Personal Statement
Program: Finance
The Global Management Competition which originated in Europe 20 years ago is very influential in the world. Many universities and leading companies in the world use this competition to select and train outstanding MBA students. In 2003, as an undergraduate majoring in financial management at the School of XX, I represented the XX University XX and participated in this competition. My competitors were formidable, including administrators of multinational giants like Motorola and MBA students from XX University and XX University.

Formidable competitors meant formidable challenges. During the competition, I “acted” as the general manager of a simulated enterprise while my five teammates played the managers of various departments. We formulated our enterprise’s strategic development through a dynamic computer simulation system. As the team leader, my teammates and I collaborated closely and carried out meticulous calculations. To our pleasant surprise, the final result we produced was exactly the same as the actual figure, precise to the two numbers after the decimal point. For this achievement, we received enthusiastic praises from our project instructor and we distinguished from the rest of the 80 teams from the Chinese mainland. Although we failed to win final prizes in this international competition, it was nevertheless a most rewarding experience for me. Through meeting this important challenge, I improved my analytical thinking, decision-making and flexibility and adaptability. More importantly, meeting a lot of elite students and international professionals made me realize the necessity to seek more advanced international education. Hence, my application for an advanced degree program from your esteemed university.

My undergraduate education in business administration and financial management at XX, arguably one of the most prestigious universities in China, has equipped me with a necessary foundation for undertaking your program. Our curriculum attaches great importance to cultivating the students’ solid foundation in basic knowledge, especially in mathematics, as XX has a heavy engineering orientation. As a result, the courses in which I have excelled most include Advanced Mathematics (Calculus), Probability and Statistics, applied statistics, and operation research. Such foundational knowledge proved vital for my study of specialized courses, making me very competent in tackling very challenging cases studies, course designs and presentations. My coursework required me to apply mathematics and various statistical methods and models in analyzing both macro and micro economic indexes and financial data, and in making predictions. I was trained to uncover inherent relationship behind the apparently random statistics.

In my spare time, I took the initiative to study mathematical modeling to further enhance my mathematics aptitudes. This is because I am fully aware of the importance of mathematics in finance. Believing that finance and its related subject economics could best be learned by reading works by western authors, I have familiarized myself with some western classics in original English version, including Corporate Finance by Stephen A. Ross, Randolph W. Westerfield, and Jeffrey F. Jaffe, and Macroeconomics, Microeconomics by Paul A. Samuelson. Recently, I have volunteered to be a research assistant at XX led by senior professor XX. I am responsible for collecting statistical figures for the XX. Through all those academic endeavors, I have achieved an academic performance ranked among the top 5 in my class.

As our program advocates the accumulation of practical experience, I have endeavored to avail myself of all the available opportunities to apply my knowledge to realistic problems. Apart from a fruitful internship at XX Business Office of XX Company, I undertook a more important internship in 2003 at the Department of Financial Planning of XX. My responsibilities included independently sorting out the company’s letters of guarantee by the use of Excel software and analyzing the changes of different varieties of statistics and their underlying causes. I won positive comments from the company’s top management. In addition, I helped prepare the monthly financial reports of the company and participated in a conference on financing project. I benefited from my internship by gaining a direct understanding of the company’s capital management. But I also discovered some flaws in the company’s financial system such as lack of preparation for bad debt, which were also characteristic of most domestic companies. This reinforced my resolution to study advanced modern financial management and corporate finance of the western countries.

As a preparation for undertaking your program, I have consciously sought research experience. I have been doing extensive research in order to prepare my thesis on the topic—A Tentative Study of the Financial System in Modern Chinese Enterprises. I will discuss the special characteristics of China’s corporate financial system under the existing economic system and environment, its gaps from the advanced international standards, and the underlying institutional, social, historical and political reasons for such gaps. My contentions are: 1. the understanding of corporate finance by Chinese enterprises is gravely incomplete, only remaining on the level of accounting; 2. only in recent years have top management of the enterprises started to pay attention to such issues as financing, organizational structure, and the incentive mechanism; 3. it is imperative for Chinese enterprises to learn from the successful practices of financial management of leading international companies in order to survive and to grow.

Apart from my academic development, I have also pursued comprehensive personal development by taking up public responsibilities. As secretary of the Youth League of m class, I launched a class journal XX, the first of its kind in the School. This has provided the students a platform for their free play of the mind, which was highly recognized by the leaders of the Schools. In addition, I have been a leader of the student union, a correspondent for the student TV station. My extracurricular activities have improved my sense of working for public welfare and have prepared me for more important social responsibilities.

As I have specialized in financial management in business administration, it is reasonable for me to choose to specialize finance in your program, because it is the field I know best. Free international competition requires all enterprises to have a well-developed financial system that accords with international conventions and the financial knowledge I will acquire will be vitally useful to China. In my proposed program at your esteemed university, I would like to focus on two subjects: a. how various factors in the macro economic environment affect the financial conditions of an enterprise; b. international financial markets. Your university has evolved unique and effective teaching and research programs in those fields. Your experienced faculty and leading achievements in economic and financial analyses will provide me with rich resources for me to perform my own studies. I am convinced that through your program my research potential will be developed and my academic perspectives broadened.

Upon completing your Master’s program in finance, I will join a major Chinese company to which I will contribute my knowledge and expertise. Since China’s accession into the WTO, multinational financial companies have established headquarters in China and financial competitions are expected to intensify. Under such circumstances, my career plan is fundamentally related to perfecting China’s financial practices, integrating Chinese financial system with that of the West, and introducing standard western concepts. Toward this purpose, I will develop myself into a professional financial analyst. It is often asserted that finance is the nerve center of a company and it would be absolutely wonderful for me to ensure the healthy operation of this center.