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Sample Personal Statement for Management Information Systems
“The secret of success is constancy to purpose.” What Benjamin
Disraeli has said reveals an essential truth, not only encouraging me
to make persistent efforts toward greater academic excellence but also
distilling in me the conviction that to make maximum contributions to
the mankind through the full exercise of one’s mental and physical
faculties and of one’s willpower is the only correct approach to the
fulfillment and the joy of life. Now, on the verge of completing my
undergraduate program, I again and again ask myself two questions—what
is the purpose of my life and how can I be constant to my purpose? The
answers seem not too difficult to come. As I have chosen to specialize
in Management Information Science as an undergraduate, it is natural
that I continue to tap my potential in this field and develop myself
into a leading specialist on this subject in the future. As to how to
be constant to this purpose, the answer is equally simply, to pursue a
first-rate further education from the one of the best universities in
the United States. As an indication of my constancy, I have
relinquished an opportunity offered by my university for a direct
graduate program. Instead, I am determined to apply for your esteemed
university. I believe that your university has much better faculty,
research facilities, and academic environment, all of which will be
vital to my academic success.
At present, I am a senior student at XX University, majoring in MIS at
the Department of Management Information Systems (enjoying a leading
academic reputation in China), School of Economics and Management. In
this key polytechnic university of the country, my persistent efforts
to improve my academic performance has paid off—I was merely average
in the first semester as a freshman but now I am ranked top third in
my class. Apart from my perseverance, my deep love for this specialty
and my incessant perfecting of study methods have contributed to this
improved performance, which has further convinced me of my
unmistakable potential in this area. As a scientific discipline, MIS
comprehends management science, information science, systems science,
behavioral science, computer science and communication science. This
interdisciplinary nature underlies my deep interest in MIS. Through
the study of MIS, I have not only learned useful knowledge in a great
variety of fields but also have come to the realization concerning
human knowledge—that man can solve his target problems most
effectively and efficiently through a comprehensive application of
knowledge in related fields.
An important experience of learning came when I studied the course The
Principle and the Application of Database. In order to create various
diagrams in the database, various limitations of the Normal Form had
to be considered in order to avoid redundancy and inconsistency in
data. The verbal descriptions of those forms were easy to comprehend
but only when I actually started to design the database did I really
realize that difficulty to create the diagrams that could both conform
to the requirements of the Normal Form and satisfy the needs of the
clients and the database operations. I have always tried to effect a
parallel development between the study of theoretical knowledge and
the improvement of my hands-on abilities. For example, in the course
project of The Principle and the Application of Database, I compiled a
database application program that could help a power supplier
calculate various statistics regarding the consumption of electricity
and the payment of fees by different consumers. In the course project
of Computer Network and Application, I designed a plan for the
installation of a certain company’s LAN, including the procurement of
the necessary equipment and the laying of lines. Such hands-on
opportunities have always enabled me to discover the disparities
between theory and practice and to rectify my incorrect
understandings. My teacher made very positive comments on the results
that I achieved.
As a new scientific discipline, Management information systems was
developed in the 1980”s in the United States and it has been playing
an increasingly important role in all the fields it has been applied
to, greatly enhancing the efficiency of management and reducing cost.
While the United States boasts of very advanced theories and
technologies in MIS, we have to acknowledge so far China has
considerably lagged behind the international standards in the
theoretical and technical development of MIS. The failure to
communicate and manage information effectively between different
functional departments of an enterprise has led to low-efficiency
operation and to low customer satisfaction, which has further affected
the development of the country as a whole. However, present-day
underdevelopment itself also implies greater space for future
development. The introduction of advanced information management
technology will significantly improve the operation efficiency of
Chinese enterprises. My greatest wish in applying for undertaking a
Master’s program in MIS at your esteemed university is to command the
latest knowledge in this field and bring this knowledge back to my
country to facilitate the popularization and development of MIS in
China.
In my future degree program, I expect to receive systematic education
and training in MIS, with special emphasis on relevant information
management technology. In this regard, I have a good foundation. I
have done some coursework in E-Commerce at XX University and I
designed a simulation e-commerce website (which was put on show in my
class as Excellent Design). I have developed a basic understanding of
how e-commerce is operated and a special interest in many technical
issues of information management such as the design of the order
management system, logistics distribution information system, online
payment system, network security and maintenance. I believe that the
study of those issues and many other related technical issues and
management patterns will comprehensively cover the knowledge of MIS
and at the same time enable me to concentrate on specific areas. In my
future studies, I will try to obtain as many technical practices as
possible to extend my study method of learning through practice as MIS
is essentially an applied science.
I deem myself well-prepared for your well-respected program. Apart
from the sound academic foundation I have laid in my specialty, I am
most proud of my practical ability to perform specific projects and
apply management. In addition to my well-received performance in the
project designs in such courses as E-Commerce, The Principle and the
Application of Database, Software Development Tools and Computer
Network and Application, I have also participated, as part of my
extracurricular activities, in the development of MIS for the XX
Company in which I was responsible for preparing the diagrams of the
company’s business procedures and for the optimization of the
company’s existing system. For my important contributions, I received
warm praises from both my teacher and the relevant users. At another
company—XX Precision Equipment Co. Ltd, I took part in the project to
develop the management system of the customer relationship. I was
specifically in charge of developing three subsystems—sales
automation, marketing management, and customer service and support and
I applied Sybase Power Builder and Microsoft SQL Server for system
setup. The development of my management skills came from my
experiences of working as a student leader in the Students Union and
of leading a team in our university’s Contest of Simulated Enterprise
Competition in which we won the Best Creativity Award. Those
experiences enhanced my decision-making skills, teamwork, and
creativity apart from my legal awareness, market analysis, human
resource management and overall coordination.
In this age of increasing digitalization, the collection,
communication and management of information has become an integral
part of an enterprise’s competitiveness. I feel lucky that my
education in MIS coincides with the very development of the science of
MIS in China and that my future will be as promising as the
application of this science in China. It is my sincere hope that my
application could be most seriously considered because your decision
will definitely produce a far-reaching impact on my future.
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