Creating Strong Statementsfor Graduate School

Robert Irish Engineering Communication Program r.irish@utoronto.ca

Understanding the Personal Statement│ Using PastExperiences│ Imagining Future Work│ Resources

Order of Priority of Factors for Acceptance

1Your marks and courses – esp. 3rd & 4th year2References from professors andresearch supervisors3Publications and patent applications4

External scholarship, e.g. NSERC

5 Statement of Intent/Purpose/Interest

degree, marks, list ofcourses, research, work

experience, GREPersonal Statement,Statement of Intent

What is the Personal Statement?

Claim= any statement you

assert to be true

It is a particular type of ArgumentSo ... Argument Structure

I’m an excellentCandidate ...

Please fund me ...I can do this ...

Let me in!

Evidence Explanation/Justification+

Personal Statement draws on two types of Evidence

Past Experience

Future Goals

Using Past Experience

My past experienceisn’t relevant to

what I want

I don’t have verymuch research

experience

I have great grades(or not), whatshould I say?

Should I talk aboutmyprogram / UofT?

Make it relevant; it doesn’t haveto be in the same field tosupport your claim that you’re agood candidate for research

Don’t forget: thesis, courseprojects, work experience

Good grades speak forthemselves, not so hot gradescould use explanation. Gradesare not the only consideration

Yes, focus of study in program,unique nature of program

Using Past ExperienceIcombined my desire for research and curiosity with thesemiconductor industry by interning with theFoundry/Technology Development Department at ActelCorporation, a provider of Flash based FPGA solutions locatedin Mountain View, California. During my 13-month internship,I was involved in the research and development of a 130-nmfloating gate process used in their ProAsic3 product family. Icarried out an extensive study on Hot Carrier Injection lifetimeof floating gate transistors for reliability evaluation and theresults were used in a subsequent product qualification. Inaddition, I contributed to a paper entitled “Investigating andModeling Total Ionizing Dose and Heavy Ion Effects in Flash-Based Field Programmable Gate Array” by characterizing theheavy ion radiation induced threshold voltage shift of an arrayof floating gate transistors. The results of this study werepresented at the Radiation Effects on Components andSystems Workshop in September 2006. It has also beensubmitted to the IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science forreview.

Specifics ofresearch

His specificcontribution

Shows link fromcontribution to

accomplishment

1. Be Specific

I am currently in the final year of the Engineering Science program atthe University of Toronto. This demanding and prestigious program isgeared towards preparing undergraduates for post-graduate studies.The first two years cover a broad range of topics such as quantummechanics, digital electronics, and bioengineering, to provide astrong foundation in scientific theory. The last two years allowstudents to specialize in the fields of their interest. I chose electricalengineering as my specialization, and devoted particular attention tomathematics such as abstract algebra, real analysis and topologybecause I believe that having a strong mathematical background willhelp me think critically in designing algorithms and system levelarchitectures.

Moreover, Engineering Science strongly encourages students toparticipate in summer research with professors and has a researchthesis project in the fourth year. During the summer after first year,

Using Past ExperienceCharacterizes

NΨas programwith strong

fundamentals

... And as strongon research

Demonstratespersonal

motivation

2. Show Purpose

During the summer after first year, I worked as asummer research assistant for Professor RezaIravani at the University of Toronto. I implementeddigital circuits using Field Programmable GateArrays (FPGA). The digital circuitry was part of adigital control block in controlling wind turbines.Over the next two summers, I worked in a researchlab under the supervision of Professor AleksandarProdic at the University of Toronto for more than1000 hours. The purpose of the project is toreplace analog control of low-power Switch ModePower Supplies (SMPS) with digitalcontrol. Currently,

Using Past Experienceuses research focusto transition fromschool to research

3. Give Context

… Currently, SMSPs are almost exclusivelydominated by analog controllers. Digital control canprovide flexibility and programmability that analogcontrol cannot offer. However, in order to competewith analog solutions, digital control circuitsmust at least meet the same power consumptionand on-chip area. The bottleneck block in digitalcontrol is the Digital Pulse Width Modulator(DPWM). Not only does DPWM consume a lot ofpower, it also takes up a large on-chip area. Duringthe summer of …

Using Past Experience

Identifies theimportance of the

lab’s research3. Give Context

During the summer of 2004, one of my main jobs wasto design a new architecture of DPWM. Independently,I was able to innovate a new architecture that has bothlow power consumption and small on-chip area. Underthe supervision of Professor Prodic, I built the digitalcontroller with Field Programmable Gate Arrays(FPGA). In addition, I worked with two graduatestudents, Nabeel Rahman and Zdravko Lukic to buildthe power stage and layout the digital controller usingVLSI. This work has resulted in an acceptance ofpublication at IEEE Applied Power ElectronicsConference (APEC) 2006 and a provisional patentapplication. [1-2]

Using Past Experience

Appropriately identifies hiscontribution and others

4. Show Accomplishments

Summary for Using Past Experience

1. Be Specific

2. Show Purpose

3. Give Context

4. Show Accomplishments

Imagining Future Work

How much researchshould I dooninstitutions?

Idon’t know what Iwant to do? Should I

lie?

Can I be too specificabout a research plan?

Should I say why?

The more the better. Apps thatspeak to specific programs,researchers, and the school’s focusare more likely to draw attention

No, make qualified statementsthat don’t limit you . . . “may,” “apossible avenue,” “one area ofinterest” RS are not contracts, butyou should still hedge to leaveyour opportunities open

Yes; frame as a pressing problemfor society or engineering puzzle ...

My research experience has revealed that there are twoimportant and challenging criteria that future electronics willneed to meet: energy consumption and performance. Asmany devices become mobile, low power consumptionbecomes quite crucial. Regular batteries simply cannotprovide enough energy for sufficient duration of use. Thisleads to frustration on the part of the user and creates ahuge challenge for the circuit designers.

Imagining Future WorkTie it in to yourprevious experience

Show broad relevancesince most peoplearen’t specialists

Position yourselfwithin the context

Use qualifiers to limityour commitment

My research experience has revealed that there are twoimportant and challenging criteria that future electronics willneed to meet: energy consumption and performance. Asmany devices become mobile, low power consumptionbecomes quite crucial. Regular batteries simply cannotprovide enough energy for sufficient duration of use. Thisleads to frustration on the part of the user and creates ahuge challenge for the circuit designers.

Imagining Future WorkTie it in to yourprevious experience

Regular batteries simply cannot provide enough energy forsufficient duration of use. This leads to frustration on the partof the user and creates a huge challenge for the circuitdesigners. Furthermore, mobiles devices, such as cell phonesand laptops, demand high performance circuits that arecapable of processing and converting large data at fast speed.Hence, it is quite a daunting task to create innovative solutionsthat have high performance levels while maintainingsatisfactory power consumption. This challenge has motivatedme to pursue my career in the subject of electronics.

Imagining Future Work

Show broad relevancesince most peoplearen’t specialists

As I continue my career, I want to surround myself with like-minded, proactive colleagues, and I see them at ---. For instance,Prof. ---’s demonstration of tunable Si-based photoluminescentnanowires (NW) would be a fascinating arena for me to expandmy research experience in the growth of oriented NW’s and mystudy of photonic integration into Si-manufacturing, specificallyin NOEMS. Furthermore, my thesis work and graduate-level studyin Nanochemistry have given me a strong understanding ofsurface growth and various techniques for nanopatterning. Theseskills would allow me to further apply myself to the research thatProf. --- leads, especially in terms of patterning for plasmon-assisted CVD and NW catalysis. In fact, nanoscale precision innucleation and catalysis is the primary goal of my undergraduatethesis project …

Imagining Future Work

Position yourselfwithin the context

Use qualifiers to limityour commitment

Things to Remember

Clear Communication Counts

Create a clear andvisible structure

Use Transitions tomake transitions

Be concise.

Possible Strategies for Structuring a StatementStrategy Advantages Disadvantages/CautionsChronology We all live in time, so talking

about development makessense

May not emphasize importantexperiences

Order ofRealization

Allows you to develop keyrealizations (e.g. about researchability, about a field of study)

Most important realizationsmay be hard to emphasize

Order ofImportance

Allows you to highlight the keyexperience or realization byputting it first

Making connections betweenpieces can be difficult

Order ofexpectedfamiliarity

If you expect the school to knowyour supervisor or researchwork, it adds to your credibility

If the school doesn’t know,you lose that advantage

SimpleEnumeration

You can clearly say “four reasonsI want to go to grad school ...” soit is easy to follow

Easy-to-follow ≠ coherent, soyou need to work to showhow the pieces fit together

The first time I realized that the world advancedby research was on a high school fieldtrip to theUniversity of Toronto in which our group had atour of a Materials engineering lab where thegroup was working on replacements to leadsolder in circuit boards. I was fascinated byScanning Electron Microscope and by the rigoroustesting that each new alloy was subject to. Twoyears later, after my first year in MaterialsEngineering, I had the opportunity to volunteer asa summer student in that same lab underProfessors Uwe Erb and Glenn Hibbard.

What about Alternative Structures?A More “Personal” Personal Statement

A strategy of firstrealization that goesback to high school

Includes specifics

Volunteering showscommitment

Establishes his role

Makes a goodshift from MSE to

show learning

The project I worked on ... . More specifically, myrole was ... Although I did not stay with MaterialsEngineering, from that experience, I learned ... .

The project I worked on ... . More specifically, myrole was ... Although I did not stay with MaterialsEngineering, from that experience, I learned ... .

For two summers, I worked as a Student EngineeringIntern with PCL, a major Canadian constructionmanagement firm. Through that experience, I came tounderstand the careful ongoing negotiation betweenthe contractor and the engineer. For instance, in aToronto highrise, a subcontractor had made a changeto the specification for a particular steel joint – boltingrather than bolting and welding. When the PCLbuilding inspector found the change, I was asked to dothe calculations to determine whether thesubcontractor’s work would meet code. In the end, amajor retrofit was required for all the joints that weredone in this way. It was a compromise position, but itensured the safety of the building. For me, itdemonstrated the importance of project managementin any construction project.

That experience also led to my interest in research inthe area of project management, which became myfourth year thesis with Professor Brenda McCabe. Inthat project, I modelled ...

Trying to Link Past Experience to FutureConnects workexperience to a

learned principle

Gives specifics

Identifies rolein the project

Identifies learning

Ties it to schoolobjectives

Things not to Forget

There is help!

1 Your department’s undergraduate/graduate advisor

2 Your thesis supervisor or research advisor

3 Engineering Communication Program tutorshttp://www.engineering.utoronto.ca/ Under Directory | Student Resources

4 Me: r.irish@utoronto.ca SF B670