商学院申请:文书写作与全程申请

商学院申请:Stanford MBA 申请案例


Stanford Essay-1-Compulsory :

What matters most to you, and why? (750 words)

 
Betrayal, that’s the word!

For weeks, I was afflicted with insomnia, repeating the word over and over again, startled by nightmares. Those were the days of guilty conscience, torture, inner struggles, and self-denial.

April, six years ago, with an excellent GPA of 3.733, I passed PhD qualifying exam at UIUC. If nothing went amiss, within a year or two, I would earn my degree and reach the pinnacle as a student. Then, I would become an electrical engineer as I was meant to.

But the day I passed the exam, I announced my decision to discontinue my PhD program. My advisor, instructors and friends thought I was still in the spirit of April Fools’ Day.

Indeed, I was a fool, to have made a fool of myself and others. Receiving the best education in EE at three leading institutions in China and US, I was the pride of my family and my teachers. Yet, I let them down. My father called me a ‘failure’ and there was an engulfing alienation from everyone I knew.

Admittedly, relinquishing my PhD program constituted a serious breach of faith. I started searching into the innermost recesses of my mind for a rationale for my seemingly impulsive behavior. I was certainly not out of mind, so, there must be a rationale because I was as sensible a human soul as anybody else!

Undeniably, there was a discontinuation, a conflict, something at odds, very similar to what Steve Jobs or Bill Gates experienced when they quitted their college. It was true I studied EE at Tsinghua and in applying for UIUC’s PhD program I unequivocally reiterated that interest.

Then, did I tell a lie? Thinking of lying, I shivered. But what was the force powerful enough to make me a ‘liar’? I realized pinpointing that force and understanding that conflict could be a good beginning for my self-redemption.

The conflict was obviously between my interest as a student and the value I want to pursue as a person. My academic interest led me to study EE, but academic training alone is just a necessary preparation for career, not an ultimate end. Then, what about value? The value is the principle or objective one remains committed to the whole life. One’s interests can vary at different phases of life, but one’s value remains constant throughout one’s lifetime.

Then, what’s my value? My value is simple—to achieve full self-actualization by tapping all my latent potential. My pursuit of the highest level of excellence throughout my academic endeavors was driven by that value. That value also underlay my seemingly impulsive decision. At that very moment of impulse, I also knew that value would continue to shape me.

Then, what’s wrong with being an electrical engineer? Apparently, engineers are indispensible to our modern world, the world of technology. Steve Jobs was first and foremost an engineer, a technical genius. But to remember Jobs as an engineer is to belittle him. We remember him as a leader, the mastermind and architect of the world’s most technologically and socially valued corporation. Studying EE at the doctoral level, I knew modern engineering has become far more complicated. Engineers should no longer be solitary problem-solvers but aspire to be managers of major engineering programs. I had implicit faith in my potential to be a leader and manager, involving a large number of people including engineers in major undertakings. I believed, intuitively at the time, that’s how I could best fulfill my potential. Discontinuing my PhD was an act of responding to a calling, from innermost recesses of my soul, to that mission of maximizing my potential.

My resolute answering to this calling has shaped the person I am—co-founder and director of two hi-tech/new energy companies, senior manager of XXX Technology Group (a leader in Flat Panel Display), and vice president of Sinoxxx Corporation (NASDAQ: XXXX). After all, what I relinquished was just a possible PhD degree, not my EE knowledge and expertise. In fact, my extended engineering training is precisely what has made me a business leader in those technology/engineering-dominated corporations.

Jobs talked about three dots he had. What’s unusual about Jobs is that he did not leave those dots as mere dots, discrete and isolated. He linked those dots into a beautiful curve that consummated on a pinnacle of a great and exciting career. What I’ve done is to discriminate between interest and value, be true to my inner voice, and allow my value to override and to bridge the gaps.



何事因何于你殊为重要?

      “背信弃义”,就是这个字眼,舍此无它!

        数个星期中,我每天彻夜无眠,对自己一遍又一遍复述着这个词眼,梦魇将我一次又一次惊醒。那是些什么日子啊,充斥着良心愧疚,折磨,内心的挣扎,以及自我的否定。

        六年前的四月,我凭借着3.733的优秀GPA,通过了UIUC大学的博士资格考试。如果不出意外,一至二年内,我将完成论文并获得博士学位,抵达我作为一个学生的学业生涯的顶峰。接下来,按照我所受教育的培养目标,我将成为一名电气工程师。

        但几乎就在我通过博士资格考试的同时,我宣布了中止攻读Ph.D.学位的决定。我的导师、老师以及朋友们以为我仍置身于愚人节氛围之中,在跟他们开天大的玩笑。

        事实上,我确实是个“愚人”,既愚弄了自己,亦愚弄了他人。在中国和美国三所顶尖大学接受了最好的电气工程学教育之后,我早已成为我家和曾经教过我的老师们的骄傲。然而现在,我却让他们大失所望。我父亲斥我为“失败者”,而来自我所认识的每个人的那种疏远感,将我吞噬。

        放弃攻读博士学士,与我而言,确实构成了一种甚为严重的背信行为。我开始在我心灵最深处,竭力寻找出一种合理的解释,来说明我那视若冲动的行为。我没有发疯,那是肯定无疑的。既然如此,那么,肯定存在着某种合理的解释,因为我头脑正常,正常得与整个世界上的任何一个人毫无二致。

        但不可否认的是,这里也存在着某种断裂,某种冲突,某些事情相悖,非常类似于斯蒂夫·乔布斯和比尔·盖茨在当年辍学时所遭遇到的情形。确实,我在中国的清华大学所学的专业是电气工程,而在申请美国UIUC大学的博士项目时,我再一次明确无误地重申了这一兴趣。

        那么,如此说来,我是否撒谎了呢?想到撒谎,我不禁一阵震颤。但到底是何种力量,强大得足以让我变成一个“撒谎者”?我意识到,只有精确地认知这一力量,并弄懂我所体验到的那种冲突,我才能有一个良好的开端,接下来进行自我救赎。

        显然,我所经历的那种冲突,在于我作为一个学生的兴趣以及我作为一个个人所欲追求的价值观之间的相悖。我的学术兴趣致使我投身于电气工程学的学习,但一个人的学术训练本身,充其量也只能当作职业生涯的某种准备,而非某种终极目的。那么,于我而言,价值观又意味着什么呢?所谓价值观,就是一个人一辈子矢志不渝的某种准则或目标。一个人的兴趣可以在人生的不同阶段有所变化,但一个人的价值观在一个人的整个人生中必须是恒定不变的。

        那么,我所坚持的价值观又是什么呢?我的价值观其实极为简单, 那就是通过激发我全部的潜能,来充分实现我的人生价值。从小学到博士的全部学术努力中,我致力于追求最优异的成绩,这本身就是我的价值观在使然。从深层次上来说,我那视若冲动十足的辍学决定,也贯穿着我的价值观。而在那个冲动的瞬间,我同样地深知,这一价值观将一如既往地塑造此后的我全部成长历程。

        那么,成为一个电气工程师又有何不妥?显而易见,工程师们对于我们这个世界——一个以技术为主导的世界——来说,绝对是不可或缺。斯蒂夫·乔布斯首先是一个工程师,一个技术天才。但我们如果将乔布斯作为一个工程师来铭记,这对他来说是最大的不敬。我们所铭记在心的,是乔布斯作为一个杰出领袖,一个思想力大师,一位全球最具科技与社会价值的公司的总设计师。进入到博士层次的电子工程学研究后,我深知当代工程学之复杂程度,已今非昔比。工程师们不再应该是单枪匹马的问题解决者,而也应该努力企求成为重大工程项目的决策者和管理者。我对自己作为一个领导者和管理者的潜能深信不疑,坚信有能力聚拢一大批包括工程师在内的人才,做出一番重大的事业。凭着我的本能与直觉,我坚信,唯有如此,我才能最好地实现我的潜能。放弃攻读博士学位,恰好就是我对发自我灵魂深处的呼唤所做出的一种回应行为,去追寻那种将我的潜能加以最大化的使命。

        我这一对心灵召唤的果断回应,造就了我目前所取得的成就——我是两家高新技术和新能源企业的合伙创办人及董事,XXX技术集团(中国平板显示器的领军企业)的高级经理人,以及XXX集团有限公司(纳斯达克上市代码:XXXXX)的执行副总裁。终究来说,我所放弃的仅仅是一个有可能的博士头衔,而根本没有丢弃我的电气工程学知识与深厚的技术。事实上,恰恰是我在工程学领域长达八年之久的学术训练,使我成为了所有这些以技术和工程学为主导的企业中的商业领袖。

        乔布斯曾经谈到过他一生中经历过的三个“点”。乔布斯不同于常人的非凡之处在于,他并没有让这些“点”一直作为单粹的点而存在,互不相关,彼此独立。他将这些“点”串联起来,构成了一个优美的弧线,以一个伟大而又激动人心的职业而臻于顶峰。而我所做的,就是成功地识别了兴趣与价值观的不同所在,忠实于我内心的呼唤,并让我的价值观凌驾于一切之上,弥合由于断裂而造成的各个缝隙。






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