不少同学在申请过程中可能有意无意会犯一些错误，对留学申请存在误区而不自知。新东方网留学频道在此分享一位曾在中国做过教育咨询的外国人分析的中国学生申请过程中经常出现的误区。

　　你在申请美国的大学，恭喜你，中国还有10万多名学生也在申请。想知道如何从众多人之中脱颖而出么?

　　You're applying to an American university. Unfortunately for you, so are over 100,000 other Chinese students. Want to know how to stand out from the crowd?

　　我在上海曾经做了一年的教育咨询，根据我的经验，以下五个方面是每个中国学生在申请学校的时候都会犯的错误。

　　Here's what I learned from a year working as an educational consultant in Shanghai: when it comes to university applications every Chinese student is doing the same things (wrong).

　　1.个人陈述还是千篇一律/You're writing about basketball.

　　个人陈述的主题没有特别完美的，但是糟糕的例子却是不少。写个人陈述要避免谈论打篮球、学英语、做作业、你爸爸或是乔布斯这类的主题。为什么要避开这些好主题呢?因为每个人都会这么写，所以为了成为与众不同的那一个，你需要展示出自己的独特之处。比如谈谈你在收容所做志愿者的时候，有个小孩子吐在了你的鞋子上。放弃千篇一律的主题，令人难忘的趣闻轶事才是你真正应该写的。

　　There is no perfect topic for a personal statement, but there are plenty of bad ones. Good topics to steer clear of? Basketball, learning English, homework, your dad, and Steve Jobs. Why? Everyone else wrote about these. In order to be irreplaceable, you need to show originality. Talk about the time a kid threw up on your shoes while you were volunteering at a homeless shelter. A memorable anecdote is the way to go.