Graduate education provides an opportunity to expand academic horizons, to learn practical skills for real world applications, and affords the opportunity to do advanced research and influence future generations of students in a given field. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s graduate program in Accounting will afford me the opportunity to conduct research, advance my knowledge of the field and study with some of the finest faculty in the profession. I will be able to advance my knowledge in a vibrant profession that has implications for a broad range of industries and services that are used daily by millions of people throughout the world.
My undergraduate education in Business Administration from Hong Kong Baptist University has prepared me to face the many challenges that await me in both the academic and professional realm. I have always been an active learner and enjoy reading diverse topics ranging from philosophy to psychology. My work experiences with China Minmetals Securities exposed me to the practical side of asset management and financial analysis. Furthermore, as an assistant associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers assurance department I held many responsibilities for auditing financials of clients. As an intern with Unilever China, I also gained experience in sales and conducted analysis on several metrics. While a student, I was also fortune enough to participate in the SIFE competition sponsored by Unilever, where I lead my team to become national champions in China. Finally, I have always been very interested in research and would be particularly interested to assist in any research conducted by the Business faculty at USC.
I have always believed that learning is not limited to the classroom. Throughout my life I have enjoyed reading books. Fiction allows the mind to wander, unbound by terrestrial concerns. Reading non-fiction provides a fast paced, informative way to acquire diverse information in a wide range of subjects. I enjoy reading philosophy, history, and anything else that is well written. One book that recently caught my attention was Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. The book ingeniously combines pop culture with economics and provides an interesting avenue to understand why things happen as they do. Another book, Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” started me on a melancholy journey of realization that we are in danger of isolation while deluding ourselves into thinking we are increasingly connected. As society advances with novel technological achievements and emerging medical miracles, it seems that isolation of the individual has only increased. In spite of having thousands of superficial friends on Facebook, true friendship may be hard to come by. I am convinced that UIUC will foster my ever-evolving engagement with academic exploration, providing me with an excellent outlet for interacting, learning, and connecting with fellow students on campus.
My outside interest in a wide range of subjects will be an asset to the UIUC accounting program. It will provide me with many backgrounds that I can use to analyze information that I am required to absorb in the rigorous academics. Furthermore, it will give me the opportunity to inform myself, colleagues, and faculty members, of information that they might otherwise not have come to by themselves. Knowledge is power, and the fastest way to acquire that power is through reading. Reading is the basic building block of further learning. I intend to apply the appreciation for learning that I have developed to the Master’s in Accounting program in furtherance of my personal and the University’s academic goals.
greatly appeals to me. The diverse lectures and seminars will empower me to understand modern trends in the field and to serve my company and clients ably. The excellent faculty has ample experience to instruct me in the multiple areas of interest for an accountant and will broaden my horizons by exposing me to novel ideas. Finally, the eclectic student body will provide interesting experiences and insights that will only enhance my academic experience.
Accountancy is my ideal profession as I have been learning accounting for many years and I look forward to applying these academic skills in my career. Moreover, I find accounting to be fascinating field. I enjoy the challenge and the feeling of understanding the enterprise through its financial statements. I would like to experience and integrate myself into a company culture. Work experience in a CPA firm would improve my professional skills and network, leading to making me a qualified financial manager, and ultimately my dream of setting up my own accounting firm.
An M.S. in Accounting from UIUC would open up many career opportunities. The training in management, business, and mathematics it provides serves many professions, and is applicable in commerce, insurance, and government jobs. The enormous amount of flexibility of the degree enables the holder to branch out and discover areas beyond their immediate expertise, and in turn expand the scope of enterprise and discover novel solutions to old problems.
My initial goals are modest, insofar as my first step will be to seek a position in a Big Four accounting firm. Such a position would allow me to combine the skills that I have learned in my undergraduate studies with the education I receive at UIUC. The broad-based interactions that will occur during my master’s studies will expose me to many fields that will serve me well as I collaborate with the diverse groups involved in accounting and auditing. Portfolio managers, bankers, advisors, investment specialists, and traders will just be some of the professionals with whom I’ll be required to cooperate with. The global focus at UIUC will expose me to the diverse nationalities of the students, and consequently provide me with insight that will serve my clients as they seek to maximize their investment returns.
My ultimate goal is to be an accounting or financial manager in a large investment company. As a manager I will be responsible for making decisions regarding other peoples hard earned money. The position is one of high responsibility, which my training will prepare me for. As a financial manager I will be presented with the work of analysts and I will be required to make fast decisions while keeping the state of the industry, economy, and markets in mind. A Masters in Accounting will further provide me with the broad background that will be required to analyze the business environment. Courses in risk management, financial reporting, and the accounting elective courses will position me to use the latest finance techniques in support of my objective of maximizing investor returns.
The level of education, and the diversity in both course work and student body at UIUC is unparalleled at other institutions. In both my short and long term goals, I will leverage the education and contacts that I form to maximize my personal productivity. In turn, this will allow me to maximize opportunities for the firm and clients alike. Furthermore, I will be expose to new enterprises with novel ideas and my position will enable me to advance new technologies as they are brought from the idea stage to the practical stage. In the field of finance, it is very easy to get lost in the goal of ‘making money.’ However, another goal of accounting is to make new technologies available by and ensuring the cash flow required to support novel ideas is available. Thus, my education at your institution and my future employment will allow me to serve a broader humanitarian cause of encouraging new developments in many field of activity.
Academic challenges must be met with an inquisitive mind hardened by intense discipline. What I find most appealing about the University is the strong research conducted by the faculty. The breadth of disciplines covered is spectacular. The integration of knowledge that the curriculum provides will broaden my academic reach and enable me to contribute to future research. I wish to harness my commitment to research in broader contexts, building lifelong connections with students and faculty alike.
