I am Siyuan Li from Sun Yat-Sen University. I will graduate in 2024 and I am seeking a Ph.D./MPhil position. I majored in Finance and Economics and also interested in Fintech, social media research, statistics and philosophy. You are welcomed to read my works both on this website and on my GitHub account. I have a GPA of 3.6/4, ranking about 50% at our college. I got an IELTS score of 7.5 (Listening 8.5; Reading 8; Writing 6.5; Speaking 6.5), and a CET-6 score of 599.

I planned to become a staff member in the Investment Banking Department when I was a greenhand at university but changed my mind after spending more than a whole year as an intern in financial companies. I made up my mind to be an influential researcher rather than an insignificant intermediary. I consider that being a researcher in the academic field is closer to my goal.

About Me

Ability in Programming:

• Independently completed a large number ofweb crawling projects, including those for academic research projects led byfaculty members, as well as projects focused on Weibo and WeChat publicaccounts
• Proficient in the use of deep learningtools for text analysis; received a high grade for the coursework”Research on the Development of Public Opinion during the Guangzhoucovid-19 Epidemic”.

Experience in Primary Market Investment Internships:

• Investment Assistant, Qianhai WeigangVenture Capital Fund
• Research Assistant in the Large ConsumerGroup, GF Securities Industrial Research Institute

Experience in Entrepreneurship Competitions:

• Microfluidic Chip Project for EarlyScreening of Breast Cancer - Bronze Award in the Guangdong Provincial”Internet+” University Student Innovation and EntrepreneurshipCompetition *
• Elderly-Friendly Financial App -Submitted for the 17th Citibank Cup Financial Innovation ApplicationCompetition

Personal Statement

• As a student majoring in finance, I have acquired a solid foundation in economics, finance, and accounting through my academic pursuits. In the realm of economics, courses such as introductory and intermediate microeconomics, macroeconomics, and econometrics have provided me with a fundamental framework for economic research. In finance and accounting, subjects like corporate finance, investment theory, international finance, and intermediate financial accounting have enriched my understanding of corporate economic activities, encompassing both operational and investment and financing activities.

• In terms of computer skills, I boast a wealth of learning and practical experience. During my freshman year, I undertook a course titled ‘Python Programming Design’, mastering the basics of Python and gaining proficiency in fundamental web scraping and data analysis and visualization. In my sophomore year, under the guidance of Professor Chen Li, I embarked on a research project where I successfully scraped articles from over 70 WeChat official accounts spanning the past five years. Given Tencent’s conservative data policies, I employed a myriad of intricate techniques to bypass its anti-scraping measures, honing my coding expertise in the process. In my junior year, I led a team in the ‘Digital Market and Social Media Analysis’ course, extracting nearly a hundred thousand data entries from Sina Weibo concerning the “Guangzhou Epidemic” in late 2022. Utilizing LDA and TF-IDF algorithms, we distilled the central themes from these posts, capturing the evolving sentiments and concerns of netizens throughout the epidemic’s progression. Beyond Python, my internships have sharpened my proficiency in MS Office, enabling me to oversee the compilation and formatting of extensive reports and manage valuation models across diverse scenarios. Courses like ‘Econometrics’ and ‘Economic Research Methods’ have equipped me with expertise in the statistical tool, Stata, allowing me to adeptly apply research methodologies such as fixed effects models, propensity score matching, and difference-in-differences in various research contexts.

• Regarding case analysis, my journey has been one of consistent growth. As a freshman, I participated in the KPMG Business Case Analysis Competition organized by my college, collaborating with five peers to delve into the corporate culture and management style of a state-owned heavy industry enterprise in Shanghai. Beyond traditional management models, I employed a quantitative approach based on word frequency analysis of the company’s annual reports, CSR reports, and other public documents. Integrating insights from the Denison Organizational Culture Model, we concluded that while the company prioritized organizational coordination and social responsibility, it was somewhat lax in cultivating core values. My sophomore year’s ‘Management’ course deepened my grasp of analytical frameworks like SWOT and Porter’s Five Forces, enabling me to discern intrinsic connections within data. Subsequent internships introduced me to real-world case analyses. During my stint at a securities company’s research department, I focused on the internet media sector, producing a research report on a gaming company, roadshow presentations for two Japanese cultural enterprises, and promotional articles for two cultural IPs. This experience illuminated the monetization models for user retention in the internet media domain and the commercial logic behind global-view cultural products. Advanced courses in my junior year, such as ‘Corporate Finance’, ‘Investment Theory’, and ‘Intermediate Financial Accounting’, further refined my industry and corporate research acumen. Collaborating with staff from CITIC Securities, I was involved in the issuance of asset-backed securities, learning to forecast a company’s debt repayment capacity using financial data and supply chain relationships. Later in my junior year, I joined the consumer research team at GF Securities’ Industrial Research Institute. In our report on ‘The Intelligent Development of Elderly Care Services’, we employed queuing theory for demographic modeling, forecasting China’s future population and its structure to guide our market size model. In the same report, I learned to deconstruct supply chains and study interactions between different supply chain segments.

More details comming soon

Statistical regression: Proficient in STATA. Independentlycompleted course papers on PSM-DID model. Entrepreneurship project: Member of the “Yu Xia Bang” team, afish and shrimp counting tool based on computer vision, currently trying tosell services to Zhanjiang shrimp factories. Badminton: Over 10 years of systematic learning,currently a member of the college badminton team.