Personal Statement

A person who refuses to apply his acquired knowledge to practice is to a large extent like a bee who does not make honey. Indeed, this axiom has been substantiated by my past experience. Four years ago, in my capacity as the 8th top student of my high school at the fiercely competitive National University Entrance Examination, I was enrolled into the Peking University where I specialized in computer science. Computer science is a subject that necessitates large amounts of practice. As a matter of fact, at high school, I was evaluated as "Student with Strong Hands-on Abilities" on the Extracurricular Skills course. Therefore, it seems inevitable that I, with strong competence in practice, should choose computer science as my area of specialization.

I am enamored of computer science. The day I entered university, I brought my computer at home with me to my on-campus dormitory. From that day on, I would spend more than fourteen hours a day in intimate companionship with my computer. That is why I always ranked first in all the computer-related courses during my undergraduate years. That also accounts for my success in obtaining more than 14 scholarships and awards in all categories.

I am most enamored of computer science for its practicability. The courses that fascinated me most include C Language, Data Structure, Operation System, Principles of Compilation, software engineering, etc. In the second year, I was lucky enough to attend a course on C Language delivered by Prof. Li Weisheng, the most accomplished C Language specialist in China. As I had already laid a solid foundation because I started self-education in C Language immediately after the National University Entrance Examination, I had a broader perspective and a more informative background than my classmates when I attended Prof. Li‘s course. Whenever Prof. Li came to those exciting parts of his lectures, I would feel overwhelmed by his splendid lecturing because what he elaborated on in class was precisely what had been perplexing me for a long time, or because the knowledge that he imparted was the most updated development in the international academia. I made it a rule of consulting Prof. Li after class and during our in-depth discussions and exchanges on those occasions, I could invariably derive valuable experience and knowledge that were to benefit my later-day study tremendously.

As early as the later half of the first year, I became a member of our university‘s Computer Association. There, I started to participate in Windows Programming and, the moment I used VB, I could manipulate it with much facility and employ it to solve many problems. Later on, when I started to attempt at C++, the difficulty became sharply increased. On one hand, I did not have a clear idea concerning many inner mechanisms of the operation system. On the other hand, I felt that when I switched directly from C Language to VC++, I was in lack of object-oriented programming concepts and the necessary expertise related to C++. For this reason, I availed myself of Prof. Li‘s guidance once again and spent nearly four months carefully reading the classic work on C++ in original English version The C++ Programming Language by Biarne Stroustrup. Such an experience not only enabled me to assimilate the essence of the book directly but also substantially improved my command of English language, especially the language and the vocabulary as used in computer science. I should attribute my later-day facility in comprehending the technical literature of computer science when undertaking project development to this experience.

Besides my obsession with computer, basketball is the hobby that I love most. I was the main score-achieving rear-garde of our university‘s basketball team. As an activist, I was responsible for the successful organization of our university‘s matches with other eight universities in Beijing that included Peking University and Beijing Forestry University. With the highest overall score, we won honor for our university. As an undergraduate, I got up early every morning to play basketball. This habit helped to build up my strong physique, train my stamina and make me energetic, for which I was greatly admired by my classmates. Indeed, in retrospection, my energy and my persevering spirit proved significantly beneficial to my study and career.

Throughout my undergraduate studies, I kept achieving prizes, honors and scholarships of various kinds, including those pertaining to mathematics contest, outstanding scholastic performance, excellent student leader, social work, and scientific and technological events, etc. The scholarship that I am most proud of is The Scholarship for Student of Excellence of China issued by IBM in 2000. This scholarship was issued to students who are especially distinguished in their hands-on abilities in computer technology and related subjects. As one of the few Chinese students to win this honor, I have fully demonstrated my technical competence in computer skills. In July 2001, I graduated from my university cum laude, with the municipal-level honor of Outstanding Graduate of Beijing.

While it is undeniable that my achievements as an undergraduate were inseparable from the fruitful edifications from my teachers, it is also true that these achievements were closely connected with my strong problem-solving ability. In the third-year summer vacation, I worked part-time at Beijing Brilliance Group Company and within several months I had the privilege of having access to the company‘s system framework and the relevant technical archives. Soon afterwards, the company was commissioned by China Industrial and Commercial Bank to develop the project of Customer Service Call Center. As I had already undertaken some e-business projects at my university and accumulated much experience, I became a team member (the project manager later commented on me as one of the elites of the team"). This highly challenging project also became my graduation project Mode of eHub-Based B2B E-Business Development. From Feb. to June 2001, I confined myself in the computer center of the bank, entirely involved in the project development. To my regret, as my graduation project was the first one based on a subject not directly correlated to my formal undergraduate program, it was only rated as Second Class (instead of First Class), even though the thesis received very high praises from many specialists.

As is universally acknowledged, American universities all have a highly nurturing academic environment, superior professors, the most up-to-date technologies and concepts. Those are the factors that fascinate me greatly, who have long cherished a strong yearning to experience Western civilization and culture. I wish to apply for an advanced degree program in the University of --------------------- and my intended program would focus on the following fields: (1) databank; (2) network; (3) information security; (4) data mining. In my prospective program, I will continue to apply the effective study strategy that I have developed over the years, the strategy of marriage between theory and practice, which has special significance for me.

As I have mentioned earlier, I am a quasi-professional player of the basketball. I love this sport because it has taught me about the truth of both competition and cooperation. Competition with my future classmates would stimulate me to excel and cooperation with them would help me to cultivate more mature team spirits. Nevertheless, the ideal is essentially the same --- the creation of a better future in our capacity as highly qualified professionals.