Is this enough of a reason to take up Mechanical Engineering?

[Urmi Roy]

Is this enough of a reason to take up Mechanical Engineering??

I'm going to do an MS in Mechanical Engineering, and so I need to write an SOP )Statement Of Purpose/ Application Essay) for grad school admissions.

To be frank, during undergrads, the sole reason I took up mechanical engineering was that it would give me adequate coverage of thermodynamics and how it is applied to everyday life in the form of IC engines etc...

I was obsessed with finding out about entropy during high school, because like everyone who has studied thermodynamics, I found that entropy is an apparently strange entity, which behaves counter-intuitively and i wanted to read more about it. Then soon enough, I understood it to a much larger extent when I read about the statistical explanation of the behavior of molecules, and thus why entropy always increases...

This deeper understanding also allowed me to explain apparently impossible phenomenon like irreversible de-mixing of two different types of gas molecules is possible when coupled with expansion...which i thought was really cool, and I thought that by studying mech e, I could use the results of statistical studies in real life situations.

Anyway, I initially intended to take up Physics, but my parents didn't allow it.

My question is that when the grad school application committees read my reason for taking up mechanical engineering, will they think its too naive?? If so, what should I do? Please suggest.

 

[Urmi Roy]

Please reply someone!

 

[micromass]

You explained now why you wanted to do ME in undergrad. But that doesn't interest us. Why do you want to do ME right NOW?? Why do you want to do a masters??

 

[Urmi Roy]

Because i want to stick to the field that I enjoyed somuch for the last 4 years and explore the concepts deeper?

Plus, in the last one year, I've had exposure to simulation based bio-mechanical engineering and I'd love to work with that.

I have always wanted to be a researcher and teacher/lecturer, so what better that to stick to this field which has provided so much satisfaction...

 

[micromass]

Because i want to stick to the field that I enjoyed somuch for the last 4 years and explore the concepts deeper?

Plus, in the last one year, I've had exposure to simulation based bio-mechanical engineering and I'd love to work with that.

I have always wanted to be a researcher and teacher/lecturer, so what better that to stick to this field which has provided so much satisfaction...

Yeah, that sounds better. Write something about how you enjoy it now. And write about your interests in bio-ME. That's a lot better than writing about your interests 5 years ago.

 

[Urmi Roy]

Ok, so if I provide a detailed explanation of how i did my project and how I implemented research methods on a small scale, it should be ok?

Also, please could you tell me if the part I wrote about how I was very much into thermal engineering, especially entropy is ok/plausible/not kiddish...that's the main reason that I took ME, and is probably the main thing...I can say that I was satisfied by my experience with ME during my four years, so I want to continue during MS...

 

[Studiot]

Hello Urmi, I've just logged on and don't usually post in these sections, but here are my thoughts for what they are worth.

You need to be clear whether the Masters is a 'taught Masters' or a 'research Masters'.

Either way the Masters concentrates on a much more focused and narrow area of the subject - but obviously at greater academic depth as compared to a first degree.

Yes, either way you will do a project, but it will not be a bigger and better version of of you fisrt degree project. That was primarily designed to give you experience, not to find out anything new.

A Masters is an extension, not a consolidation of what you have already done. So if you want consolidation go out and work.

One good reason for doing a Masters is that you will be working under a British model system.
The Chartered Institution of Mechanical Engineers requires a Masters for part 3 of the CEng so for career progression it is a must.

Micromass has a very good point -talk about the furure extnding the past do not dwell on the past it is your entry permit to the future no more.

 

[Urmi Roy]

Thanks Studiot, certainly very valuable and practical guidance :-)

 

[Urmi Roy]

I have changed my SOP to include more of my recent experiences in ME...

I also have to include a paragraph, which will be the variable part from university to university about why I want to apply for that particular place...

Does this contain enough information/excitement..this is what I've decided to write for Georgia Tech:

"I would like to see myself in the Georgia institute of technology, as a part of the Mechanical Engineering Masters degree, with a specialization in Bioengineering. I am excited about the prospect of working with people of different specializations on a common project , which would give me the satisfaction of learning simultaneously different approaches and aspects of a topic. As is well known, any research cannot be completed successfully by seeing it from a single perspective. I admire the work that is being done in regard to neuro-engineering- its is a combined effort of mechanical engineers who focus on the design aspects, people from computer science who focus on coding and processing of information in neural cells, bio-molecular engineers who deal with the chemicals involved in a signal transmission in a neural cell and probably so many more people. Such integrated research is a unique feature of this school. I am greatly interested in the work by Dr David Ku, who is dealing extensively with tissue engineered vascular graft formation. I feel that this kind of research provides me an opportunity to really explore the power of mechanical engineering, as through this, one is able to manipulate nature and its components and we can do immense help to mankind if complex problems in a biological system can be brought under control by putting it under the umbrella of mechanical engineering. I was greatly interested to read about Lymphatic Biology and Bioengineering lab, where there is work done about the mechanical forces namely stretch and shear that are experienced by lymph-carrying vessels, especially in both normal and pathological states which will allow the investigation of these vessels to various mechanical forces within the body and gives birth to new challenges in tissue engineering. The work done by Dr Suman Das, who is working on the manufacture of scaffolds for regeneration of tissues , tissue replacement etc which will be adaptable to the internal body conditions. It involves experimental as well as computation-based study. "