Michigan Engineering Short Essay

Please describe your interests and aspirations in engineering. What experiences have influenced you? (Approximately 250 words)

Out of curiosity, I once dismantled the CD-Rom drive and meddled with the movable head assembly before putting the screws back. This attempt to understand how light beam works in disc reading gave me a hair-raising experience when a CD-Rom exploded in the drive. It happened probably due to my wrong assembly, and numerous pieces of plastic shrapnel were, like firings from a turret, shooting out of the tray. This did not deter me from doing my own experiments. Unconvinced that the Planck's constant is a very small number, I designed a circuit to measure it using light emitting diodes. Finding out how things work is additional to my hobby of changing every fused light bulb and faulty lavatory cistern in the house.

In high school, my encounter with the elegant Schrodinger's equation was intriguing for I realize there is a chance that the full stop in this very sentence might tunnel through this sheet of paper. The scanning tunneling microscope exposed me to the interesting atomic surface of a matter while the study of optical fibers made me appreciate the convenience of a broadband and a cable television. Electrical engineering suits me best as I can pursue my passions in math and physics, and at the same time, explore my interests in nanotechnology and photonics.

With a diverse engineering faculty, University of Michigan is a great place for me to collaborate with other engineers in multi-disciplinary projects and I look forward to entering your Solid-State Electronics Laboratory and creating useful devices for the benefits of mankind. A prospective engineer has decided to go Blue.

(265 words)

Comments and critcisms please. Is my answer focused enough? Is the last sentence childish? Thanks.

I like your opening narrative and the specific examples you use to illustrate your interest in engineering. It would have been nice, though, had you been just as specific about your future aspirations.


is fairly vague. What sort of devices do you have an interest in creating? How would you like to benefit mankind?

Very good essay. I think it is focused and good for a U of M short answer. The only thing I might change is the last couple of sentences - they seem a big cheesy.