UC Application Notes - Admission/Application Essay Example

UC Application s Prompt I intend to major in Economics or Business Economics because it would give me a deeper knowledge of the business world’s social, human, and economic dimensions. My experience working at a network marketing company made me see that business is more than just making money selling to people. I want to be successful like my father, whom I admire even if he left my family. To succeed like him, I want to learn how people decide what to buy and make, and how the economy works. I can learn these because Economics combines psychology, social sciences, and mathematics. I love Math. When I entered a Junior College after high school to prepare myself for the University, I joined ICC, an accounting and finance club, and became one of its officers. I learned a few things about accounting and finance and how important they are in a business, but I was more interested in the big role that Economics plays. Economics as a field best matches my personality: I love math, but I love working with people and exchanging ideas with them. I want to know how they think and why they think that way. Accounting and finance are interesting fields of work, but I think they are too “scientific” and “impersonal” for my taste. In accounting, you just apply rules and standards; in finance, you deal mostly with money and applying formulas to find answers. No, I don’t hate accounting. I joined the Institute of Management Accountants where I learned to appreciate the sense of order and security given by accounting rules and standards. I also like finance, but I found it too much like accounting, but only in reverse: accounting tells you how you earned and spent money while finance helps you find the money so you can earn and spend it. Economics is different. It finds answers to basic questions like why people want to earn and spend money, and how and why they do it. In several ICC meetings, I learned about customers and markets, supply and demand, inflation and investments, and was fascinated by the idea that mathematical models could show how people think. I couldn’t believe it, until in one meeting I had an important insight: I saw economic models in the way people in my network behaved as we talked pricing, distribution, sales, and so on. More than one mentor has told me I could get better business training if I majored in Economics or Business Economics. I asked other members of the Phi Theta Kappa honor society and they suggested I try University of California at Los Angeles, Berkeley, or San Diego. Doing some research, I learned that the faculties in these schools are prestigious in business and economics. I also learned that the environment would fit me because I love being with and learning from people of different countries and social backgrounds. I hope that given the chance, I could help other students by sharing our experiences and learning from each other. Prompt 2 Life was tough: my father left us so I grew up with my mother, who had only finished high school. I grew up in a foreign country, and learning English and adjusting in America was not easy. I had to survive, I did, and I thrived. The fact that life was not easy, more than giving me a reason to blame for mistakes in life (like one committed in my junior year that somewhat delayed my schooling), has given me the motivation to focus and to aim and dream higher. I know that life’s dreams can be achieved if we only put our minds and hearts to it. I was quite busy during my Junior College years. I wanted to ready myself for the University, which I saw as the preparation for my future work as a successful businessman, so I not only studied hard but also worked hard, inside and outside the campus, to support myself, my studies, and my family. I approached each subject as a challenge and with the goal of being the best student in the class. I got high grades, enough for me to be invited to a Greek-letter honor society (Phi Theta Kappa). I also joined ICC, an accounting and finance club, and was elected one of its officers. I also joined the Institute of Management Accountants. But I love working with people, building relationships, meeting new friends and getting to know and helping them realize their goals and dreams. I wanted to lead (but not dominate) discussions because I enjoy listening to others share what they know. I like it too when I see them enjoy the ideas I share with them: our ideas improve if we share them. This is why I was successful in the network marketing job I got after junior college. In six months, I reached a Director position. I supervised a group of 30 people who were selling products for the company. I recruited and trained them, helped set goals and achieve them, analyzed problems and discovered solutions, and we hired accountants to do the reports so we could enjoy spending the money we earned. I am comfortable talking to one or a hundred people in a room, motivating them to get out and achieve their goals. I enjoy making presentations, leading meetings, letting ideas bounce around the room and in each others’ minds and watch them grow and take shape and turn into money. I loved it all, but my mother reminded me about my priorities, and my number one priority right now is to get a University education. So I left my job, which was turning me into a workaholic, and decided to re-focus my efforts on long-term success by getting a good education. I plan to put the same intense focus and attention until I get what I want: to learn as much as I could about Economics or Business Economics so that I could help many people succeed, get rich, and hopefully, be happy. Read More