Sample Statement of Purpose for Economics
Statement by MIPT Alumnus (01/2002)
The Economics Student
In this essay I am going to
concentrate mostly on the incentives that stimulate me to pursue
further studying, and reflect the motives for my choice of Princeton
University as well as state my future career objectives.
I have chosen to work in the area of international microeconomics
because it has such a demand for new ideas. At the same time it
requires a good mathematical background and has obvious implications
in real life.
My education suits this field very well, I have Master of Science
with Honors in the field of applied mathematics and physics and a
Master of Arts in economics with a specialization in international
economics. I already have extensive research experience both in
applied sciences and economics, know basic economic models and have
strong background both in abstract modeling and data manipulation.
All this probably makes me an economist, but my objective is to
become a good one.
I have been taught by very good lecturers. After course I took with
Professor Branson I decided that there is nothing more interesting
than international economics. Professor A made issues of monetary
economics and government policy fascinating. Lectures delivered by
Professor B attracted me to labor market problems. I enjoyed
listening to them and want to teach my mind to operate in a similar
manner -- attention is paid to every individual fact and each formal
problem solved reflects a real economic situation.
While writing my master's thesis I had a chance to see that a simple
look at a graph can be more useful than application of sophisticated
economic techniques. One of the reasons I want to study further is
to reach at least the same level of intuitiveness and panoramic view
of the subject as my teachers have.
My Master of Arts degree was in the field of Health Economics, which
I am very interested in. It was mostly empirical dissertation. My
dissertation was titled ".." and I worked under the guidance of
Professor C. The greatest part of my work was devoted to
macroeconomic cross-country econometric (panel data) analysis. The
task was complicated by the necessity to work with omitted variables
and low quality data as well as the low reliability of data for
developing countries and countries in transition.
We also made efforts to build a model that explains the impact of
macroeconomic parameters on health deterioration and the probability
of death. My master's thesis has been presented at the "Russian
Economic And Political Institutions In Transition" conference and
currently we are preparing it for publication.
At this time I am also doing empirical research devoted to inflation
and monetary policy. I feel cautious specifying which area of
economics interests me most for further study, but I do not think
that this is a drawback. I find economics particularly attractive
for the fact that it is broad, and has not yet been split into a set
of narrow sub-branches -- economists all speak almost the same
language. I also think that in the face of complexity we face in
this discipline, it would ineffective to specialize too narrowly.
This year I realized as I had not before that I wish to continue my
studies. Being a teaching assistant in Professor A's Macroeconomics
and Advanced Macroeconomics classes, I understood a lot of effort
must be applied for a good student to turn into a good teacher. I
feel that a similar gap lies between a good student and a good
researcher.
I am a hard-working and determined person, and I am ready for a new
leap in my economics career. I will work hard in hope that the
quantity of the effort I put in will result in high quality
knowledge. The fact is that the best possible supervisors and a
highly competitive atmosphere are necessary for this quality. The
only reasonable decision for me was to aim for such a place. All
this gives me the motivation to apply to Princeton University.
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