Malia Obama to Attend Harvard, but Not Until 2017
By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS and NICHOLAS FANDOS

WASHINGTON — Malia Obama, the older daughter of President Obama, plans to attend Harvard University beginning in the fall of 2017, the White House announced on Sunday, waiting until her father leaves office to begin her college career.

Malia’s much-speculated-upon decision, announced in a news release after months of official silence from the White House about her college search process, will make her the latest in a long line of presidential children to attend the elite university in Cambridge, Mass. Both of her parents attended law school there.

“The President and Mrs. Obama announced today that their daughter Malia will attend Harvard University in the fall of 2017 as a member of the Class of 2021. Malia will take a gap year before beginning school,” the White House said in a statement.

In deferring her start date until 2017, Malia, 17, is availing herself of the opportunity to take a “gap year,” a popular option for high school seniors who are seeking experiences outside the classroom — some in far-flung parts of the world — before they begin pursuing a degree. Harvard actively encourages admitted students to do so.

It may also yield a less scrutinized freshman-year experience for Malia, whose parents have worked vigilantly to keep her out of the public eye during her years in the White House and hope to shield her from such attention as a college student.

“When you’re a presidential has-been, the rest of your life you’re famous, you’re a target, you’re in a security bubble, but it’s not the same,” said Gil Troy, a presidential historian at McGill University and the author of “The Age of Clinton: America in the 1990s.” “The kids can get to at least some level of irrelevance that they absolutely cannot get when they’re still in the White House.”

Malia visited Harvard and a handful of other Ivy League and liberal arts schools last March on the East Coast, setting off speculation about where she might go. But the White House has steadfastly refused to comment on her college deliberations, even last month when she accompanied Mr. Obama on a trip to California, prompting whispers that she was giving Stanford University a final look before committing herself there.

Harvard accepted 5.2 percent of applicants this year, making this admissions cycle the most selective in its nearly four-century history.

When she arrives at Harvard, Malia will join a long list of presidential children who have attended, including John Quincy Adams and his son, John Adams II; Abraham Lincoln’s son Robert; the sons of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Theodore Roosevelt; Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of John F. Kennedy; and George W. Bush, who went to business school there.

The university has also long been a popular destination for the children of foreign leaders.

Malia, who turns 18 in July, is a senior at the prestigious Sidwell Friends School here. The school sends a handful of students to Harvard most years.

先休學一年 歐巴馬長女明年上哈佛

美國第一夫人辦公室一日宣布，歐巴馬總統的長女瑪莉亞已被哈佛大學錄取，不過她今年高中畢業後會先休學一年，明年才入學。

紐約時報報導，歐巴馬夫婦建議瑪莉亞不需要選頂尖名校，她顯然沒聽進去。由於學生擠進名校愈來愈困難，歐巴馬曾表示，他對女兒明講，她可以有其他選擇。哈佛今年的錄取率為百分之五點二，難度僅次於史丹福。哈佛也是最貴的學校之一，每年學雜費超過六萬美元。

瑪莉亞選擇明年才入學，可能為了避開現任總統女兒上大學所引起的媒體騷動和維安大陣仗，以便有機會過正常的新鮮人生活。

前總統柯林頓的女兒雀兒喜一九九七年上史丹福時，柯林頓還在任內。當時柯林頓夫婦送女兒去學校，現場來了兩百多名記者，並出動幾十名秘勤局人員檢查來往車輛。

華盛頓郵報報導，總統女兒的維安通常包括秘勤局的一個「反攻擊小組」，都是重武裝的幹員，以防萬一總統女兒被攻擊。

雀兒喜和小布希的兩個女兒上大學時，父親都還在任上，因此都有秘勤局人員在校內全程保護。這些年輕的秘勤局男女幹員穿便服，盡量不要看起來很可疑，但還是會被認出來。

雀兒喜在史丹福的同學曼札瑞在Quora網站寫道：「他們看起來很可疑的原因是，他們都戴耳機，而且他們的夏威夷衫裡面顯然藏了槍。」

美國法律授權秘勤局得以在總統卸任後，繼續保護他們的子女十年。過去的總統都要求秘勤局在他們卸任後繼續保護他們的子女，目前不清楚歐巴馬是否提出相同要求。

瑪莉亞選擇休學一年，也引起休學是否已成為趨勢的話題。根據哈佛網站，近年每年有八十到一百一十名學生延後入學，是四年前的一倍。

學生利用「休學年」旅行、打工，或做其他想做的事，以汲取課堂外經歷。不過，教育專家維尼克說，休學仍「不尋常」，一般學生想上大學、想在四年內畢業，不想落後其他同學。

白宮未透露瑪莉亞休學期間有何計畫，她過去兩個暑假都去電視台實習，也許會繼續。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/us/politics/malia-obama-to-attend-harvard-but-not-until-2017.html

紐約時報中文版翻譯：
http://cn.nytstyle.com/education-career/20160503/t03malia/zh-hant/

2016-05-03．聯合報．A13．國際．編譯田思怡