Personal Statement
Applied Program: Management Information Systems

“The secret of success is constancy to purpose.” What Benjamin Disraeli has said reveals an essential truth, not only encouraging me to make persistent efforts toward greater academic excellence but also distilling in me the conviction that to make maximum contributions to the mankind through the full exercise of one’s mental and physical faculties and of one’s willpower is the only correct approach to the fulfillment and the joy of life. Now, on the verge of completing my undergraduate program, I again and again ask myself two questions—what is the purpose of my life and how can I be constant to my purpose? The answers seem not too difficult to come. As I have chosen to specialize in Management Information Science as an undergraduate, it is natural that I continue to tap my potential in this field and develop myself into a leading specialist on this subject in the future. As to how to be constant to this purpose, the answer is equally simply, to pursue a first-rate further education from the one of the best universities in the United States. As an indication of my constancy, I have relinquished an opportunity offered by my university for a direct graduate program. Instead, I am determined to apply for your esteemed university. I believe that your university has much better faculty, research facilities, and academic environment, all of which will be vital to my academic success.

At present, I am a senior student at XX University, majoring in MIS at the Department of Management Information Systems (enjoying a leading academic reputation in China), School of Economics and Management. In this key polytechnic university of the country, my persistent efforts to improve my academic performance has paid off—I was merely average in the first semester as a freshman but now I am ranked top third in my class. Apart from my perseverance, my deep love for this specialty and my incessant perfecting of study methods have contributed to this improved performance, which has further convinced me of my unmistakable potential in this area. As a scientific discipline, MIS comprehends management science, information science, systems science, behavioral science, computer science and communication science. This interdisciplinary nature underlies my deep interest in MIS. Through the study of MIS, I have not only learned useful knowledge in a great variety of fields but also have come to the realization concerning human knowledge—that man can solve his target problems most effectively and efficiently through a comprehensive application of knowledge in related fields.

An important experience of learning came when I studied the course The Principle and the Application of Database. In order to create various diagrams in the database, various limitations of the Normal Form had to be considered in order to avoid redundancy and inconsistency in data. The verbal descriptions of those forms were easy to comprehend but only when I actually started to design the database did I really realize that difficulty to create the diagrams that could both conform to the requirements of the Normal Form and satisfy the needs of the clients and the database operations. I have always tried to effect a parallel development between the study of theoretical knowledge and the improvement of my hands-on abilities. For example, in the course project of The Principle and the Application of Database, I compiled a database application program that could help a power supplier calculate various statistics regarding the consumption of electricity and the payment of fees by different consumers. In the course project of Computer Network and Application, I designed a plan for the installation of a certain company’s LAN, including the procurement of the necessary equipment and the laying of lines. Such hands-on opportunities have always enabled me to discover the disparities between theory and practice and to rectify my incorrect understandings. My teacher made very positive comments on the results that I achieved.

As a new scientific discipline, Management information systems was developed in the 1980”s in the United States and it has been playing an increasingly important role in all the fields it has been applied to, greatly enhancing the efficiency of management and reducing cost. While the United States boasts of very advanced theories and technologies in MIS, we have to acknowledge so far China has considerably lagged behind the international standards in the theoretical and technical development of MIS. The failure to communicate and manage information effectively between different functional departments of an enterprise has led to low-efficiency operation and to low customer satisfaction, which has further affected the development of the country as a whole. However, present-day underdevelopment itself also implies greater space for future development. The introduction of advanced information management technology will significantly improve the operation efficiency of Chinese enterprises. My greatest wish in applying for undertaking a Master’s program in MIS at your esteemed university is to command the latest knowledge in this field and bring this knowledge back to my country to facilitate the popularization and development of MIS in China.

In my future degree program, I expect to receive systematic education and training in MIS, with special emphasis on relevant information management technology. In this regard, I have a good foundation. I have done some coursework in E-Commerce at XX University and I designed a simulation e-commerce website (which was put on show in my class as Excellent Design). I have developed a basic understanding of how e-commerce is operated and a special interest in many technical issues of information management such as the design of the order management system, logistics distribution information system, online payment system, network security and maintenance. I believe that the study of those issues and many other related technical issues and management patterns will comprehensively cover the knowledge of MIS and at the same time enable me to concentrate on specific areas. In my future studies, I will try to obtain as many technical practices as possible to extend my study method of learning through practice as MIS is essentially an applied science.

I deem myself well-prepared for your well-respected program. Apart from the sound academic foundation I have laid in my specialty, I am most proud of my practical ability to perform specific projects and apply management. In addition to my well-received performance in the project designs in such courses as E-Commerce, The Principle and the Application of Database, Software Development Tools and Computer Network and Application, I have also participated, as part of my extracurricular activities, in the development of MIS for the XX Company in which I was responsible for preparing the diagrams of the company’s business procedures and for the optimization of the company’s existing system. For my important contributions, I received warm praises from both my teacher and the relevant users. At another company—XX Precision Equipment Co. Ltd, I took part in the project to develop the management system of the customer relationship. I was specifically in charge of developing three subsystems—sales automation, marketing management, and customer service and support and I applied Sybase Power Builder and Microsoft SQL Server for system setup. The development of my management skills came from my experiences of working as a student leader in the Students Union and of leading a team in our university’s Contest of Simulated Enterprise Competition in which we won the Best Creativity Award. Those experiences enhanced my decision-making skills, teamwork, and creativity apart from my legal awareness, market analysis, human resource management and overall coordination.

In this age of increasing digitalization, the collection, communication and management of information has become an integral part of an enterprise’s competitiveness. I feel lucky that my education in MIS coincides with the very development of the science of MIS in China and that my future will be as promising as the application of this science in China. It is my sincere hope that my application could be most seriously considered because your decision will definitely produce a far-reaching impact on my future.