Personal Statement
Applicant: XX　  Program: Business Economics

“Nothing is impossible” has been the slogan that has driven me to success as a woman in a man’s business world.  xx and its Ph.D. program in Business Economics have a reputation as a world-class university that speaks for itself, with only the best of the best students admitted.  But I believe that I can become an integral part of the university and this program with my personal and professional attributes, along with my research area interests in Game Theory and Competition and Strategy, particularly focusing on Economics and the business environment in the rapidly rising economy of my homeland of China.  Together in partnership with the Department of Economics and the Graduate School of Business Administration at xx University, my plan is to not only follow in the footsteps of the great minds that have passed through xx’s hallowed halls before, but to carve my own path that will inspire others to follow me as well.

Academic success has not come easily to me as I have faced many difficult obstacles in my life, but with my own dedication, hard work and perseverance I have been able to achieve great accomplishments in spite of a less than favorable atmosphere for women in academia in China.  I have always been intellectually curious, even when my teachers patronizingly explained to me that education in my field of interest was the province of males and that I should not expect too much from myself.  But my philosophy has always been that “nothing is impossible” and I poured myself into my studies.  As a result, during my second year of high school, even though I was competing with mostly third year male students, I won the first class prize in the xx.  I also took first place in the same event as a third year high school student, with the end result being that I was excused from taking the National College Entrance Examination based on my academic performance.  I was directly admitted to one of the top Chinese universities, xx University of China in Beijing.

xx University is a national key university in China, with the Economics program ranking number one in the country for decades.  My academic success continued throughout my career there, particularly in the fields of Mathematics and Economics.  I have achieved an overall GPA of 90/100 and a major GPA of 94/100 in a school that is notorious for giving low marks compared to other universities.  I have done particularly well in Mathematics: Calculus I – 100%, Calculus II – 100%, Linear Algebra – 98%, Probability and Statistics – 100%, Statistics – 93%.  Almost no one else in my class scored a single 100% mark, even though there are 100 students in the class.  In Econometrics, my score was 97% in a class where the average was only around 70%.  I was able to achieve these marks while simultaneously preparing for the GRE and TOEFL exams and diligently performing in-depth research for my academic papers, and despite the fact that my professors believed that male students were naturally better in these subjects.

The Economics program at xx University strongly emphasizes research abilities.  During the first year and a half of my studies there, in addition to building a strong foundation in Mathematics and Economics, I read many academic works in both English and Chinese that inspired me to work even harder.  My course in Industrial Organization inspired my interest in industrial organizations and game theory.  After reading Jean Tirole’s The Theory of Industrial Organization and Eric Rasmusen’s Games and Information, their emphasis on both Mathematics and logical analysis drew me to this field of study, particularly in the area of online businesses and auctions.  My interest led me to write the paper discussing the phenomenon observed in the xx cosmetic companies strict policy of unified prices, which is widely ignored throughout the global organization in practice even under the official policy of dismissal for doing so.  My research discovered that the online market is so drastically different from conventional markets in its industrial structure that distinct discount behaviors have developed in this virtual sales and marketing environment.  This is a rapidly growing area throughout the world and it would provide a fascinating and fertile ground for further research on the implications of such differences, and how multinational companies can best operate in such an environment.  This could very well be the subject area of my further research and thesis in the Ph.D. in Economics program at xx.

My fascination with the online marketplace led to further reading, such as Bajari and Hortacsu’s paper “Economic Insights from Internet Auctions” (2004), which demonstrated that Internet auctions were an inexpensive and readily available resource in which to test auction theory.  With fervent interest, I delved into the recent developments and history of Internet auctions.  Furthermore, Ockenfels and Roth’s work “Late and Multiple Bidding in Second Price Internet Auctions: Theory and Evidence Concerning Different Rules for Ending an Auction” gave me much more detail into the different strategic behaviors exhibited in Internet auctions, which led to my very successful thesis paper “xx”. 

With great confidence in my abilities, I consulted with Professor xx of the xx School of Business at xx University for advice on my paper.  As an expert in this area, his comments were particularly encouraging, “Your paper is very impressive for undergraduate work!” and he encouraged me to continue to study Economics. My research paper uncovered differences between online auctions in Western countries and China, which built upon my earlier research with xx to show that there are distinct and recognizable differences in online sales and marketing between China and the West.  This is a wide-open area for intense further study.

Due to my research and interest in the areas of Game Theory, Competition and Strategy, auction theory and online auctions, I would like to work with Dr. xx in the Ph.D. program.  As the co-author of one of the above-mentioned academic papers (as well as many other pertinent research articles), I believe that Dr. xx could help to guide and inspire me to develop some truly breakthrough research on these areas in China, particularly in the second strand of his work involving the observation that people adapt their behavior as they learn about the game.  I believe that especially in the rapidly developing and largely unstudied area of Internet auctions and online business in China, there lie some truly fascinating research opportunities to not only study adaptive behavior but to also comparatively study the differences between American-based and Chinese-based auctions and business. 

With my strong academic and research background and Dr. xx’s (as well as other faculty members’) expertise and experience in the area, I know that we can develop some truly groundbreaking research in this area and others as I earn my Ph.D. in your program.  Although such research across nations and cultures will be difficult, I truly believe that “nothing is impossible”, and when my dream of attending xx becomes a reality, I know that I can achieve my full potential in life.