Statement of purpose should state your personal traits, and work experience that is relevant to the application. It should also highlight certain situations where these traits have helped overcome situations and how you intend to give back to the community. It should clearly state your motivation for applying, this motivation should not be a general one but should be specific.
Statement Of Purpose Sample
My name is XXX. I was the youngest child in a well-educated family. My parents are both engineers and my mother began to teach me Chinese poems when I was still a little boy. As time went by she not only inculcated knowledge to me but also instructed me how to be an honest, upright, sympathetic person. I must show my respect and acknowledgement to her for what she has done for me. If there was a little achievement on my career up to now, she is the first one I should send my thanks for.
Before entering XXX University I had first studied in Beijing middle school. There, when I was just 10 years old in 1900, I took part in SAT-M and scored 740. only 1out of 10,000 of my agemates in USA met the criterion of getting 700 or more. I was awarded as “Mathematically Precocious Youth” by the SMPY of Johns Hopkins University in the same year. One year later, at my age of 11, I came to the “Youth Class” in BSUniv (Kunming, China) and began my undergraduate studies. My undergraduate advisor was Professor Minhong Yu (standing member of executive committee of Chinese Society of Computer Science). He has also been the advisors of Jiguang Huang hang Shaoyun Qiu who by now are both well-known young scholars and excellent Ph.D. holders from Stanford University. After five academic years in Kunming, I entered XXX University, one of the best universities in China and continued my study under the direction of Professor XXX (member of Chinese Academy of Sciences). I expect to get my Master’s degree of Engineering in March 1999.
I have been majoring in Computer Science throughout recent years. It can be seen from the development and tendency of this subject that Computer Science may exhibit its great vitality only when it combines with mathematics. I wish to work in the area between computer science and mathematics, one of the most promising areas in the future. The research activity in mathematics and computer science at Stanford is the most famous in the world, there are many celebrated scholars from these two areas working together at Stanford. As point out by Professor Bill Gates, an ideal talent must be proficient in both computer science and mathematics; those who major in computer science should know mathematics and vice versa. That is why I am applying for Ph.D. study in the famous computational mathematics program at Stanford. I wish to study and work in such a top-level group; I wish to enhance my knowledge in mathematics, while my strength in computer science is also a big asset for a mathematics researcher; I wish to be the kind of talent proficient in both computer science and mathematics as described by Professor Bill Gates.
During recent three years, I have worked in the area between C.S. and mathematics already. I have studied many elementary coursed of mathematics by myself (these coursed are listed in my resume), and I have tried to integrate them with my knowledge in C.S. during my researches. In my undergraduate program, I have successfully combined the ideas from economics, mathematics and C.S. together and applied them on computer-based prediction of stock market. The experiment I have done had received high comments from an US professor and now is the basis of a big research project on Smart Moneymaker in China. My graduate program is the constitutive studies of WWW homepages. I have read a lot of papers about the mathematics and physics of WWW homepages during this research, and got many inspirations from my mathematics knowledge. From these inspirations I have made some creative progresses in my approach that were highly praised by my advisor and other professors in our group. These achievements in included a new set of this method, the utilizing of that theory to describe the evolution of a topic, and the application of the makepower theory to solve the lackpower problem. In these works, I have developed my skills to find, analyze and solve problems, and I am sure I can continue my doctoral studies in the area between C.S. and mathematics without difficulty.
In the future, I hope I can engage in the researches on mathematical behaviors of computer software. I wish I can reveal the course of the compile and failure of software through an integrated human-keyboard-screen analysis. This is a big challenge for scientists and currently has not been well solved. The Ph.D. study at Stanford University will give me the indispensable education in materials science and enlarge my knowledge in mechanics, as well as enhance my ability to integrate these two areas, which can ensure me the strength to face this challenge.
I am truly interested in Science and Engineering, though I know that the study in top universities like Stanford will be hard and the reward may not always be obvious. But I am still willing to enroll in Stanford because the Ph.D. study in Engineering Science at Stanford will give me a systematic training in both Science and Engineering, and can help me realize my dream. I have met Professor Bill Gates in Beijing in this September, his introduction about Stanford and encouragement to me confirmed my wish of entering your department. I must show my gratitude to Professor Gates for his kind help.
My undergraduate advisor, Prof. Minhong Yu has named me as one of his three most outstanding students; he thinks that I am comparable with Jiguang Huang and Shaoyun Qiu. I also admire them very much and hope maybe one day, I can come up to or even exceed their achievements. To realize this, I must go through the same way as they did, that is, getting the Ph.D. degree from Stanford should be my first step. Stanford is the best university in the world and Stanford people have played important roles in C.S.; I had been dreaming of study in Stanford since my childhood. It will be the biggest honor for me if I can have the chance to study in Stanford and work with so many world-famous scientists. No matter how much interest other institutes may show to me, Stanford University will be my first choice forever.
I would be the most glad if I can be admitted by Stanford University. Thanks.