Undergraduate / The beauty in numbers like the beauty in art frames - Texas A&M Transfer Essay A [2]

The Prompt:
"The statement of purpose will provide an opportunity to explain any extenuating circumstances that you feel could add value to your application. You may also want to explain unique aspects of your academic background or valued experiences you may have had that relate to your academic discipline. The statement of purpose is not meant to be a listing of accomplishments in high school or a record of your participation in school-related activities. Rather, this is your opportunity to address the admissions committee directly and to let us know more about you as an individual, in a manner that your transcripts and other application information cannot convey."

The Essay:

"There is a theory that mathematicians or people who work with numbers see a singular beauty in numbers the same way an art connoisseur would see a singular beauty in art frames such as of Picasso, Van Gogh and some more famous artists. Such theory applies to me because when I see those integrals and partial derivatives in my notebook I cannot see myself majoring in anything but engineering. We all live in society and we must give back or better saying: "do our share". The only way I can feel of use is solving problems and what better area of knowledge than Engineering for problem-solving?!

Ever since I started reading the package of a lollipop when I was two years old, my father acting with huge wisdom, kept me in contact with computers and LEGO toys. He wanted to develop: my creativity; my way of perceiving the world around me; and most important, my capability of questioning what surrounds me. The result of that? The contact shaped me into being a man who appreciates modernity, I cannot see myself being "late" when it comes to technology. Also, the LEGO toys really gave me the power of question and creativity and when we merge both we can enjoy of a very powerful tool of an engineer: You can question how certain thing works or a problem develops and using your creativity you can find answers for your question or problem. To summarize: I am, in spirit, a problem solver. An Engineer by definition.

I have made my decision a while ago: I will explore Petroleum, I will be a Petroleum Engineer. This decision sustains on the feelings that arise in me when I look at the Californian Gold Rush of 1848 and the space exploration (largely employed in a wide range of sci-fi books and movies). What to say about the excitement of exploring the black gold employing cutting-edge exploration technologies (such as the Seismic 3D that allow us to find Petroleum Reservoirs) which makes us feel like in a space exploration?! There is even a photo in an issue of the Journal of Petroleum Technology that shows a Schlumberger Engineer testing electronic equipment for NASA Engineers in the 60's. The Petroleum Industry is really exciting by both its own challenges and magnitude that really fascinates me.

I saw sometime in the past a phrase: "Choose a college that matches you, don't match yourself to a college." At first I did not care a lot with the idea but when I started studying Engineering here in Brazil I started to witness unspeakable things that were happening inside the university and the phrase started to mean something for me. Then I took the decision: I would leave my current university. My friends often see me as a delusional man, incapable of choosing the realistic path, a guy that only choose the hardest and the most impossible path. I will still have time to explain them what it is to push yourself to your limit. To Texas A&M I decided to go.

The Petroleum Engineering Undergraduate Program of Texas A&M is the best program in the United States, this fact itself is already enough to convince me to apply. Plus there's the proximity to the city of Houston which is a major reference when it comes to Petroleum. Still, when I started wandering through A&M's website I got excited, highly emotional because I could finally find a place that even if five thousand miles from my away family I could still call it home. A place where: I would be away from all the cultural decadence that Brazil is suffering; I could develop my leadership skills; excellence and integrity is valorized; there is a talented faculty which I would be honored to take classes; I can graduate being one of the best Petroleum Engineers of US; you can enjoy some of the southern hospitality; I can be an aggie. Furthermore, I cannot remember an organization I might had taken part that I did not wanted a position of leadership. I was born to be a leader and a good leader is one who takes the right decisions and applying to A&M is one of those right decisions I am making.

I believe my transcript says I am a borderline case if you look at my college transcript. My GPA is around 3.0 out of 4, I am not sure of the exact value. I am one of the youngest students in my university and being a sophomore student who is only eighteen years old makes college subjects a little more tougher to completely dominate since I did not properly spent time in High School (I spent only two years). Plus, as I wrote above, I do not enjoy of a motivating academic environment and my grades suffer from that for I am not properly supported by my current faculty staff. I almost forgot to mention the excessive workload they put on us, for example: My first semester had a total of 21 credit hours and that is really tough. Even with all the facts above, I still managed to become the second in my class if we compare our CRs (the same for GPA in USA). Moreover, if you look at my High School transcript and calculate the GPA you will see a value around 3.6 and 3.8. If someone asked me to define myself in one phrase I would say: "I do what's right and what most people don't!"

Lots of people think what they will contribute to mankind during life. Some never gave proper thought for this matter and probably contributed with few. Others took this matter seriously and changed the world. I cannot offer mankind the cure of cancer or of AIDS. I cannot alone extinguish starvation and poverty throughout the world. However, I can contribute with something of extreme importance in our society nowadays: Energy. Also, the petroleum that I will help to extract will help numerous industries directly related or not with Petroleum such as Plastic Industries, Pharmaceutical industries and so goes on. Finally, when I become an elder man I want to look back to my past and think that I was one of the gears that moved this fascinating industry and as well as the explorer of the black gold.

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I know it's big! Please criticize all the way you see fit!
Thanks for reading! :D