Micheal博士点评原文:
Cushing Academy is located in Ashburnham, Massachusetts, about 1 hour's drive west of Boston and 30 minutes north of Worcester. It is a beautiful, large campus in a small, traditional New England town. Its bucolic location belies the forward thinking in education that is happening here. The school has over 150 years of history and has been accepting students from China for nearly that whole length of time. In fact the Admissions Director, Ms Aulenback, told us that on the head of school's visit to China in 1995, he was met by a woman whose grandfather was among those earliest of Chinese students to attend the school. Cushing is very much interested in maintaining these old connections with China and expanding upon them in the coming years. Our tour guide Miss Jiang, a junior from Guangzhou, absolutely loved her school and seemed very happy with the myriad of choices she had been provided with to explore new curricular activities. In her case, although a trained clarinet player back home, she was given a chance to pick up the saxophone on arrival and is now playing in the jazz combo, a completely new form of music to her. She also got the chance to play volleyball and tennis competitively.
Very strong academically, a given for a prep school of this caliber, Cushing also puts high emphasis on the arts and music. Advanced painting, ceramics, photography, many musical courses and computer design are all offered. They even have art classes that teach students how to make stained glass and works in silver, something almost unheard of at even the finest of prep schools.
What might be even most impressive is that a great academic school like Cushing actually has 3 level of ESL and are truly committed to building each class with the best possible students they can, not just choosing people solely based on their TOEFL scores. Ms. Aulenback also told us that they offered a spot to someone with a TOEFL score of 80 while denying admission to a person with a TOEFL score over 100 that same year. The person with the 80 score was a much more gifted student in all other areas and would go on to be much more of a great fit to the school, from total academic breadth of interests, and musically. Cushing was willing to see past the slightly lower level and take the lower TOEFL score because they saw a student who would contribute more to the entire school environment. They also have the English language support system to make this student a great success at the school. This is really seldom seen in a school of Cushing's caliber! I very much applaud this idea and wholeheartedly recommend this school!
【校园位置】
库欣高中位于美国马塞诸塞州的阿什伯纳姆市,从波士顿向西开大约一小时车程即可到达,从伍斯特市向北开大约要30分钟。宽广优美的校园坐落在充满了新英格兰风情的小城中,而这种田园牧歌般的祥和景色丝毫不能掩盖库欣高中夺目的教育光芒。
【与中国合作历史悠久】
库欣高中迄今约有150年的历史,自办校以来一直源源不断地接受中国的留学生。招生办主任Aulenback女士告诉我们,学校负责人在早1995年访华期间会见了一位中国女士,她的祖父就曾是中国最早一批远渡重洋到库欣高中留学的学生。库欣非常乐于维持于中国的良好合作关系,并计划在未来几年深化交流、扩大合作。
【丰富多彩的课程】
我们的学院向导江小姐是一位来自广州的小姑娘,她非常热爱库欣,因为学校为她的学习提供了全方位多种多样的选择,她可以充分地利用学校的资源获得新知。她说,过去在家里她只学过单簧管,一来到库欣她就爱上了萨克斯,现在她同时在玩组合爵士乐,这是她从前都没敢幻想的音乐旅程。她在学校还参加了排球和网球活动,和同学们练得风生水起。
以强大的学术后盾为依托,作为大学“预科”的库欣学院对学生在艺术和音乐上的造诣非常重视——学校全面提供绘画、陶瓷、摄影、音乐和电脑设计课程。他们甚至有一堂课专门教学生如何在彩色玻璃和银器上作画装饰,这样细致地挖掘学生的才能是其他学校望尘莫及的。库欣也因此成为了一所顶尖的美国高中。
【库欣录取标准彰显智慧锋芒】
此外,令人印象最深刻的是,库欣高中为英语是第二语言的孩子准备了三个英语语言级别的班级,他们并不是只录取所有申请者中托福成绩靠前的学生。Aulenback女士解释道,有一年,他们录取了一位托福80分的学生,同时拒绝了一位100分学生的申请。因为80分的学生虽然语言弱一些,但他在其他所有方面都表现得非常有能力,而且在学术思考和音乐上也很有发展潜力,日后会更好地融入学院生活。库欣不会将托福成绩不高的学生拒之门外,因为他们相信综合素质高的学生会为学校带来更多附加价值。学校提供的英语学习课程会快速地帮助孩子解决语言问题。在生源竞争激烈的今天,像库欣高中这样先进的办学理念真的很少见!我向大家竭诚推荐这所优秀的高中!
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