PS Writing 
 
突破講成績
Having achieved the highest total of scores on the National University Entrance Examinations among all students in my hometown, I won acceptance into Chinese Youth College of Political Science (YCPS for shortly a preeminent institution of higher learning focused on political science and journalism. With that score, I could have opted for the most famous university in China, the Peking University, often dubbed China's Harvard, but my university is the best in its own right.

At this point, may I digress to comment on one important aspect of Chinese young people's life, namely, competition. I myself am a product of keen competition for better grades, which is quite pervasive all over China. It was so in my elementary school; it was so in high school-, it is all the more so in competing for entrance into universities. Only the cream of the cream, namely, 4% of all high school students get to universities. In retrospect, I could see that this system is seriously flawed, for it denied quite many young talents, many of whom I shall later on meet and talk to, opportunities they could not otherwise have had.

雖然悲慘但是要樂觀 (pay attention to applicant’s optimism shaped by early environment.)

In many ways, it is thanks to the childhood hardship that I have made my achievements. In trying to help alleviate the financial burden on my parents, I made my debut in the art of money-making at an age when American kids probably could not be hired to work. I still remember earning my first coin by buying fruits from one place and then selling them in another. Too little a profit it might seem, but it counted towards meeting the family's expenses then. But the coin started me out in a business career that I now hope to translate into sizable fortunes.

為父母驕傲 (See how the applicant describes her parents.)
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The hunger and humiliation that I endured as a conspicuously poor child taught me the importance of success. Luckily, my parents, ignorant as they were, knew that the key to real success would lie in my education, and they toiled and moiled year in and year out to put that key into my hand, in a parental spirit and tradition that probably ran only be found in China. Watching my parents working their backs off every day, I acquired the kind of determination, drive, and sense of responsibility not usually found in a small kid. With my parents' unswerving support I studied successfully and outperformed most of my classmates. For years, my academic report card was the main source of pride in my family.

成績不好
I was not an outstanding student in the traditional Chinese sense. In a culture where “outstanding student” is narrowly defined as a student who gets good grades, I do not think I had the luck to join that rank, because I did not “ace all of my exams.”
…
A case in point: I helped design and maintain the award-winning university student website, www.nk3m.edu, Moonpacer being my pen name. My teammates, Erric and Tommy made our nicknames known throughout the university community because of our joint efforts. My primary contribution was in the area of page design, graphics and fine arts. I was also the first in putting a 20-item questionnaire online for student input in response to a series of food price adjustments by the School Logistics Department in charge of school cafeterias. Using the data I collected in two days, I was able to present to the school authority findings that were predominately against the price hikes. It was not the findings itself, but rather the fact that I represented 22% of the student population, that forced the Logistics Department to react and to modify its previous decisions. (Great service done to fellow students)

In working with Erric and Tommy on the website, I learnt how to use my individual creativity wisely. While I always had my independent ideas and problem solving methods, I realized that my teammates had theirs. It did not help if I wanted to impose my preference on them. On the contrary, by being a good listener and by being willing to accommodate, I was better able to sell my own ideas. We each had strengths and weaknesses, but working as a team, we worked wonders. I was often referred to as the “go-to” person for issues related to Photoshop and JAVA; but if I had problems with B and VB and VC++, I would seek counsel from Eric. Tommy, on the other hand, was the unchallenged authority, on hardware. We grew as a team even as our fame grew because of the honorary mentioning of our names in our campus newspaper and newsletters. The beauty of the new technologies is that we can still function as a team as we leave college and go our separate ways. (Opportunity to hone team spirit)