Undergraduate / I really enjoyed what I did; FIT(fashion merchandising) [NEW]

Applicant :
Date of Birth :
Statement of Purpose

Grown ups (Now I am one of them) often say that teenage years are the most beautiful moment of one's life and I want to look back on my teenage years.

I was not like other ordinary students who rush to extra-curricular studies or meet friends because I worked as a part timer. I really enjoyed what I did. If someone had made me work instead of hanging out with friends, I would have never done so. I never knew, at that moment, how happy it was just to keep myself busy everyday. Dong Dae Moon fashion market in Seoul, Korea where I was working was famous for small retailers and warehouses. It is the hub and beginning of the fashion industry in Korea. Many Asians come for shopping and it has become a trademark of Korean fashion among many Asian countries. These days, online shopping is extremely booming in Korea. However when I was 18 years old, the only way to shop for clothes was to visit each shop in the fashion market on one's own. At that time I was a girl who was interested in watching passersby's fashion and trends of Designers', so I could recognize the trend which could be applied to the real-life fashion. I carried fashion magazines with me such as Vogue, Elle, and Bazaar on which I spent most of my allowance to see how the designer's products match with the place and environment. Such an interest was as natural as others' interest in music. I thought of myself as a lucky girl because it was not easy to get a job in Dong Dae Moon Fashion market.

The first day I started my job, my boss felt uncomfortable about hiring such a young person like me. For this reason, I was never tardy or absent for three years while I was working. I also tried to show my enthusiasm for fashion and work. My duty was researching monthly magazines on the first day of their edition and predicting the new season's fashion trend and purchasing clothing items.

Personally, I was really interested in changing the display and guessing out the reason for the best selling date. After a year passed, I was acknowledged and trusted by my boss for my sincere effort at work. And eventually the boss gave an entire control of the shop to me. As a result, apparently it was not just a part time job for me anymore.

On the other hand, the dream of having my own shop led me to concentrate less on my study in school. Therefore I left high school and started home schooling for GED. Although my parents were anxious about me, they trusted me and they understood how zealous I was to achieve my dream and pursue my goal of life. Therefore I promised my parents that I would acquire good GED scores as soon as possible. Then, when I was 20 years old, I finally passed the GED test. While my parents hoped that I would attend university, I decided to work in the branch of Louis Vuitton at Avenuel Store in Korea to have more experience in fashion merchandising management; marketing or retail merchandising. While working there, I realized that would I need more technical knowledge in fashion marketing and English in order to get a higher position.

Therefore, with my desire for in-depth knowledge in the field of fashion, I searched the Internet and found a perfect school for fashion marketing for me, FIT. I knew at the moment I found FIT that it is the perfect place for me to learn the high fashion of New York.

As soon as my decision was made, I started to clip out information about FIT, and displayed it on my wall and Face book and began studying TOEFL. Whenever I lost my strength in achieving my dream or when I failed to get satisfactory scores of TOEFL, I imagined myself studying in FIT. I believe that imagination is the power of life and I knew my dream will come true in the future as long as I believe in myself and keep moving forward.

After graduating from the school, I want to work for an international company for my career and launch my own shop some day as well as establishing a professional fashion school in Korea. Right now, all I see is FIT.

Undergraduate / I had my first experience in sales and merchandising ; FIT App [2]

Intend of applying FIT

If I had to describe Dongdaemoon market to someone who had never been to Seoul, I would tell them to picture a small circle very near the center of a much larger circle. The smaller circle is the market area, and the larger is Seoul. Within the smaller circle you find several buildings, each reaching between eight to twelve floors (several floors below ground, the rest above), all with wide stances and situated within shouting distance from each other. Each of these floors in each of these buildings are teeming with clothes and accessories, the aisles crammed with shoppers on any given day and the booths overstocked with colorful merchandise, and housing ï in its couple square feet of open space ï one or two salespeople beckoning the customers like multilingual Sirens (voicing sales pitches in Korean, Japanese or English, depending on the passing shopper's ethnic appearance). The streets surrounding these buildings are also packed with small shops and streams of tents providing shoppers with a different category of wares with every few steps.

The larger circle is inhabited by over ten million people, a considerable percentage of them devoted to fashion, desperately seeking to attain and portray status and sex appeal as though they were the two main forms of sustenance in such a bustling metropolis. All these fashion-hungry people ï multiplied by tourists from all over Asia and lands still farther ï converge at the smaller circle each night and obliterate any sort of order that exists before the doors open in the evening.

At seventeen, this is where I had my first job. This is where I had my first experience in sales and merchandising. This is where I discovered the direction I wanted to take with my professional life.

Seventeen is considerably younger than the average age of the salespeople in Dongdaemoon market. And the person who hired me was noticeably reluctant to offer me this opportunity. On what I considered an unspoken trial basis, I knew my only way of keeping this position was to do what I could. Namely, as an inexperienced teenager on her first job, be effectively enthusiastic, get to work on time and forget the term "sick-days." And somehow ï perhaps due to my considerable youth ï I was able to maintain this diligence for three years, never missing a single day of work.

My duties included researching fashion magazines (both domestic and international) each month immediately upon publication, recognizing and predicting fashion trends, organizing the displays, and selecting new purchases. As I became more ensconced in my work-life, I drifted from my academic responsibilities. I left high school near the end of that first year working at the market and focused my energy on my job. In my final year at Dongdaemoon market I was given full control of the shop, overseeing others in the tasks I had carried out the two previous years. And although this is not a huge success story, it was what led me to believe I had found what I wanted to do, and what eventually led me to decide to return to my studies and earn a GED so that I could pursue my professional dreams within the realm of academia.

After earning my GED, I continued my efforts toward my professional goal by getting a job at a Louis Vuitton retail shop in Korea's Avenuel Department Store. During this time I came to understand the necessity for further technical knowledge and a fluency in English to pursue my desire in working for an international company, and ultimately, to use this knowledge toward founding an institute in Korea designed to educate students in fashion marketing.

I know because I am from a culture that is very different from the US, a large part of my knowledge gained through experience will have to be relearned once I am at FIT. But I mention this not as a disadvantage, but as a significant advantage. Learning by recognizing the differences seems to me the best way to make clear observations. I will be able to see American and international marketing techniques through the eyes of someone who has had hands-on experience in the Asian market. I will be keener at noticing subtle details, that to many others might be considered a given; mundane and invisible. As an outsider in a foreign environment, I will be hypersensitive to all that is new, all that is different from what I am and where I come from. And I can hardly wait.

Undergraduate / essay for the Pratt (plesase revise the grammar) [2]

Applicant :
Date of birth :
Personal statement

The difference between me and other kids were watching Charles Chaplin's movies and going exhibitions or watching educational video and listening peers. On account of my parents, who work in the movie industry and hold exhibition regularly, it was very natural to me being exposed in art and got interest in it. For this reason, my parents knew that I will be a part of them.

Come across, special moment that made up my mine came to me. When I was young, I met a famous designer as interior and theme park design. Meeting him effects on me to have desire for interior design. What I learn from him is about the history of design and meaning which is developed along with human's history. After that, I started to read all kind of magazines. It does not matter whether it is about interior or fashion I read them as long as I could learn about the interior. Everything involved with like listen to the music, watching movies and reading books effect on my work. I often get the inspiration from people who pass by and views watching from the bus around. The second moment that made up my mine was when I was a high school student. I had chance to volunteer with "Habitat" to building houses for the homeless. It was not just building houses for them but giving comfort and hope to them. With this experience, I realized the necessity of understanding about human and knowledge of design. Creativity and unique are the words that I am looking for in my art as well as contains the meaning and moral.

The realization of my hope needs professional help that is why I am applying to your school. My goal while I am in your school is make myself colorful and widen my knowledge about interior design. Study in your school with professional professors and students who have different past would enhance my career. I would like to stand up myself with own feet after graduate and have variety experiences in the real field. Then I would like to be called as interior designer for human.