Finance, as a field, had always fascinated me right from my undergraduate college days. I believe my penchant for this field stems from the fact that Finance runs in my family. My father is a chartered accountant and my mother is a banker. During my days at Engineering College I used to go to my father's office and help him manage his portfolio of equities and other financial instruments. This was the time I learnt the first lesson of finance from my father i.e. risk and return are proportionate. In 1994 when I was in the second year the Indian stock market crashed. But fortunately, my father had a well-diversified portfolio because of which our returns were protected from the downside risk. This was when I learnt the second principle of finance from my father i.e. diversification reduces risk. While I understood these two principles intuitively, it produced in me a strong urge to learn and understand the complex theory behind the working of Finance. This, I believe, was a turning point in my career. I made up my mind to pursue a career in Finance and hence decided to do a Masters program in Business Administration.

Hence I took admission in Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration (PGDBA) at AB Institute of Management Studies (ABIMS), New Delhi, which is one of the prominent Business schools in India. During PGDBA, I developed a strong penchant for quantitative-oriented subjects like Portfolio theory, Derivatives and International Finance.

During the first year of PGDBA I learnt how Derivatives can play an important role in optimizing a Portfolio's performance and in managing risk. This exposure left me wanting for more knowledge in the area of Risk Management. Because of my penchant for the rigor in Derivatives and Risk Management I took my summer internship at LTCM-securities, one of the leading investment banks in India. During my project I learnt about various risks associated with Infrastructure Projects and how they were mitigated using different risk models and structured finance products. It was at this time that I realized the importance of mathematics and programming as invaluable tools in Finance. I had always felt that applying my technical knowledge to the field of Finance would be highly satisfying. This internship, thus, helped me crystallize my goals as I decided to make a career in Risk Management.

In India with the onset of liberalization since 1991 and deregulation of the interest rates, the Indian corporations and financial institutions are exposed to various kinds of risks. The Government and the Reserve Bank of India have initiated appropriate reforms to develop derivatives markets and financial markets on the whole. This has suddenly increased the demand for professionals who can not only understand but also develop new financial instruments to evaluate and hedge the risk. I believe that in order to use financial engineering pro-actively and dynamically for optimum hedging a finance professional should be well versed with the mathematics that underlie the financial theory.

In the future I see myself, as a Finance professional, designing structured financial products by incorporating cutting edge methodologies and sophisticated tools in order to cater to the above mentioned requirements. To achieve this I would like to gain exposure to the latest practices adopted in the field of Financial Engineering and Risk Management. To this end I would want to work with a leading investment bank or in the treasury of a commercial bank, which would enable me to help corporations manage their risks. I would like to bring this acquired expertise back to India and use it to help companies thrive in a dynamic environment.

I believe that my educational background has instilled in me the qualities required to meet the rigor of this demanding profession. Graduation in Engineering has provided a strong foundation in Mathematics and Computer Programming. Mathematics was one subject in which I had always excelled right from my school days. During the course of my Engineering education I took up a project with MH Electronics, a firm which is a vendor of Indian Ocean Research Organisation (IORO). This was because the project, which I was offered, required extensive use of C programming language and MATLAB. This project of developing the software for a video-processing card (Frame Grabber) for the first time gave me a real world experience of programming. This association helped a lot in consolidating my programming skills, especially in C-language. Thus, it inculcated in me problem solving and analytical abilities.

Thereafter the two-year program in Business Administration has not only given me a sound and firm grounding in finance but also taught me the invaluable skills to manage, lead and collaborate effectively with people. It also developed in me the ability to analyse problems from a business perspective keeping in mind the constraints and limitations of the real world.
I strongly feel that M.Eng in Financial Engineering program at Kingston University is a highly structured program because it provides the right balance between theory and practice. The annual workshops at the Centre for Applied Probability and Computational Optimization Research Centre would give me ample of opportunities to apply my knowledge to real world problems.

I bring along a strong grasp of fundamentals in Finance and Engineering, an insider's experience of an emerging financial market, a penchant for teamwork and leadership and a zest for challenges. I would like to take with me in addition to the knowledge of the latest theory and practices in the field of Financial Engineering, a network of strong and lasting relationships with my teachers and fellow-students.

I hope my background and qualifications are found suitable for admission to M.Eng in Financial Engineering program at Kingston University, USA.

太傻評語：

這篇文章最要通過表現(xiàn)申請者本科時的工程基礎(chǔ)（數(shù)學(xué)和編程），以及管理學(xué)基礎(chǔ)（評估與管理風(fēng)險）。并都結(jié)合了一些實踐經(jīng)歷，充分說明申請者已具有了金融工程所需要的知識基礎(chǔ)和實踐基礎(chǔ)。整篇文章結(jié)構(gòu)比較普通，但內(nèi)容很充實，很有說服力。

譯文：

我讀本科時就十分喜歡金融，產(chǎn)生這興趣和金融對我家產(chǎn)生的影響是有一定的聯(lián)系的。我父親是注冊會計師，母親是銀行家。在工程學(xué)院讀本科期間，我曾經(jīng)去父親的辦公室協(xié)助他管理資產(chǎn)公文和其他財務(wù)文件。在那里我第一次學(xué)習(xí)到了一些金融原理，如：風(fēng)險與回報是成正比的。我讀大二時正值1994年印度證券市場出現(xiàn)危機(jī)。不過我父親還是挺幸運的，由于他把資金分配到了各種項目上，使得收益沒有因為證券的大幅下跌而遭受很大的損失。這是我從父親那里學(xué)到的第二條金融方面的原理：資金投入的多樣性能降低風(fēng)險。對這兩個原理我已有了直觀的理解，我也因此很想去學(xué)習(xí)一些更復(fù)雜的金融理論。我想，這就是我人生的轉(zhuǎn)折點，我決定將來要在金融領(lǐng)域發(fā)展自己的事業(yè)，并打算去讀MBA。

于是我去新德里讀了AB管理學(xué)院的工商管理研究生課程，這個學(xué)校是印度最優(yōu)秀的管理學(xué)校之一。我對那里讀的涉及數(shù)學(xué)方法的課程很感興趣，如：最佳證券投資理論、金融衍生、國際金融。

第一年，我學(xué)習(xí)了金融衍生對優(yōu)化資金運作和風(fēng)險管理的重要作用，自己另外還學(xué)了許多有關(guān)風(fēng)險管理的知識。因為我對衍生物和風(fēng)險管理的精確程度很好奇，所以參加了長期管理公司證券部的暑假實習(xí)，這是印度最有影響力的投資銀行之一。我學(xué)習(xí)了各種基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施項目的風(fēng)險、風(fēng)險模型降低風(fēng)險、產(chǎn)生金融產(chǎn)品的原理。我開始明白了數(shù)學(xué)和編程是研究金融學(xué)的重要工具，能夠運用自己掌握的知識技術(shù)來解決金融問題使我感到十分高興。通過這次實習(xí)，我也明確了自己以后要在風(fēng)險管理方向的發(fā)展事業(yè)。

1991年印度爆發(fā)金融危機(jī)，利率失常，印度企業(yè)和金融機(jī)構(gòu)面臨各種風(fēng)險。印度政府和儲備銀行 已經(jīng)為發(fā)展衍生市場和金融市場作出了相應(yīng)的整體的改革來。這樣就擴(kuò)大了對懂得并能開發(fā)評估和避免風(fēng)險的金融工具的專業(yè)人才的需求。我認(rèn)為要使用金融工程更好地避免風(fēng)險，一個金融專業(yè)人才必須精通金融理論中蘊含的數(shù)學(xué)原理。

我將來會成為一個金融專家，總結(jié)各種前沿的方法和工具來設(shè)計滿足上述要求的金融產(chǎn)品。在那期間，我會接觸一些金融工程和風(fēng)險管理中使用的最新的方法。我還會去投資銀行或商業(yè)銀行的財政部門工作，協(xié)助企業(yè)管理風(fēng)險。我會將自己獲得的專業(yè)技術(shù)帶回印度，并運用它幫助公司在瞬息萬變的形勢中繁榮發(fā)展。

我相信，我接受的教育使我有足夠的能力符合這個工作對專業(yè)素質(zhì)的要求。工程學(xué)科的學(xué)習(xí)使我具有了很強(qiáng)的數(shù)學(xué)和編程的能力。從我開始上學(xué)起，數(shù)學(xué)成績就一直很好，本科工程學(xué)學(xué)習(xí)期間，我協(xié)助一個印度洋研究組織下的MH Electronics公司做了一個項目這個項目需要使用到大量的C語言編程和Matlab程序。這個項目的主要目的是開發(fā)視頻處理卡的軟件(視頻處理采集系統(tǒng))，我第一次在編程方面有了實踐經(jīng)驗。這次合作幫助鞏固了我的編程技術(shù)，尤其是C語言，培養(yǎng)了我處理問題和分析問題的能力。

在那之后2年的工商管理課程不僅為我打下了堅實的金融知識基礎(chǔ)，還教會了我重要的管理技巧、領(lǐng)導(dǎo)和與別人更有效地合作的方法。我牢記真實世界里的各種約束限制，分析商業(yè)前景問題的能力得到了很大的提高。我發(fā)現(xiàn)金斯敦大學(xué)的金融工程碩士課程非常好，因為它兼顧理論與實踐能力的發(fā)展。應(yīng)用概率論和計算最優(yōu)化研究中心每年的實踐機(jī)會將給我提供更多運用知識解決實際問題的機(jī)會.

我具有很強(qiáng)的金融和工程學(xué)的知識基礎(chǔ)，以及對金融市場的經(jīng)驗、對領(lǐng)導(dǎo)團(tuán)隊與合作的熱情、敢于挑戰(zhàn)的勇氣。除了最新的金融工程理論和實踐，我還想認(rèn)識更多的老師和優(yōu)秀的學(xué)生。

我希望我的背景條件能夠被美國金斯敦大學(xué)金融工程碩士課程錄取。