Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
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Alumni Career Services: alumnicareerservices@ard.uchicago.edu
Alumni Schools Committee: alumnischoolscommittee@uchicago.edu
Chicago Affinity Groups: affinity@ard.uchicago.edu
Class Councils: class_council@uchicago.edu
Career Advising & Planning Services: caps-volunteers@uchicago.edu
Reunion Committee: reunion@ard.uchicago.edu
Saturday, March 6, 2010
1. Why this job
2. Why you are good at economics
3. What do you think you can bring to the table
4. Anything that you might want to bring to the table?
High academic achievement, especially in economics
Excellent writing and editing abilities
Ability to work independently on open-ended tasks
Excitement about everyday applications of economics (a la Freakonomics, Nudge, etc)
Interest in/knowledge of international and development economics is a plus but not required
My Personal Statement
I am a senior at the University of Chicago concentrating in Economics with a minor in Statistics. The truth was that I did not realized I would be interested in pursuing graduate studies after college. It was starting in my third year of College, when I more or less completed my degree requirement, that I started to develop a serious interest in Economics. It began with taking Econometrics and taking some of the electives from the department. Last Winter, I took a class on Topics in Economic Growth and Development.
I think an excellent introduction for anyone to the principles of Economics is to get excited about the applications of economic principle to any dimensions of life. This was certainly how I got interested in Economics when I was in high school. I was interested in the sciences, but social science appealed to me because it is concerned with how society as an organized structure functions, and what intrigued me the most about Economics was the micro and macro division. To date, perhaps the most approachable course I have taken at the University of Chicago is, incidentally, a course taught by Steven D. Levitt called 'Economics of Crime'. Professor Levitt has a very high ability to engage his students and to make them excited about the concepts. I would describe this course as very self-contained, however, the bigger picture that I believe a student should walk away is to learn how to apply the model and way of thinking to other dimensions in life. Understanding the drivers that motivate people, namely, that individuals respond to incentives, is a cornerstone to approaching any issue related to behavior, from decision making, and optimizing strategies.
I have excellent organizational skills in compiling information and performing research. I am also quite interested in the specific topics that this position calls for, namely in information dissemination. During my first and second year of college I was a staff writer for The Triple Helix, an undergraduate publication on science, law and society. I wrote my articles from an economic perspective, from the science of sleep to the economics of organic food. What I enjoyed the most about the article is learning something new and coming across something that may have a direct impact on how I think while doing research for the article.
I believe I would benefit from this position the most by taking a year off from academics and thinking seriously about what I would like to pursue for graduate studies. Along the way, I expect to be fully in touch with academics and to be exposed to economic and financial literature.
My other motivation for this position is that I consider myself a student who highly values good pedagogy. I sincerely believe that any academic discipline can be explained clearly and presented in an inspirational manner to any student. This is why good editing skills and a personal interest in the subject itself is important. In my previous work experience I have drafted concise reports, edited summaries, and always thought about the best way to present my findings and to convey information to my readers. I would like to apply those skills to producing a coherent and useful textbook. I would also like to see those ideas applied to social and development issues, something which I have a keen interest in with regards to applied microeconomics.
2. Why you are good at economics
3. What do you think you can bring to the table
4. Anything that you might want to bring to the table?
High academic achievement, especially in economics
Excellent writing and editing abilities
Ability to work independently on open-ended tasks
Excitement about everyday applications of economics (a la Freakonomics, Nudge, etc)
Interest in/knowledge of international and development economics is a plus but not required
My Personal Statement
I am a senior at the University of Chicago concentrating in Economics with a minor in Statistics. The truth was that I did not realized I would be interested in pursuing graduate studies after college. It was starting in my third year of College, when I more or less completed my degree requirement, that I started to develop a serious interest in Economics. It began with taking Econometrics and taking some of the electives from the department. Last Winter, I took a class on Topics in Economic Growth and Development.
I think an excellent introduction for anyone to the principles of Economics is to get excited about the applications of economic principle to any dimensions of life. This was certainly how I got interested in Economics when I was in high school. I was interested in the sciences, but social science appealed to me because it is concerned with how society as an organized structure functions, and what intrigued me the most about Economics was the micro and macro division. To date, perhaps the most approachable course I have taken at the University of Chicago is, incidentally, a course taught by Steven D. Levitt called 'Economics of Crime'. Professor Levitt has a very high ability to engage his students and to make them excited about the concepts. I would describe this course as very self-contained, however, the bigger picture that I believe a student should walk away is to learn how to apply the model and way of thinking to other dimensions in life. Understanding the drivers that motivate people, namely, that individuals respond to incentives, is a cornerstone to approaching any issue related to behavior, from decision making, and optimizing strategies.
I have excellent organizational skills in compiling information and performing research. I am also quite interested in the specific topics that this position calls for, namely in information dissemination. During my first and second year of college I was a staff writer for The Triple Helix, an undergraduate publication on science, law and society. I wrote my articles from an economic perspective, from the science of sleep to the economics of organic food. What I enjoyed the most about the article is learning something new and coming across something that may have a direct impact on how I think while doing research for the article.
I believe I would benefit from this position the most by taking a year off from academics and thinking seriously about what I would like to pursue for graduate studies. Along the way, I expect to be fully in touch with academics and to be exposed to economic and financial literature.
My other motivation for this position is that I consider myself a student who highly values good pedagogy. I sincerely believe that any academic discipline can be explained clearly and presented in an inspirational manner to any student. This is why good editing skills and a personal interest in the subject itself is important. In my previous work experience I have drafted concise reports, edited summaries, and always thought about the best way to present my findings and to convey information to my readers. I would like to apply those skills to producing a coherent and useful textbook. I would also like to see those ideas applied to social and development issues, something which I have a keen interest in with regards to applied microeconomics.
My Personal Statement
1. How I got interested in Economics
2. What I have been involved in over the last 4 years
3. Why do I want to apply for this position
4. How might this be related to my background?
5. What I hope to achieve in the future?
The path that led me to decide that I want to work in applied microeconomics in Economics was not a straightforward path. I was born in Hong Kong and spent the majority of my time living in a fairly multi-cultural and diverse background. Because of my father's occupation I moved around throughout my childhood. The places that I have lived and called home at some point in my life are Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore. Looking back, I did have a first-hand account of witnessing different stages of development in three different countries: I lived in Shanghai for six years in the from 1990-1996, during which time it was gradually opening its doors to foreign imports and the like. In Kuala Lumpur, I saw the building of the Petronas Twin Tower, which was then the tallest structure in the world. Finally, in SIngapore, which is my current home, I saw how a small island is transforming itself to one of the most admired and possibly best success story out of the South East Asian region. Nevertheless, apart from this background I was more interested in learning about theory and taking my college experience in stride.
College itself was an interesting experience to learn how to study effectively without compromising anything. It gradually became clear to me that while I might have an excellent preparation from high school, I had not encountered an immense variability in a teacher's ability to convey the information in planned manner. For example, most of the teaching duties are assigned to graduate students for many introductory classes, while full-time professors may only be hired for their research and not their teaching abilities. A lot of this I see as a model that I had not quite yet understood as a first-year. The learning curve was considerably harder in that respect. But I persevered and went through the class. It was only fairly recently, though not late that I thought hard about using my intuition to make sense of what I was learning. That made studying considerably easier - much easier and far more manageable than I had previously thought.
I became interested in applied microeconomics in my third year of college as an undergraduate at the University of Chicago. Before that, when I was taking the core sequence of the major, most of what I was taught was fairly mechanical most of it was understanding how to use applied math. Last winter, I took an economics class on Growth and Development, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was an introduction to issues specific to the study of development, using basic tools in microeconomic and macro-economic analysis to identify fundamental features that might be common across developing countries. The topics that we studied include how agents optimize their options and make decisions subject to realistic constraint, from occupation choice model concerning different types of wage contracts, to micro-financing, where we studied how an entrepreneur might be able to take out a loan and how the structural constraints such as the size of one's community might affect how feasible such a scheme is.
I am particularly interested in modeling because of its intuitive use as a simplified representation of the real world, of which the mechanism can be used to explain a particular concept. As a theoretical construct to explain economic process, it is a useful framework from which one can use to test the assumptions using empirical work. I am interested in exploring academic research and become a part of real-world applications of economic concept. I followed this by choosing to use the remainder of my senior year in College to complete a minor in Statistics. The minor in Statistics heavily emphasizes on statistical methods and data analysis.
Finally, I have a personal aspiration to be involved in fieldwork that has a positive impact on local communities. I speak from personal experience growing up in South East Asia how much work should be done to address the economic argument that has perhaps been the fundamental distinction between the rich and the poor. Interestingly enough, and it has also been addressed in my Economic Development class, developing economies is a subjective a term, and obvious examples show that that there is a continuum of different development stages that countries experience and transition between. However, by understanding how dynamics work and influence the long-term path of the economies, it is possible to influence positive change through appropriate policy recommendations. Involvement in field work is not only a means but also an end to arrive at empirically verified facts about the many dimensions of economic development. We gain insight by designing experiments to test these ideas in the hope of obtaining something real and applicable that will make a positive change on our community.
I believe that I will benefit largely from this work experience and to gain a solid preparation prior to pursuing graduate studies. What Boston has to offer in particular is a great academic environment, a change that I look forward to after my time in Chicago. I imagine that my exposure to academic colleagues will be greater post college. There are already some ground rules that I have established for myself. For example, I found that I enjoy working on task when I can focus on it for a long period of time, but like variety in my work to maintain my interest and enthusiasm. Working for at least a year will give me more academic maturity and the time spent will allow me to build on my mathematical and statistical analysis abilities.
1. How I got interested in Economics
2. What I have been involved in over the last 4 years
3. Why do I want to apply for this position
4. How might this be related to my background?
5. What I hope to achieve in the future?
The path that led me to decide that I want to work in applied microeconomics in Economics was not a straightforward path. I was born in Hong Kong and spent the majority of my time living in a fairly multi-cultural and diverse background. Because of my father's occupation I moved around throughout my childhood. The places that I have lived and called home at some point in my life are Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore. Looking back, I did have a first-hand account of witnessing different stages of development in three different countries: I lived in Shanghai for six years in the from 1990-1996, during which time it was gradually opening its doors to foreign imports and the like. In Kuala Lumpur, I saw the building of the Petronas Twin Tower, which was then the tallest structure in the world. Finally, in SIngapore, which is my current home, I saw how a small island is transforming itself to one of the most admired and possibly best success story out of the South East Asian region. Nevertheless, apart from this background I was more interested in learning about theory and taking my college experience in stride.
College itself was an interesting experience to learn how to study effectively without compromising anything. It gradually became clear to me that while I might have an excellent preparation from high school, I had not encountered an immense variability in a teacher's ability to convey the information in planned manner. For example, most of the teaching duties are assigned to graduate students for many introductory classes, while full-time professors may only be hired for their research and not their teaching abilities. A lot of this I see as a model that I had not quite yet understood as a first-year. The learning curve was considerably harder in that respect. But I persevered and went through the class. It was only fairly recently, though not late that I thought hard about using my intuition to make sense of what I was learning. That made studying considerably easier - much easier and far more manageable than I had previously thought.
I became interested in applied microeconomics in my third year of college as an undergraduate at the University of Chicago. Before that, when I was taking the core sequence of the major, most of what I was taught was fairly mechanical most of it was understanding how to use applied math. Last winter, I took an economics class on Growth and Development, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was an introduction to issues specific to the study of development, using basic tools in microeconomic and macro-economic analysis to identify fundamental features that might be common across developing countries. The topics that we studied include how agents optimize their options and make decisions subject to realistic constraint, from occupation choice model concerning different types of wage contracts, to micro-financing, where we studied how an entrepreneur might be able to take out a loan and how the structural constraints such as the size of one's community might affect how feasible such a scheme is.
I am particularly interested in modeling because of its intuitive use as a simplified representation of the real world, of which the mechanism can be used to explain a particular concept. As a theoretical construct to explain economic process, it is a useful framework from which one can use to test the assumptions using empirical work. I am interested in exploring academic research and become a part of real-world applications of economic concept. I followed this by choosing to use the remainder of my senior year in College to complete a minor in Statistics. The minor in Statistics heavily emphasizes on statistical methods and data analysis.
Finally, I have a personal aspiration to be involved in fieldwork that has a positive impact on local communities. I speak from personal experience growing up in South East Asia how much work should be done to address the economic argument that has perhaps been the fundamental distinction between the rich and the poor. Interestingly enough, and it has also been addressed in my Economic Development class, developing economies is a subjective a term, and obvious examples show that that there is a continuum of different development stages that countries experience and transition between. However, by understanding how dynamics work and influence the long-term path of the economies, it is possible to influence positive change through appropriate policy recommendations. Involvement in field work is not only a means but also an end to arrive at empirically verified facts about the many dimensions of economic development. We gain insight by designing experiments to test these ideas in the hope of obtaining something real and applicable that will make a positive change on our community.
I believe that I will benefit largely from this work experience and to gain a solid preparation prior to pursuing graduate studies. What Boston has to offer in particular is a great academic environment, a change that I look forward to after my time in Chicago. I imagine that my exposure to academic colleagues will be greater post college. There are already some ground rules that I have established for myself. For example, I found that I enjoy working on task when I can focus on it for a long period of time, but like variety in my work to maintain my interest and enthusiasm. Working for at least a year will give me more academic maturity and the time spent will allow me to build on my mathematical and statistical analysis abilities.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Saturday, January 16, 2010
I think I've ****** ** **** **** ******* on the dance floor, and I don't even know much about him. The only thing that I do know about hims is that I'm quite attracted to him, am am thinking of things that are far to ahead, and things that I would have no idea if they will even happen.
I'm writing this down only because I realized that it's hard for me to think about anything else pressing. Anything that is utterly urgent for me to write down here. In this blog.
I'm writing this down only because I realized that it's hard for me to think about anything else pressing. Anything that is utterly urgent for me to write down here. In this blog.
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