Hi,
I am applying for a PhD in distributed computing.
It would really help if you could comment on my letter and tell me how I can improve it.
thanks a lot in advance!
Dear Sir or Madam,
I am writing to apply for the Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate in Distributed Computing starting in October 2013. My career ambition is to become a faculty member in an internationally recognized university. I intend to focus my research interests on scalable decentralized distributed systems.
In my undergraduate study, I was exposed to different branches of computer science from databases, distributed systems, software engineering and large-scale systems development to human factors. The area of computer science that I was most interested and wanted to acquire more knowledge was distributed systems. In particular, during my final year project I successfully developed and tested a middleware system that had the ability to integrate with different front ends and provided a reliable service to their users.
I have worked for startup and Fortune 500 companies during the last 8 years. Moreover, I worked as a teacher in a ******* for about 5 years. Having taught numerous modules related to computer science, I learned how to communicate effectively and being a leader among my peers. Motivating students to learn more about computer science requires commitment, creativity and enthusiasm.
Being a software engineer for a number of companies gave me the opportunity to work in different industries and understand how their business operates. I am accustomed to work under pressure and deliver the required functionality successfully on time. At this moment, I am employed by ******** as a senior software engineer, where I lead a team of developers building *****. This Software-as-a-Service is targeted to mainly small businesses that want to integrate with other application systems and services.
I have recently graduated from ******** with an MSc in *******. I have graduated with distinction and an average grade of top 15 percent among my fellow students. In addition, my MSc thesis and project is ranked among the top five percent. The aim of my MSc thesis was to design and implement a middleware service that acts as a contract compliance checker for monitoring electronic contracts in a business-to-business environment. Moreover, along with the support of my supervisors, ********* and ********, we continue to improve the middleware service. I am currently engaged in writing a research paper with my supervisors that discusses the architecture and our findings from the scalability and performance evaluation and formal model-based testing of the service.
There are four key reasons I am applying for this Doctorate training programme. First, it provides the opportunity to conduct research in different universities with diverse settings that will ensure a high level of collaboration. Second, all universities in this programme are experts in their specific fields. Third, distributed computing is a wide research area that still has a great number of open issues to solve. This programme gives the opportunity to research a specific open problem while cooperating with each university member of the programme. And last, scalable decentralized distributed systems is an emerging research area that has numerous applications throughout industry and in our daily life. It has the potential to change the way we conduct business and use services from a centralized architecture to a peer-to-peer architecture.
Given my recent history of commitment to excellence, I am confident that I will bring a high level of energy and enthusiasm to your program. I am sure to exceed your expectations, because of both my academic and interpersonal skills as well as the experience gained from my work. I will enrich the program by enabling fellow students and professors to benefit from my ambitious and open nature. Furthermore, I shall get intellectual satisfaction and the gratification of becoming a contributor to knowledge through research and the greater personal rewards of learning and discovery. Finally, I believe that I possess the motivation, intellectual ability and preparation to set out on this exhilarating and arduous path and to make significant original contributions to ongoing research work in the field of scalable decentralized distributed systems.
Thank you for considering my application, and I look forward to your acceptance.
I am applying for a PhD in distributed computing.
It would really help if you could comment on my letter and tell me how I can improve it.
thanks a lot in advance!
Dear Sir or Madam,
I am writing to apply for the Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate in Distributed Computing starting in October 2013. My career ambition is to become a faculty member in an internationally recognized university. I intend to focus my research interests on scalable decentralized distributed systems.
In my undergraduate study, I was exposed to different branches of computer science from databases, distributed systems, software engineering and large-scale systems development to human factors. The area of computer science that I was most interested and wanted to acquire more knowledge was distributed systems. In particular, during my final year project I successfully developed and tested a middleware system that had the ability to integrate with different front ends and provided a reliable service to their users.
I have worked for startup and Fortune 500 companies during the last 8 years. Moreover, I worked as a teacher in a ******* for about 5 years. Having taught numerous modules related to computer science, I learned how to communicate effectively and being a leader among my peers. Motivating students to learn more about computer science requires commitment, creativity and enthusiasm.
Being a software engineer for a number of companies gave me the opportunity to work in different industries and understand how their business operates. I am accustomed to work under pressure and deliver the required functionality successfully on time. At this moment, I am employed by ******** as a senior software engineer, where I lead a team of developers building *****. This Software-as-a-Service is targeted to mainly small businesses that want to integrate with other application systems and services.
I have recently graduated from ******** with an MSc in *******. I have graduated with distinction and an average grade of top 15 percent among my fellow students. In addition, my MSc thesis and project is ranked among the top five percent. The aim of my MSc thesis was to design and implement a middleware service that acts as a contract compliance checker for monitoring electronic contracts in a business-to-business environment. Moreover, along with the support of my supervisors, ********* and ********, we continue to improve the middleware service. I am currently engaged in writing a research paper with my supervisors that discusses the architecture and our findings from the scalability and performance evaluation and formal model-based testing of the service.
There are four key reasons I am applying for this Doctorate training programme. First, it provides the opportunity to conduct research in different universities with diverse settings that will ensure a high level of collaboration. Second, all universities in this programme are experts in their specific fields. Third, distributed computing is a wide research area that still has a great number of open issues to solve. This programme gives the opportunity to research a specific open problem while cooperating with each university member of the programme. And last, scalable decentralized distributed systems is an emerging research area that has numerous applications throughout industry and in our daily life. It has the potential to change the way we conduct business and use services from a centralized architecture to a peer-to-peer architecture.
Given my recent history of commitment to excellence, I am confident that I will bring a high level of energy and enthusiasm to your program. I am sure to exceed your expectations, because of both my academic and interpersonal skills as well as the experience gained from my work. I will enrich the program by enabling fellow students and professors to benefit from my ambitious and open nature. Furthermore, I shall get intellectual satisfaction and the gratification of becoming a contributor to knowledge through research and the greater personal rewards of learning and discovery. Finally, I believe that I possess the motivation, intellectual ability and preparation to set out on this exhilarating and arduous path and to make significant original contributions to ongoing research work in the field of scalable decentralized distributed systems.
Thank you for considering my application, and I look forward to your acceptance.
