Personal Statement

P. 要求：写一篇essay，说明自己个人的背景和生活经历：文化，地理，经济，教育等方面的机遇与挑战，是如何影响到想要在Umich获得学位的决心的（如讨论周围教育、文化环境极丰富或者不丰富对你兴趣的影响）。这最好是描述你想要获取研究生学位的成长经历。 我很有兴趣， 但是我所在的环境却很缺乏。但逆境求生却也锻炼了我。 Future。 Personal Statement (强调经历版) My interest of becoming an mechanical engineer was motivated by the toys made by myself. 童年 The childhood of me was not easy. My family was very poor when I was in primary school, so I didn't ask for pocket money, never bought snacks, and scarcely had toys. But as I love playing with toys so much, I had no choice but to make toys myself. I once made a dinosaur with over 60 plastic clips (one clips another), and sometimes used the magnets and iron sheets which were thrown out by others to make toy robots. The best creation of me were the model cars and planes made with cardboard and scotch tape, because I learned to draw design sketches and to save materials (the cardboards were hard to find in my home, and too expensive to buy) by arranging the expansion plan on the cardboard in a reasonable way. By creating toys myself, I felt the excitement to be an "engineer". The poor childhood had never deflated me, on the contrary, it fostered my thrifty and fortitude character, and the spirit of bearing hardships which could be my weapon in the future career. 数学强，奖学金，课外等 As I knew I lack of research conditions, I made up my mind to win the chance to learn the best knowledge of Mechanical Engineering. I knew to be a engineer, learn Mathematics well is necessary, so I tried my best in learning maths before I enter the university. Then after I successfully entered the Nanchang University, which is the best university in Jiangxi province and is one of the national 211 project universities, I began to pursue my engineer dream. In the university, I also got very high scores in Advanced Mathematics and Linear Algebra (all above 95%). Besides, I kept myself in the Top 7% of all 291 students in our major. Every year I can win the scholarship for Excellent Students. Outside the class, I was a excellent minister in the Student Union of our university, and outstanding Study Commissary in our class, who won the honor of Excellent Student leader for three years. What's more, I earned a lot of prizes from extracurricular contests such us American Mathematics Modeling Contest, National College English Contest, Advanced Mathematics Contest, and massive speech contests. 科研经历 However, I was always confused by the abstract knowledge in the textbooks, I know most of the time I just recited the knowledge and passed the exams, but how can I use those knowledge to design and manufacture a real machine? In November, 2010, I got a great chance to realize my dream. In preparing for the incoming Fourth National Mechanical Design and Innovation Competition, I formed a 5 members team and found Professor Zheng, who is in charge of the Engineering Training Center (a big machine shop) of our university, to be our advisor, aiming at designing a kind of Stair Climbing&Fire Extinction Robot, which was named "The Brave" by me at last. Not like the small programs I did before, such as made a digital thermometer and assembled a radio, it was really a tough task for me and my team, because this time we had to do the designing, machining, purchasing materials in the huge market, and assembling our robot almost all by ourselves. Also, as a leader, I have to plan everything: when to discuss our plan, who should go to buy materials, who should be in charge of the financial works... What's more, we have limited time and no funding from our school at all. However, despite so many difficulties, I never gave up for I had promised to my teammates that we will finish this, and kept my words is my inexorable principle. During these 7 months, I learned about the professional design softwares such as Auto CAD and Pro/Engineer wildfire all by myself, did a lot of machining work such as lathing, milling, drilling, and designed the essential part of "Walking-Climbing" conversion mechanism. Finally, when I saw our robot begin to move, I really felt excited about being a "engineer". 未来 The experience of making "The Brave" strengthened my will to be a excellent engineer, but I find the research condition in our university is still too weak: we have neither good equipments, nor enough financial support, and it's very hard to listen to a famous scholar giving academic reports. Hence, I'm longing for getting an opportunity to study in a better academic environment, and I know the best way for me is to apply for a master degree in America which has absolutely stronger research conditions. And I found that University of Michigan is the right place I want to go because of your outstanding faculty, gifted students and active academic atmosphere. I believe my spirit of bearing hardships will help me to overcome any difficulties, my leadership is going to facilitates the teamwork, and my research experience will enable me to quickly adapt to the graduate life. I believe if I got this chance I can create miracles, to myself, to department of Mechanical Engineering, and to the world. (892 words)