Personal Statement
Program: Finance

As a 24-year-old woman, I often congratulate myself on the important achievements that I have been able to accomplish in my studies and in my job, achievements that distinguish me from most members of my peer group. To a great extent, my career development benefited from a remark by the Russian writer Tugoniv: Trust yourself before other can trust you. During my primary education, my parents planned to transfer me from a relatively inferior school to a key school in the local area in order to allow me to receive better education. The school authorities of this key school refuse to enroll me because they thought that my scores were not up to their standard. After much pleading by my father, they agreed to let me study in that school on a one-year trial basis. By exercising my intelligence and diligence, I achieved the highest score of the class in the final examination. The school authorities not only formally enrolled me but also designated me as the Model Student of the school.

This incident produced a lasting impact on my subsequent development. I came to the conclusion that you will be trusted by others only when you have full confidence in yourself, transform all the adverse factors into the motivating force for improvement and progress, and prove your excellence by your own distinguished performance. With those thoughts as the guidelines of my life, I have achieved successive successes. Now, I am determined to scale new heights, to apply for a Master‘s Program leading to Ph.D. Program in the field of economics at the renowned graduate school of the Rice University.

In 1995, as the top 5th student, I entered Central University for Nationalities where I undertook my undergraduate program in the Department of Economics. In the capital of China, I was able to receive systematic training in economics. Throughout the 4-year program, I made sustained progress, achieving consecutive scholarships. By the time I graduated, my GPA ranked first in the entire class. As an undergraduate, I made utmost efforts to excel in the fundamental theories of economics while paying significant attention to strengthen my trainings in mathematics. As a matter of fact, my aptitudes in mathematics are comparable to those of average mathematics majors. I scored 95 points for my calculus course, 85 points for my linear algebra, and 77 points for my probability statistics. This solid foundation further prepared me for making headway in economics. My distinguished scholastic performance is partially related to my intelligence and partially related to my assiduous efforts.

Apart from assimilating the knowledge contained in the textbooks, I made full use of my spare time frequenting the China National Library in the vicinity of our university where I availed myself of all the latest research in economics, both domestic and international. As a consequence, the overall structure of my knowledge became greatly enriched.

During my undergraduate studies, I consciously reflected on prevailing economic issues by applying the theoretical knowledge I had acquired. For quite some time, I conducted in-depth analysis on the financial crisis of Southeast Asia by tracing the root cause of the crisis, its trend of development and its ramifications. The study of this realistic problem in turn deepened my understanding of the theoretic knowledge of economics. Apart from discovering my inadequacies in terms of my existing knowledge, I also managed to discover important subjects for my deeper study, such as the risks of financial sectors in economic globalization. All these greatly inspired my enthusiasm for learning on one hand and laid a good research foundation for my graduation thesis. This research foundation guaranteed the ultimate success of my thesis, which is entitled The Necessity of Building a Deposit Insurance System in China. In this thesis, I proposed a solution to the problem of high rate of bad debts and high operating risks involved in the banking system of China. The solution is the establishment of a national deposit insurance system as the United States does in this field.

In August 1999, upon graduation from the university, I found employment with the Capital Airport of Beijing. I feel rather fortunate in having the opportunity to participate in the IPO of foreign shares and going listed overseas of this company. I derived much valuable experience from those two projects. In conducting evaluation and pricing for this company, I took part in the preparation of the first-hand materials concerning the earnings status and financial status of the company and in the discussions with the main underwriter and financial advisor. The EV/EBITDA evaluating approach that we adopted is a relatively advanced method for evaluating an enterprise. In comparison with the P/E method generally adopted on the Hong Kong market, our method can present more realistic report on the value of corporations. Asset pricing has always been a major problem for China‘s capital market.

My actual operations in this project deepened my understanding of the nature of this problem. I hope that I can continue with my studies on this problem to achieve some academic depth and I believe that my qualifications in mathematics will contribute importantly to my future research.

In my study and work over the past few years, I have become deeply aware that the rapid economic development that is happening in China and China‘s accession into WTO will bring immense opportunities to China‘s financial and economic sectors. Meanwhile, they also raise higher requirements for the professionals to be involved in those sectors in terms of their professional knowledge and professional competence. It is against this background that I have made up my mind to pursue a Master‘s Program leading to a Ph.D. Program in the field of finance or in the field of international economics in the United States, which will subject me to the most systematic training in my chosen field. Those trainings will ultimately enable me to serve my country better. In my prospective program, I wish to concentrate on asset pricing as my area of specialization, an area that can help me make direct contributions to China‘s capital market. I am acutely conscious that to undertake such a challenging program requires great perseverance and strong willpower, apart from the high intellectual demands. But I am not without my assets. My past achievements and my latent capacities make me fully confident regarding my future academic endeavors. The solid groundwork that I have laid in my undergraduate studies and the 2-year work professional experience will make me better able to apply theory to practice.

I am a woman of optimism. I believe that the future will be bright and beautiful. I also believe that I will bring with me something unique to your established program: my love for life and my perspective on the academic studies in international economics and finance.