Admission essay for Boston College MBA and MSF programs

¶ … long-term success in your specific area of interest. How have your previous experiences prepared you for this professional career? What areas of specialization within the Carroll School of Management do you believe will be most valuable in achieving your goals? What specific short-term career objectives have you set to assist you in achieving your long-term career plans?

I will never feel successful if success means putting up my feet and feeling satisfied. I don't work that way. I will only feel successful for small moments, like when I solve a huge problem in my company or when we avert trouble: when we can turn around a failing operation or stay afloat in spite of falling stock prices. Personally, I could be working in a behind-the-scenes managerial position in a company that I cared about and even if my salary was not great I would be successful because every day I enjoyed my work and I was a part of a team of motivated people like myself. Doing business is something I enjoy and I don't look to my future as so much of a hard uphill climb as I see it as a pleasurable road of continual progress.

Right now at this very moment success for me would of course mean admission to the MBA program because I need to take this next step in my academic career in order to progress and fulfill my long-term goals. I would very much like to work as a financial analyst specializing in information systems for a multinational company of any size and in any sector. However, I have experience in service industries and in philanthropy and charity organizations. I also have experience working with the executive leaders of multinational firms, as their assistants in businesses in Taipei. With my combined understanding of the international business market demands, my understanding of several different languages, my understanding of several different cultures, and my understanding of a variety of business sectors, I already have a lot to bring to the MBA program.

However, I need more: I need to meet new people. I came to the United States on my own and did not depend on anyone for emotional or financial support. Now it is time for me to branch out here and meet new people in graduate school. I will interact with people from around the world at Boston College, which I very much look forward to because of my multicultural background. I also look forward to meeting the professors who can offer me guidance and I can hopefully assist them in pursuing their areas of specialization just as they help me pursue mine.

My intended area of specialization in the MBA program is the financial information management concentration. The program description has my name written all over it, as they say. My main areas of interest are financial analysis and information systems. No other graduate school in business that I have investigated offers a program so tailored to my interests and so potentially valuable for me to achieve my goals.

With the concentration in financial information management I can learn more about information management systems, their evolution and their development as well as their key functions in business. At the same time I can learn more about the process of financial analysis in general as well as how technology can make financial analysis more efficient, accurate, and powerful. Because I already have some knowledge and experience in this area I believe I will thrive in the classroom and contribute as much as I possibly can to the coursework involved. Hopefully we can create group projects in which we demonstrate ways businesses can use the information systems available to tap into new global markets; that way I can also include my core goal of applying my MBA toward multinational companies. If internship opportunities are available for me that would be even better because that way I could apply what I learn to the real world right away. Thank you for your consideration.

MBA Question 4.Please provide any additional information that will highlight unique aspects of your candidacy to the Admissions Committee. The Committee welcomes additional comments you may wish to provide in support of your application.

Unfortunately, some of my life experiences are not so unique or special that I can avoid using a cliche, but it's true: I am following the American dream. In fact, I began pursuing the American Dream before I even arrived in the United States, while simultaneously holding down a job and a hard-working high-school career in Taiwan. It was a struggle; I would run home after school, quickly change and eat a small snack and then I was off to work at the hotel restaurant. It was like living as two different people: one person who was an ordinary high school student and another person who was a professional food server. I got the routine down so well that moving between school and work became second nature to me. Actually, I miss doing the double roles after I moved to the United States because my visa does not permit me to work and study at the same time. Ironically, my immediate goal is to prepare for an executive-level position within the global economy while at the same time pursuing my MBA.

While I was still in high school, a friend of the family offered me a full-time position working in the executive offices as an assistant and executive secretary. Not believing my luck, I quit my job at the restaurant and I started to work full-time with this multinational company. I learned many different aspects of the business from basic office procedures to high-level decision making and investments. I initiated the company's transition from manual to computerized billing systems.

By the time I graduated high school I was participating in board meetings and the overall business decision-making process and developed an especially keen interest in overseeing their information systems. That was where I first started to learn about finance and investments and know that this was to be my future career. I also knew that if I wanted to work at the executive level in a multinational corporation that I should consider moving to the United States to study.

In addition to full-time work and school, I also volunteered since I was thirteen with the Social Welfare Foundation, a charitable organization that assists impoverished persons in a persistent vegetative state. I remained committed to the foundation until I left Taipei a few years ago. Although I started there as a general assistant I eventually became interested in helping them from a business perspective. One day I suggested that the foundation use computers to improve their databases and transferred their information about donors, clients, nurses, and inventory supplies into digital format. As a result, I am happy to say that the foundation reduced their costs considerably. My leadership at the foundation inspired my interest in information systems at the enterprise level, which is where I will be headed when I receive my degree.

I believe that the MBA program at Boston College can help me achieve my objectives because I will be able to take advantage of internship opportunities. Even if I am unable to intern in an executive office in one of my areas of specialization like information systems, I will at least be able to talk personally with the professors about the real world of business, and learn second-hand through their experiences and accumulated wisdom. I imagine that many of my classmates in the Carroll School of Management will already have solid business experience and may already work in executive-level positions.

Much of what I hope to contribute to Boston College is based on cultural communications and my experiences working with charitable organizations as an analyst. Because I want to work in the global community as someone who can mediate between cultures, I would like to meet other people such as classmates and faculty who share my dreams. Also, I can share my experiences specifically in the areas of non-profit organizations because of my lifetime commitment to a charity in Taipei. Aspiring financial analysts and systems specialists like me may choose to work in non-profit sectors rather than in for-profit sectors and it is in this area I feel I already do have something to communicate. Also, because of my Asian background I can share with classmates and professors my perspective of organizational culture in places like Taiwan and China. More and more multinationals are becoming dependent on existing or emerging markets in East Asia and I believe their success is absolutely tied to their understanding of Asian culture, Asian ways of communicating, and Asian styles of conducting business affairs. In a global economy, understanding cross-cultural communication is as essential as a command of math or English.

Finally, I would like to expand more on my intended area of specialty. Information systems are proving to be a benchmark of the global economy. Information technologies have directly encouraged the growth of globalization and globalization has in turn fostered the development of IT. I would like to join small and new corporations to develop optimal IT systems that will render their businesses effective and competitive. My goals in helping businesses in developing nations to thrive correspond to the Carroll School of Management commitment to service, entrepreneurial assistance as well as fiscal growth.

Having already directed whole teams committed to information systems, I already have a lot to offer in this area. While at Boston College I would like to examine how multinationals, especially startup multinationals, can gain competitive advantages from a judicious use of technology. I believe that businesses, most of all multinational firms, have the potential to mold technology and change the face of IT in the future. Businesses will direct the course of software and hardware engineering, an industry which will respond to the diverse needs of the international business community. I would like to work with software and hardware developers to develop new systems for corporations and become involved with the creation of newer, faster, more efficient, and more reliable network systems. I will surely be a valuable asset to the Carroll School community and an exemplary representative for your school in the future.

MSF Question 1.Define long-term success in your specific area of interest. How have your previous experiences prepared you for this professional career? What areas of specialization within the Carroll School of Management do you believe will be most valuable in achieving your goals? What specific short-term career objectives have you set to assist you in achieving your long-term career plans?

I will feel like a success when, traveling between offices in three different countries, I realize that by applying a sophisticated econometric design to their outlook, I helped a small service-oriented organization expand their business into other nations. As I reflect on my hard work, however, I will not rest but I will be only more motivated to continue helping the company to grow and thrive in what are sometimes hostile market conditions. I will also help the company enter into new international markets and to minimize costs through financial analysis. One of the ways I will know for sure if I am a success is whether or not the people around me, the other executives in the company, are happy and satisfied too.

My multicultural background, my meaningful working experience related to finance and technology, and a ten-year established commitment to charitable organizations should prove my future goals and will also clarify my idea of success. I intend to build on what I have accomplished already in these areas specifically by helping businesses to thrive in a competitive global market by maximizing the use of information systems to perform increasingly more sophisticated, meaningful and accurate analyses. I have already assisted a charitable organization to minimize its costs by helping them to digitize their data, and have performed similar functions for the for-profit businesses I have worked with in Taipei. I would like to continue to work for companies with a global viewpoint and help them to expand into emerging or existing new markets.

In my work I have witnessed personally how businesses must hire competent analysts if they want to expand into new economies or if they want to perform other activities like diversification. I recently performed some basic financial analysis for two separate businesses. First, I helped a Taipei-based charity to save costs by creating more efficient database management systems. I have also worked for a number of years in the executive offices of two different multinational corporations. As executive secretary, I contributed to financial analysis reports in addition to working directly with business information systems and systems management in similar capacities, always with an eye on helping the business succeed and grow in accordance with its core values and its overall goals.

Having extensive experience in helping others prosper and thrive in a highly competitive global market, I intend to work in such a capacity as a financial consultant or analyst with a specialty in information systems for multinational corporations. The MSF is essential for meeting goals like mine because it includes a full technical understanding of finance and does not only suit the needs of those geared toward a career in management. I will appreciate the mathematically intensive program because the MSF is the only place where I can gain such a deep understanding of the concepts and theories I need to become an analyst. Carroll School's MSF is highly focused and structured, which is appropriate for someone like me who demonstrates a high level of energy and commitment. Unfortunately as I have an educational visa I cannot work while in the United States now, but would hope to be able to become an intern or a volunteer while pursuing the MSF.

I will eventually work in sectors that will enable me to apply my multilingual and multicultural skills, as I have been doing prior to my admission to graduate school. For instance, I have worked in firms throughout Asia and the United States and have the potential to work well within multinational firms requiring persons to serve as cross-cultural liaisons. Because I specialize in information systems as well as international financial analysis, the advanced skills I acquire while at Carroll School will be a continuing source of prosperity for whichever particular company I will work for in the future. In fact, while at Carroll School I intend to network with as many people as possible with the intention of finding a specific niche within which I will fit and be able to help others thrive. As either a freelance or an in-house analyst, I will help businesses maximize their potential and I will therefore be an ideal representative for Boston College.

MSF 4.Please provide any additional information that will highlight unique aspects of your candidacy to the Admissions Committee. The Committee welcomes additional comments you may wish to provide in support of your application.

I would like to tell you a little about my background, my employment experience, and how I came to the United States, so you can have a more comprehensive understanding of who I am from more than just my resume and transcripts. I would also like to share with you why my interest in information systems integrates with my interest in finance.

I am an immigrant to America, and from one perspective I am just another immigrant living the American Dream and there would be nothing unique about my story. However, when I was in high school my parents told me that if I wanted to go to college and especially if I wanted to go to college in the United States that I had better get a job. They would not be paying for my school tuition and they certainly wouldn't pay for my flight, my visa, or my living expenses.

Knowing my father was serious, I got a job right away, at a Chinese restaurant in a local Hilton hotel in Taipei. Waiting tables became like a second life for me. I still got good grades and studied hard in high school but at the same time I was working in a restaurant and saving a lot of money. Because of this experience my work ethic is strong. I learned to love my job at the restaurant, and especially enjoyed seeing all the repeat customers when they came in. I took a lot of pride in the job. This is not to say it was easy. It was a struggle sometimes, when I had to run home from school and quickly change and eat and then go to work. I had hardly any time for homework but somehow I managed to do well at work and in school.