Is a prestigious school a dream? Is graduate school useless? The girl who was admitted to Beijing Normal University with the first place will answer you

It has been nearly three years since I graduated with a master’s degree and left the scholarly campus of Beijing Normal University.

Not long after the 2017 National Postgraduate Entrance Examination came to an end, I recently received many calls from junior students. Their questions generally revolved around two aspects:

Understand College student users account for a large proportion of the platform, and postgraduate entrance examinations are a concern for many people. Therefore, I would like to share my views here.

For the first question, I don’t want to answer it directly. I will share my own postgraduate entrance examination story with you later.

Is reading useful? Do you need to go to graduate school? Is knowledge important?

This question reminds me of a question on Zhihu.

- Question -

Would it be more appropriate to use the tuition fees to study or travel around the world?

Why?

- Answer -

Without sufficient knowledge as a prerequisite,

even if you travel thousands of miles,

It's just the postman.

As to whether study and research are important or not, this question varies from person to person and there is no unified answer. But there is no doubt that knowledge can indeed be monetized in today's society.

Knowledge is so important, and it is getting more and more important!

If you want to do academic research, then going to graduate school is a must. But even if you don’t plan to take the academic path, continue to go to graduate school, read more books, and learn more knowledge. It is absolutely beneficial and harmless.

Of course, this does not mean that learning stops after working, but it means that after working, it is very difficult to have a whole period of time to study systematically and deeply. .

Therefore, as long as conditions permit and you are not very clear about your career plan, then it is not a waste of time to calm down on campus and immerse yourself in it for two or three more years.

After all, life is so long. Two or three more years of study will not really delay you, but will add value to your life.

It is only when the books are used that they become less useful. This is the same sentiment shared by many of my friends around me.

Nowadays, knowledge IP is a very hot word. Many of the successes of the group of people standing at the forefront of the times are due to their solid knowledge reserves. After the advent of the Internet+ era, , and seized the opportunity in a timely manner, so the emergence of hundreds of millions or hundreds of billions of intellectual IP is not accidental.

This group of people are all representatives of those who have accumulated a lot of experience.

I myself recently led an online learning community. Every night I needed to code and write a transcript, and then record it into audio. For 20 minutes of audio, I had to output about 3,000 words of text.

I am also grateful for my extensive reading and accumulation in those years.

Therefore, learn more knowledge and it will never become outdated at any time.

Furthermore, to put it more secularly, after working, you will find that in many cases, diplomas are indeed linked to salary.

I work in a large state-owned enterprise group.

The salary of fresh graduates is determined by their diploma.

The monthly income of undergraduate students is 2,000 to 3,000 less than that of graduate students, and the monthly income of graduate students is about 3,500 lower than that of PhD students.

Later, I asked a friend who works in a foreign company about the salary of fresh graduates in their company, and their academic qualifications are also a reference factor.

This is a real society, and occasionally, it seems that it has to have a bit of fireworks.

Of course, I am very opposed to studying purely for a diploma. Even if you enter the society and the reality makes you become utilitarian, in school, when learning knowledge, you don’t need to be so eager for quick success and quick gain. Just be down-to-earth, bit by bit, and devote yourself wholeheartedly.

This kind of neither hurry nor delay, neither arrogance nor impatience, will allow you to go faster than others after graduation.

Therefore, the answer to whether you should go to graduate school or not is up to you.

As for the first question, many students are worried, "I want to apply for a prestigious school? But the competition is too fierce, is there no chance?" "What if I fail the first time and I have a lot of qualifications?" I have a deep attachment to prestigious schools, so do I need to persist?”

I don’t want to, or rather, I can’t give a definite answer.

Here, I just want to share my postgraduate entrance examination story 6 years ago. If you can read it to the end, the answer may already be in your mind.

In September 2009, I was still a senior student at the School of Chinese Communication at Xi'an International Studies University. At that time, the school recommended places for graduate students to study at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Ranked by major, the top 5 You can go.

I am one of these 5 people.

But later, due to tuition issues, I was unable to go to Hong Kong to study Chinese.

In July 2010, after graduating from college, I went to Guangzhou and taught English to high school students in Guangzhou New Oriental. Soon after, I decided to take the entrance exam for the master’s degree in the Chinese Department of Beijing Normal University in January 2011.

After that, the journey of preparing for the exam while working began.

The Chinese Department of Beijing Normal University is very difficult to pass, and the Comparative Literature I applied for is considered to be the flagship major of the Chinese Department of Beijing Normal University. The competition is fierce, and the key is that there are very few places for external recruitment. .

That year, there were only 5 places, and the number of applicants reached more than 1,000.

In March 2011, I entered the re-examination with a score of 387 and ranked second in the preliminary examination, but I was not admitted in the end.

I remember that after the results came out on March 24, 2011, I cried and went to the director of the Institute of Comparative Literature of Beijing Normal University, hoping that he would give me an acceptable reason. However, in the end, I was still not admitted and refused to choose to transfer.

I sat alone under the wooden altar outside the main building of Beijing Normal University. The golden sound of the wooden altar was the symbolic symbol of Beijing Normal University, and I cried all afternoon.

My father called me from his hometown and said with tears, "I'm sorry, daughter. Dad is unable to help you. I know you are working too hard."

Father The tears made me strengthen my confidence.

At that time, there was a lot of opposition around me. My friends either suggested working or changing schools. But because I loved Japanese literature very much, I found a professor who was very good at studying Japanese literature in China. I was at Beijing Normal University, and at that time, I really wanted to pursue an academic path, so I told myself that I would not give up. I would come back to Beijing Normal University in 2012 and get the first place.

At the end of July 2012, I quit my job at New Oriental and returned to Xi'an. I rented a house in an urban village called "Xiaoju'an Village" outside the campus. I reviewed in the school library during the day and studied at night. Go back to the rental house and rest.

After returning to Xi'an, I told a few good friends about my wish to "enter Beijing Normal University with first place in 2012" and told them, what if I come true? , they each had to give me a box of Assam milk tea - my favorite drink.

The best part of youth is that you can brag without restraint. Even if things go the other way and you lose miserably, people around you won’t laugh at you.

For more than half a year, relying on this strong belief, I studied very hard and worked extremely hard. In addition to working part-time on weekends to support myself, I basically stayed in the library for 8 hours a day during the five days of the week. Review the book carefully.

In March 2012, I was admitted to the Comparative Literature Department of the School of Liberal Arts of Beijing Normal University with a score of 394, ranking first in both the preliminary and re-examinations, and became a disciple of the mentor I most admired.

Here, I share this story with everyone again. What I want to illustrate is that the power of belief is really very powerful and the law of attraction really exists.

Just like Zhang Defen said in the book "Meeting the Unknown Self", "Dear, if you really want to do something, the whole world will help you."

If you, reading this article, also want to go to a school of your choice for graduate school, as long as you are eager enough and work hard enough, you can definitely achieve it.

Thinking about it now, 6 years ago, I was just in my early 20s, and I was still too unclear about what the future would look like. However, my unwillingness to compromise with reality made me feel better today. Deeply moved.

The boat of life is not tied up and is drifting in the vast ocean. Over the years, I have been carefully steering the rudder, cutting through the water little by little, and trying to move forward.

Dear readers, at this moment, I am sitting in a book bar with light green curtains and petal window stickers, typing the above words for you. On the left hand side is a rattan style sofa and a brand new electronic keyboard. On the right hand side is a hanging basket filled with sunlight. There are ancient calligraphy and paintings on the wall. Behind it are countless philosophy or history books and magazines.

The shop owner is a very stylish middle-aged woman. Her elegance and calmness are exactly what I admire. Her ability to realize her dreams also makes me yearn for her.

Let us stick to our beliefs, let us never compromise, never stop, be stubborn and strong to break through obstacles, and move closer to that bright and free future.

One day, we will also realize our dreams, just like that elegant middle-aged woman, smiling quietly in the afternoon sun.