When I was 19, I opted to go to UIUC for far reaching study. I chose to study abroad because I would like to go back to China for working and the oversea degree could make me more competiitve. I chose Economics and Psychology as my majors because I determined to become a personal financial analyst in the future. Economics allowed me to understand the highly competitive financial market and Psychology incented me to interact with clients much better.
In addition to academic backgrounds obtained from school, I also attempted to build up my real-world experiences through internships. For instance, I worked as a personal financial analyst assistant in Citibank in summer 2012. I had better understanding about the job through this experience although I gave up the opportunity to stay with my family.
I am a senior now so I need to plan for my future after graduation. Instead of throwing myself directly into the society, I decide to continue pursing my master degree. I plan to go to the U.K. for further study in Economics. Therefore, I spent most of the summer on preparing for GRE and school researches. School I am currently applying are the University of Cambridge, LSE and UCL. I believe that I can be more prepared and competitive after one year studying in one of these universities.
I hope my past experiences and my future decisions will make me a qualified personal financial analyst in the future.
I have a sister who was three years older than me. I went to the U.S. to study when she was 16. She just finished her college degree in Kenyon College in Political Science. I used to ask her if she would like to continue studying or going to work directly and she told me that she preferred to continue researching. Now, she is pursing her Ph.D degree Georgetown University. She told me that she would not want to work for money but want to pursue her own dream. She might become a professor in the future in political science. Her decision incented me to continue pursuing my study in Economics as well.
Although it is hard for me to predict my future path accurately now, I believe that I can make every current step solid in order to minimize future uncertainties or risks.
It sounds like you have a good plan, for getting the Masters, though i was recently told that living in London is very expensive, much more so than in Champaign. Perhaps as a student with only your own needs to attend to you won't feel that as much as a faculty member with a family.
ReplyDeleteI would be curious how you got your internship with Citibank, and whether that was in the U.S. or China or someplace else. Some of your classmates in our course have not gotten internships. They might learn from your experience.
The living cost is indeed much more expensive; however, one nice thing about studying at U.K. is that it takes only one year to get master degree; therefore, it might not cost too much than learning in the U.S..
DeleteI got the internship in China and in my hometown, Dalian. I applied online from its website and followed all the procedures.
I find this very interesting, because I too am double majoring in Psychology and Economics as well. I feel you have taken the appropriate steps to manage your future income risk. Furthermore, I admire the choices you have made for yourself, at such a young age, to secure your future career. I have no doubt in my mind that the human capital you are investing in yourself will pay handsome dividends when you pursue your career as a financial analyst.
ReplyDeleteIt does seem that the choices, regarding the decision of your major, were well thought out compared to my own. Your internships, and passion for the academia behind psychology and economics will undoubtedly allow you a most favorable chance when competing in the job market.
Indeed it is interesting to find a person who has same majors with me. Most of my econ friends would like to double major in maths, finance or statistics. I find psyc is much more interesting for me but Econ is very practical. I hope you enjoy your further explorations about these two fields and maybe we can talk about these in the future.
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