Hello everyone. I'm an italian student and I'm applying these days for a MSc in the UK. I will send this Statement of Purpose to Oxford and Cambridge, of course, and to other english universities. I'll be very thankful if you could help me. Here it is:
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
Having reached the final year of my degree in pure mathematics I want to continue broadening my knowledge by undertaking a MSc in [course name].
I should start by saying that I come from a very traditional kind of high school (Liceo Classico, or Classical Lyceum) in which the most important subjects were Italian, Latin, Ancient Greek, philosophy and history, with very few hours dedicated to mathematics and physics.
I had always been competent in mathematics but I was not supported at school, and found myself studying on my own. I especially liked proofs, and it was my habit to read and learn them even if it was not compulsory to do so, because I could not accept a formula given as true with no explanation at all. It was just some months before the end of high school that I started to read many (both popular and academic) books about pure mathematics, logical paradoxes and philosophy of language. This led me to see that mathematics was the right choice for me, therefore I decided to apply for a BSc in pure mathematics in Italy. However, I was concerned that most of my future fellow students would have much stronger mathematical backgrounds than I had and that the teacher would assume a lot of material which was unknown to me. I was pleased to discover that I kept up well with the curriculum, and in addition maintained an interest in reading and studying literature and philosophy by myself during my spare time.
During these years I have had the opportunity to deal with a wide range of branches of mathematics and I must say that, as I expected, I am now more interested than ever in the "abstract part" of mathematics (namely: abstract algebra, topology, mathematical logic, mathematical analysis, etc.) rather than its applications. I think I can see Russel's "cold and austere" beauty of number theory, for instance, regardless of its usage in modern cryptography. However I believe it was beneficial to take lectures in physics, statistics and computer science because it is true that much of mathematics arose to provide some models to the inductive sciences. I enjoy working at the interface between mathematics and computing, especially in C++.
I would also like to stress my interest in mathematical logic. I had a brief introduction to this particular discipline as a lecture which covered the basic topics, from Tarski's definition of satisfaction up to the compactness theorem. I found it quite captivating, and I became very interested in everything which dealt with the foundations of mathematics. Moreover, I read the book \emph{Axiom of Choice} by Horst Herrlich and I decided to deepen my knowledge in set theory in order to write my final thesis on the topic of the independence of the axiom of choice from the Zermelo-Fraenkel theory. Two of my main sources for this independent study are: \emph{Set Theory: an introduction to large cardinals}by Frank R. Drake and \emph{Set Theory: an introduction to independence proofs'}by Kenneth Kunen. The more time I spent on this, the more I realize how much I am intrigued by this stupefying field.
I plan to graduate in the end of July this year and I have already decided to leave my present institution mostly because it cannot offer to me the wide range of logic lectures I would like to take. I have read the description of the MSc in [course name] and it is to my excitement that the lectures offered in the program are exactly the ones that would fulfill my need: not only a large selection of courses on logic and the foundation of mathematics, but also many other lectures on the all other areas of pure mathematics. I am actually thrilled that all the lessons will be in English. I enjoy reading English literature a lot in my free time, and furthermore, during high school I spent one year in New Zealand attending lessons and exams, and did encounter any problems.
Moreover I would be honoured to study at an institution with such a reputation as the University of [name], on the one hand because it offers top-quality mathematical education on a worldwide scale, and on the other because at [name] I would certainly be able to find the genuinely stimulating intellectual and scientific environment that I seek.
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
Having reached the final year of my degree in pure mathematics I want to continue broadening my knowledge by undertaking a MSc in [course name].
I should start by saying that I come from a very traditional kind of high school (Liceo Classico, or Classical Lyceum) in which the most important subjects were Italian, Latin, Ancient Greek, philosophy and history, with very few hours dedicated to mathematics and physics.
I had always been competent in mathematics but I was not supported at school, and found myself studying on my own. I especially liked proofs, and it was my habit to read and learn them even if it was not compulsory to do so, because I could not accept a formula given as true with no explanation at all. It was just some months before the end of high school that I started to read many (both popular and academic) books about pure mathematics, logical paradoxes and philosophy of language. This led me to see that mathematics was the right choice for me, therefore I decided to apply for a BSc in pure mathematics in Italy. However, I was concerned that most of my future fellow students would have much stronger mathematical backgrounds than I had and that the teacher would assume a lot of material which was unknown to me. I was pleased to discover that I kept up well with the curriculum, and in addition maintained an interest in reading and studying literature and philosophy by myself during my spare time.
During these years I have had the opportunity to deal with a wide range of branches of mathematics and I must say that, as I expected, I am now more interested than ever in the "abstract part" of mathematics (namely: abstract algebra, topology, mathematical logic, mathematical analysis, etc.) rather than its applications. I think I can see Russel's "cold and austere" beauty of number theory, for instance, regardless of its usage in modern cryptography. However I believe it was beneficial to take lectures in physics, statistics and computer science because it is true that much of mathematics arose to provide some models to the inductive sciences. I enjoy working at the interface between mathematics and computing, especially in C++.
I would also like to stress my interest in mathematical logic. I had a brief introduction to this particular discipline as a lecture which covered the basic topics, from Tarski's definition of satisfaction up to the compactness theorem. I found it quite captivating, and I became very interested in everything which dealt with the foundations of mathematics. Moreover, I read the book \emph{Axiom of Choice} by Horst Herrlich and I decided to deepen my knowledge in set theory in order to write my final thesis on the topic of the independence of the axiom of choice from the Zermelo-Fraenkel theory. Two of my main sources for this independent study are: \emph{Set Theory: an introduction to large cardinals}by Frank R. Drake and \emph{Set Theory: an introduction to independence proofs'}by Kenneth Kunen. The more time I spent on this, the more I realize how much I am intrigued by this stupefying field.
I plan to graduate in the end of July this year and I have already decided to leave my present institution mostly because it cannot offer to me the wide range of logic lectures I would like to take. I have read the description of the MSc in [course name] and it is to my excitement that the lectures offered in the program are exactly the ones that would fulfill my need: not only a large selection of courses on logic and the foundation of mathematics, but also many other lectures on the all other areas of pure mathematics. I am actually thrilled that all the lessons will be in English. I enjoy reading English literature a lot in my free time, and furthermore, during high school I spent one year in New Zealand attending lessons and exams, and did encounter any problems.
Moreover I would be honoured to study at an institution with such a reputation as the University of [name], on the one hand because it offers top-quality mathematical education on a worldwide scale, and on the other because at [name] I would certainly be able to find the genuinely stimulating intellectual and scientific environment that I seek.
