Hi everyone. I am a Chinese student and I'm applying to an American university. This is my statement of purpose and I hope that you can help me to improve this. Thank you very much.
I spare no efforts to make breakthroughs, both in my learning and life. At this stage of my academic career, I would deliberate before making each step. Though now I am a graduate student majoring in Quantitative Finance, I truly want to get a better education in the discipline I am deeply enchanted, that is Economics.
I was born in an intellectual family, and my mother is a respectable teacher. Influenced by her nourishing methods and educational ideology, I was well educated and enjoyed the top ranking of my class through all my secondary years. However, fortune is fickle, I got hurt just two months before the college entrance examination, the most important exam for Chinese students. Unfortunately, I missed my dream school. The little comfort was that I could study Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, which I was keen on. After entering the university, I was not discouraged; nevertheless, I studied hard all the time, believing that all my efforts will pay off. Four years' systematical training in mathematics cultivated my logical ability and my quantitative thinking capacity. Four years later, I was admitted by [University Name] with the highest score in the graduate student entrance examination in my original department, majoring in Quantitative Finance.
After entering [University Name], I never slacked off. I got high scores on my professional courses and I was selected as the team leader of the project of Guaranteed Products Design and the project of Multi-asset Derivatives Binary Tree Pricing Research. All these courses and researches deepened my understanding of finance and laid me a solid foundation in programming. However, because of the influence of my tutor, I gradually fell in love with economics. Since my tutor's research interest is econometrics, he recommended me the book Time Series Analysis written by James D. Hamilton. This book fascinated me, I derived most of the theorems in the book and I spent almost all my spare time on this book. After finishing the chapter of Kalman Filter, I combined this technique with the index of Chinese market sentiment, and I successfully forecasted the fluctuation of the Chinese stock market. This success was a great inspiration to me.
When I got through this book, I wrote a paper concerning China's macro-economy. In this paper, I explored why China could maintain a high increase rate with such a large amount of money stock, and I tested whether the large amount of money stock is due to Chinese monetary policy or the external shocks through a SVAR model using both long-term and short-term restrictions. When I started writing this paper, I wanted my conclusions as accurate as possible and tried to use some complex mathematical methods to cover almost all the influencing factors, but it did not work well. Until one day I happened to read the paper How Well Does the IS-LM Model Fit Postwar U.S. Data? written by Jordi Gali, his method was not complicated but the model was so elegant. Though the model was not very accurate, Gali had successfully grasped the essence of the economic phenomenon. Upon finishing my paper, I understood the seemingly irreconcilable but closely linked contradiction between live thinking and dead knowledge. Though I have laid a solid foundation in mathematics, the more I penetrate into this field, the more complexity and uncertainty of reality I could feel. I realized only by using a kind of live thinking one can grasp the essence to make a breakthrough in economic research. My mind was seduced into the miraculous economic world. I made my mind to devote myself to economic research in the future, especially in econometrics and macroeconomics.
The research and education experiences I have had, combined with my training in mathematics, provide me with a good start towards becoming a successful researcher. My goal is to be a professor of economics at a leading research university. Generating new ideas is the most exciting activity possible for me. Working without daily supervision necessitates a passion that I know I have. I can tell that research is right for me because I have fun doing it.
Owning a top position among the academic institutions, [University Name] really grabbed my attention. The MS Program in Economics in [University Name] emphasizes analytical and quantitative skills and exposes students to a broad range of contemporary economic issues. I truly hope that [University Name] will give me the opportunity to fulfill my dream. Thank you for your time and consideration.
At this stage of my academic career, I would deliberate before making each step. Though now I am a graduate student majoring in Quantitative Finance, I truly want to get a better education in the discipline I am deeply enchantedlike - Economics. -- The italicized elements in this sentence are quite confusing. Deliberate what?
However, fortune is fickle, I got hurt just two months before the college entrance examination, the most important exam for Chinese students. -- specify what made you hurt. Didn't you pass the entrance examination? If that so, better state the main reason
Unfortunately, I missed my dream school. --This is an example of empty sentence, for it doesn't bring any sense in your paragraph. Better efface/erase it.
Hello,
So, you say that you are a great researcher. You need to talk more about the research that you have done so far. Also, you need to talk about the stock market simulation projects that you have conducted. This will show the adcom at this school that you are really interested in economics. Stating that you love the writings of a few people is generally not sufficient enough. Furthermore, you need to talk more about how this program is a needed step in your goals of obtaining your doctorate one day. Talk about the resources available at this program and specific courses you want to take and professors you want to study under.-Admissions Advice Online
