Personal Statement
Applicant: XX  　Program: Transformation Economics（PHD, XX University）

Enamored of reading about history and historical figures, I used to cherish the aspiration to become a top-notch historian. However, the two-decade history of China’s astonishing economic growth has given me a new conviction –it is more exciting to become a historical figure of this era to be discussed by future historians. In this present-day epoch, economic development is the most effective way to create history and change history, and outstanding economists are the heroes who effect historical changes. Consequently, when I entered the Department of Finance of XX University of China to embark on my undergraduate program in 1998, I made up my mind—I was to become a hero of this age.

At XX, arguably the strongest institution in economics, I received enlightenment in economics from leading scholars and economists of the country. The School of Finance where our Department is based adopts an “open-ended” pedagogical structure. Instead of separating the Monetary Banking, Finance, Investment Science, and Taxation, our program integrated all those subjects and through first three years in foundational courses, students are allowed to choose their individual areas of specialization. I systematically studied a whole spectrum of specialized courses encompassing Development Economics, Monetary Banking, International Finance and a series of optional courses like Project Evaluation, Research on Economics Matters in China. My scholastic excellence can be indicated not only by the solid knowledge in economics and finance I mastered but also by my overall GPA (3.65/4.0) and specialty GPA (3.79/4.0). Ranked top 5 among a total of 120 students in the entire grade, I was the winner of various categories of scholarship for four consecutive years.

Economics as a scientific discipline should not be confined to the construction of theoretical framework that simply aims at interpretation, however complete the framework is. Economics should also provide solutions to pragmatic problems because no other social sciences are as closely linked to social welfare as economics is. Distinguishing myself with my research capacity, I wrote a series of insightful papers, two of which were published—XX(Journal of XX College, Vol. III, 2001), XX (XX Agribusiness, Issue 2, 2001)，the latter won the third prize in the economics category at XX’s 3rd Competition of Inventions, Innovations and Theses (2000).

As a matter of fact, prior to this, I did a presentation on a paper, XX, at the National Symposium on the XX (Dece. 2000), which was given an “XX Research Award”. TIME—Time as a Resource, a treatise I wrote in English, was recommended by XX to take part in the 30th St. XX Treatise Competition for Universities Around the World. Finally, my thesis XX incorporates my concerns across both microeconomics and macroeconomics. All my research has been intensely concerned with the realistic problems. By applying classical theories, I attempted to analyze specific conditions of China’s economic reality and to introduce possible modifications into classical theories, with a view to reaching some meaningful conclusions.

My academic excellence was recognized when, upon graduation, I was recruited by the world’s largest accounting and auditing firm XX to work as an auditor at the Auditing, Assurance and Business Advisory Department. My responsibilities include preparing auditing reports providing consulting, asset liquidation, IPO. I must sort out large quantities of data and statistics to uncover subtle variations or underlying irregularities, and propose solutions. My auditing ranged from annual auditing of consumer products, industrial products, banking, hi-tech industries, and some IPO auditing. I have gained understanding of business environments and industrial structures. I have also developed a clear picture of how the country’s macroeconomic policies affect microeconomic activities. Most importantly, I have developed the spirit of professionalism characteristic of a leading multinational corporation.

Working 15 hours a day is habitual for me. The complexity of the profession itself has contributed to the challenges. However, I have confronted all the challenges with professionalism and effective teamwork. When doing IPO auditing of the exceedingly complicated 3-year financial statistics of an electronics group in XX, I followed strict XX procedures to evaluate its internal control procedures and the extent of risk in such links as supply, production and distribution. Having formulated a rigorous auditing plan, I organized the vouching of tens and thousands of samples, creating a record case in our firm. I believe that one of the essential qualities of an economist is to grasp the essence of economic activities from the highly abstract and standardized statistics under the spirit of rigorous scientific inquiries.

Both my academic career and my professional career point to the need for an in-depth knowledge of economics. If I perform research on China’s economic marvels based on mainstream western economics, my research findings will not only be conducive to China’s future economic practices but also to the perfection of relevant theories within the mainstream western economics. Over the past half century, Chinese economy underwent crucial stages—the formation, operation and transformation of the conventional centralized planned economy. With the transformation to the present market-oriented economy, Chinese economy has demonstrated totally different performance, providing rich materials for studying the institutional transformation of developing economies. On the other hand, the global economic transformation makes it necessary to generalize Chinese experiences and to set up a wholly novel framework for theoretical analysis. Those considerations have convinced me that a graduate education which can give me essential knowledge input is absolutely indispensable.

Transformation Economics is what I am really interested in. I am eager to learn how to account for the performance variations among different developing countries through technological innovation, capital accumulation or institutional differences. Issues such as the role of finance in macro economic policy, economic growth versus inflation and its ensuring social consequences, economic development and income distribution, and the policy of financial support from the perspective of transformational development are fascinating to study. Professors at XX University have been performing pioneering research on these and other issues. Your Department of Economics impresses me with an accomplished faculty, rounded curriculum, and extensively teaching and research subjects. Your Ph.D. program offers research areas that parallel perfectly with my research interests. I can learn through research in an academically dynamic department located in a most highly respected university in the world. Completing your program will put me in a unique position to evaluate how theories and models in western economics can apply to the special realities of Chinese economy.

“There is no fruit which is not bitter before it is ripe,” wrote Publilius Syrus in the 1st century B.C. Although economics as a scientific discipline is crucial in interpreting and predicting economic activities for a given country at any stage of development, to become an economist in the true sense of the word is bound to be a painstaking process. But who can say that learning the knowledge of economics and doing scholarly work, based on the collective wisdom of mankind, on how to realize optimum allocation of resources of human society is not a tremendous joy in itself?