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I chose the ECE program at DKU because I want to improve my career prospects and deal with industry challenges. I used to have little interest in maths and computing, and I believed business skills would be my core competency in the future. But soon I realized that interdisciplinary talent was more needed in this ever-developing era.
My first job as a market risk analyst for an established European barter involved collecting, processing, and analyzing large volumes of trading data. I was tired of manual analysis and automated the processes using basic VBA and Python programming, which significantly improved my work efficiency.
During my second job, I decided to apply for a master’s in computer science to make up for my educational background. The work required pricing and executing hedging trades on a large number of derivatives. With the increasing homogenization of products in today’s financial market, good marketing channels have a slight advantage, and more emphasis should be given to the trading technology and financial team’s ability to apply accurate pricing to various models.
I was fortunate to learn about the ECE program at Duke Kunshan University through conversations with a former diplomat at the Chinese Consulate in Chicago. Students at DKU can choose to go to Duke in their second year or complete their master’s program directly at Duke Kunshan and receive a degree from Duke. The project will also arrange field trips for students to many large companies. Before applying, I had the opportunity to speak with the program director, Professor Li, and the admissions officer, Ms. Huang, and learned that my undergraduate background would be considered fairly. I was able to secure an early admission before Christmas with a scholarship.
The location of DKU also exceeds my expectations. Kunshan is conveniently situated between Suzhou and Shanghai, and it only takes 17 minutes by high-speed rail from Kunshan South Railway Station to Shanghai Station.
I set two goals before applying to graduate school.
First, I need to learn a computer science or data science related major. Second, I hope to improve my career prospects in China in the long term.
I spared time after work preparing for the GRE test and scored 325 within a month. I also took several computer and math courses on Edx and Coursera, and listed all my target schools.
The most common term mentioned at DKU is “Liberal Arts” and “All-rounded Development”, which ask students to acquire at least two professional skills, and I am looking forward to becoming one of these kinds of talents. As mentioned before, my work experience taught me that a lack of understanding of information technology is the biggest bottleneck to career development. There are only two kinds of people who can seize the opportunity in the information revolution era, one with specialized skills and the other is all-rounded developed talent. This is the reason why I chose to return to school. I hope to make up for my shortcomings through two years of intense study. And I found that one-third of my classmates were “major-switching players” and met many like-minded friends.
I received internship offers from five well-known companies in China and abroad during my studies. An internship is the quickest way to get to know a company, which gives you a deeper understanding of a company’s culture, hiring requirements, and career development.
Cherish the time on campus, life at DKU is wonderful and interesting. Most people reach their goals step by step from a green hand. Believe in yourself, believe in the training system of the program, and believe in the achievements of us seniors.
