很多學生問我哪種美國大學排名對將來找工作用處最大?這是個非常好的問題。實際上，很多的學生和家長都很關心這方面的信息，卻很少有人提出來。好問題往往是複雜的，它也不例外，我們可以把它分成兩個問題來理解：

　　Many student ask me which U.S. ranking of colleges is best for getting the best job opportunities after graduation。It is an excellent question.It is something that so many students and their families think about and seldom ask.It is also a complex question, as most good questions are because it brings up two questions:

　　1.美國大學各個排名之間的區別在哪裡?

　　What is the difference in U.S. college ranking?

　　2.哪個排名在你找工作的時候對雇主的參考價值最高

　　Which ranking is best for job opportunities?

　　讓我們先討論一下排名對於求職的影響。如果讓你相信，在面試時你的個人才智比你所畢業的那所學校排名更重要也許很難。因為在中國悠久的歷史當中，排名一直是個被高度崇尚的因素。而對於成長在這樣一種環境中的你來說，去接受另外一種思維模式的確非常難。

　　It’s begin with your question about job opportunities according to rankings. It will be hard for you to accept that the particular college graduate has much more influence in the job that they get than the ranking of their college.It is hard for you to understand simply because you come from a culture who worships rankings.That kind of superficial understanding makes it hard for you to believe in any other system of influence.

　　但中國也有句俗話，實踐出真知。我們一起來看看下面幾個例子：和毛主席共同開闢了中美關係歷史性篇章的尼克松總統畢業於惠特學院(Whittier College)。現任美國總統奧巴馬曾就讀於加州的西方學院(Occidental College)。還有一些對你來說很容易找到的例子，就是去網上搜一下世界500強的CEO都分別畢業於哪所大學。

　　No matter your belief, the best way for you to judge is to look at the evidence.For example,the U.S. President Richard Nixon, the American president who first came to China to meet Chairman Mao and opened up the political relations between the China and the USA graduated from Whitman College.President Obama went to Occidental College in the state of California.Another good example that you can easily Google and check out for yourself are the list of colleges where the presidents of the Fortune Five Hundred companies (top international business corporations) went to college.

　　從哈爾濱到深圳，從上海到成都，可以說，我本人接觸過的中國學生遍布中國各地，但我還從未遇見一個沒有“只有從哈佛畢業才能出人頭地”這種想法的學生。如果你查了福布斯排行榜上那些公司CEO的出處，你就會發現，很多人去的是德克薩斯大學，而不是哈佛。

　　I have never met a Chinese high school student, and I have talked to students from Harbin to Shenzhen, from Shanghai to Chendu, who didn’t think that if only they could go to Harvard they would be rich and famous.You will see in the list of the Fortune Five Hundred companies that as many of these corporate presidents went to the University of Texas as to Harvard and became presidents of a top international corporation.

　　作為數本學生就業指南的撰寫人，我可以明確地告訴大家，很多研究都表明了，在求職過程中，最重要的是你自己的個人能力。這些能力包括明確自己的優劣勢，對自己的能力與心儀的公司是否匹配做出正確地判斷以及面試過程中握手和眼神交流等等。而所有這些觀察、研究和溝通的能力也恰恰是你在申請美國的大學過程中所需要的。比起那些大學排名，以上這些東西完全可以被你自己所控制。而對於希望成為業內頂尖的學術機構和公司來說，無論你的能力有多強，無論你的母校排名有多高，都絲毫左右不了他們的選人標準。在這個層面上，即使你門門考滿分也沒用。所以，與其擔心那些你改變不了的東西，為什麼不好好地在你能夠左右的東西上多下點功夫呢。

　　As a writer of many career guide books for high school students, I can tell you that the research shows that the most important influences in job opportunities are your own personal skills. These skills are to access yourself and what you have to offer, research the company where you want to work so that you know what you can offer the company, your handshake and eye contact at your interview. All of these personal qualities to observe, research, and communicate are the very same skills needed to get into an American college. You have complete control over them all, unlike college rankings. No matter your skills or the rankings of colleges, you do not have control over who the college or company is looking for to build their strongest class or company. No number of test scores or rankings will give you that control. So work on what you can control and the influence you can make for college and career choices.