***The University of Southern California supplement's engineering school essay asks two questions, "How do you plan to use your engineering degree to benefit society", and "Some people categorize engineers as geeks or nerds. Are you a geek, nerd, or neither? Why?" here are my responses, if anyone is willing to read it for grammer and give general feedback it would be appreciated.
1) How do you plan to use your engineering degree to benefit society?
It's difficult to say how my engineering degree will benefit society. Each specific field of engineering has their own gift to the world. Some engineers improve agriculture, staving off starvation, other engineering reinvents medicine, prolonging human life. As noble as these endeavors are they are not where my passions lie. I want to study aerospace engineering. I want to build rockets, and spacecraft. It's difficult to say how these endeavors will benefit my species. Wernher von Braun built the first rocket capable of reaching the edge of space, the V2, but this rocket was not the dream of Konstantin and Goddard. The v2 was a weapon of indiscriminant violence, built by Braun for the Nazis, each piece of each rocket stained by the hatred of its makers, and by the pain of those forced to construct them. These are the horrific origins of modern rockets. After World War Two the dream of space exploration, the dreams of Konstantin and Goddard, was reborn. Through the hands of thousands of visionary scientists and engineers the descendents of the first rockets are now scattered throughout the solar system. These machines, once made for the destruction of life, now search the cosmos for signs of new life on other far off worlds. I am inspired by the heavens, motivated to seek modes and methods of traveling to other worlds and other stars, I am moved by a romantic zeal for exploration, to see worlds unknown. However, my dream, the dreams of Konstantin, Goddard, and countless others, have the most practical and logical motivation in the end. The development of rockets, and space faring vehicles, ensures the longevity of the human species. As the human race spreads throughout the solar system, and eventually the stars, the species becomes insolated from catastrophe. I choose to study aerospace engineering for my own appetite for exploration, but my minor triumphs will contribute to a long-term dream of human longevity.
2) Some people categorize engineers as geeks or nerds. Are you a geek, nerd, or neither? Why?
It's certainly possible that I am a geek, or a nerd. Of course whether or not I am a nerd, or a geek, depends on how they are defined. If someone loves engineering and science are they a nerd? Is being a nerd all about being passionate about ones work, and being dedicated to ones field? If being a freak or a geek is about no more than that then I imagine I am a geek, actually I imagine most people would aspire to be a nerd. Perhaps that's not what a nerd or geek is. If someone defines a nerd or a geek as someone who is socially inept, unfashionable, and painfully studious then I would probably avoid the title. If that were how it defined I probably wouldn't be thrilled to be called that. In the end maybe I am a nerd, or a geek, or some other nonsense word, but in the end it doesn't matter. All of those things are just empty labels and I don't care how I'm defined, as long as I'm doing what I love nothing really matters to me.
1) How do you plan to use your engineering degree to benefit society?
It's difficult to say how my engineering degree will benefit society. Each specific field of engineering has their own gift to the world. Some engineers improve agriculture, staving off starvation, other engineering reinvents medicine, prolonging human life. As noble as these endeavors are they are not where my passions lie. I want to study aerospace engineering. I want to build rockets, and spacecraft. It's difficult to say how these endeavors will benefit my species. Wernher von Braun built the first rocket capable of reaching the edge of space, the V2, but this rocket was not the dream of Konstantin and Goddard. The v2 was a weapon of indiscriminant violence, built by Braun for the Nazis, each piece of each rocket stained by the hatred of its makers, and by the pain of those forced to construct them. These are the horrific origins of modern rockets. After World War Two the dream of space exploration, the dreams of Konstantin and Goddard, was reborn. Through the hands of thousands of visionary scientists and engineers the descendents of the first rockets are now scattered throughout the solar system. These machines, once made for the destruction of life, now search the cosmos for signs of new life on other far off worlds. I am inspired by the heavens, motivated to seek modes and methods of traveling to other worlds and other stars, I am moved by a romantic zeal for exploration, to see worlds unknown. However, my dream, the dreams of Konstantin, Goddard, and countless others, have the most practical and logical motivation in the end. The development of rockets, and space faring vehicles, ensures the longevity of the human species. As the human race spreads throughout the solar system, and eventually the stars, the species becomes insolated from catastrophe. I choose to study aerospace engineering for my own appetite for exploration, but my minor triumphs will contribute to a long-term dream of human longevity.
2) Some people categorize engineers as geeks or nerds. Are you a geek, nerd, or neither? Why?
It's certainly possible that I am a geek, or a nerd. Of course whether or not I am a nerd, or a geek, depends on how they are defined. If someone loves engineering and science are they a nerd? Is being a nerd all about being passionate about ones work, and being dedicated to ones field? If being a freak or a geek is about no more than that then I imagine I am a geek, actually I imagine most people would aspire to be a nerd. Perhaps that's not what a nerd or geek is. If someone defines a nerd or a geek as someone who is socially inept, unfashionable, and painfully studious then I would probably avoid the title. If that were how it defined I probably wouldn't be thrilled to be called that. In the end maybe I am a nerd, or a geek, or some other nonsense word, but in the end it doesn't matter. All of those things are just empty labels and I don't care how I'm defined, as long as I'm doing what I love nothing really matters to me.