Boren
Nov 25, 2011
Graduate / 'to be sympathetic to common people' - Personal History Statement UC Berkeley [10]
Thanks your revise and comments in advance, and I will try my best to help in return.
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I was born into the capital city of China, which allows me to experience a more colorful and less competitive childhood than many peers in rural areas. I live in a simple bourgeois life with my mother who divorced with my father when I was three years old. I am too lucky to have such a wise and energetic mother with whom I can grow and strive together. She taught me from early on the notion of being a qualified person before a talented one. After these years, I think I don't let her down.
Grown up in a large shabby community, I have a natural propensity to be sympathetic to common people and be respectful to their individuality. It was strange in the eyes of many teachers that I was friend to many trouble makers with low grades and students who were repulsed as eccentric. They appreciated my ingenuous, sincere and kind-hearted characteristics. Also, I give my my greeting to those people such as the guards in our library, the service women in our dormitory and so on, not because I want anything from them, but because I consider them good people, people who deserve my thanks.
Six years ago, I made it to get enrolled to the most renowned high school in China--Beijing No.4 High School. There I received a failure, which hallmarked my research set-off and kept fueling me to query for the right approach to research. At that time, I made a conjecture of the primordial bio-membrane, enlightened by braided ideas both from scientific magazines and an observation of my breakfast soup where bubbles on the surface tend to accumulate spontaneously. I tried to spare time to conduct experiments and search, but somewhat blindly I think. However, I cherished the failure as I learned how to accept the solitude of not being accepted and how to make connections with teachers who could help.
Three years ago, I narrowly missed Tsinghua University in the entrance exam and thankfully admitted by Zhejiang University. I chose mathematics as major, kind of paradoxically because I didn't do well in high school math. I wanted to drive out the fear with the help of some of the best professors I could find in this area. Some friends didn't understand me and considered it a waste of energy. But here I am, very happy with my experience and the fact that I have learned all my math courses very well.
With those genius students around, I come to realize my limitations much better than before. Instead, I decide to immerse myself in whatever engagement and ask for no achievement in return. Life is full of wonders, and I believe that it will pay one back if one pays enough. To talk about mathematical modeling, I am not successful in the sense of winning medals. I hoped that one day when I got ready I could handle it as the winners did. Last year, I knew I WAS ready when I assembled two classmates who are intelligent, modest and compatible as a team. We conducted a series of experiments, the best in which finally led to our later case-induced theoretical work (see Statement of Purpose) However, we mistakenly missed the contest that year--the last chance for undergraduate. But none of us could forget the good feelings about ourselves in the fierce discussion with insights shared, even in empty and cold classrooms or at tables open to heat and bugs. So, I proposed a self-motivated non-interested study and they agreed on that! Life pays. This year, we were granted permission to compete with masters and doctors by a professor who knew our story.
This is me, a boy who is driven by his desire to know more; a man who is reflective and self-rejuvenating regardless of struggles; and an applicants who now wants to pursue his dream in your program. And that's all my story.
Thanks your revise and comments in advance, and I will try my best to help in return.
---------------------------------------------
I was born into the capital city of China, which allows me to experience a more colorful and less competitive childhood than many peers in rural areas. I live in a simple bourgeois life with my mother who divorced with my father when I was three years old. I am too lucky to have such a wise and energetic mother with whom I can grow and strive together. She taught me from early on the notion of being a qualified person before a talented one. After these years, I think I don't let her down.
Grown up in a large shabby community, I have a natural propensity to be sympathetic to common people and be respectful to their individuality. It was strange in the eyes of many teachers that I was friend to many trouble makers with low grades and students who were repulsed as eccentric. They appreciated my ingenuous, sincere and kind-hearted characteristics. Also, I give my my greeting to those people such as the guards in our library, the service women in our dormitory and so on, not because I want anything from them, but because I consider them good people, people who deserve my thanks.
Six years ago, I made it to get enrolled to the most renowned high school in China--Beijing No.4 High School. There I received a failure, which hallmarked my research set-off and kept fueling me to query for the right approach to research. At that time, I made a conjecture of the primordial bio-membrane, enlightened by braided ideas both from scientific magazines and an observation of my breakfast soup where bubbles on the surface tend to accumulate spontaneously. I tried to spare time to conduct experiments and search, but somewhat blindly I think. However, I cherished the failure as I learned how to accept the solitude of not being accepted and how to make connections with teachers who could help.
Three years ago, I narrowly missed Tsinghua University in the entrance exam and thankfully admitted by Zhejiang University. I chose mathematics as major, kind of paradoxically because I didn't do well in high school math. I wanted to drive out the fear with the help of some of the best professors I could find in this area. Some friends didn't understand me and considered it a waste of energy. But here I am, very happy with my experience and the fact that I have learned all my math courses very well.
With those genius students around, I come to realize my limitations much better than before. Instead, I decide to immerse myself in whatever engagement and ask for no achievement in return. Life is full of wonders, and I believe that it will pay one back if one pays enough. To talk about mathematical modeling, I am not successful in the sense of winning medals. I hoped that one day when I got ready I could handle it as the winners did. Last year, I knew I WAS ready when I assembled two classmates who are intelligent, modest and compatible as a team. We conducted a series of experiments, the best in which finally led to our later case-induced theoretical work (see Statement of Purpose) However, we mistakenly missed the contest that year--the last chance for undergraduate. But none of us could forget the good feelings about ourselves in the fierce discussion with insights shared, even in empty and cold classrooms or at tables open to heat and bugs. So, I proposed a self-motivated non-interested study and they agreed on that! Life pays. This year, we were granted permission to compete with masters and doctors by a professor who knew our story.
This is me, a boy who is driven by his desire to know more; a man who is reflective and self-rejuvenating regardless of struggles; and an applicants who now wants to pursue his dream in your program. And that's all my story.