My health and management interest : Statement of Purpose for an MSc in Management

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE- AMEVIALOR DELALI DANIEL

At an early age of 7, I started to develop interest for two things; health and management. Both interests stemmed from my mother, she was a nurse, and doubled as a petty trader to make ends meet. After accompanying her to the hospital a couple of times, I began to empathize with the patients and purposed to be in a position of help to them when I grew up. On the other hand, I was also excited whenever I had to accompany my mother on her trading expeditions. I was intrigued by how she related with her customers and creditors; it was almost as if she were two different people. Being a single mother, I admired how expertly she managed her time, resources, work and all other activities. As a child, I began to absorb these management related concepts and ideas which proved invaluable during my High School and Undergraduate education. I took some management related courses during my undergraduate studies, including Engineering management, Project management and Entrepreneurial development. Realizing the applications of management in efficient healthcare delivery, I resolved to purse an MSc in management.

I earned a Bachelor's degree in Biomedical Engineering from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in 2016. I saw Biomedical Engineering, which is the application of engineering principles in solving medical problems, as the perfect opportunity to fulfill my purpose of being in a position of help to patients. As an intern with Goldstar Medical Group, I had the opportunity of working with the medical supply unit. Together with my supervisors, we supplied and installed medical equipment in various health facilities. I realized a problem during these operations; these equipment we were installing needed regular maintenance and re-calibration to prevent them from breaking down. But as was the case, we were only called to fix them after they had broken down. The engineers complained of the difficulty in convincing the management of the importance of maintenance and re-calibration. This problem is widespread as I observed the same issue during my research for my final thesis. I believe that an engineer in a management position will be instrumental in curbing this problem; as the engineer can fully grasp the importance of maintenance culture, and the severity of the repercussions of having faulty or broken down equipment; decision making and allocation of funds for both maintenance and procurement of essential equipment will be given the necessary attention, to minimize mortality and deterioration of patients' conditions. Apart from academics, I was involved in extracurricular activities that helped me further develop my management skills.

As part of my extracurricular activities, I was the Judicial Chairperson of the Biomedical Engineering Students Society (BMESS) in my fourth year. My role as a Judicial Chairperson included review and amendment of the Society's constitution and organization of elections. I was also a member of the College Judicial Committee. Serving in this capacity, I was able to work with my team to successfully settle disputes that arose during college and departmental elections. In my third year, I was part of the committee for an annual Trade and Technology Fair organized by the university. From my first year, I volunteered to be part of the Transport committee of the Assemblies of God Campus Ministry (AGCM). My duties included driving and maintenance of the vehicles owned by the Ministry. The ministry owned three vehicles; two busses and a truck which and had a membership of about 1,100. In my fourth year, I was appointed as the Head of Transport and in addition to my previous, I was tasked with organizing means of transport for all activities of the ministry throughout the year; these included outreaches to orphanages, prisons, crusades and missionary projects. In the same year, I was also the Vice Head of Transport for the Students' Chaplaincy Council (SCC); the SCC comprises of all religious denominations in the University; with membership of over 5,000 students. These experiences gave me the opportunity develop and exercise skills like time management, organization, teamwork, leadership and conflict resolution.

My academics did not suffer as a result of these extracurricular activities. I was awarded the Best Student award in 2014 and another one in 2015 by the College of Engineering; consequently, I graduated with a First Class Honors. In all these, I believe I have developed and demonstrated an ability to manage multiple priorities, a quality I believe is an important one for this program. Currently, I am a National Service Personnel doing my mandatory national service which I will complete in July 2017. I was retained by the University to serve as a Teaching Assistant in the Department of Computer Engineering.

Ultimately, my goals are to blend my knowledge in Biomedical engineering with that of Management to contribute to the optimization of healthcare delivery. To be able to bridge the gap between Biomedical Engineers and the management in order to facilitate the procurement of the best medical equipment, sensitize the other management members about the importance of maintenance culture and to help establish more healthcare facilities in rural areas. Modules like Project management, operations management, supply chain management, managing financial resources and the Independent Consultancy Project will equip me with the necessary skills to contribute to efficiently managing increasing patient numbers and demands, improving productivity rates by eliminating wasteful processes and controlling costs by choosing the right projects to implement. I believe studying MSc Management (Operations and Supply management) in your institution will expose me to skills and ideas that will enable me develop into a management professional with virtually unlimited potential.

Daniel, your essay is pretty much set as a good statement of purpose. A simple edit is required in order to better present your purpose though. You have to start with removing the information about you deciding to be a manager by taking management courses at the age of 7. No reviewer is going to believe that. Aside from the unbelievable age reference, the statement of purpose should be more focused on your college accomplishments, related academic training, and your professional career in relation to the MSc in Management. Establishing your background, foundation, and experience in this field that will qualify you as a perfect graduate school candidate happens only within references to those specific areas of your academics and profession. In the final paragraph, insert the name of the university that you are applying to somewhere. That way the SOP becomes university specific, which is a plus for your application, rather than general in application, which is a negative for your quest for admission. The university always wants to know why you chose to attend their university, so play it up to your advantage.

@Holt
Thank you for the advice. With the age reference, I was trying to project how my interest in management started, and I did state that I took the management courses during my undergraduate studies, not at the age of 7.

The point is that the age of influence that you are referring to in relation to the development of your interest in management is not believable to the reviewer. They from upon any student who claims to have been influenced into any career choice at an age earlier than that of a high school student. The reason being that at the age of 7, you are not set in your ambitions in life yet. Unlike when you are of high school age, which is when you begin to seriously consider your future profession. Therefore, if you want to make a believable reference to your age in the essay, target an age between 13 and 17. That is something that the reviewer finds more impressive and believable. Even referring to your mother influencing your interest at that age of 13 is more believable than that of a 7 year old. I am telling you this from my experience as a reviewer. I know what I am talking about. However, if you don't want to take that advice about the age reference, then no one is forcing you to. The final content of your essay really depends upon you and how satisfied you feel with it.

This is my final free advice. For additional editing or reviews, please contact me for private help using the link above or file an "Urgent" order request. Thank you.