Scholarship /
Scholarship Essay: Graduate Education in Chemical Engineering [7]
Thank you Simone. I have reorganised to my best. Pls feel free to edit as you think best, change what you wish and remove any parts that needs removed. I want 500 words or less.
Thanks for your time.
Please use this section to summarise your financial situation; please explain why you wish to study your chosen course, how this relates to your career ambition and why you would be unable to take up your place without financial assistance. Continue on a separate sheet if necessary, but do not exceed 500 words
I aim to study advanced chemical engineering at University College London - Your most esteemed institution, as I trust that a Masters degree will form a better knowledge of my course and facilitate launching a career into the oil and gas industry.
My interest in sciences stemmed from the local high school, where 90% of the students receded from the sciences - it was perceived as a "no go area"; extra-challenging, unqualified teachers and less than 20% of those that attempted ever passed. It seemed the way to hell and for me that was the way to go!
Engineering had appealed to me due to my love for mathematics and chemical engineering owing to its versatility and the interest to play in the most essential sector of Nigerian economy - oil and gas.
Advancing this career line has not been without enormous challenges though.
My mum, a nurse, had died in 1998, at the brink of my university entrance exams. Dad, a high school teacher, with a monthly income of about thirty thousand naira, had to carry everyone; my elder brother, who just resumed in Abia State University, myself, and three younger ones in the high school. He insisted everyone had to go to school.
My elder brother and I, in full grasp of the situation, had to work our ways through the university. This was in part to save the younger ones from dropping out of school.
I had a very difficult time, missing classes and lab work in most of the evenings and weekends so I could take my sessions in a Lesson centre where I taught juniors physics and mathematics.
Though I had the capacity to have done a lot better, I could not finish in the target top three but managed top 10 of about 145 students in my class.
During a four-month sojourn in Union bank training school; the first time in my adult age to engage in a sound academic contest without financial worries, I held my class and staff spellbound, beating the second best student (MSc holder in banking) with a record grade point differential.
Working as a research and product development officer in Union Bank, with focus on my ultimate career goal, I saved at least 120,000 of the 184,000 Naira I earned monthly, towards an advanced degree in chemical engineering.
I applied and secured an unconditional acceptance in the department for October 2008 session, registered on-line and put together the over 2 million Naira I had saved from my salary and bonuses, with which I applied for a Visa for the university, explaining to the embassy that I hoped to pay up my fees in Instalments.
Well, the embassy denied me entrance on account of the huge financial implication despite mediation from some members of university staff including Dr Samson David of the International Office.
I have saved up more money since then, but that still is not enough and having lost one, I have the last opportunity to join the university.
I realize that there are cheaper schools but UCL seems to me the way to go.
I can say there's one thing I'm sure of - receiving this scholarship will be the defining moment in my education that will change the very essence of my whole life. Thank you.
Thanks Simone, this essay is for a partial scholarship. am expecting a quick one...