Dear EF Team,
I need your help to review my personal statement for graduate school in applied math, I plan to apply to a phd program. This is my first attempt at writing one, I never wrote one before so, I wasn't sure how to write it.
Thanks, Craig
Math Competitions and Knowledge
My true inspiration to further my mathematical knowledge first came from participating in mathematical competitions while I was still in high school, such as math club competitions and the AMC (American Mathematics Competitions). It was then that I first began to understand the joy that mathematics brings to my life, and since then I wanted to pursue a career in mathematics. My decision of choosing applied mathematics wasn't an easy one, but the major event that waved my decision was by attending SUMS (Symposium for Undergraduates in the Mathematical Sciences) at Brown University which I attended for the past two years and I look forward to attending it again in march. A lot of the talks at this conference were of applied mathematics, and I began to realize how much interest I had in applied rather than pure mathematics. While in college, I have had the pleasure of participated in several other mathematical competitions such as the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competitions, calculus competitions hosted by the University of Connecticut and an intercollegiate mathematics competition hosted by Central Connecticut State University. As Professor S_____ will inform you in a letter of recommendation, I scored well on the calculus competition and the Putnam competition.
During my sophomore year, I was immature balancing my academic and social lives, which led to my getting a C+ in a course in differential equations for application. However, I took a full year of numerical analysis the following year in which I received an A which uses differential equations extensively. During my sophomore year and into my junior year, I was enrolled for two semesters in a course called undergraduate seminar. Each semester in this course, we would choose a topic in mathematics that we would like to learn more about and by the end of the semester we would write a paper about the subject in LaTeX. (I chose to learn more about the Vigenčre and Enigma Ciphers the first semester and the Apollonian Gasket the second semester.) This course not only taught me how to type in LaTeX, but it also taught me to be more independent in my studies in mathematics, which are both invaluable skills to have for graduate school. In addition to being proficient in LaTeX, I have gained experience using Mathematica in many of my classes.
Overall, I am looking forward to going to graduate school in applied mathematics as my long term goal is to become an applied mathematician at a research university. My main specific interests are within numerical analysis which is the subject in which I want to conduct research. Since your department has a research group in numerical analysis, it would be an especially good fit for me during my graduate studies.