This personal statement, written for a University of California application, traces one student's journey from Hong Kong to the United States and their deep-rooted passion for computer science. Across three essay prompts, the student describes early programming experiences, competitive coding and gaming milestones, and extracurricular involvement in table tennis, Chinese music, and cultural outreach. The paper also candidly addresses academic setbacks — a missed final exam and a difficult speech class — and how persistence and self-improvement shaped the student's growth. Together, the three responses paint a portrait of a motivated, multidimensional international student eager to contribute to university life.
Computers are often described as contraptions of wires and microchips — machines that disconnect human beings from what is often called "real life." But ever since I received a computer at the age of twelve as a birthday gift, computers have proved not only to be a vital area of interest for me, but also a vital source of communication and connection between my life and the lives of other like-minded people. Computers have provided my future major area of specialty: computer science. They have given me my vocational direction in life — computer engineering. And computers also eased my transition, two years ago, from Hong Kong as an international student.
In 2003, I came to the United States and emerged as one of the most successful students in math and computer science at the American Language Institute at San Diego State University, followed by equally high levels of performance at San Diego Mesa College and later the University of California San Diego Summer Session. I refer to these achievements not simply with pride in my intellect, but with pride in the cultural transition I was able to make between two very different environments — a transition facilitated by my determination and my sense of fellowship with my fellow computer science students, with whom I shared a common interest.
One might say I was "hard-wired" from birth to study computer science. I remember how, in 10th grade back in Hong Kong, after I was elected president of the computer club, one of the other members marveled: "We might play a lot of computer games, but you — you write them for fun!"
Indeed, the first game I wrote was in high school. It was a 2-D fighter plane shooting game, written in C and run through MS-DOS. I distributed the game to the club's membership, and they all loved it. I took pride in their joy, and it gave me great confidence. In 1996, the government appointed my high school to be one of the first schools in Hong Kong to integrate information technology into classrooms and campus life. I participated in the project as a student helper.
As a result of the government program, I wrote a homepage and a commodity-tracking system for the student society. Early on, I appreciated the Internet's ability to teach students in new ways.
After graduating from high school, I worked as a table tennis coach in order to save money for studying abroad. (My competitive spirit is not confined to the virtual world alone.) During that period, I authored a series of articles on writing games for a Hong Kong PC education publication and was trained at a Microsoft Authorized Training Center, where I obtained an MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) certificate. I also competed in the Hong Kong Computer Game-Maker Challenge, writing a game called "Killer." Although my team lost, I gained valuable experience writing a game as part of a team — experience that proved invaluable after I came to the United States.
In the United States, I competed in the Google Code Jam Competition and Topcoder Open — international algorithm competitions. At the time of writing this essay, I am participating in Topcoder Single Round Matches at least once a month, where I meet many programmers from around the world. Although the aim of many computer games may be intense, they continue to provide a source of community and connection for me, and a sense of uniting fun with technology — a spirit I hope to bring to the university community.
"Table tennis, Erhu, and campus community contributions"
"Honest account of two academic setbacks and recovery"
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