Advice for Approaching the Common Application COVID-19 Question 关于应对通用申请表中新冠病毒相关问题的建议

By Beth McKenzie

Tulane University recently published a short article on their Admission’s Blog introducing the COVID-19 question that will appear in the Common Application and providing some useful tips for contextualizing and approaching this topic.

杜兰大学最近在其招生博客上发布了一篇短文，介绍了将会出现在通用申请表中的新冠病毒相关问题，并针对这个问题在具体情境中应该如何应对提供了一些有用的建议。

The Common Application COVID-19 will be limited to a 250-word count and will be presented in the Additional Information section. Here is how the question will read:

通用申请表中新冠病毒相关问题的回答字数将限制在250字以内，并且会显示在附加信息部分。以下是这个问题的内容：

Community disruptions such as COVID-19 and natural disasters can have deep and long-lasting impacts. If you need it, this space is yours to describe those impacts. Colleges care about the effects on your health and well-being, safety, family circumstance, future plans, and education, including access to reliable technology and quiet study spaces.

社区的混乱，例如新冠疫情和自然灾害，会产生深远和持久的影响。如果有需要，你可以利用这个部分去描述这些影响。大学关心的是此次疫情对你的健康和幸福、安全、家庭环境、未来计划和教育的影响，包括你是否拥有技术的便利和安静的学习空间。

The question will be optional, and not all students should feel that they need to answer this question in their application. Students should be aware that all applicants have been impacted by COVID in some way that has required them to shift their academic and extracurricular agendas. Therefore, students should be self-aware of the challenges and struggles they have faced and try to determine whether their particular situation merits a specific explanation. Students should also try to remember the scope of this pandemic and to recognize that certain populations, particularly low-income and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), have been disproportionately affected and negatively impacted.

这个问题是选答的，不是所有的学生都认为自己需要在申请表中回答这个问题。学生应该意识到所有的申请者都在某种程度上受到了新冠病毒的影响，这要求他们改变他们的学术和课外活动安排。因此，学生自己也应该意识到他们面临的挑战和困境，并且确定他们的特殊情况是否值得一个具体的解释。学生们还应该尝试记住此次疫情的影响范围，并认识到某些特定的人群，尤其是低收入者和黑人、原住民及有色人种，受到了不同程度的负面影响。

If a student chooses to answer the question, they should be aware that their answers will be analyzed both for content, that is the explanation of the details of their circumstances, and for the underlying tone of that explanation. If students choose to write about their academic, social, or emotional challenges that results from COVID-19 they should aim to be honest, candid and

concise. Students should try to focus on providing unemotional answers that are explaining rather than complaining.

如果一个学生选择回答这个问题，他们就应该知道他们的回答将会根据内容，即对他们的处境的详细的解释，和解释中暗含的情感基调进行分析。如果学生选择写新冠病毒带给他们在学习、社交或情绪方面的挑战，他们应该力求诚实、坦率和简洁。学生们应该试着把注意力集中在提供非情绪方面的回答，应该是“解释”而不是“抱怨”。

The article explores a few areas of student life that might merit an explanation and gives specific examples for each category. For example, the article starts by addressing academic performance and the transcript record. If a student has experienced hardships that have significantly negatively impacted their academic performance, an explanation of this portion of the transcript might be necessary. Additionally, specific familial issues that caused genuine strife, rather than just inconvenience and annoyance, are also discussed. Unreliable internet access, loss of parental employment, and challenging demands for the children of healthcare workers were all cited as possible examples of topics that would potentially be worth elucidating.

这篇文章探讨了学生生活中可能值得去解释的几个领域，并针对每一种类型都提供了具体的例子。例如，这篇文章以学业表现和成绩单作为开端，如果一个学生经历的困难对他的学业产生了显著的负面影响，那这个学生有必要对这部分的成绩进行解释。此外，这篇文章还讨论了引起真正冲突的具体家庭问题不仅仅是不便和烦恼的情绪。没有网络，父母失业，对医护人员的孩子的挑战性要求都被看作是值得阐述的话题。

To further consider the Common App COVID-19 question, read Purdue’s specific examples, and make an educated decision about whether or not to answer the prompt you can check out the article by accessing the link in the citation below.

为了进一步思考通用申请表中的新冠病毒相关问题，请阅读普渡大学的具体示例。你还可以通过访问下面引文中的链接来查看这篇文章，并对是否回答这个问题做出明智的决定。

Jeff Schiffman, Director of Admission. Tulane University Admission Blog. July 20, 2020. Apps 101: The COVID-19 Section. http://tuadmissionjeff.blogspot.com/2020/07/apps-101-covid-19-section.html

杰夫·希夫曼，招生主任，杜兰大学招生博客，2020年7月20日。

Apps 101: The COVID-19 Section. http://tuadmissionjeff.blogspot.com/2020/07/apps-101-covid-19-section.html