、家庭，还是就业前景。所以如果去面试时，想好这些问题的答案，而且你确实是合法地去美国接受教育，我想签证面试就不会有什么问题。(51VOA.COM对本文翻译保留全部权利，未经授权请勿转载，违者必究！)
