My College Essay (For the Application at Chabot College)

Essay: Describing my backgrounds and goals

Choosing a professional career is not an easy option for a person. Besides, the college admissions and selection process is also very important since it has the greatest impact on one’s future.

Born in the south-western part of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, I had a pretty common childhood. I went to high school in the capital city, Yangon, and managed to get into Yangon Technological University (YTU) after having obtained three distinctions in my final year of high school. They were namely Mathematics, Science and Social Science.

Then my university days became irregular when our military government decided to temporarily close and re-open at their will. Rather than wasting time and waiting for some uncertainty, I took up computer training courses. As a result, I got an International Diploma in Computer Studies (IDCS) while the university was still frozen in time.

I still wasn’t satisfied with myself yet. I enquired through some friends and relatives and eventually found out that studying overseas was possible for me. I went through the agency and took up preparatory courses which were deemed necessary. After which, I made my trip to Singapore to study at Temasek Polytechnic for a diploma course in Electronics.

Being a foreigner in Singapore was not at all easy for me at first. The dialect and accent were somewhat different from what I am used to in my country. It took me several weeks to get settled down and blend in with the locals. My results during Polytechnic were neither close to perfection nor to my expectation but my grades fared pretty well with a somewhat B average. And yet in my final year of studies, I still managed to excel in my ‘Final Year Project’. It was a group project, with another partner, in which we had to write programs for controlling of soccer-robots.

These soccer-robots were cute little cubical creations on two wheels that would represent Michael Owen or David Beckham had they not been human. However, they were much smaller of course and dependent on the programs which controlled for kicking or passing the ball. The on-board processor on each robot was based on the PIC16F877 micro-controller and the basic functions of the electronics portion included RF communication, close-loop motor control and speed control of the kicking mechanism. Each of these soccer-robots had a small antenna and a color pad on top of them so that the CCD camera from bird’s eye view can recognize their positions in the miniature soccer field. The difference in the color pads determined which teams they belonged to and assigned the player role for each robot. The CCD camera was also able to recognize the ball in the pitch and all the data are sent to the computer. The main computer then sends out commands to the robots in the form of RF signals.

Then my graduation day came; I proudly went up on stage and collected my Diploma in Electronics. Not long after, through newspaper advertisement, I found myself working in a Japanese company that manufactures LCD panels. Although it is my first full-time job, I pretty much enjoy working here and the colleagues are approachable and helpful.

I have enjoyed what I have achieved so far but I feel that I need something more as I am not at least holding a degree. I have always wanted to get a degree from a more prestigious and highly-recognized university or college in the United States. Even if it means starting all over again in another country, I am ready for the challenge. I will work hard to strive in this survival of the fittest. I will try my best to achieve the finest by the time I reach my golden days. I want to make sure that I fully-utilize every moment as much as I can. I want to be the one that shines out in the family. To turn my dreams into reality, I shall take things step-by-step and this very moment I am already taking another step.