Personal Goal Essay

Personal Goal Essay

“No cross, no crown.” From this sentence with only four simple words, I learned that great success comes only after great efforts. Therefore, I continually strive to improve and  develop my academic, social, and professional skills. During my senior year, I attended the Beta Alpha Psi banquet night, and  spoke with recruiters from four big accounting companies as well as many outstanding students in BAP. I learned a lot from these connections, who encouraged me to strongly consider and yearn for a career in accounting. Therefore, after a year of working as an accountant, I decided to go back to school and pursue an advanced degree in accounting to improve my expertise in the field.

In addition to the precious knowledge and teamwork skills I obtained from my undergraduate education in the U.S., I became more independent and confident in my academic and social pursuits. In order to improve my interpersonal communication skills, I devoted my time to tutoring Chinese and worked as a peer leader in the International Program, in which participants work in teams to train peer volunteers, organize freshmen welcome meetings, and escort new students with translation and document proofreading. Because of my good working habits, high responsibility, and coloration (did you mean coloration or collaboration?) skills, my team projects were always able to obtain A grades.

Working as an accountant confirmed my ability in the field, and motivated my enthusiasm to refine my accounting expertise.  Shortly after completing my degree of Accounting and Finance at Indiana University, I entered Dragontex, an international textile and apparel company. I served as an accounting clerk, performingclerical and accounting tasks for the finance department. While at Dragontex, I developed strong hands-on experience in corporate accounting procedures. It opened up a brand new door for me to apply what I have learned to real-world problem solving.

Determined to enhance my skillset, after working at Dragontex, I began work as an accountant assistant at HBA International, a leading hospitality design company. Because I was assigned with projects and tasks regarding inter-company transactions, this new work broadened my skill set and account management experience. (I think it would help to list specifically what skills you gained from this experience.)

Due to an issue with working visas, I came back to China in July 2013 and started to work at Hebei Harmony Enterprise, an export company, as an accountant. Currently, I have mastered the export business procedure and have become an accounting team leader.

With more than a year’s working experience, my leadership and integrity became prominent. Simultaneously, I became determined to pass the CPA exam.  To qualify for the CPA exam, I need to complete additional education beyond my bachelor’s degree, and I believe the MPAcc program at the University of Washington will provide me with strong ethics, innovative thinking, and excellent communication skills.

Receiving an MPAcc degree at University of Washington with its excellent instructors, academic resources, abundant teaching materials as well as real world experience will provide an excellent opportunity for me to realize my dream of becoming a CPA in the short term and a CFO as a long term career. I firmly believe that I can make full use of my prior academic and professional experiences at the University of Washington gain relevant knowledge and lay a solid foundation for becoming a future leader as well as an entrepreneur in the field of accounting.

I highly appreciate your consideration of my application to University of Washington.

Second Essay

Pension and housing security are two major, interrelated problems that affect the building of a harmonious society. In China today, there are 178 million senior citizens, occupying 13% of the population. This figure will increase to 300 million by 2025. At the same time, China is facing a serious pension payment problem. Based on the current pension plan system, the shortage of basic pensions will be 18 billion RMB in 2014. In October 2013, the Chinese government officially placed the “Reverse Mortgage” scheme on the agenda, and will run a pilot test at the beginning of 2014, which aims to boost the financial security of the country’s growing number of elderly. 

The reverse mortgage is a financial instrument that allows seniors to draw upon the equity in their home without income or credit qualifications. It is already available in America, Canada, Singapore, and Australia. China ultimately decided to introduce the reverse mortgage in order to combat problems associated with pension reform and supporting senior citizens. The concept is ingenious; however, it contains problems and has become controversial in China.

One main concern about reverse mortgage is that children will no longer inherit their parents’ home. In China, passing one’s life savings and property to their children is the most widespread and traditional concept held by the elderly. All Chinese parents work for and contribute to their children until they retire.  During retirement, they expect their children to take care of them instead. This rooted concept is hard to change in the short term.

Secondly, for the banks themselves, the standard 70-year lease on owning a property in China makes it difficult to assess the true value of mortgaged homes. The house’s remaining years of use cannot provide the elderly with enough money to live until they die. China’s unstable property market is also adding to the risk.

Thirdly, in foreign countries, children have to pay a legacy tax between 35% and 65% on property which they inherit from their parents.  However, China does not put the legacy tax into practice, which causes seniors to prefer leaving the property to their children rather than try a reverse mortgage. 

In my opinion, the reverse mortgage scheme may be useful in the future to improve financial development; however, it will not solve China’s current pension security problem.  If reverse mortgages are forced on all families, this means that the elderly are essentially using their house in exchange for a pension. As a result, the government is not solving the problem, but throwing it back on the individual.  

One solution to this problem is to overturn China’s one child policy. This policy has been executed for many years and the side effects of this policy include  a disproportionately high aging population, which reflects the “4+2+1” family pattern. Figures show that nearly half of senior citizens living in China’s urban areas don’t live with their children. That ratio falls to about 40 percent in rural areas. For the only child generation, they don’t have time to take care of elderly parents or pay extra money to hire a nanny. The pension is only enough for the elderly’s basic needs. If the elderly fall ill or want to travel, the pension does not provide adequate funding. Besides the pension shortage, loneliness and depression are becoming more serious problems among the elderly.  A more liberal birth policy will ease the burden placed on children to support their parents during their retirement years.

The second step is to build and perfect home-based care services and community service pension.  China currently has about forty thousand nursing institutions for the elderly, which provide 3 million beds. However, these beds support no more than 2% of the total elderly population. In Beijing, China’s capital, the waiting list for beds is already set to 10 years. Furthermore, even among the elderly who are provided a bed do not always receive the medical care they need.  The government of China should improve the condition of community nursing care centers, allowing this resource to become more useful, convenient, and economical.