也许很多人对的我观点有所保留，但这是我多年来的体会。穷人家的孩子是可以拿下高考高分，但高考只是一个人求知的开始，而不是结束。到了大学你要努力准备各种考试，如果想在学术领域继续发展最好的办法就是出国到美国的好大学，因为国内的名师太少，国内的明校太少，10个清华也赶不上一个哈佛或者麻省理工。清华在国际学术界能称得上的大师有几个啊，哈佛或者MIT至少有几百个吧，人家诺贝尔奖得主就50多，院士将近200，那可不是跟风院士，诺贝尔奖我们一个没有，这就是10个清华不如一个哈佛或MIT的理由。高校之名靠的是名家，就是古人说的山不在高有仙则名，水不在深有龙则灵，建一堆的高楼美厦没有大师坐镇还是死的。

但说到出国，里面的道道就多了，穷人家的孩子父母不懂，一不能为他们创造条件，二不能给予指导。比如我见过一个大学老师家的孩子，父母帮着刷瓶子做实验，孩子高中开始发文章，父母帮着报各种社会实践活动，有英国的，美国的，中国的，这些东西不仅需要钱，更需要父母的知识，于是当这些孩子申请出国的时候，简历非常漂亮，感觉就是神童。要个人能力有，组织了什么什么活动，要学术能力，发表了什么什么文章，参加了什么什么会议，做了什么什么演讲，如果你是农民家的孩子你拿啥跟人家竞争，那可不是你在图书馆奋发读书能补上的差距。现在90年代末2000年初海归那批子女都到了上大学的年纪，他们很多人从小受父母熏陶，如果这批人愿意搞科研，那农民家庭出来的孩子是根本没资格和他们相比的，他们每年都出国参加夏令营，英语比我在这呆了7，8年的人说得都好。

还有出国要写推荐信，这些孩子父母都在学术界，很多人由于同行或参加会议的缘故都认识美国明校的老师，他们自己出于避嫌肯定不会写推荐信，但找个关系好的同事，写个非常完美的推荐信，你一个农村来的孩子拿啥跟人家竞争啊。美国的学校申请，个人关系非常重要，他们不像我们那么看中分数，他们看中个人综合能力，但中国孩子的个人综合实际也是父母的综合能力，父母的能力不行孩子的简历就要缩水。美国的孩子父母引导，具体做成什么样，全看孩子自己，但中国的孩子有多少全靠自己，全靠爹，网上不是经常有我爸是谁谁的叫嚣吗。

三是出国留学要选方向，选导师，农村的孩子自己很少能有那么远见的选择，你毕竟只是一个学生，从见识跟别人的海归父母根本不在一个档次上。是，你可以经常打听，可以经常上网，但道听途说的东西你有多少可信啊。比如现在华裔牛人如庄小威，父母都是科大的教授，谢晓亮父母是北大教授，你的父母是谁呢。

这些所有因素不能说明农村出来的，或农民家庭出来的一定不行，但概率太低，几十万人里也出不了几个，个人运气也非常重要。头一阵搜狐有个关于父亲的视频，大意是一个石油大学的毕业生挣得不如当农民工的爸爸多，然后他的父亲每天还写日记讲孩子如何如何能成才，要励志立志等等，时不我予啊，在这个社会过渡的时代，农民的日子真不好过。上学没竞争力，工作靠关系，买房买不起，10几年前我也是北京蚁族大军中的一个，每天住在3平方米的蜗居，对此更深有感触。

看看下面这封推荐信你就明白为什么一些人靠推荐信就可以上明校，拿这这封推荐信再加上老板的地位啥学校啥实验室都能申请到。

Half a century ago, highly talented Chinese Americans with an interest in biomedical research would go to Europe to get training. In the 1960s this trend completely reversed itself and no other United States university profits more from this reverse stream than XX. Our graduate program attracts the very best students from China and XXX is a case in point.XXX was raised in a wonderfully loving Chinese family and received his undergraduate education at the University of XX, where he published several high profile papers as a student. He received support from the Chinse Natural foudation. Halfway during his training at XX he ventured across the ocean to get instruction in my lab. This was 1999 and XX made a strong impression on us. We apparently also impressed him, because he enrolled in our program a few years later.

When XX joined my lab in September 2002, he did so on the condition that I would make sure he would get his Ph.D. fast. He was clearly in a hurry, rather typical of him. This was a promise I could easily make because I was by then familiar with XX’s exceptional experimental talent. I knew XX to be extremely committed, deeply serious about biology and endowed with an experimental pace that few people can match. And indeed, despite formidable setbacks, XX defended his hefty thesis four and a half years later, close to a record for students in my lab. In his doctoral thesis,XX, largely working alone, determined how a protein called HIV— not a name I chose — protects the ends of our TT. And when all is said and done, he’ll have four firstauthor papers, including a landmark paper in Cell, and several others from my lab.

Rumor has it that until his third year,XX never had a decent meal, simply foraging on the leftovers of his roommates for lack of time between his experiments. Although XX may not have had a decent meal the first few years, I’m fairly sure that those leftovers were washed down with a decent amount of beer. I must admit, I’m a bit relieved that XX is graduating — not that I ever worried about a positive outcome; that was a given — but his graduation means that I will have a little bit more time to relax. XX expected me to keep up with his extraordinary pace, asking me to come in on weekend mornings to analyze his new data. And at more than one meeting in my office, he overwhelmed me with so much new information that I had to work hard to keep up with his conclusions and insights. XX essentially ran his own research project and all I could do was run after him. This fast moving set of hands, this strong will, this highly focused scientific mind will now leave us to go to the MIT. There he will join the lab of Michael to work on Hot spot. It is my prediction that that field will soon find out that a major force has joined them. I will miss XX, because there are few scientists of his caliber, and I will also miss him — as will other people in my lab — as a warm and generous friend.