Personal Statement

Applied Program: Structural Engineering

When I took the very competitive national university entrance examination more than four years ago, my objective was to enter Tsinghua University, China’s best engineering university so that I could fulfill my dream of becoming an accomplished civil engineer by receiving the best education in this field. However, my dream was shattered by a margin of two points. Initially I was frustrated but I soon realized that there was no point in railing against fate. I further realized that there were many ways that I could develop myself into a successful civil engineer, as long as I could keep making hard and persistent efforts. As it turned out, my mental strength changed everything. Now I can congratulate myself that I have managed to study civil engineering with due perseverance. I am convinced that both the knowledge that I have acquired in the field of civil engineering and the inspirations that this field has endowed in me will ultimately turn my pursuit into a fruitful one.

My distinguished undergraduate performance over the past four years can serve as the initial fruition of this perseverance of mine. Although my Alma Mater, Hebei University, enjoys no international reputation in the field of civil engineering, the emphasis its lays on the teaching of fundamental theories of civil engineering has helped me establish an equally solid foundation in my specialty. The courses that have proved most useful to me include Construction Materials, Structural Mechanics, Structural Reliability, Project Construction and Planning and others courses related to architectural structure. As most of these courses are accompanied by course projects, I have been able to apply the theoretical knowledge to practice under the guidance of my own concepts. Through practice, I have gained an increasingly deep understanding of the structural problems in civil engineering. My strong interest in civil engineering, plus the diligent coursework to which I devoted myself, have resulted in concrete scholastic achievements. My GPA reaches 3.6 points, ranking top second among a total of 102 undergraduates of the same grade in my department. For three consecutive years, I have been awarded with first-class scholarships. In addition, I have represented my university and Hebei Province to have participated in a number of national academic contests and seminars.

In 2000, I emerged from a large number of university and college contestants in mechanics as No. 1 student in Hebei Province to participate in a nationwide mechanics contest. I competed against the other 57 participants and, with my solid command of knowledge and unique design concepts, received the second prize, my total score ranking fifth. I attribute this major success to the careful and detailed preparations that I made and to my solid foundation in mechanics. What made me especially proud of myself was that I even prevailed over participants from Tsinghua University, a fact which considerably strengthened my self-confidence. It proved to me that although I failed to enter Tsinghua University, my persistent efforts still enabled me to become one of the top students in the country.

In the following year, as a student delegate, I attended the National Mechanics and Structural Engineering Seminar Week held in Beijing. I had a rare opportunity to learn from and exchange ideas with the leading authorities in the area of structural engineering, including many most reputed academicians of China Engineering Academy. This experience not only exposed me to a much broader academic horizon but also reinforced my determination to delve further into my chosen field—structural engineering.

As the proverb goes, Chance Favors the Prepared Minds. On account of my distinguished performance in research work, I had the honor of attending, together with my advisor, an international symposium on the Three-Gorge Project, the largest engineering project of water conservancy in the world at the turn of the century. At the symposium, participants including engineering experts from Switzerland, Germany and the United States had lively discussions concerning the feasibility, safety and reliability to construct large-scale structures. The research group in which I joined was primarily concerned with discussing solutions to the difficult technical issues of ship-hoisting machines. The ship-hoisting machines used in the Three-Gorge Project are the vertical hoisting machines using balanced heavy wirerope jenny, and the effective size of the ship reception chamber is 120x18x3.5m. As a large-spanned bearing structure, the ship reception chamber has a maximum lifting altitude of 113m and will properly become the largest of its kind in the world. The major technical problem that we have to solve is the structural safety and the dynamic stability of the ship reception chamber in the state of suspension hoisting. The group, established at the symposium, is still working on the issue and as a member of this group I have had some tentative experience in exchanging ideas with the international academic circle.

The impact of this exchanging experience is the formation of my desire to seek further advanced abroad. In undertaking such an unprecedented engineering project like the Three-Gorge Project, which is to benefit infinitely the future generations of China, the Chinese academic circle in the field of architecture, specifically in structural engineering, has shown an apparent gap from its western counterpart. The sophisticated technical theories presented by engineering experts from advanced western countries have not only become the main technical force in solving the relevant technical problems in the course of the project implementation, but also have produced a refreshing and exciting impact on Chinese specialists. The Three-Gorge Project is just a typical case of large-scale engineering projects. Gaps exist for China’s all the major projects of structural engineering. Under such circumstances, I have resolved to pursue advanced academic trainings in structural engineering from an American university whose teaching and research in this field are most mature and comprehensive. I would like to focus on the following areas: finding new materials of highly tailored structural characteristics to be used in space, in deep oceans and in increasingly hostile environment; studies of relationships between colloidal properties of cement and structural durability; life-cycle predictions of the concrete infrastructure and shrinkage to develop new design codes, etc. They constitute some of the difficult technical issues for which I am interested in undertaking a relatively in-depth research.

Since July 2002, I have been employed by the Construction Design and Research Institute of Hebei Province. I have participated in the design of several important construction projects and have gained useful work experiences from them. In addition, I have considerably improved my research ability by applying my knowledge acquired from my undergraduate education. Those factors have reinforced my determination to seek a lifelong career in civil engineering and to focus on my proposed areas of interest.

The theoretical and practical basis that I have established through my four-year undergraduate studies and the tentative research experience in the process, as well as my practical work experience, those are the key qualifications that I possess for applying for a degree program at your esteemed university. My conviction is that the unusually strong faculty in civil engineering at your university, together with its the perfect academic and research environment, will give me a most favorable chance to develop myself into a fruitful civil engineering professional who can contribute in my own right to China’s growing industry of civil engineering.

It is conceivable that challenges will keep arising in my future academic pursuit. However, my passion for civil engineering will become my source of confidence for successfully completing my proposed degree program. For an ambitious young person like me who is determined to seek a rewarding personal development, the necessity to develop an international perspective by undergoing the most rigorous academic and technical trainings in the United States is self-evident. I regard this training as a stepping stone that will put me in a uniquely favorable position to gain competitive edges in tomorrow’s highly competitive professional world.