An exceptionally mathematically able student who is applying University of Waterloo

Essay about myself - Why Waterloo essay

In addition to the specific information requested in all of the AIF questions, please tell us anything else about yourself that you would like us to know when we review your application. Please make sure to complete all sections of the AIF before submitting this page. (900 character limit)

Over the last academic year, I have achieved high grades in and possessed a comprehensive understanding of key business areas such as accounting, leadership and business analysis, while being awarded as an exceptionally mathematically able student. Outside of the school, I consider myself a well-rounded individual, who is equipped with the core skills that are needed to thrive in the fast-paced commercial world we live in. I have a 'never give up' attitude that helps me to overcome problems that seem insurmountable, with a realistic sense of the scale of the challenges I will face in my choices of degree subject, and of the demands as well as the rewards of my planned career. In hope of achieving the educational goals that I have previously set myself, I would regard my admissions to your university not only as a great honor but also as a great responsibility and an obligation to work hard. Eventually, I strongly believe that the excellence of your program, along with my capabilities and motivation, will help me to attain my destination.

Provide any additional information about anything in the above table. (600 character limit)

Over the summer months, I have been volunteering as an accountant for an American company. In this role I have had to prepare monthly reports for senior managers, improving business accounting controls to ensure the business is running effectively and also coaching people in understanding financial matters. All of these tasks require attention under the pressure of tight deadlines. Also, through a novel extracurricular program that invokes a math approach to charity, I guide students in exploring the latest issues facing humanity and seizing opportunities to make a heightened prosocial impact.

Are there any issues or circumstances (e.g., medical, personal, or financial) that may have affected your academic record? If YES, please describe the circumstance in detail below. We are particularly interested in issues or circumstances that directly affected your academic performance and that led to a rise or drop in grades or to changes in your academic or personal goals. (900 character limit)

During last two years, I have spent most of my time carrying out research and attending a number of extracurricular lectures and seminars. One of those exposed me to a wide range of business careers and female role models who are passionate about their industries; as its objective was to encourage more young women to pursue careers in business. I thus gained a perspective on the myriad of opportunities available and started to think about what might be an area of interest and how that should shape my current educational choices. After attending your open day, and being surrounded by intellectually engaging individuals and an academically rigorous lecture has stimulated my passion for finance as an academic study. However, for an international student who comes from academic environments with hands-off instructors, language difficulties can affect me academically as I continue to build my own personal meanings. Not only am I suddenly immersed in a new environment, but I am also faced with a style of learning that is completely unlike the one I am used to.

Brittany, in the first section, you should not waste the space repeating information that can be seen in the documents that you have submitted with your application. Rather, you should be using that section to highlight any accomplishments that you have, both academic and non-academic, that can push your application to the top of the pile. If you have any awards, honors, or recognition that you were not able to list in your CV or you feel you need to call the attention of the reviewer to, then do so in this section. That is what this section is for. Your current response is not interesting and not exceptionally informative. The information is such that the reviewer could confuse your response with another student's who wrote a similar response to that particular instruction.

An internship at an accounting firm for a nameless American company where you did not accomplish anything of note other than backroom work is not going to make the necessary impression on the reviewer. What you described is the work of an office assistant or a gopher. Therefore, you were not an integral part of the office. Which means, you did not make any notable contributions to the company during your internship. When you participate in an internship but fail to leave a mark at the office that could relate t say, a potential job offer to become a regular employee once you complete your college course or a reserved slot in their internship program for college students, then you have not done anything remarkable at the company. Try to figure out something that will impress the reviewer and remove your application from the generic pile.

The response you wrote for the third instruction is inappropriate. There is nothing about the academic, medical, or personal circumstance that would explain the type of grades that you are submitting to the university for review. You need to forget about the past 2 years and focus on the grades in your transcript. Was it high overall? If no, then which subjects did you struggle with? What was your final GPA in that class? Reflect on the reasons why this became your grade and explain it. If you have a medical case that affected your grades, or an inability to pay for fees, you need to represent that previous situation in this section with an explanation on how you plan on preventing a repeat of that situation while you attend Waterloo.