Any proofreading/corrections are appreciated. This is the formatting style I was thinking about submitting to Brown; does it look alright to everyone? Should I include the prompt questions along with the answers, or just the answers? I know it is always best to be as unique/creative as possible with short answer responses but I thought being as personal as possible was the most important thing for this prompt. Does it seem to generic? Any comments, criticism, corrections are apprectiated! 500 word max/ currently 493
1. Many applicants to college are unsure about eventual majors. What factors led you to an interest in the field of Engineering?
2. What experiences beyond school work have broadened your interest in Engineering?
3. Brown offers programs in Biomedical, Chemical, Civil, Computer, Electrical, Materials, and Mechanical Engineering. Because there is a common core curriculum within Engineering, students need not select a specific area until their junior year. We are curious to know, however, if any particular program within Engineering presently appeals to you. If so, please discuss that choice.
1. Engineering, to me, is the essence of understanding. To Engineer something requires understanding. An engineer understood the shapes and materials needed to satisfy the load requirements for the chair I am sitting in right now. Another engineer understood the problems that come with mass producing a chair and designed a manufacturing process to build thousands of identical chairs. A third engineer needed to understand the power requirements to transport those chairs and designed a truck to transport all those chairs and yet another built a road for that truck. This web of applying understanding to solve problems is everywhere: it is in a particle super collider, in a microprocessor, even in my chair. It is this human ability to understand and solve problems that interests me and drives me to be a part of the engineering community.
2. Last spring break, I went with my father on his business trip to Detroit. He was going there to visit the company contracted to build his part for the Lockheed Martin assembly process for the F-35. On the plane ride, he showed me his designs and explained what the tools were designed to do, and when I stepped inside the Detroit company's machine shop, I realized how intricate engineering really was. It amazed me to realize that when the government contracts the building of a plane that the plane is not simply just designed and built but that there are tools that are designed and built just for the construction of that plane. The pride and joy my father took in seeing his designs being machined into existence made me envious.
I got to experience this pride for myself as I pushed in the power button of the computer I assembled with my own hands. I remember doing all of my own research. I made sure to get every part that worked best for my ultimate design: an aluminum case, for lighter weight and better heat transfer for cooling purposes, a quality heat sink and fan to take care of my soon to be tested processor and a large enough hard drive to contain my life. When my computer booted up and greeted me with a friendly welcome, I knew I had found a profession in engineering.
3. The current engineering discipline that interests me the most is electrical engineering. Building my own computer gave me the confidence to buy a water-damaged iPhone with the hope of taking it apart and repairing it. As I took the phone apart, trying to identify all its problems, I began wondering about all the thought that went into designing it. I looked up how processors were made and how RAM worked. I thought about the choices in hardware the company had to make for size and portability and realized I had made some of those same choices in building my computer. The water-damaged phone is working again and I even have a small business repairing water-damaged electronics.
When I read 1.) it makes me think of Bloom's Taxonomy. You should google that, and you'll see how theory explains people needing to go through stages of knowledge, application, understanding, synthesis, evaluation, and so forth. You first have to have knowledge, then you can understand/comprehend, then apply, and after all that finally you can synthesize, which is what engineers do.
That would be a cool thing to cite...
The second one is really good... and the third seems a bit superficial... like maybe you should add a few sentences of analysis. That experience with the phone is only meaningful because of what it represents, so dig deeper and explain the appreciation you have for this kind of work.
:-)
