SAMPLE STATEMENT OF PURPOSE 1

I come from a family of engineers. Naturally, I assumed it was what I would do when I grew up. During
class introductions, I would always say I am an aspiring Software Engineer. What everyone knew and
what I realized, later on, was that I was different from my family. Although I had an aptitude for Math
and was interested in it, Science was not something I wanted to pursue. This particular conclusion
perplexed me for I had never thought of doing anything apart from engineering. To help me get a
perspective, my dad took me to meet his consultant who told me about the ‘Hedgehog Concept’.
According to this concept, a successful career is made out of three important elements overlapping one
another, that is, the career should be something you are passionate about, something you have a talent
for and something that has economic value. At the same time, my school conducted an aptitude test
along with an organization called ‘Lodestar’. All these meetings and tests showcased my aptitude for
commerce. During the final months of my tenth grade, when I had to choose what stream I wanted to
study in my twelfth grade, I made the most important decision till date- to pursue Commerce with Math
as my optional subject.
For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to leave my mark on this world, no matter how small.
The summer after my tenth grade, to do something productive, I searched for virtual high school
internships and got a call back from an MIT start-up company called ‘Project Starfish’. This start-up
exchange company helps solve the unemployment challenge by helping people develop the skills and
through experiential learning. They asked me to give an online interview to a panel of seven of the
company’s most important people including the CEO, Mrs. Nasreen Bhutta. The interview was
scheduled a week later and I made it through and was the Student Intern at Project Starfish.
My work in Project Starfish was to compile a project based on Micro-Insurance in my residential area
of South Bangalore. Microinsurance would mean the various insurance plans that the government and
the insurance companies have launched for people in the unorganized sector. During the first three
weeks of my internship, my mentor polished my communication and research skills. I learned how to
format an external correspondence email so that the party does not think of it as promotional and
responds to it. I also learned to communicate on the phone with external organizations for research
purposes. As the internship required me to do field research in the slum area and present my findings
to my school, I learned how to make an efficient questionnaire and polished my PowerPoint skills too.
Perhaps, the best take away from this internship for me was a deeper knowledge and understanding of
the working of insurance and its impact on the lives of the various people surrounding me.
Have you ever had someone look at you with such admiration and gratefulness that your heart melted?
That is what I felt when I joined as an academic support volunteer in my fifth grade in the NGO called
‘Make a Difference’. I taught four children the subject of Science, once a week on Sundays. People look
forward to Sundays because it is the weekend. I used to look forward to it because I loved the way the
children at the shelter would be so eager to study and so disappointed when you gave them a free class,
without lessons. The kids at the shelter were like a sponge absorbing everything taught to them and
taking pleasure in the simplest things of life.
Meanwhile, at school, I started learning ‘Sources of Finance’ and ‘Small Businesses’. These chapters
really interested me, for I had always thought of Finance to be just ‘money’. However, while studying,
I realized that Finance was a lot more; it had the power of making lives, and of bringing down empires.
The operation of a business is a combination of various elements, the most important being operational
efficiency and sufficient funds. Small Businesses in our country do not flourish because of the absence
of expertise. This is because the small businesses are unable to pay experts sufficient remuneration.
What got me thinking is that if invested in the right organizations like these small businesses, they can
generate employment and impact the community for the better? The sheer vastness of the subject and
its control over the society, made me want to learn more about it, in terms of, how money flowed
between organizations, in the stock market, and so on. There was no other subject at school that
interested me more, and thus, I decided to pursue finance as a career.
To achieve a career in finance, I have applied for the Bachelors of Business-Banking and Finance
program at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) for its well-rounded learning environment. The
university emphasizes the development of the personality of a student and does this by involving the
students in making administration decisions like campus requirements and providing them leadership
opportunities. The university also has a number of clubs to emphasize on overall development. I look
forward to studying here because NTU provides a global and internationalized platform to learn and
thus helps benefit from Singapore’s importance as a global financial center and diverse culture. In
addition, the university has a broad course that covers almost all aspects of finance and provides me
with a real-world experience and practical knowledge. The university is also affiliated with the
Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute, who acknowledges their bachelor’s course. This gives me
a head start in the preparation of CFA.
After completing my undergrad, I plan to do Masters in Finance as well as become a member of the
Chartered Financial Analyst Institute to gain the highest distinction in the investment management
profession. I want to develop a career as an Investment Manager or Stock Broker. In the next couple of
years, I hope to achieve a well-rounded personality with good real-world experience, for which I plan
to work hard and perform well in undergrad, as it is the starting step in my field of interest.