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Sample Personal Statement for Mechanical Engineering
Why I Decide to Pursue a Ph.D. Degree in the United States
A year ago, when I announced that I had decided to pursue a Ph.D.
degree in the field of Mechanical Engineering in the United States,
many of my close friends expressed their utter surprise and objection.
According to their judgment, I have been proceeding along a successful
journey of life. There is no necessity for me to embark on a course of
life with filled with self-inflicted pains and difficulties. Indeed,
as a talented young lecturer working at a major university whose
career is in ascendancy, I possess a sense of pride that many of my
fellow compatriots do not possess: a stable job which gives me a
strong sense of achievement, three-month paid vacation annually, a
warm family life, research papers and research projects that far
exceed those of my colleagues both in quality and in quantity, plus
candidacy for this year's associate professor of xxxxxx University. If
I gain a Ph.D. degree from any of the major Chinese universities, it
is almost certain that within five years I would become a professor of
the xxxxxxx University. Compared with this, my academic pursuit in the
United States would be much more difficult and painful: long
separation from my family members, cultural and linguistic
disadvantages, possibly a longer program (whereas in China a Ph.D.
program takes at most three years).
Nevertheless, I believe that my decision is correct. Out of my serious
reflections, I have arrived at the following realizations. First, I
can never develop myself into a first-rate scholar if I do not obtain
a Ph.D. degree from a first-rate university. Throughout my school
life, I have been endeavoring to be the top student of my class. Since
I started my career as a teacher, I have also urged myself to be among
the best employees. Therefore, to develop myself into a first-rate
scholar is currently my most fervent aspiration. However, an event
that happened three years ago changed my initial plan of undertaking
my Ph.D. studies in China. Three years ago, I was working on my
Master's program in motive power mechanical engineering in xxxxxxx
University, which ranks among the top 5 universities in China. Its
Engineering Department ranked third. At that time, my supervisor Prof.
Jeff was involved in the research on the Steam Injected Gas Turbine
Technology, with a state sponsorship of x00,000 US Dollars. It was one
of the major research projects at that time and represented the
highest research level in China in its field. When I helped my
supervisor consult relevant technical literature, I was regretted to
find that American scientists had already undertaken similar research
ten years before that and a large number of research papers had
already been published. What we were doing was simply repeating what
our American counterparts had already done! The fact that what
appeared to be the most sophisticated research in a first-rate Chinese
university was actually a mere repetition of the research work of
other scientists in more advanced countries saddened me. I decided
that I would not undertake my Ph.D. program in any of Chinese
universities, even a first-rate university. The United States would be
my choice because only in such a country was it possible for me to
perform the first-rate research and become a first-rate scientist.
On the other hand, only by pursuing my Ph.D. degree overseas will I be
able to improve the living conditions of my family and allow my family
members to live a better life. I now enjoy happy family life. My wife
is a doctor in our city's largest hospital and we have a lovely
three-year-old daughter. They love me very much and I love them very
much too. They fully support me in my efforts to seek further
education in America. It is precisely my love for them that makes me
feel responsible for enabling them to live a rich life. It is obvious
that only my career success can fulfill this wish. Upon returning to
China after completing my prospective degree program, my Ph.D. degree
from a renowned American university will become a golden key to the
even greater success in my career and in my family life. By helping
many Chinese enterprises improve their technological level and realize
immense profits, I will undoubtedly be rewarded with an infinitely
successful career and an enviable income.
My Study and Research Experience
In 19-- I was enrolled in the reputed xxxxxx University where I
specialized in the motive power mechanical engineering. As a top xx
university among a total of 1000 institutions of higher learning in
China, it is sometimes referred to as "the Oriental MIT". Also, as one
of China's xx universities with the longest history, it is the cradle
for numerous accomplished engineers and important people. Mr. , the
current President of China, is a graduate of this university. As a top
university, its entrance examination is inevitably extremely
competitive. A total of 300 freshmen were admitted into the Department
of Engineering and my score at the entrance examination was the
highest. For the first two years of my undergraduate study, my GPA
ranked among the top three of the entire class. According to the
conventions of the university, top students have the right to attend
whatever courses offered by other departments as auditors. Hence, for
the last two years, I audited many courses that I considered to be
both interesting and useful such as Automation Control Theory, Signal
and Systems, and Digital Signal Processing at the Department of
Automation, Operation Systems and Data Structure at the Department of
Computer Science, Digital Circuits and Analog Circuits, Principles of
Communication, and Computer Principles and Interface Technology at the
Department of Electrical Engineering. Although attending too many
courses at the same time affected my GPA negatively, the
interdisciplinary studies that I carried out during this period
exerted an important impact on my outlook, making me realize that a
well-trained engineer must possess knowledge in diverse fields. Only
by means of a comprehensive application of knowledge in machinery,
computer technology, automation and electronics can an engineer
produce useful products and valuable research findings. Before I
graduated, I chose Prof. Jeff as the supervisor of my graduation
project and thesis. At that time, Prof. xxxx had just returned to
China from Japan as a visiting scholar and from him I learned
programming by using C Language. I became one of a limited number of
people in the university who could manipulate C Language for
programming. For three months, I solved the data transmission problem
between a FFT analyzer and a PC of B & K Company through GPIB
Interface using C Language. At the end of my thesis, I attached the
research findings of a computer virus monitoring software that I
developed during this period. On account of those research results,
Prof. xxxx praised me as "the most outstanding student" he had ever
seen. Throughout those years, we have been maintaining a close
friendship.
Perhaps the fact that both my parents and my elder sister are all
teachers prompted me to become a university teacher at the College of
Marine Transportation in xxxxx University. I taught Automation Control
Theory and Automation Equipment of Ships. I enjoyed my teaching
career. In 19---, I collaborated with two friends and established our
xxxx xxxx Computer Co. Ltd. Our 3-person company was very small at the
beginning, involved in the development and sale of computer software
and I was the company's technician. Apart from my regular teaching at
the university, I devoted all my spare time to the software
development. In this period, working till 2 o'clock in the morning was
common for me. The first software that we developed was called Hotel
Management and Telephone Calling Fee-Calculation System. In this
system, I used Foxpro as the front-end database to manage all the data
of the hotel and in the rear-end database I used Assembler Language to
develop a built-in stationary program (TSR) that resembled DOS virus,
whose purpose was to complete the data communication between the PC
and hotel's programmed exchanger. This technology was quite
sophisticated at that time.
However, the initial application of this system turned out to be a
failure. After 5-day operations, the system collapsed. In the
following three days, I ferret out the cause of the disorder and
eliminated all the BUGs. This accident made me recognize that there
was a world of difference between an artifact created in a university
laboratory and a truly commercial product. Due to its advanced
technology, we sold five sets of this software system that year and
later on sold another 15 sets. Even now, which is eight years later,
six hotels are still using our software. The central parts of this
software technology have been incorporated in the three formal
research papers that I have published. Later, we developed The
Tax-Payment Database Management System for xxxxx Municipal Taxation
Bureau and The Hospital Fee-Charging Management System for xxxx
Municipal Public Health Bureau. The sale of those software systems was
highly successful and by the end of 19-- the number of employees in
our company increased to 15. I was the chief engineering of the
company. My three-year experience in the company enabled me to further
develop the ability of analytical reasoning and professional expertise
that I acquired from my university training. It also enabled me to
develop such precious assets as leadership, effective interpersonal
communication, and hands-on and problem-solving skills. I believe that
those qualities in me can ensure a higher probability of success in my
future career that other applicants.
Nevertheless, I decided to leave that company because the 3-year work
in the company had exhausted all my 4-year undergraduate knowledge.
What I needed most was to return to my Alma Mater to "upgrade" and
"update" myself. In September 19---, I embarked on my Master's Program
in motive power mechanical engineering. My supervisor was Prof. Jeff,
my former class director. I chose Digital Analysis and Processing of
Burning Flames as my research subject. I looked up the latest
international literature and research findings in this field. I built
a quartz glass burning chamber for conducting my experiments and took
pictures with a digital camera of the flames under different working
conditions. On the basis of my solid computer expertise, I developed
my own software to make digital analysis of the flame images and
studied how to infer in a reversed way the distribution of different
temperature fields based on the digital flame images. All the research
findings in this project were subjected to the most rigorous
theoretical analysis and experimental verification. Eventually, I
obtained my Master's degree with extremely high comments from my
supervisor. The two-year-and-a-half program taught me how to single
out an academically valuable research project and how to undertake and
design that project.
In March 19---, I returned to the xxxxxx University to resume my
teaching career. I continued to teach two compulsory courses
Automation Control Theory and Automation Equipment of Ships. I also
deliver two optional courses Computer Principles and Interface
Technology and Computer Network. I am one of the best-acclaimed
teachers of my university and, as one of the three key members of a
research team, I participate in research project called Diagnosis of
Twisting and Vibration Disorders in the Axis of Vessels which is
sponsored by xxxxx Provincial Government and xxxxxx Municipal
Government. My responsibility is to design the computer interface and
software. For the algorithm of disorder judgment, we mainly apply the
research findings from the fuzzy mathematics. So far, we have produced
our sample machine and we are now busily testing the machine on actual
ships. The research results in the first stages of the project have
won the Excellent Research Award of Scientific and Technological
Progress of xxxx in xxxxx.
Over the past three years, I have published a total of 15 research
papers, among which two were published in English at international
symposiums. There are approximately 50 teachers in the College of
Marine Transportation of xxxxx University, I have published by far the
largest number of research papers. The University issues its annual
K.C. Wong Award to two most distinguished among a total of 800 young
teachers and I am one of the two winners of this award in xxxx. I have
also been nominated as a candidate for associate professorship and I
am a member of the China Mechanical Engineering Association, member of
the China Computer Association, and the director of the Computer
Science Team of xxxxxx Provincial Vessel Manufacturing Engineering
Association.
My Understanding of the Science of Mechanical Engineering
For the past ten years since I graduated as an undergraduate, I have
been engaged in the multi-disciplinary research of mechanical
engineering, computer technology and automation control. I believe
that the technology of electromechanical integration plays a decisive
role in both the industrial and the economic level of a country. Out
of my contacts with the entrepreneurs of many medium- and small-sized
manufacturing plants in xxxxx, I have noticed that their greatest
concern is how to introduce advanced technologies to renovate the
existing outmoded electromechanical equipment in their factories so
that they can enhance the competitiveness of their products. It has
been said that mechanical engineering is a conventional research
field. I maintain that, with the increasing penetrations of computer
technology into this field, this time-honored discipline is being
rejuvenated. A host of new issues await to be studied and solved. It
is becoming an immensely fascinating subject with an infinite prospect
of application, making me all the more enamored of it. At present, I
am most interested in the technology of electromechanical integration
and in the advanced manufacturing technology/CIMS technology. Equipped
with 10-year experience of study, work and research, I am fully
convinced that I am qualified to undertake further research in those
fields.
More than ten years ago when I was a mere junior undergraduate, I
already learned from my teacher about the esteemed University of
----------. As a reputed university that is widely influential in the
field of mechanical engineering, your university has attracted many of
my teachers and outstanding alumni to study there. Their stories about
your university have been lingering in the innermost recesses of my
heart for the past ten years. Today I would like to follow their
footsteps and send you my application for a Ph.D. Program in
Mechanical Engineering at your prestigious university. I would greatly
appreciate it if you could accept me into your program and offer me
whatever financial support that you might be able to offer.
My Future Career Objective
I plan to return to China upon completing my degree program at your
university. More specifically, I will return to xxxxx University to
teach and research as a professor, to contribute my newly-acquired
knowledge of mechanical engineering to my future students. On the
other hand, I will cooperate closely with the local entrepreneurs in
the manufacturing sector to translate my research findings into
practical products. With my due efforts and those of my colleagues, I
hope to help xxxxx University develop its first-rate mechanical
engineering research center.
Epilogue
In the course of my life heretofore, I have come to many important
cross-sections and had to make many difficult decisions and choices.
Faced with new challenges each time, I have always required myself to
select the most difficult, the most "thorny" route. I have done so out
of the sheer belief that "no pains, no gains" and that only the
hardest efforts can lead to the most exciting and most glorious
achievements. At this very moment, I seem to be standing at yet
another cross-section of my life. My conviction is that my
determination to pursue my Ph.D. Program at your respected university
is definitely one of the many correct decisions that I have made in my
life. |
