Maybe because success came to me too early and too easily, it was not until at college did I begin to know what it takes to succeed in the real world. My experience of being a college athlete for a three-year period alone has taught me everything about what is behind glory and joy of success. With no previous experience in gymnastics at all, I entered the Gymnastics Society of our college, and became a top player one year later, as our team won the silver medal in the Beijing University Students' Gymnastics Championships. Later, I received the title of National Athlete at the Third Level-an honor normally conferred only to professional athletes. To me, to be successful is to challenge oneself to the limits, to try to do something new, and again and again, until one is able to rise above the fear, the doubt, and the pain that come with it. If this is true for sports, how much more so is it for academic achievement.
In xxxx, with the highest scores in the National University Entrance Examinations in my home city, I entered the Beijing-based Youth College of Political Science, one of the top institutions of higher learning in China, as a major in Youth Education. With a genuine love for social work and an intense desire to compete with other students, who were among the brightest in the country, I immersed myself in the course work and extracurricular reading, and was able to pull out remarkable academic records. My GPA remained in the top five in the class. With this performance, I was able to win the College Scholarship of the Second Level for three consecutive years.
Youth Study is by definition an area of interdisciplinary research, covering Management Science, Education, Sociology, and Psychology. Among these subjects of learning, Sociology seemed to me most attractive because of its practical value, and its potential role of impacting government legislation and policy-making, and improving people's living conditions at large. Sociology aims at achieving social justice and progress, and addresses itself to concrete and pressing social issues. With systematic study of sociological theories, Sociometry, and Human Resource Management, I gradually attained an ability to conduct group and independent research. During my freshman year, I joined with five other students to form a research group in a study of the historical and the present conditions of Chinese women-a project of considerable scope and significance. While the project involved much scholarly research on women's social status in traditional Chinese society, it also contained a careful examination of the impact of Women's Liberation Movement on the various facets of the life of the contemporary Chinese woman. The merit of the project was widely recognized, as shown in that it won a second prize in a student competition in academic research held at the college level.
With the accumulation of knowledge and research experience, I began to initiate research projects on my own, such as "An Analysis of the Reasons behind the Problem of Unemployment for College Graduates," and "The Role of Corporal Culture in Corporal Management." These were efforts of applying the theory and methodology that I had learned from classroom to concrete social issues, with satisfying results. In these projects, I tried to combine theoretic arguments with empirical research, to conduct qualitative as well as quantitative analyses. This experience greatly enriched my knowledge of the theoretic systems in Sociology, and also enabled me to comprehend and describe social facts in scientific terms, using the inspection method, the interview method, and advanced statistics to probe into the interconnections between collected data. The good outcome I derived from these projects helped build in me a confidence in my ability to target complex social issues effectively.
Besides course work, I was also active in social activities in and outside campus, since I was well aware of how important it is for a social scientist to keep in touch with society. I was involved in organizing the Ninth Conference of China's Youth Association, and helped host a reception for the Youth Delegates from Taiwan for the Mid-Autumn Festival of 2000. I also participated in the Seminar on Youth and the Internet, and the Conference on Government Morality. These activities afforded me many precious opportunities to meet with eminent sociologists and professionals of Youth Education, and communicate with them on various contemporary social issues.
China's breathtaking economic and social development at the present time has undoubtedly galvanized its sociological research. Still, in sociological theory, and also in many areas such as Organization Sociology, Social Networking, it remains behind advanced countries. While facing the prospect of globalization, China's Sociology is also facing unprecedented challenge. This is why I have decided to pursue a higher degree in Sociology in the United States, which has the richest tradition in sociological research, and the best faculty and research facilities in the field. I am eager to learn from you the most advanced theories and methodology in sociological research; I believe that I can also enrich your program, with the unique background and perspective of a Chinese sociologist.
If admitted, I intend to carry out my graduate study with a concentration on Organization Sociology, which is rapidly developing into an exciting area of interdisciplinary research. It lends important lights on human behavior in social forms, with a rich implication to human resource management. In addition, it has a special significance to youth. How should we recognize and manage human resources in youth by organizational means? What would the relations be between youth and their organizations in a market-oriented economy and a more open future society in China? I wish to find answers to these questions through a period of rigorous study and training at your graduate program, which will allow me to play a key role in China's economic and social development, and in the development of a Chinese Sociology, a few years from now.
Recommendation Letter
Dear Sir or Madam:
I consider it a great pleasure and an unshirkable responsibility to recommend to you Miss Lucia Tian as a worthy candidate for your consideration of her application for an advanced degree program orientated in organizational sociology in your Graduate School. I am a doctor of Political Science, an assistant professor, and a class advisor. I mainly deliver the course of Western Political and Ideological History and Political Science. I came to know Miss Lucia Tian when she was a freshman, thus I have a close and overall understanding of her.
Miss Tian is a conscientious and hardworking student who has enjoyed a great popularity and reputation in our department. With a keen craving for new knowledge, she was most attentive in my classes and always probed into questions together with me. Her discussions with me, her papers, and her classroom performance, are all distinct manifestation of her exquisite analytical skills, meticulous logic, her excellent ability to express herself methodically and her quick-witted thinking. Miss Tian compiled an outstanding grade of 80 in my two courses, which could be reached only by a very few students. She performed especially well in the Social Statistics and Approaches to Survey examinations in which she obtained the highest mark (92) among her classmates, most of whom passed the examination only by a small margin. And her grade surpassed that of the second top student with 10. Thus it can be easily perceived that Miss Tian has an outstanding ability of learning, a solid grounding in theories and resourceful potentials to apply what she has learned to practice.
What most strongly impressed me was her performance in the university's gymnastic team. After rigorous screening test, Miss Tian became a member of the gymnastic team not long after her admission to the university. For all that she had no gymnastic basis, she managed to see the three-year arduous training through to the end by virtue of indomitable will and keen interest in gymnastics. Therefore it was a common occurrence that she had bruises all over the body after each training exercises. With her painstaking efforts, Miss Tian was chosen for the gymnastic contest held at the city level, which was a rare occasion for a newcomer with less than one year's training experience. Unfortunately she was badly hurt in the process of training when there was only half a month to go before the contest. This incident led to psychological obstruction in her. Although Miss Tian kept falling down from the apparatus, she made unremitting efforts to improve her skills so that she was able to smoothly complete the whole set of movements in the contest. The training in the gymnastic team also helped to foster her fine sense of teamwork, one of the important makings for her future success in academic studies.
The rapid development at the globe will necessarily bring about tremendous and profound changes in the society. However, the development of sociology in China is at a much lower speed and still lagging far behind that of the United States, especially in the newly developing fields like organization and social network. Under such circumstances, it is necessary that student like Miss Tian who is full of fortitude and drive go abroad to pursue further studies. This move not only aims at self-improvement, but also is the urgent need of China's development. While in college, Miss Tian has studied some courses related to sociology. Her academic preparation, language proficiency, her persevering spirit, fine sense of teamwork and extraordinary industry will ensure her remarkable success in her future studies and research works at your esteemed university. I have full confidence in her, thus I recommend her enthusiastically.
Yours Sincerely
