Four months ago I already posted the admissions notice, and last month I posted an additional explanation, hoping that students interested in applying would get in touch with me as early and as soon as possible, so that there would be enough time for us to exchange ideas.
The “research proposal” is the most important part of the application materials. The official materials require 5,000 characters, and I very much hope to see it in advance as well. So I repeatedly stressed the importance of the research proposal to every student who signed up.
Indeed, what I would say at the time was: no rush, write it carefully. There’s a whole summer, after all. But by the time summer was over, and Tsinghua had already officially required registration, only then did some people finally send me their research proposals in a slow, dragging fashion; more people still hadn’t sent theirs at all.
What makes the research proposal so important is that it can very clearly reveal a student’s academic literacy, their ability to grasp academic questions, their command of academic resources, how clearly they position themselves, and how well they fit with my research interests. All of this can be reflected in a research proposal. So I treat the proposal as the most important stage in screening students, and precisely for that reason, I will not hand-hold students through how to write one.
Although I won’t guide you step by step in writing the proposal, once you send me your proposal, I will certainly give you feedback. If the topic is problematic, if the literature is problematic, and so on, I will criticize poorly written parts quite severely, and then you will have the chance to go back and revise them.
In fact, because of the overall backward state of China’s academic world right now, many students simply do not know how to write a research proposal; they do not know how to narrow a topic, and they are not good at using secondary literature. The first proposal they write is often quite terrible. I do not expect to recruit students who are already very mature in every respect right away, so I value academic potential more. After all, what students are like before they get started is not something I taught them, but once they have begun, as long as they are willing to learn, I believe I can teach even outsiders with no academic foundation.
But how do you judge potential? The method I have in mind is to first look at the research proposal, then after I criticize it and give feedback, see how they revise and improve it. If someone can quickly understand their own shortcomings and show a clear improvement in a short time, then I will think rather highly of such a student.
Regrettably, most students simply miss the opportunity to demonstrate academic potential: either they contact me early but drag their feet and never submit the materials, or they do not contact me beforehand and then suddenly submit the materials. By the time someone hands in a research proposal at the end of August, that already counts as early; they still have a little room to go back and rework it. But those who still haven’t submitted anything now—are they expecting the proposal to be perfect in one go and not planning to accept criticism or guidance?
Only after becoming a teacher did I realize how annoying procrastination can be. When I was a student, I used to submit papers and the like right up against the deadline. Looking back now, from the teacher’s point of view, all assignments come crashing in at the very last moment, and the experience is really not pleasant. If the teacher wants to give more feedback to each student, it becomes even more frantic. No matter how many months in advance the assignment is given, it seems the teacher’s busiest time is always just the last two weeks. I suppose this is my karmic retribution too…
This article is just a little grumble. It seems the exam and interview will be in mid-September (the 13th and 14th), and there really isn’t much time left. Applicants, please hurry up, and contact me proactively and in a timely manner.
(Testing out the “status” style; it probably won’t be sent as a subscription email)
Translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The original text is authoritative.
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