Cornell University College of Arts and Sciences (College Interest Essay):　

Describe your intellectual interests, their evolution and what makes them exciting to you. Tell us how you will utilize the academic program in the College of Arts and Sciences to further explore this interest or idea.

The 6-week Summer School I attended this year at Cornell University is definitely a milestone in the development of my intellectual interests. I took two credit courses—Macroeconomics and Microeconomics— and scored A and B+ respectively. I am convinced that, as a Chinese student with only two years experiences of overseas education, I have full academic potential to join the world’s top-tier student community and to excel.

Among many summer school programs, I chose economics program because of my initial exposure to economics and my special aptitudes in mathematics. In my preschool days, I displayed special sensitivity to shapes, figures, and simple logical relationships. During my primary education, I won the second and third prizes in mathematics contests both in Beijing and the entire country. The semester before my transfer to SAS, I reached the final round of a highly challenging national mathematics competition. As a key member of the SAS Mathematics Team, I was the SAS Champion of 10th Grade in Mendobroit Math Competition, Tier 2 in Western Region of America. Having completed challenging math courses including AP Statistics, AP Calculus AB, AP JAVA (with a 5.0 score for all), I will finish AP Calculus BC in the 12th Grade. My achievement of full marks in mathematics in SAT I & II is by no means accidental.

I fully understand the study of economics, especially econometrics, is inextricably connected with mathematics. An important task of economics research is to develop cutting-edge models to study, empirically, complicated and changing phenomena in our economic life. My solid mathematics foundation is an important guarantee for my future academic success.

In the evolution of my intellectual interest, my father, a former crude oil trader of CNOOC (Singapore), has exerted a defining influence on me. By demonstrating the tremendous changes that are happening to China’s economy and finance with positive and negative cases, he has made me increasingly interested in economics.

Chen Jiuling, former president of China Aviation (Singapore) Corporation and a friend of my father’s, suffered heavy loss of 550,000,000 U.S. dollars on the Singapore crude oil market (derivatives) 2 years ago, creating quite a sensation in international financial community. Insufficient risk management led to his debacle. By contrast, among three civil aviation giants, only AIR CHINA stands out with its 110% annual profitability rate while the other two are total losers. The secret underlying AIR CHINA’s incredible profitability is its successful hedging of fuel, which accounts for 35% of the corporation’s gross operation cost.

As an academic discipline, economics is exciting and fascinating because, with its study of securities, stock, investment, derivatives and many other financial tools, it can furnish in-depth knowledge and technical know-how for us to succeed in capital market and business world. I am frequently haunted by the idea that, if Chen Jiulin had not lost such a huge quantity of China’s state-owned assets, countless schools could have been built under China’s on-going Hope Project to make education available to millions of children in economically depressed areas of the country. The charm of economics lies in its ability to provide effective theories and methodologies for the optimum allocation of resources and improvement of the welfare of the general public.

In his welcome message, G. Peter Lepage, dean of Cornell University College of Arts and Sciences, describes the four-year undergraduate program as “a time of great intellectual exploration”. Indeed, if admitted, I would exploit Cornell’s tremendous resources to fulfill two major objectives. The first is to learn cutting-edge theories and methodologies in mathematics and economics to develop a broad knowledge base. The second is to commit myself to economics research based on quantitative methods to turn myself into a research student. I hope to identify an advising faculty specializing in Chinese economy and finance as my mentor and use one semester or two for studying abroad, preferably in prestigious universities like Tsinghua University or Peking University in China, where I will focus on Chinese economics and financial industry. In this way, western economics and finance theories, as well as my solid academic training across China and the U.S., would endow me with a dual perspective—as an outsider looking in and as an insider looking out. The dual vision will allow me to examine many unique economic and financial problems presented by China in its crucial phase of transformation. Important research achievements can be expected from this dual perspective.

With the development of necessary research skills, I will proceed onto a more challenging graduate program. My GPA and my performance in SAT I & II testify to my prominent scholastic aptitudes. My education experience in China, Singapore and the U.S. will surely add diversity to my academic career. I believe that my academic foundation is sound, my scholastic potential unlimited, and my intellectual interest would be significantly expanded in Cornell’s exciting and unparalleled academic environment.

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Cornell University College of Arts and Sciences (College Interest Essay):　

Describe your intellectual interests, their evolution and what makes them exciting to you. Tell us how you will utilize the academic program in the College of Arts and Sciences to further explore this interest or idea.

　　今年夏天在Cornell为期六周的Summer School 可谓是我学习兴趣发展过程中一个决定性的转折点。我修了两门学分课程—宏观经济学与微观经济学，分获A和B+ 的好成绩。这一成绩使我相信，作为一个只有两年海外（Singapore）学习经历的学生，我巨大的学术潜质足以能让我与世界顶尖的其他学生同台竞技并取得卓越。

　　在Cornell多个Summer School中，我情有独衷地选择研修经济学，这是我以往所展示出的数学才华以及我对经济学的初步接触使然。我自小就表现出数学天赋，对图形、数字、简单逻辑关系特别敏感，上学后更是明显—小学获北京市数学竞赛二等奖、华罗庚全国数学竞赛三等奖，中学时进入全国数学竞赛决赛。在Singapore，作为SAS参赛团队主力获SAS Champion of 10th grade in Mendobroit Math Competition, Tier 2 in Western Region of America。 12年级将完成AP Calculus BC。 此前， 我已完成包括AP Statistics和AP Calculus AB在内的多门数学课程，几乎均为满分5分。因此，我的SAT I 和SAT II 数学均为800分绝非偶然。

　　我深知，学习经济学，尤其是计量经济学, 与数学密不可分。经济学研究中的一个重要部分就是研发各种先进的数学模型对我们生活中各种复杂而又无穷变化的经济现象进行实证研究。我坚实的数学基础无疑是未来学术成功的重要的保障。

　　在我对经济学的intellectual interests的演变过程中，我父亲 — China Aviation (Singapore) 的前原油资深交易员 — 通过向我讲述中国在经济和金融领域中正在发生的重大变化和正反两方面的案例，从而对我产生了重要的影响。

　　陈九龄，我父亲的朋友，China Aviation (Singapore)Corporation前总裁，2年前在新加坡石油交易市场上（衍生品）亏损了5亿5千万美元，风险管理不力是其主要原因。与此形成对比的是，在中国三大航空公司中，两家亏损，唯有AIR CHINA以110％赢利率一枝独秀。这是因为它对占公司总营运成本35％以上的航油进行了套期保值（HEDGGING）。

　　经济学之所以exciting and fascinating,因为它以及它所涵盖的securities , stock , investment , derivatives，和金融工程的各种工具，能给我们提供深厚的知识和technical know-how,在资本市场和商业世界上避免失败，赢取成功。我常想，经陈久霖之手所流失的5亿5千万美元的中国国有资产，能用来兴建多少所希望小学，让成千上万中国贫困地区的失学儿童重获教育啊！经济学的魅力所在就是给我们提供一整套理论和方法来争取实现资源的最佳配置，改善民众福祉。

　　G．Peter Lepage , Cornell University College of Arts and Sciences 的院长（Dean），在其对新生的欢迎致辞中将一个本科生在 Cornell的四年描述成 “a time of great intellectual exploration.” 确实， 一旦获得录取，我会利用贵校enormous的资源来探索我的两大学术目标，其一是学习数学与经济学的先进理论与方法，构建一个全面的知识架构；其二是致力于基于数量方法的经济学研究，以期使自己成为研究型的学生。我尤其希望能找到一个研究中国经济和金融的advising faculty 作为我的导师，并用一至二个学期进行海外游学，在中国像北京大学或清华大学这样prestigious的学府研修中国当今经济与金融课程。这样，西方经济学和金融学理论，以及横跨中美两国的大学教育能使我形成一种双重视角 — as an outsider looking in and as an insider looking out — 来审视处在转型期的中国所展现出来的丰富多样且独具特色的经济与金融问题。这一双重视角必将使我研有所成。

　　在培养出必要的研究技能之后，我将proceed onto a challenging graduate program. 我的GPA以及SAT I和II 的成绩已经证明我拥有高人一筹的scholastic aptitudes，而我在中国、新加坡、和美国的学习经历也将赋予我的学习生涯以独特的多样性。我坚信我的学业基础是坚实的，我的学术潜能是无限的，而我的intellectual interests 也能在贵校令人兴奋的学术环境中获得最大程度上的拓展。