最近一名年仅17岁，叫做Martin Altenburg的男生成为世界的焦点。原因是，Martin收到了12所全美顶尖大学的录取，其中包括8所常青藤大学（哈佛、耶鲁、普林斯顿、布朗、宾大、哥大、达特茅斯、康奈尔），芝加哥大学、斯坦福大学、麻省理工学院MIT、加州理工学院Caltech。

Martin Altenburg就读于北达科他州的一所高中，是个名副其实的全能学霸。Martin在被誉为美国高考的大学入学考试ACT中取得了35分(总分36)，还参加了新Sat考试，获得了1510(总分1600)。

全能小哥还参加过很多数学竞赛，是Fargo Youth Initiative项目的创始人和共同主席，还擅长小提琴，在越野、田径、游泳运动方面参加过比赛。同时他还在科学领域有着极大的兴趣，在高二暑假他还参加了由MIT主编的组办的一个选拔项目。

MartinAltenburg的背景堪称完美，不过在接受CNN采访的时候，他显得很低调：“我想上好的大学啊，但是竞争很激烈啊，所以我申请了那么多学校啊，希望录取的概率大一点啊。”但是没想到全部都录取了！（所以小编当初没把清华北大填进志愿就是最大的失误！）

我们知道除了出众的标准化考试成绩、良好的综合能力以及活动和奖项。想要获得院校，尤其是像常青藤院校的青睐，申请文书是一项至关重要的材料，可以毫不夸张地讲，在一定程度上申请文书能够决定你的录取与否。

上文中介绍了Martin同学不仅是一个对于学科有深度兴趣的学霸，同时也是运动狂人。而他在Common Application中的主文书就和自己的运动息息相关。Martin不仅擅长长跑、田径和游泳。并完成了一项横穿美国的长跑。在这一场“阿甘式”长跑中，Martin在想什么?同样地带着这样的疑问，Martin将自己在长跑中闪现过自己脑中的想法描述在自己的申请文书中。

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以下是Martin的文书展示

请大家自行膜拜

　　My favorite time to run is at night.

　　This particular run in early August brought a break to the humid, muggy weather I left on the East Coast. I used my body as a human psychrometer, knowing that the cold feeling of evaporating sweat signaled much needed dry air.

　　I cross over the bridge into Minnesota. Out of my three sports, cross country is definitely my worst — but I continue to be hooked on it. Unlike swimming and track, my motivation to run is heavily intrinsic. I live for the long runs I take on by myself. While they rarely happen during our season, we were assigned a long run to complete over our first weekend of cross country. In reality, I was supposed to go six miles, but felt eight gave me more time to explore the home I had just returned to. My mind begins to wander as I once again find my rhythm.

　　My train of thought while running is similar to the way one thinks in the minutes before sleep — except one has more control over how these thoughts progress and what tangents they move off of. While special relativity would be the "proper" thing to think about, especially at MITES, I revive the violin repertoire I had turned away from for so long and begin playing it in my head. I'm now at the edge of town in between the cornfields. The streaming floodlights on the open road give me a sense of lonely curiosity, reminiscent of the opening lines of Wieniawski's first violin concerto. I come up with adaptations of the melody in my head, experimenting with an atonality similar to Stravinsky's.

　　I turn south onto a highway heading towards downtown. The dark night sky is broken by the oncoming light pollution. While I've longed for a road trip across the country, the neon lights from Sunset Lanes will have to do for Las Vegas. Turning west, I see a man and perk up as I try to look more menacing than I really am. But I relinquish. I realize that I did such an act simply because of the color of his skin. I kick myself for reverting to passive racism — something I spent much of the summer trying to overcome.

　　The bridge over Main Avenue leads me back into North Dakota and downtown Fargo. My city is on the eve of its annual pride week — the largest in North Dakota. Beyond the rainbow flags lining downtown, I see the Catholic cathedral I attend every Sunday outside of the summer. The juxtaposition brings back memories of trying to come to terms with my own beliefs. The conservatism on my mom's side of the family often clashes with the more liberal views of my dad's family. Fargo is known for its "nice" attitude, but the discussion of controversial issues is often set aside in favor of maintaining peace. On the surface this can be good, but it makes change a long and cumbersome process, and has caused me to become very independent in finding my own belief system — something especially difficult when these beliefs may have to do with your future identity.

　　The remaining part of my run is short and uneventful. The fact that the traffic lights have switched to blinking yellow and red means that I have been out later than usual. When I get home, I find that my run took somewhere around an hour — I honestly don't care about time during my distance runs. Longs runs are often seen as a runner battling the distance rather than time. But for me, long runs are a journey — both physically and mentally. Each time I run a route, I understand my surroundings and city more and more, and couldn't be more excited and sad to know that I'm leaving this place in a year's time.

目前Martin在哈佛大学、普林斯顿大学、麻省理工学院和斯坦福大学这四所高校之间进行定夺。