College of Arts and Sciences:
Describe your intellectual interests, their evolution, and what makes them exciting to you. Tell us how you will utilize the academic programs in the College of Arts and Sciences to further explore your interests, intended major, or field of study. (500 Words)
I was born and raised in the Philippines, taking a trip to my home country of Bhutan at least once a year. What is the common ground between these two places? They are both third world countries. This means that throughout my life I have witnessed poverty first hand. This environment has lead to my firm belief that the financially stable have responsibilities to help people living below the poverty line. But how could I live up to my obligation?
As a child, I always assumed that economics was the study of "those boring numbers that Daddy read about in the newspaper". But I soon learned that economics dealt with the allocation of resources and, in time, understood the importance of this. Through good economic policies and management, the ideal world could be established. I wished to see the day where there would be nobody living in a dismal situation. This was my dream but I felt infinitesimal in my ability to do anything about it.
So what could I do to help?
One day, my parents told me about an economic policy called Gross National Happiness. I was curious as to what it meant seeing as I had only learned about Gross Domestic Product and Gross National Product. I learned that Gross National Happiness takes a more holistic approach to the living conditions within a country. There are four pillars that support Gross National Happiness. These are: sustainable development, preservation of culture, and conservation of the environment and good governance.
Since learning of it, I have become an advocate for Bhutan's economic policy of Gross National Happiness, developed by the 4th king of Bhutan, Jigmey Singye Wangchuck.
Given the opportunity to avail the education of Cornell's prestigious College of Arts and Sciences, I could use that knowledge to help develop Gross National Happiness. My interest to study economics at Cornell was initially stimulated by the alumni Robert F. Engle who won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2003). I had come across his "methods of analyzing economic time series with time-varying volatility" while researching volatility for an economics project. I was impressed that Engle was able to establish a means by which unpredictable activity in the general market price and interest rates could be analyzed and predicted. This method has applicability in preventing things such as depressions within an economy, thus being a contribution to one of the four pillars of Gross National Happiness: sustainable development.
My dream to have an economic policy that benefits everyone is something that many would scoff at. I mean, that's what every economist up to date has attempted at doing and none of them have been able to develop a policy that helps everybody. But this is because most of them have not put enough emphasis on other aspects of a nation such as the culture or natural environment. I hope that if given a chance to study at Cornell University's College of Arts and Studies, I can develop my knowledge of economics to a point where I can help polish the rough policy of Gross National Happiness and pursue my dream of the perfect economic policy.
Do you guys think the material is too corny? There are times when I discuss my 'dream economic policy' and (after re-reading the essay) I sound frighteningly similar to a young boy discussing his dreams of becoming Superman.
Admissions essays are supposed to be corny!
:)
This is great! Thanks so much for telling me about Gross National Happiness.
don't say "could" as if you are not serious about it. Say "will."
...education of Cornell's prestigious College of Arts and Sciences, I will use that knowledge to help develop Gross National Happiness.
I think this will do very well; it achieves what this kind of essay is supposed to achieve, which is to let the reader know you have a clear, meaningful plan.
