布朗大学夏校申请personal statement

Among the school subjects, I am fascinated by Economics and Physics.

People are not perfectly rational - we may never do. But one thing that makes us different from other animals is that we begin with being rational and logical. Physics is the kind of subject that requires deliberate logics and analysis. It is even more fabulous that those logics are inferred from the nature, the complicated and mysterious world. The knowledge makes me think: The world has many delicate phenomena, while the imperfection can also be explained by constant rules. Weightlessness experienced by people when they’re in a plane or an elevator is caused by acceleration; dissymmetry of real-world parabola is actually because of the existence of air resistance. These findings are fascinating. From my perspective, principles of Economics are similar to those of Physics to certain extent. Physics teaches people to use relatively perfect rules to figure out how imperfections work, while Economics makes people figure out simple structures from complicated systems. Although the markets have countless and unpredictable changes, there are many long-run tendencies to be found. I’m more interested in Economics because it is once unbelievable to me. People are a lot more changeable and creative than atoms, but economists still manage to find

‘the mass-energy conservative law’. Removal of sales tax increases both price and quantity demanded, while more government spending may lead to growth in both inflation and real GDP. These findings, similar to those in physics, are equally fascinating.

The intense interest in Economics has driven me to read extra books about them. Two of the most fascinating books I’ve read are The Undercover Economist by Tim Harford and Fair Play by Steven Landsburg. These two books make me realize more: In addition to help people figure out rules from complex cases, Economics also give people abilities to make better - or more efficient - decisions in daily life. Marginal cost and Opportunity cost help people figure out how much a price should be accepted in order to gain the maximum profit; sunk cost makes people able to make decisions with the highest efficiency without hesitation. People are not perfectly rational; Economics makes people capable of getting near of it. This is also why I apply for the Summer at Brown University program: The courses are exactly college courses, which give me a chance to get access to more profound information in my favorite area—Economics. I’m especially interested in Behavioral Game Theory: Experiments in Strategic Interaction, which exactly can help me systematically learn one aspect of Economics about how it can affect people’s behaviors.