美国大学招生丑闻

∷杨小荷 译注

在美国大学招生丑闻中，有50人被指控通过走后门，把富裕家庭的孩子送入了顶级高校。这成了人们茶余饭后的绝佳谈资。检察官宣称，这些人中有一些是社会名流，为了让孩子上好大学，不惜行贿和舞弊。这次丑闻还披露了不少诡异的细节，包括被处理过的图片——脸是涉事孩子的脸，身体却是优秀的年轻运动员的。这件事值得反复推敲和说道，因为它说出了人人都有所察觉却说不出来的美国社会真相。那就是：美国的整个教育体系都是一场由少数人操控大多数人的骗局。

The college-admissions scandal—in which fi fty people have been indicted for scheming to get the children of wealthy parents into top schools—makes for perfect cocktail chatter. It involves a couple of celebrities among those who, prosecutors allege, bribed and cheated their kids’ way into college.1. prosecutor: 检察官，公诉人；allege: 宣称，指控；bribe: 贿赂。It includes bizarre details, like the Photoshopping of photographs of said children’s faces onto the bodies of outstanding young athletes. It bears savoring and retelling,because it says something intuitively obvious but barely articulated about American society: Its entire education system is a scam, perpetrated by a few upon the many.2. scam: 欺诈，骗局；perpetrate: 施行，从事（有害、违法或欺诈的行为）。

近日，美国爆出史上最大的高校招生舞弊案，多名商业领袖和娱乐明星为了让子女进入精英大学，不惜贿赂SAT/ACT考试管理人员或大学体育教练，金额高达650万美元，牵涉到耶鲁（Yale）、斯坦福（Stanford）、南加大（USC）等多所美国名校。然而，在这场浮出水面的舞弊案之下，我们看到的是美国长久以来不公平的招生体系。更可悲的是，这一体系正逐渐制度化，普通民众早已见怪不怪了。

这起丑闻让我们看到的，远不止高等教育那高得实在让人负担不起的学费（很多大学毕业生到最后都搞不清“literally”这个词该怎么用，难得像我现在这样用对）。我们还看到，进入精英大学不仅是为了让一个学生获得教育，更是为了创造或强化社会联系，从而为未来的财富打下基础。我们还看到，美国每所大学，包括公立大学，在基础设施、课程设置、人员聘用，及其自身存在方面作出的所有决定，都是建立在筹款和赚钱的逻辑之上的。我们还看到，入学一年比一年难，也一年比一年贵。我们还看到，申请流程从根本上被人操纵，而这也早已人尽皆知。这起丑闻让我们看到了所有这一切。

It’s not just that higher education is literally prohibitively expensive (and at the end of it most college graduates still don’t know how to use the word “literally” correctly,3. literally: 确实地，名副其实地（在口语中，literally被滥用，只表示强调，丧失了“名副其实地”这个含义，所以作者说很多人大学毕业都不会正确使用这个词）；prohibitively:（费用）高得负担不起地。as I am here). It’s not just that admission to an élite college—more than the education a student receives there—provides the foundation of future wealth by creating or reinforcing social connections. It’s not just that every college in the country,including public schools, makes decisions about infrastructure,curriculum development, hiring, and its very existence on the basis of fund-raising and money-making logic. It’s not just that the process of getting into college grows more stressful—and,consequently, more expensive—with every passing year. It’s not just that the process itself is fundamentally rigged4. rig: 操纵，做手脚。and everyone knows this. It’s all of it.

There is an adage5. adage: 谚语，格言。of journalism that holds that every story should be written as if by a foreign correspondent. I generally like this idea: Coverage of many issues could benef i t from an informed view. I now fi nd myself imagining applying it to the college-scandal story.

I would, of course, begin by explaining that fi fty people in six states are accused of conspiring to game the collegeadmissions system.6. conspire: 密谋，图谋；game the system:钻规则（法律）的空子牟利。They spent hundreds of thousands of dollars each to have other people take standardized tests in place of their children, to insure that the administration of the test itself would be fi xed7. fi x: 用不正当的手段操纵（选举、比赛等的）结果。, and to bribe coaches and falsify their children’s athletic records. Here, the story would get complicated. A reader in any country can understand the concept of a standardized test—in some countries, in fact, standardized tests have been a tool to fi ght corruption in admissions. But what does athletic ability have to do with college, especially a college considered academically challenging?

搞新闻的有这么一个说法：记者每报道一则新闻，都应该把自己当作一个局外人。我大致赞同这个说法：在许多问题的报道上，信息越全越好。现在我假想自己在用这条准则报道高校招生丑闻。

最开头，我肯定会说，来自六个州的50个人被指控密谋在大学招生环节舞弊。他们每个人都花了几十万美元，找人在标准考试中给自己的孩子替考，确保可以操控考试监管流程，并贿赂教练伪造孩子的体育成绩。到这里，问题就变得复杂了。任何一个国家的读者，肯定都知道什么是标准考试——事实上，在一些国家，标准考试被当作抵制招生腐败的手段。但是体育成绩与上大学，尤其是学术上要求很高的大学，又有什么关系呢？

紧接着，我就得开始解释美国大学一些奇特的招生规则。作为两个孩子的家长——他们一个刚走完申请流程，一个刚开始申请—— 这段时间我总结了一些经验，用来给我的外国朋友们介绍美国的这一体系。（加拿大的一位老师近来对此表示怀疑：“在加拿大，上大学没什么门槛！”）我得和他们解释校友子女优先录取的政策，而精英教育可以代代相传的这种观念分明早已过时。我还得解释说，美国的大学严重依赖于捐款，并因此形成了一批世代校友。除此之外我还要解释说，包括课外活动在内的一些软标准也越来越多——你不仅要比同龄人有更多的知识，还要为世界作过更大的贡献。然而实际上，传授知识、为学生进入社会作准备，这本身就是大学的职责。我必须要说的是，出资让孩子们参与课外活动，以及赞助志愿服务，对家长来说这是最基本的要求。

Soon, I would fi nd myself explaining the exotic customs of American college admissions. As the parent of two young adults—one recently went through the application process and the other is in its beginning stages—I have accumulated some experience explaining the system to my friends in other countries. (A Canadian academic’s recent incredulous response:8. academic: 大学教师，（大学里的）学者；incredulous: 不愿相信的，表示怀疑的。“In Canada, people just go to university!”) I would have to explain the concept of legacy admissions:The positively pre-modern concept that the right to an élite education is heritable. I would have to explain that colleges depend heavily on fi nancial donors, whom they cultivate through generations. I would have to explain the growing part of softer criteria like extracurriculars—the race to be not only better-educated than your peers but also better at being a good person in the world—as if education and an initiation into adult civic life were not what college itself is for. I would have to note that it’s essential for parents to be able to afford to pay for their children’s extracurriculars and sponsor their volunteerism.

I would have to explain all that before I even got to the standardized tests. Then I would note that an SAT/ACT tutor in New York City charges between three hundred and four hundred and fi fty dollars an hour.9.SAT:（美国）学业能力倾向测验（Scholastic Aptitude Test，是高中生升入大学前的资格考试）；ACT:美国大学测验（American College Test，是美国一些大学的入学考试）。I would note that, to make parents feel better about parting with that sort of money, many programs guarantee a precise bump in test scores for their students: about a hundred and eighty points, out of a possible total of sixteen hundred, for the SAT; about four, out of thirtysix, for the ACT. I would note that gaming the test legally is such a well-established practice that children whose parents can’t afford thousands of dollars in test-prep fees will score more than ten per cent lower than those who get tutored.

只有把这些都讲清楚了，我才能再谈标准考试。然后我还得告诉他们，在纽约，一个SAT/ACT的辅导老师，每小时要收300到450美元。我得说明，这么多钱，为了让家长花得心安，很多项目会保证学生有明确数值的提分：满分1600分的SAT，大概可以提180分；满分36分的ACT，大概可以提4分。我要说的是，这种合法的提分方式由来已久。因此家里负担不起这类考前培训费用的孩子，平均成绩要比受过培训的低10%还多。

当然，考试成绩不是全部。每所学校都会跟你说，他们在招生时会进行“全面考查”。课程论文也很重要，可以请专人指导和修改，自有一套方法可循。这种服务的价格，按小时算下来，比考试辅导还要贵。除此以外还有额外花钱的招生咨询，因为即便是最好的公立学校的辅导员，能给那些有志向的学生的特殊关照，或者能利用的关系，也比不上砸钱管用。有些关系也可以间接靠砸钱获得，比如考生父母有朋友在学校教书或在招生办工作，或者能对学校在论文和申请人的课外活动中看重哪些方面提出许多建议。其中一点就是要展现出对目标学校的兴趣——巨大的兴趣——但学校还是希望考生已经参观过他们的校园。是的，在大多数国家，学生们都会在自己长大的城市上大学，但是我想说，在美国，多数年轻人想要“走远”一点儿，这也意味着申请前参观校园要花费更多的金钱和时间。另外我可能要说，学生宿舍作为大学收益的主要来源，收费自然也不低。但现在，很多原本以走读生为主的学校，也开始要求一二年级的学生住宿舍了，即便有的学生家就在本地。低收入家庭的学生不敢尝试申请好大学的原因还远不止这些。这些学校，基本上是有钱人跟更有钱的人去竞争。

Granted10. granted: （表示肯定属实，然后再作另一番论述）不错，的确。, the test results aren’t everything. Every college will tell you that it takes a “holistic11. holistic: 整体的，全面的。approach” to admissions. There are essays, for which there is also coaching, and editing, and a formula; the hourly rate for these services can exceed that of the test tutors. There is also additional college counselling,because a guidance counsellor even at the best public school can’t give an aspiring college student the kind of individual attention, or the kinds of connection, that money can buy. And then there are the connections that money buys indirectly: the parents’ friends who teach, or who work in admissions, or who have generous tips on what colleges are looking for in an essay or an applicant’s list of extracurriculars. One of those things is interest in the particular college—an immeasurable quality, to be sure, but colleges like to see that an applicant has visited the campus. Yes, in most of the world, young people go to university in the city where they grew up, but in the United States, I would explain, most young people aspire to “go away” to college, and that means that even a pre-application tour is a costly and time-consuming proposition12. proposition: 事情。. I might mention that the dormitory system, a major source of revenue for the colleges, is also a giant expense for the families, but,these days, even colleges that used to be known as commuter schools13. commuter school: 指大部分学生不住在校园，需要每日通勤的学校。require fi rst- and often second-year students to live in the dorms, even if their families live in the same city. This is but an incomplete list of reasons that many low-income students don’t even try to apply to selective14. selective:（学校挑选学生）有选择性的，严格筛选的。colleges. The wealthy compete with the even wealthier.

I would explain that many American colleges have made a concerted effort to admit students from more varied backgrounds, but have failed even to keep up with the changing demographics of the country.15. concerted: 一致的，协调好的；demographics: 人口统计数据。The top colleges and universities continue, overwhelmingly, to educate the wealthy and white.The proportional representation of African-Americans and Latinos in the population of top colleges has been dropping,with a few exceptions, which are, in turn, determined largely by wealth: Only the wealthiest colleges can admit a lot of students whose parents can’t afford tuition. And if they want to keep these students, they have to invest in revamping16. revamp: 修改，改进。their curricula and training faculty and allocating additional teaching and counselling resources to help students for whom the culture of élite colleges is alien and alienating.

我要说明的是，美国很多大学都一致声称要招收来自不同背景的学生，但是对国内正在变化的人口比例却并不敏感。一直以来，顶尖的大学录取的学生基本都是富人和白人，非裔和拉美裔学生的比例逐年下降。即便有例外，也要归功于资本：只有最有钱的学校，才敢招收许多付不起学费的孩子。而如果想留住这些学生，学校还得斥资调整课程设置，对教职工进行培训，并配置额外的教学和咨询资源，从而帮助这些对精英校园文化感到陌生、觉得自己格格不入的学生。

既然要解释以上所讲的各种额外资源的重要性，那么相应地就要解释在美国，教育是怎样接受资助的，学区是怎样划分的，中产阶级家庭怎样在最合适的社区投资房产，从而让该区的公立学校为孩子上名校提供助力。我想说，最好的公立小学培养出的学生，才有能力跟昂贵的私立学校的学生去竞争。在我看来，对那些在社会地位和经济上都有野心的家庭来说，在美国养一个孩子，意味着在其出生后的18年间，家长都要为其进好大学而投资。

Explaining why these additional resources would be necessary would in turn require an explanation of how education is funded in this country, how school districts are drawn, how middle-class parents invest in a house in the right neighborhood, where public schools will give their kids a chance at a decent college. The best public primary schools, I would explain, enable graduates to compete with kids who went to expensive private schools.For the socially and economically hopeful17. hopeful: n. 希望获得成功的人，雄心勃勃的人。, I would explain, raising a child in America is an eighteen-year process of investing in the collegeadmissions system.

All this, I would hope, would serve to elucidate18. elucidate: 阐明，解释。how a corruption scheme like the college-admissions conspiracy could come to be. But it would also raise the question: Why are these ridiculous crooks the only people who might be punished for perpetuating—by gaming—a bizarre, Byzantine, and profoundly unmeritocratic education system?19. crook: 骗子，无赖；Byzantine: 类似古拜占庭政治情况的（特点是多阴谋诡计），错综复杂的；unmeritocratic: 非精英管理的（“精英管理制度”的英文为meritocracy，指依据人的能力和成绩而非社会阶层来评定人的体制）。Why is such a clearly and unabashedly20. unabashedly: 不害臊地，不怕羞地。immoral system legal at all?

我希望，通过以上种种，可以说明美国大学招生何以黑幕重重。但这又带来另一个问题：幕后黑手固然可恶，但这种进行暗箱操作、奇特怪异、多阴谋诡计且不看重真实能力的教育制度得以持续，难道仅仅是这些人之过吗？这样一个明显不道德的制度，又为何会合法存在呢？