Undergraduate / An Art student's Personal Statement for UCLA's Art and Designs [5]

I'm an ESL student and applying for UCLA's Art and Designs. This is really urgent. I'll needa express mail the statement with my portfolio on Monday. So anyone please give me some suggestions, critiques, and pick out the errors if you can! Thank you so much!!

Write a statement that describes:
1. Your wish to study Design / Media Arts at UCLA,
2. What you expect from our program,
3. What you hope to contribute,
4. And your professional goals

Since I was young, my parents noticed my creativity and great interest in art. Gradually I have developed an extensive interest in this discipline. Even though I lived in a society that does not value art much, and art is considered as a very minor subject in my mother school, art classes have always been my favorite, and I enjoyed creating art very much. As I grew up, I dreamed about being an artist all the times when I thought about what to do for my life. However, there is not much opportunity for local artists in my home city, Macao; many of them either are amateurs or are struggling for their livings. Being an artist back home seems to be no more than an impractical dream.

Three years ago my parents decided to send me abroad to the States to study at any cost. At first, I thought they would be like other parents, wanting me to have a bright future such as being a doctor or a lawyer. However, they have been very supportive to let me choose my own path. I also realized this is the only chance in my life to study in the America, where diverse and abundant art is happening. I told myself this is the place where my passion lays, and I am going to make my parents' decision worthy by choosing art. Therefore, I deeply feel appreciative of my parents and decided to put myself into art, and I promised myself that I will not disappoint them.

Meanwhile, I am also aiming at a scholarship offered by the Macao Government, of which one condition is attending any one of the worldwide top universities recognized by the government. I was also very excited to see UCLA on the list because of your reputable and excellent art and design school and its program. I believe that studying art in UCLA will help and prepare me to be a successful designer in this modern age.

In general, I appreciate all kinds of arts, but I have a special interest in designing modern art. I also believe that art and design play important roles in the society nowadays. In addition, as I talked to the representatives and alumni of UCLA and read about the commentaries about your school, I found that the design program is very much what it takes to influence the society with art in a lot of positive ways. First, it appears to encourage students to develop strong research abilities and guide students with their creativities. I look forward to this program because good researching not only allows me to do a better job in this discipline, it also helps me meet people's needs and make better designs in the real world. I also found your program very interesting because it helps students learn how to interact with or impact on the society with art and designs. For example, a well-designed green poster or product can effectively inspire or encourage people to take part in protecting our environment. With these expectations, I am excited to attend UCLA's art school and to become a better designer who can help to make a better society.

I view my undergraduate education as a very important stage of my life because it prepares me to be a designer and artist before I actually work in the real world. Nevertheless, I also realize that it is only the first step of my career that settles me in this field. Therefore, I plan to work for a few years after I graduate from college to explore further which specific path I should pursue in the field. Then I would like to go for an art and design graduate program to sharpen my skills and have a better chance to take part in decision-making, which enables me to influence the society even more efficiently. By doing so, I will feel myself building a constructive and meaningful life not only for myself and also a better life for my parents and my future family and the society where I work.

Undergraduate / Passionate Art Student's PS for UC! Learn about a foreign kid's experience!! [7]

hello! i'm an international student from Macao! now go to college in CA and majoring in ART, aiming at UCLA's art program. need of revision, please~~! no needa pick out grammatical flaws. i just want some comments and suggestions! Thanks alot!!

Prompt #1(560)

What is your intended major?
Discuss how your interest in the subject developed
and describe any experience you have had in the field - such as volunteer work, internships and employment, participation in student organizations and activities -

and what you have gained from your involvement. *

I sprinted through the long aisles before the mistress of ceremony announced my award. It was the third time she called me out for award that surprised the crowd; it was very rare that a person could be awarded three times in a season ceremony in my high school. They were first places of both Chinese calligraphy and Games pamphlet cover design competitions and second place of Christmas card design competition. That day was unforgettable and memorable, and it was my most active period of my secondary school life. On the stage, I stood proudly, thinking about the works I did. Since then I was convinced that art and designs was what I was pursuing in my life.

Alone I won all these awards, but then I started to appreciate how team work makes better art works and designs two year ago, while I was studying in my home country. There was a Christmas mural decoration competition during winter time. Since the project was quite big, each class in our grade entered the competition as a unit. As excited as I have always been about participating in design competitions, I spontaneously joined in our class' team at once and became one of the two team leaders. Then the team decided that each of the leaders, Mei and I, should provide a design as a candidate. Mei's novel idea of Santa as an astronaut travelling in the space was adopted. Frustratingly, my arrogant temperament was acting up; I was not very happy about the result.

Nevertheless, I respected the team and embraced their decision anyhow and worked hard to prove my importance. At first, despite of my self-determination, I did not know how to contribute to the team and work on the project because that was not my design; I simply was not able to do whatever I needed and wanted to do. As a leader, also, I did not know how to assign the jobs to others because I did not trust them. We were working slowly and did not make much progress at the first few days because of me, a self-centered leader.

Sometimes I could feel there were tension and awkwardness floating in the air when we gathered and tried to work something out. That was when I knew that I should step out and break through the predicament. I started to lay out the agenda, assign the tasks, and organize the team, even though I was not sure if this would put a successful piece together for us. Fortunately, our team seemed to cooperate well.

As I saw our team really worked as a team, I realized that it was not the matter of whose design it was nor what I wanted to do; instead, it was our design and what we wanted to do. I also learned to adapt from my isolated world to the new communal environment, to succeed as a group, and to share the happiness of success. Now I am moving farther from a community college to a lager learning society, University. Approaching to majoring in Design in such a large community, I look forward to getting to know more people who share my interests in art, sharing more experience which I believe will lead me to succeed in college. Furthermore, I believe this will again help me to succeed along my career as I live in a human social world.

Prompt #2(460)

Tell us about a personal quality, talent, accomplishment, contribution or experience that is important to you.
What about this quality or accomplishment makes you proud,
and how does it relate to the person you are? *

When I was very young, I loved watching western TV shows and movies. Not only the fascinating effects and aesthetics attracted me, I also started to appreciate how knowledge-abundant, open-minded, and inclusive of different ideas and creativities it is in western society. With the passion for art, I decided to study abroad in the States and pursue my career. However, what seemed a wonderland is actually full of obstacles. Dealing with culture shock and language problems and building a new social life were difficult for me. In addition, these three years I changed places several times, from my home city to Minnesota, then to Washington, and finally to California. I found that I developed strong abilities to adapt to new environments.

Adapting to new environments may be easy for some people, but I had a very rough time getting through the conditions at first. However, I also appreciated the harsh time I had because now I know how to cope with them in the future.

One of the biggest obstacles was, sometimes still is now, language problems. Commanding a foreign language is just a matter of time, but the key is insistency. I still remember I used to spend half an hour just to finish one page of reading when I first came to the States. There were plenty of complex sentences I could not understand at all. However, I found that it was amazing that I would eventually understand as long as I did not give up and skip it. Sometimes it took up to ten times to understand. It was very much a milestone in my English learning history. However, what I understand is not just the language. I realized that it's not wise to give up when encountering problems. I also believe that only if we insist, we can get though the problems.

Another ability I developed that made me proud is my cooking. Cooking is a kind of art. I feel calm when I cook because it always keeps me thinking, organized, and appreciative of the beauty of cooking at the same time. This also symbolizes independence. Last summer when I went back home in Macao, I cooked for my family for the first time. I really felt proud of it because I felt that I started to contribute to my family. I could not help thinking that some day I could become independent and be able to support my family, and even build my own family.

All these valuable abilities I developed contribute to help me adapt to a new environment. I believe that no matter where I am, I can always get through the problems because I have a faith to pursue my dream, to support my family, and to contribute to the society.