The national master's admission work is about to begin. Recently, a young professor and I talked about one thing: two provincial college students registered for master's students in related majors of their school with an examination score of more than 400 points, and took the initiative to meet and communicate with him. One of the two high score candidates was a student who failed in the postgraduate entrance examination last year. He didn't go out to work and "struggled" at home for a year. Finally, he achieved his wish and achieved high scores in the postgraduate entrance examination. The professor told me that during the conversation, he found that both students seemed to belong to the type of "dead reading" and "examination oriented". They regarded the master's examination as the continuation of the college entrance examination. He thinks that the high score candidate who "repeats" at home for one year may increase his impression of the interview if he can work in relevant enterprises for a period of time. Unfortunately, he doesn't concentrate on reviewing the content of the postgraduate entrance examination at home. When asked whether the two high scoring students knew a little about the research status of their counterparts at home and abroad in related majors and whether they had read some professional Chinese and English papers, the two students looked hazy. The professor made it clear that he wanted only one of the two high score candidates at most. I suspect that this may be his helpless decision to China's postgraduate entrance examination students. Of course, I don't think the young professor's idea is discriminatory against students in provincial colleges and universities. He has just returned home. He is full of passion and hope for the national graduate education, and hopes to make a modest contribution to improving the quality of graduate training in his school and major.

This case leads to an old topic: what kind of graduate students do tutors like? How teachers and students choose to "eye to eye" tutors and students. As we all know, China's graduate degree education has only a history of 40 years. Both from graduate enrollment to training measures are lack of experience. For example, we generally believe that, in addition to moral education, it seems to be the "only standard" for the evaluation of excellent postgraduates to enable students to publish several papers during postgraduate study. I have always believed that, in addition to those great principles, the modern concept of cultivating postgraduates is to let students complete a certain amount of scientific research "in kind" workload by participating in some relevant scientific research projects, and cultivate and train Postgraduates' "scientific research ability", that is, what we often call independent scientific research ability. At present, we still mainly use the college entrance examination admission method based on the national unified examination results to recruit postgraduates, resulting in the army of postgraduate entrance examination in some provincial colleges and universities. They often prepare for the postgraduate entrance examination as in the college entrance examination, and take it as a "political achievement project" for these university managers. In an article entitled "China's stepped higher education training pattern", I mentioned that China's graduate training pattern is basically as follows: excellent students from domestic famous universities prefer to go abroad for further study (mainly European and American universities); In addition to going abroad, domestic key university students prefer domestic famous universities; It is an objective reality that provincial university students mainly choose to study in key universities. I fully understand this "ladder" pattern of higher education. Because, some students of two universities may have lost the opportunity to study in key universities due to their mistakes in the college entrance examination. Therefore, they hope to make their second choice on the way to higher education through the postgraduate examination and enter key universities. This kind of thought and choice is human nature, which is indisputable. I have four post-80s students majoring in geology who choose their favorite universities and majors twice in this way. Two of them choose mathematics and two choose electronic information. At present, except one of the four (graduated from Tsinghua University with a doctor of Electronic Engineering) is engaged in science and technology management, the other three are teaching in key domestic universities.

When I was in office, the overall scale of national graduate students was small. Our industry universities with distinctive characteristics have little choice to admit postgraduates. For example, our school enrolled less than 100 postgraduates every year, and now there are 2650. In my experience of recruiting graduate students, it is more difficult to admit master's students than doctoral students. Because, in the face of the situation encountered by those students who have scored in the postgraduate entrance examination, such as the young professor mentioned above, they are a little helpless. Although in accordance with national policies, schools and professors have the autonomy to select students through interviews within the admission line. However, in fact, if we give up a few high score candidates, it may cause public opinion to question the fairness of the enrollment process and bring unnecessary troubles to schools and professors.

Our colleges and universities should strengthen the content of academic training in the teaching of professional undergraduate courses. Especially those provincial colleges and universities, at least in the senior and undergraduate graduation design stages, should let students moderately read some Chinese and English papers related to their majors and understand the representative research results of their peers at home and abroad, so as to "add points" for your students in the graduate interview. It is conceivable that those professors who have experienced better academic training will not simply ask the professional "objective" (examination) content during the graduate interview, and may focus on "subjective" questions. For example, in addition to some professional related contents, I also want to know the interviewing students' understanding of the professional field or direction and the research status of peers at home and abroad; Your thoughts on scientific research during your graduate study; What kind of help and guidance would you like your tutor to provide you during your graduate study? As a graduate candidate, what is the basis for you to choose a mentor, etc. These contents may be more valuable than high scores. I once asked one of my doctoral students if he knew the world leaders in your current research direction and their representative achievements. The student immediately showed me his interactive email with my colleague friend, the famous professor. I was very happy after reading it. The student's graduation thesis won the excellent doctoral thesis of Hubei Province. Such an effective teacher-student interactive interview can examine whether students are suitable for a graduate degree. This is why to apply for graduate students from European and American academic institutions, in addition to submitting resumes, English, University achievements and recommended materials, the applicant usually needs to provide two important documents: personal statement and project research plan (sometimes two for applying for master's degree). These two materials are of great significance for the tutor to judge the applicant's basic scientific research qualification and potential.