"my dreams of becoming an engineer" - Duke Supplement essay

Discuss why you want to study engineering and why you would like to study at Duke.

A small mechanical train was the first toy that I dismantled just to find out how it worked. It was the initial item in the long list of toys and household appliances that I took apart to satisfy my curiosity. My Mom was not a big fan of me pulling everything in the house down to pieces, but that never slowed me down. With age, I started to learn to reassemble things as well. In the fourth grade, I built a remote-controlled boat using the motors from a toy car that I had gotten on my birthday. I think that was the moment when Mom realized that I had the potential to actually do something with machines, because after that never stopped me from trying out any of my 'projects'. Machines always fascinated me, but in high school I was in no way the boy who lived in his own world working on gizmos and gadgets the whole day. I was more of a normal guy who had the occasional urge to build things like laser-alarms, and was not always successful in reaching the intended final product I must add. Nevertheless now that I am going to college to study engineering, I am really excited because I will be getting back to my old passion of meddling with mechanisms, and will maybe even get the chance to live out my childhood fantasy and build a real car.

Duke University I believe is the best institute for me to follow my dreams of becoming an engineer. I came to know about Duke a long time ago while watching NCAA basketball. When I began my college research however, I was really surprised to find out how much more Duke was than just a school with a great basketball team. What else can I ask for from a university that already offers a topnotch academic program, outstanding athletic facilities and a reputedly memorable college experience? It has the perfect combination of a student body that is extremely competitive academically and people who like to live life and enjoy themselves. At Duke I hope to get involved in student clubs and organizations such as 'Crazies who Care' and 'Duke Robotics club', and take up leadership roles. I am also looking forward to actively participate in intramural sports and be a part of Duke student traditions such as camping out all night to get floor seats for the Blue Devils' basketball games. I want to go to Duke because it has great cultural and ethnical diversity and there will be a lot of people like me from different parts of the world who are very new to the experience. Most importantly, I am applying to Duke University because I am confident that it will not only provide me with a world-class education, but it also has the ideal student body that I will need to help me grow and excel as a person.

ur story sounds very similar to many other engineer essays. however i personally also do not know how else to write about my interest in engineering.

the part about duke seems to be alot focused on everything except the engineer portion part of the school..maybe you can mention it more.

Try very hard to come up with a totally original way to talk about this, because unfortunately a lot of students tell about their childhood love of taking things apart to see how they work. Hundreds of essays like that are written each year.

So, make it original and funny if you can.

meddling with mechanisms---Awesome. You are not only an engineer but also a wordsmith, and engineer of awesome sentences.

Great job, but if you can find a word of phrase to use as a theme, a memorable theme, something that unites the 2 or 3 main ideas you express here, that will make the essay perfect. Give it a theme so that if someone asks me, "What is it about?" I can tell them easily in a few words.

I think you example in the beginning should be changed, too.

And I really like your second paragraph.
I think you really like Duke.

I just think perhaps you should try to interpret your motivation more attactive and sepcially.