Personal statement for academic and professional contexts

Personal Statement

The University of Riverside in California Personal Statements

Academic Preparation

Growing up, my father was my role model. My father began his life with nothing -- no money, no support, no established name. Through his own initiative, he became a successful businessman in China. This was quite difficult many years ago, before capitalism had fully gained a foothold in the nation.

Inspired by his example, when it came time to make my own way in the world, I became a one-third owner and sales manager of a mobile phone store called JAK Wireless, selling mobile phones and service plans. I struggled at first at this enterprise. But I persevered, because I knew that success in business never comes easily. Success in business is about hard work, and the daily grind of running a business operation, not simply dreaming about a life of ease and wealth.

Finally, after JAK Wireless became profitable, I decided to sell the store and return to college to major in business administration. Although my experience and upbringing had taught me a great deal, I also realized how much I still had to learn to become successful in business administration.

Question

Focus: Potential to Contribute

Combining organization with creativity is essential to succeed in business. These skills are rare to find in one person, but I believe I possess them both. When I was working at developing my own business, I knew the importance of having a systematized method of taking inventory, but I was also able to come up with unique promotions to draw people into the store.

I am certain that my practical experience managing my own store, weathering the perils of developing a new business, and seeing my father's own enterprise expand while I was growing up will make me a valuable asset to any class discussion about the realities of the modern marketplace. My international exposure to the world of commerce will also enable my life history to give a global perspective to all class discussions and projects.

In college, I desire to gain more academic skill in the realities of business administration, but the knowledge I gain from my education will always be rooted in real-world experience. In my eyes, the true test of any businessperson is the ability to be able to learn several things simultaneously, and from the ideas these new topics generate, come up with something new and exciting.

Question

Focus: Open-Ended Question

I am an immigrant from China. As much as I loved living with my parents in my home country, I decided to embark upon a new journey and a new life in America, with the support and guidance of my family. My parents determined that I should go to the United States, because they felt that the U.S. provided a more sophisticated and forward-looking business administrative education. My father was quite successful in China as a businessman, but he believed that the world was changing, and that it was essential that his child have some grounding in the new economic reality of the global marketplace to become equally successful. He also felt that China's view of the international marketplace was not as sophisticated as America's, and that an aspiring entrepreneur could gain much from learning about the American perspective and system of management.

During my father's lifetime, he saw capitalism take root in his home country, altering China for the better. China, through fits and starts, became freer, more open to new ideas and ways of life, more prosperous, and more tolerant of different ways of looking at the world. Through struggle, hard work, and ingenuity, he made the new systems of making money benefit him, and benefit our family. But if the world changes just as much during my lifetime, I agree with my father that it is better that the next generation gain greater fluency in the American system of business administration. Hence, I relocated to the United States, where I hope to attend college.

Today, China is a world partner with other nations, not simply a developing nation. I have learned a great deal from my own observed experience and the observed experience of my parent's lives. I strive to bring this knowledge to enhance the classrooms of America, just as I aspire to learn about the best of the United States system, through its own system of business education.