基本情况：夏同学，Marietta College，GPA 3.16，TOEFL 免，GRE 314 

录取学校：Columbia University MA in Statistics 

I come from a China's middle class family. Both of my parents are the scholars of sociology and economics. Have been heavily immersed in the academic atmosphere since childhood, I have gradually developed keen interests in researching and solving various social problems, and preferred to produce personal perspectives toward the social phenomenon during daily communication with my parents. After finishing my high school study, I determined to pursue my undergraduate study in the U.S. to broaden my horizon. Aiming at improving well-rounded cognitive level in both aspects of Science and Art, I selected B.S. in mathematics and B.A. in Finance as my majors. 

I have been studying with these two majors at the picturesque campus of Marietta College since 2012. The campus’ warm, home-like, fun-loving environment exposed me to US’s “melting pot” culture and intellectually stimulating teaching methodologies. My excellent academic performance helped me achieve the ‘Annual Scholarship’ four times respectively in four academic years, the honor conferred upon only the most promising and distinguished students. Owing to my exceptional academic performances, I was privileged to become one of very few exchange students who studied at the University of Manchester for 4 months in 2015. 

This eye-opening undergraduate experience not only brought me maturity, but also reinforced my determination to pursue graduate studies in the US. For the first time in my life, I was confronted many challenging academic tasks including group presentations, course papers and student tutorials. With long lists of reference books, I learned to conduct in-depth literature review. 

Marietta College offered me a rigorous study environment with animated lectures and strict academic standards. I deepened my knowledge of Mathematics and Finance in all aspects. I am fond of challenges, which involved me for four years of professional studies in Statistics for Science, Statistical Methods, Practical Statistics, Calculus, Linear Algebra, Computer Programming, Econometrics, and other key courses. In addition to learning knowledge from my major courses, I also have developed the proficiency in using the Statistical software R and the econometrics software EViews, which will great benefit my prospective study in statistics. Having completed my two degrees, I not only gained a deep understanding of a wide variety of financial and mathematical issues, but also a heightened ability to carry out independent research. After building solid foundation in mathematics and finance, I find I have no difficulties in reading books related to mathematics, economics, management, accounting, and finance. In light of my deep interest andstrong ability in mathematics, Math honorary society Kappa Mu Epsilon invited me as a member in April 2015. 

Among all the courses I have studied before, econometrics has inspired me quite a lot. It is an interdisciplinary course between economics and statistics, and very closely associated with the actual problems, which is extremely in line with my interest orientation of using mathematical tools to solve practical problems. As a person with strong innovative spirit, I often come up with some novel ideas. After studying the mathematical knowledge, I always try to do some basic argument of my novel ideas by using mathematical tools, which make me become more rational. 

I have always excelled in mathematics and financial studies and enjoyed taking up the challenges that are constantly presented to me in those areas. In this course, I teamed with other classmates allocated to investigate the reason for the rare use of our university online service called “Career Shift” and “Cash Course” among students. I wanted to provide sufficient solutions toward this circumstance. Owing to my expertise in mathematics, I was selected to be responsible for the survey design and data analysis. I was delighted to find that it could be more efficient to use matrix type questions while using online survey creator Survey Monkey. By inputting all acquired statistical data into EViews to produce regression coefficient data, we could better interpret and analyze the correlation between these investigating factors and the deficiency in utilization. In order to elaborate these factors specifically, I later made a chart for the project report and presentation. I treasured these valuable opportunities as it allows me to apply my existing knowledge into real circumstance. This greatly enhanced my self-study, comprehension and communication abilities and helped me better understand the meaning and the value of team work as well. 

I am active outside of school as well and interned at China Index Academy and S.A.C. Capital Advisors L.P. separately. In the summer of 2015 and the winter of 2016, I was exhilarated to receive the intern invitation separately from SAC Capital Advisors Limited, Satellite Office in Beijing. Working as an Intern-Macro Analyst, I was mainly responsible for completing data collection, screening and analyzing on specialor emerging industries as well as professional article translations. By voluntarily participating in the information integration and report formulation tasks during various seminars, I exhibited my academic expertise, industrious spirit and sense of responsibility. Through collating valuable materials about Chinese real estate market, I acquired a great deal of first-hand market information and data, coupling with my knowledge of economic development, Iwas able to contribute my own insight, which was highly appreciated by my supervisors. 

During my internship, my supervisor told me data is the most valuable in contemporary society. It is going to be more reliable to make a conclusion with the data that have been processed and analyzed according to scientific method, so statistics will gradually become the most powerful tool in this era of huge amount of data. Hence, during my graduate studies, I hope to focus on the application of statistics. The M.A. in Statistics program at Columbia University is the best fit for me in this regard. In addition to core courses prescribed in the curriculum, I am looking forward to taking Linear Regression and Time Series Analysis, because the related knowledge impressed me deeply when I learned it in my Econometrics class. I addition, I’m interested in the optional courses such as Statistical Methods in Finance, Stochastic Processes and Applications, which all combine statistics and finance systematically. My senior project for my math major, which is uploaded as a writing sample in this application, is related to Black-Scholes Model. Therefore, I know the importance of statistical methods and stochastic process to the modern finance. Also, the course of Advanced Data Analysis attracts me as it combines case studies and statistical software operations, which would provide me a chance to extend my previous software experience. By taking the M.A. in Statistics program at Columbia University, I wish to study statistics in greater depth, focusing on areas such as time series analysis, data mining, statistical models, choice of model, Bayesian Statistics and so on.