phd computer science personal statement

Personal Statement Examples for Graduate School: Computer Science

A student writing their application essay

Crafting a Standout Computer Science Personal Statement

Crafting a compelling personal statement is crucial for graduate school acceptance. Successful statements showcase your academic and professional accomplishments. They also put a spotlight on your personality, goals, and motivations. When you master this process can make your application stand out and secure your place in graduate school. That’s where our expertise comes into play. Our expertise is here to guide you through the graduate application complexities, providing insights, guidance, and feedback to enhance your writing and engage admissions committees.

Successful Personal Statement Examples for Graduate School

In this post, we’re excited to open our collection of personal statement examples for graduate school. We’re sharing two that students just like you used to get into graduate Computer Science programs:

Both essays, while strong in their current form, nevertheless offer learning opportunities on how further refinement can enhance clarity, coherence, and impact. Our commentary on these pieces provides actionable advice on how to approach revisions, ensuring that each paragraph serves a clear purpose and contributes to the overall narrative effectively.

Explore our graduate school personal statement examples and feedback to grasp the detailed analysis and attention that perfects a statement. Whether starting your draft or finalizing revisions, our insights will help you showcase your strengths, improve weaknesses, and express your future vision.

Finally, remember that a great personal statement does not just happen—it is crafted. Let us guide you through this process, offering the expertise and feedback necessary to turn a good personal statement into an outstanding one. Explore our blog for more tips, examples , and professional guidance on making your graduate application journey a success.

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Computer Science Personal Statement (Guide + Examples!)

Computer science personal statement (guide and examples)

Applying to study computer science can be quite a complicated programs. There are so many programs out there with so many application requirements. But don’t worry, we’re here to help.

In this blog post, we’ll give you some tips on how to write a computer science personal statement that will increase your chances of getting accepted into the program of your choice.

Table of Contents

What Is a computer science personal statement?

A computer science personal statement is a document that you submit as part of your application to study computer science.

In this statement, you’ll need to talk about your motivation for wanting to study computer science, as well as your skills and experience . This is your chance to sell yourself to the admissions committee and demonstrate why you’re the perfect candidate for their program.

Anatomy of a personal statement

Now that we’ve covered what a computer science personal statement is, let’s take a look at what it should include.

1. Introduction

Your computer science personal statement should start with a brief introduction . In this section, you’ll want to introduce yourself as a computer science applicant and explain why you’re interested in studying computer science. This is your chance to grab the attention of the admissions committee and make them want to read on.

2. Your motivation for wanting to study computer science

In this section, you’ll need to explain your motivation for wanting to study computer science. What is it about computer science that interests you? What are your long-term career aspirations? This is your chance to sell yourself to the admissions committee and demonstrate your commitment to the subject.

3. Your skills and experience

In this section, you’ll need to talk about your skills and experience . What computer science-related courses have you taken? Do you have any industry experience? This is your chance to show the admissions committee that you have the skills and experience necessary to succeed in their program.

4. Conclusion

Your computer science personal statement should end with a brief conclusion . In this section, you’ll want to restate your motivation for wanting to study computer science and reiterate your commitment to the subject. This is your chance to leave a lasting impression on the admissions committee.

Positive young Asian female student with earphones writing in copybook while doing homework at table with laptop in street cafeteria

Who reads my computer science personal statement?

The computer science personal statement is read by the admissions committee of the computer science department to which you’re applying.

This committee is made up of professors and industry professionals who are experts in the field of computer science. They will use your personal statement to determine whether or not you’re a good fit for their program.

Usually, the admission review process includes several rounds, and your computer science personal statement will be read by multiple members of the admissions committee.

How long should my computer science personal statement be?

Your computer science personal statement should be between 500 and 1000 words . This is enough space for you to introduce yourself, talk about your motivation for wanting to study computer science, and discuss your skills and experience.

Speaking in pages, your computer science personal statement should be one to two pages long . If your personal statement is longer than that, the admissions committee is likely to skim it, or even worse, not read it at all.

What should I include in my computer science personal statement?

There are a few things you will want to include in your computer science personal statement. In general, you should provide the admissions committee with convincing motivation and evidence that will portray you as someone both passionate and promising as a future computer science student.

Some things that you may want to include in your computer science personal statement are:

Source of motivation for studying computer science
Evidence of programming or quantitative abilities
Competitions/olympiads
Relevant work experience
Relevant projects
Accomplishments
Future career aspirations

Your personal statement may also include other information that you feel is important for the admissions committee to know about you. However, make sure that whatever you include is relevant to computer science and will help you stand out as a strong candidate.

college applicant writing a computer science personal statement

What should I not write in my computer science personal statement?

There are a few things you’ll want to avoid including in your computer science personal statement. First, avoid repeating information that is already available in your application . The admissions committee will already have access to your transcripts, test scores, and resume, so there’s no need to include this information in your personal statement.

Second, avoid including information that is not relevant to computer science . The admissions committee is looking for evidence that you’re passionate about computer science and have the skills and experience necessary to succeed in their program, so including information about your hobbies or extracurricular activities may not be the best way to go forward.

An exception to this is if you’re including information about extenuating circumstances that have impacted your academic performance, in which case you should briefly explain how these circumstances have affected you and why you’re still a strong candidate for their program.

Finally, avoid using cliches, quotes, or formulas in your computer science personal statement . The admissions committee is looking for an original and authentic voice, so be sure to write in your own words.

Tips on writing a top-notch computer science personal statement

Now that we’ve gone over what to include and what not to include in your computer science personal statement, let’s talk about how you can write a top-notch personal statement.

First, start by brainstorming a list of your computer science-related experiences, skills, and accomplishments . This will give you a good starting point for your personal statement and help you determine what information is most relevant to include.

As you’re drafting your computer science personal statement, be sure to keep the following tips in mind:

Write in clear, concise, and easy-to-understand language
Use active voice
Be honest and authentic
Personalize your statement to the program you’re applying to
Proofread your statement for grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors

By following these tips, you can write a computer science personal statement that is sure to impress the admissions committee and increase your chances of getting into your dream program.

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Computer science personal statement examples

Now that we’ve covered the basics of what a computer science personal statement should include, let’s take a look at some computer science personal statement examples.

“I have been programming since I was 12 years old, and ever since then I have been fascinated by the possibilities that computer science offers. I am motivated by the idea of being able to create something from scratch and see it come to life, and I know that computer science will allow me to do just that. In addition, I have experience in working with code from different languages, which has taught me how to think critically and solve problems. My skills in critical thinking and problem solving are essential for studying computer science, as they will allow me to tackle complex challenges head-on.

Apart from my skills and experience, I am also passionate about learning new things. This is why during my free time I volunteered for Code for America, where I worked with a team of designers and developers to build a civic engagement platform. This experience showed me the importance of collaboration when it comes to creating something amazing, and it solidified my belief that teamwork is key to success.

Another project I got involved with was the development of a computer game for blind children. This project was important to me because it allowed me to use my skills for something good, and it also showed me how computer science can be used to create inclusive technologies.

Last year, I also had the opportunity to intern at Lyft, where I worked on a team that developed a new feature for the Lyft app. This experience was invaluable, as it gave me insights into the inner workings of one of the world’s most successful companies. It also showed me how computer science can be used to solve real-world problems.

Ultimately, I believe that I would be an excellent candidate for your computer science program because of my passion for the field combined with my skills and experience. I am confident that I have what it takes to succeed in computer science, and I hope to use my skills and knowledge to make a difference in the world.”

“I have always been interested in the way computers work and how they can be used to solve problems. This interest began when I was very young and has continued to grow as I have gotten older. My father is a computer scientist, so I have been exposed to computer science my entire life. In high school, I took several computer science courses and really enjoyed them. I also competed in several programming competitions and did well in them. In the following essay, I want to highlight my accomplishments as a computer science candidate and express my passion for this exciting field.

I am a computer science major at *NAME* University. I have taken several computer science courses and have gotten exceptional grades. My favorite course so far has been Introduction to Algorithms, for which I worked as a teaching assistant during my third year. I also competed in the Association for Computing Machinery International Collegiate Programming Contest, and our team placed in the top 100 out of 6,000 teams worldwide. This experience showed me that I have the ability to solve complex problems and work well under pressure.

As a student, I also worked as a part-time research assistant in the AI and Robotics laboratory, where I assisted in the development of a computer vision system for an autonomous robot. This experience allowed me to develop my skills in programming and computer science. In addition, I have also been a member of the Student Senate and have served on the Executive Board of the Student Government Association. These experiences have allowed me to develop leadership skills and learn how to work with others.

I am interested in computer science because it is a field that is constantly changing and evolving. There are always new problems to solve and new ways to solve them. I find this challenge exciting and invigorating. I am also interested in computer science because it is a field that combines creativity with logic. I enjoy using both my creative and logical sides when solving problems.

I am applying to your program specifically because I believe that it will allow me to further develop my skills in computer science. I am looking forward to taking classes from renowned professors and working with other talented students. I believe that your program will provide me with the skills and knowledge that I need to become a successful computer scientist.”

“Computers have always been a part of my life. As a toddler, I would watch my father work on computer programs for his business. Fascinated by the blinking cursor on the screen, I would ask him what he was doing and how it worked. My parents bought me my first computer when I was in grade school and I taught myself how to program in BASIC.

Since then, computer science has been my passion. I have pursued every opportunity to learn more about it, including taking computer science courses in high school and college and working as a research assistant for a computer science professor. I am excited to continue learning about computer science at the graduate level and to pursue a career in this field.

One of my biggest accomplishments in the field of computer science so far has been developing a computer program that can generate 3D models of human faces. This program has the potential to be used in a variety of applications, such as video game development, computer-aided design, and even law enforcement. I am currently working on submitting this program to a computer science conference for publication.

I have also been involved in a number of extracurricular activities related to computer science. I am a member of the Association for Computing Machinery and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. I have also volunteered my time to teach computer science to elementary and middle school students through a local program called Girls Who Code.

Besides this, I have worked on several personal coding projects of my own. For example, I created a computer program that can solve Sudoku puzzles by using a technique called constraint satisfaction. I also developed a website for a local business called Joe’s pizzeria. My skills in computer science have also helped me in my other hobbies, such as photography and video editing. For the latter, I made a light correction tool that can automatically color-correct a video based on the primer of a still image.

I believe that my passion for computer science, as well as my experience in the field, makes me an ideal candidate for a graduate program in computer science. I am excited to continue learning and expanding my skills in computer science so that I can make an impact in this field. For this reason, I am excited to submit an early decision application to your computer science graduate program.”

MacBook Pro near white open book while writing a computer science personal statement

What should I do after I have my first draft?

After you have completed the first draft of your computer science personal statement, you should follow these steps to edit, polish, and finalize your computer science personal statement:

1. Check the word count : Most programs will give you a word or a page limit for your computer science personal statement. Make sure you stay within that limit, as going over it can make you seem like you can’t follow instructions.

2. Proofread and edit it : This step is crucial. A well-written and error-free computer science personal statement will make you look more professional and competent. Use spell check and grammar check , and then have someone else proofread it for you.

3. Ask for feedback : Once you’ve proofread and edited your computer science personal statement, ask a few people for their feedback. Choose people whose opinions you trust and who will be honest with you.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 as needed : After you’ve received feedback, make the necessary changes to your computer science personal statement. Then, proofread and edit it again. Repeat this cycle until you’re happy with your statement.

5. Modify personal statement for each program : Don’t just submit the same computer science personal statement to every program you apply to. Tailor it to each individual program, highlighting why you’re a good fit for that specific school.

6. Submit : Once you’re happy with your computer science personal statement, submit it along with the rest of your application.

Make sure you give yourself enough time to do all of the steps above so that you can submit a strong statement. Remember, this is just one part of your overall application package, so make sure all other elements are strong as well—such as your grades, letters of recommendation , and resume.

We hope that this guide has been helpful and that you feel more confident in your ability to write a stellar computer science personal statement. Remember, the most important thing is to be yourself and let your passion for computer science shine through. As long as you are genuine and articulate your interest in the field, you are sure to impress admissions officers. Best of luck!

Elmar Mammadov is a software developer, tech startup founder, and computer science career specialist. He is the founder of CS Careerline and a true career changer who has previously pursued careers in medicine and neuroscience.

Due to his interest in programming and years of past personal experience in coding, he decided to break into the tech industry by attending a Master’s in Computer Science for career changers at University of Pennsylvania. Elmar passionately writes and coaches about breaking into the tech industry and computer science in general.

Successful Personal Statement Example For Computer Science At Oxford

Last Updated: 6th April 2022

Author: Rob Needleman

Computer Science

Welcome to our popular Personal Statement series where we present an example of a successful Personal Statement, and our Oxbridge Tutors provide their feedback on it.

Today, we are looking through a Computer Science applicant’s Personal Statement that helped secure a place at Oxford University. The Computer Science Course at Oxford is about understanding computer systems and networks at a deep level. Read on to see how this excellent Personal Statment gives attention to the mathematical side of Computer Science and showcases their achievements.

Here’s a breakdown of the Personal Statement (the applicant came very close to the 4,000 character limit):

SUCCESSFUL?

The universities this candidate applied to were the following:

LOUGHBOROUGH

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Your tutor will give you actionable feedback with insider tips on how to improve and make your Personal Statement Oxbridge quality for the best chances of success. Discover our Oxbridge Computer Science Premium Programme , enrol and triple your chances of success!

Example Computer Science Personal Statement

My first experiences with mathematics throughout school were always enjoyable but not inspiring. While I loved working with maths, and enjoyed representing our school in both the UKMT and Hans Woyda team competitions, I felt that maths could not be the end-in-itself the school syllabus presented it as. As I progressed through secondary education, however, I began to really see it as the powerful tool to understand and structure reality that it is.

The first time I saw that my interpretation of the use of maths had some substance was during a work experience placement I organised at IMSO (International Mobile Satellite Organization). There I encountered some examples of the mathematical and computing problems involved in working with satellites: from the difference between the Euclidean geometry on a map and the Elliptical geometry on a globe, to the logistics of moving satellites around to meet demand while keeping them in orbit. These were problems that demanded much more than mere number crunching, and being exposed to this gave me a taste of what maths beyond school might involve. A second work experience spell at Siemens provided me a much more in-depth view of the important role that communication systems play in keeping a company running efficiently and effectively.

My passion for mathematics and computing was further extended while reading ‘The Magical Maze’ by Ian Stewart. The description of maths as the exploration of a maze of our own creation had an incredibly profound effect on my understanding of what research in mathematics involves. What interested me especially was the visual part of resolving problems, so that they did not rely completely on resolving long calculations. This was close to how I like to understand and explain my ideas in mathematics.

Douglas Hofstadter’s ‘Gödel, Escher, Bach’ gave me a much deeper understanding of the axiomatic systems that make up maths and how parallels can be drawn between different subjects to gain a further understanding of them all. Connected by the theme of Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem, the author passes through seemingly unrelated topics, such as the problem of consciousness and the mathematics of Zen principles, to explain the theorem. Although not the focus of the book, I have also enjoyed reading the links that are presented between maths and computing; it seems to me that maths is not just related to computing – computing is the physical manifestation of mathematics.

Maths and computing are about describing mental processes in a precise, logical way. The rigour required for mathematical proof leaves little room for subjectivity: something can be proven, disproven or unproven, but this depends completely on the validity of your logic. The idea of being able to extract order from apparent chaos, working through concepts until they click is what I love about these subjects, and what has attracted me to take those as an integral part of my further education.

However passionate I am about my academic studies, I also enjoy being involved in extracurricular activities. As head of mentoring and a prefect, I have improved my organizational abilities working with staff and mentors in developing study programmes for those students requiring extra help. Completing the Duke of Edinburgh bronze award – now working on the silver award – has allowed me to practice and develop my leadership and teamwork skills.

In my spare time I enjoy playing tennis, skiing and swimming; the latter I practice at competition level. I also love travelling, as having spent my childhood in Denmark, Egypt, United Kingdom and Spain has given me a hunger for mixing with different cultures. I like to unwind by playing the piano – I find that the pleasure one derives from making a piece your own is one that few activities can match.

I am thrilled about the prospect of further study in these subjects with some of the leading professors in the fields, and look forward to participating in university life.

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Good Points Of The Personal Statement

This is a well-written, structured statement. The student explains their reasons to pursue a dual-honours degree and gives equal attention to both disciplines to which they are applying. The student adds personality to the statement by thoroughly explaining their own views on all of the examples of literature read around maths and computing.

Bad Points Of The Personal Statement

There are quite a lot of short paragraphs. The student could have saved space by consolidating some paragraphs into one, hence shortening the statement. The student starts three paragraphs with ‘My’ or ‘In my’. This is quite repetitive. There are too many paragraphs, seven in total. Paragraphs five and six could be shortened and grouped into one paragraph. In the third paragraph, it appears as though the student has either forgotten to add an addition space (in order to start a new paragraph) or has incorrectly started a new line for the sentence ‘Douglas Hofstadter’s…’.

UniAdmissions Overall Score:

This is a very good statement. The student has clearly achieved a lot and writes in a clear and easy-to-understand way. Attention is given to both maths and computer sciences, which is essential as the student is applying for a dual honours course. With some restructuring, this could be an excellent statement.

This Personal Statement for Computer Science is a great example of how to tackle applying to two different degrees or dual honours. The candidate’s interest and achievements are clearly shown which is vital to Admissions Tutors.

Remember, at Oxford, these Admissions Tutors are often the people who will be teaching you for the next few years, so you need to appeal directly to them.

You can find more successful personal statements and our expert guides on our Free Personal Statement Resources page.

Successful Personal Statement For Natural Science (Physical) At Cambridge

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Eugenie Y. Lai

Contact: eylai [at] mit.edu GitHub: ey-l Twitter: @EugenieLai eugeniesday --> Scheduled — --> CV , transcript

News [ More Updates ] 2021.04 Joining the Data Systems Group (DSG) at MIT EECS CSAIL as a PhD student in Fall '21.

Theme by orderedlist

Another Annotated Example: CS PhD Statement of Purpose

Date: 2021-04-22

This post is inspired by the Statement of Objective examples provided by the MIT EECS Communication Lab . Some programs (e.g., Berkeley EECS) require a Statement of Purpose (SoP) and a Personal Statement (PS). In this post, we will dissect and annotate my SoP submitted to MIT EECS, which is a hybrid of both, in my case.

I also shamelessly include a copy of my first draft for a before-after comparison and show how far I have (and maybe anyone could) come by applying the learnings discussed in this post. It would be difficult to measure the impact of something without showing the starting point, which is often missing in the existing resources for SoP.

Also, if you are an anxious applicant, let’s not compare ourselves. I know it’s easier said than done, and I still fall into that trap too. But it is unfair to compare the ins and outs of ourselves to only the best side of others (e.g., their SoP). This note was first brought up to me by Dr.* Maria De-Arteaga back in 2019 when I just started to pivot my profile towards grad school and has been helping me get off the overthinking treadmill since.

*Note: I heard Prof. and Dr. are distinct in the states, but we use Dr. for both in Canada. I didn’t know until the visit days and only used Dr. in my SoP. So let’s use Dr. in this post to keep everything consistent.

Before We Start

Intended audience: Future and current CS PhD applicants.

The role of SoP in grad admissions: Touched on by this Twitter thread , which could be specific to MIT EECS.

My result: I applied to 8 programs and was fortunate to get in almost everywhere, with 5 offers (i.e., Berkeley, MIT, UBC, UMichigan, and UWashington) and 3 withdrawals (i.e., Columbia, Maryland, and NYU).

A non-exhaustive list of caveats that may make this post not as applicable so readers’ discretion is advised:

I applied during a pandemic, not sure how that affected my experience.
I only applied to programs in the US and Canada so the experience is subjective to the system here.
I’m in data systems so please question if the content is field-specific.

Motivation to (uncomfortably) put myself out there:

Writing crystallizes my learning and is a skill I’m working on. The pressure helps me practice.
The potential of helping someone trumps the fear of being judged.
I received so so much help and support throughout this grad application cycle and just want to give back.

Speaking of support, a list of direct help I received for my SoP:

I was privileged to be assisted by the MIT GAAP and Berkeley EAAA program . A huge thank you to my MIT GAAP mentor, Xuan , who chatted with me bi-weekly since October 2020, provided extremely valuable feedback on my SoP, and helped me navigate through the applying process. It still feels surreal that I will actually meet her in person at MIT this fall.
Many thanks to my labmates and my research parent, Dr. Rachel Pottinger , who offered both helpful comments and emotional support.
I happened to take COMM 395 Business Communication with Elizabeth Bowker that term (to fulfill my undergraduate degree requirement at UBC). I found some materials covered for presentations transferable to writing, and a big thank you to her for the additional support.
I was also privileged to get help from the Writing Centre and Student Service Centre at my undergraduate university.
Just to reiterate, the examples by the MIT EECS Communication Lab are particularly helpful. Many other schools/programs (e.g., CMU ) provide such examples too.
I was also influenced by these YouTube channels: Lillian - AlphaGenesis , Casey Fiesler , The Kath Path , Andy Stapleton .

So the first takeaway is clear: Be resourceful. Ask around. Keep an eye out for opportunities and resources, which shouldn’t take up much energy. Just have that running in the background.

Overall Thought Process

The grad application as a whole is supposed to show a 3D us to let the committee make a sensible decision. If we think backwards, SoP is only included for a reason. Like any member of a K-Pop group, it has a unique proposition in the package.

I wanted to show a 3D me by leveraging the application package with little overlaps between materials. But so far, the transcript and CV only put me into numbers and project names.

So something is missing – without showing my thought process and personality, I’m boring, cold, and flat. This gap is where SoP comes in, and it is the only* opportunity to add that third dimension. We will use sketching as an analogy and go through the things that I constantly reminded myself of when thinking about my SoP at a high level.

*Note: Letters of recommendation (LoRs) help too, but they are observations of us. SoP is the one thing in our full control.

Convey the why’s. Like all drawings, SoP needs a purpose, a main message that both utilizes the space in the application and fills the gap. From most of the resources above, the purpose should be conveying the why’s (e.g., why research, why grad school, why this subfield).

Find a common thread and tell a story about professional development. Now we know what to include, but how could we organize the content in a way that shows the reader how we think? We need a skeleton first. I could tell my why’s in a plain list. But wouldn’t some layered structure to show how my research journey evolved add more character? Inevitably, we have to repeat what’s in the CV, but the added value comes from the personality and thought process illustrated through those experiences. The experiences are just a tool at this point, instead of the main focus, so don’t worry about repeating the content.

Bring in personality. Let’s colour the black-and-white skeleton with a personal pallet. I tried to make every sentence read like something only I would write. Admittedly, bringing in a personal voice while staying professional is a fine line to walk, but it’s possible. The annotated SoP is (trying to be) an example. So is this post. We will talk about a few ways to do that in the detailed comments.

Help the reader focus. We have limited paint. Be concise and precise. Every sentence is an opportunity to draw a line and should together portrait a clean image. We don’t want to waste any bits or distract the reader with random, extra lines so every word should have its place. I also thought hard about what to leave in and leave out. Although I was involved in many things throughout my undergraduate time, I only included experiences that are pertinent to my story.

Detailed Comments by Section

There is a lot to unpack. We will walk through my reasoning for each section at a detailed level, which can also be seen as a concrete embodiment of the high-level takeaways discussed above.

Statement of Objectives

Introduction

We don’t want to be a boring person. Opening with questions grabs the reader’s attention better than the laundry list of who I am and what I do in my first draft. The questions plant seeds too, as we will see later. Opening with research interests directly is also interesting.

How can we propagate breakthroughs in the scientific community to the real world? With the explosion of big data, how can we help fields outside of computer science (CS) extract and leverage its value? Inspired by these questions, my current research focuses on facilitating user interaction with databases.

Elaborate on my current research interest with the techniques (in the method space) and a use case (in the problem space). The use case also hints at my why’s, coming soon.

Specifically, I apply visualization and machine learning techniques to alleviate the barriers between users and databases to help users access and make sense of data. By helping users better explore and understand the data they have collected, I hope to enable data-driven decision-making in a wide range of fields. It is with these broad goals in mind that I am applying to pursue a PhD.

Finding My Research Interests

This section shows two things, my technical competency and why’s. I described 3 research projects and used the reflection on the experience to answer the why’s.

+1 to the example provided by the MIT EECS Communication Lab, the formula I used to describe a research project, one line each: summary + clarification of terms if necessary + need of the work (e.g., gaps) + our contributions + outcomes + my specific input . We will see this formula twice later in this section.

With a focus on data provenance summarization, my research journey began under Dr. Rachel Pottinger at the UBC Data Management and Mining Lab. The provenance of a query over a database is a subset of the data in the database that contributed to the query answer. While comprehensive, query provenance consists of large volumes of data and hence is overwhelming for users to explore. We presented an approach to provenance exploration that builds on data summarization techniques and provides an interface to visualize the summary. This work led to the first two papers I co-authored, Summarizing Provenance of Aggregation Query Results in Relational Databases (ICDE’21) and Pastwatch: On the Usability of Provenance Data in Relational Databases (ICDE’20). My main contributions include identifying the limitations in the existing methods, implementing the existing and our summarization methods, and running the experiments.

We love the dark times. Dr. Brené Brown said vulnerability and hardships help people connect and build trust. Being rejected is my true experience, and I intentionally included that to make myself relatable to the reader. In this case, it also shows resilience and segues into my first why, why research but not industry. As you may have also noticed, this concept is used everywhere in this post too.

Our work experienced a few submissions. Although I felt discouraged at first, I learned to reflect and was encouraged by how much our work had improved after each round. I also enjoyed my experience in research more than the industry for the autonomy and ownership over my work.

But I didn’t want to just tell my why’s like a list. I envisioned a story structure inspired by The Secret Structure of Great Talks by Nancy Duarte. She introduced a shape at around 6:00. Applying that concept, I first established what is, what could be, and the gap here. Like the shape, we will see me traversing between what is and what could be in the rest of this section.

However, I had some burning questions regarding my research interests going forward. Although I was engaged by the technical aspects of solving open-ended problems, I wanted to find something that would really excite me – what is the thing that would get me out of bed every morning? And how could I find it?

Transition to my next project to show more technical competency while keeping the flow of the story.

My next project, Developing a Data-Driven Electric Vehicle (EV) Strategy in Surrey, BC, Canada, helped me answer those questions.

Another example of the formula above but in a slightly different order to make things flow better.

Working with another undergraduate student under the supervision of Dr. Raymond Ng, we set out to address the challenge of how the city of Surrey should place EV charging stations. Prior to our work, the approach to determine where to install an EV charging site was solely based on expert opinions, despite a large volume of data collected by the city of Surrey. To help city planners make strategic decisions informed by evidence, I developed a web application to give them a user-friendly way to explore and make sense of the data. I used interactive maps and graphs to visualize the spatial distribution and time trends of Surrey’s vehicle stock, traffic flows, and land use. In September 2019, the city used my tool to choose 20 charger locations for a Canadian federal funding proposal, and I was proud to co-present this work at the SIGKDD’20 Social Impact Session this summer.

Talking about our values is another good way to bring in our personality while staying professional, which also helps answer some why’s. For example, what kind of research keeps us excited? I’m excited about real-world users (in the problem space), but everyone is motivated differently. Maybe you are excited about system design? Cool! Or applying new ML models? Also cool! Note that this part also ties back to the opening questions.

Through zooming in and out on a pressing, real-world issue, I realized what I should be looking for in the research I pursue: the possibility of helping others and the insight into real-world issues that would spark that possibility. I started to envision making an impact on the real world through my research. The value of our work in the scientific community can only be actualized when our tools are adopted by downstream users such as domain experts and decision-makers. Hence alleviating user-database barriers is a vital step in advancing data-driven decision-making in a wide range of fields.

Transition to the 3rd and final project. Another piece of advice I got (for almost everything grad application related) is don’t tell, but show . Earlier I said that I’m motivated by real-world issues, and here I showed that I followed through my words with actions.

With that overarching goal in mind, I initiated a project to facilitate user interaction with databases by identifying the major stakeholders and their challenges when interacting with databases, and then mapped that to their needs.

Apply the formula again to describe the project.

Database users often interact with databases via SQL query sessions. From our analysis, users pose a variety of SQL queries in sequence with changes in SQL keywords and query fragments such as tables and attributes. However, the existing approaches only consider queries individually and make recommendations based on query similarity and popularity. We presented a new approach to recommend query information by learning from the sequential knowledge exploration patterns of historical users. We modelled our query recommendation problem as a query prediction task and used sequence-to-sequence models to predict the next query. Supervised by Dr. Pottinger, this work led to Sequence-Aware Query Recommendation Using Deep Learning, submitted to VLDB’21. As the lead researcher, I identified knowledge gaps in the existing work, defined and scoped the research problem, analyzed the workload data, implemented the deep learning models, ran the experiments, discussed the results, and wrote the paper.

Tie back to the motivation and answer why grad school to wrap up the story.

Seeing a connection between my work and the quantifiable impact gives me a rush of excitement that I am contributing to help those real-world users in need. Through this project, I found myself enjoying both scoping and solving open-ended problems and hope to further improve with additional formal training in graduate studies.

Equal Access in STEM

I added this section following the same MIT EECS Communication Lab example and used the previous formula to explain the project as well.

It may seem odd to risk the flow of a research-focused SoP and make us question if this section is even relevant. But MIT EECS doesn’t require PS, and I wanted to show what I care about and where I come from. This section is also intended to help the SoP stay professional when I touched on my personal background in the last section. Again, fine line to walk. Lastly, grad school to me is more than research. This section adds another dimension to my professional development and connects to my career pursuit in academia mentioned later.

My other goal in graduate school is to further my pursuit of advancing equal access to educational resources for students in marginalized groups. Besides mentoring young women in STEM throughout my undergraduate time, for the past year, I worked on the UBC CS Undergraduate Program Evaluation and Renewal project. In the process, I realized how my experience with data visualization and user interface design could help to improve equity in education. Degree planning is challenging and time-consuming since students have to envision their career path and go to individual course pages to ensure they meet prerequisites accordingly. First-generation college students are especially vulnerable as they lack adequate guidance from their immediate support system. To solve this problem, I designed an interactive directed graph to show the dependencies between courses, provide a holistic view of the CS program, and visualize potential academic trajectories at UBC CS. I was thrilled to present my work at the UBC Board of Governors Meeting in Spring 2020. I deployed the graphs to the UBC CS website this summer and am currently helping UBC Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology adapt the graphs campus-wide. Participating in this project allowed me to advance equal access in a higher level of education and help as many students thrive as possible.

Future Work

This section aims to convince the reader that I know the strengths of the program, our interests align, and I’m valuable specifically to them. The first part outlines my overall research interests, while I gave specific examples about the program and PIs in the second part.

I chose to put my research statement here, not anywhere else. Up to this point, I’ve been signalling pieces about my motivation and research interests using the opening questions, projects, and my why story. The reader now has enough context and is ready for a punch.

All my experiences collectively shaped my research interests and motivated me to pursue graduate studies. Today, database systems provide a vital infrastructure to access high volumes of data in a variety of applications. Seeing the user-database barriers and the potential of data-driven decision-making in areas outside of CS (e.g., city planning and sustainability) incites my urge to build my work around the theme of facilitating user interaction with databases. With a deep understanding of the problem space and skills gained through solving problems in this space, I hope to continue this line of work by applying visualization and ML techniques to help database users access and make sense of data.

I find this part becomes more candid and compelling when I write it as if the PIs would actually read it (and mine really did). Also, it only becomes attractive when the interest goes both ways. I wanted to show how they could help me but also what unique skills I could offer.

MIT CSAIL’s past and current work indicates its members’ unique strengths on this topic. Specifically, I would be excited to work with Dr. Tim Kraska and Dr. Sam Madden. Dr. Kraska has made outstanding contributions to enabling data analytics for individuals outside of CS using ML-inspired techniques. The sequential features of query sessions discussed in his recent work, IDEBench (SIGMOD’20), are fundamental to my work on sequence-aware query recommendation, where we empirically analyzed the query sequences in two real-life workloads. Extending my work under his supervision would give me strong support in leveraging query session information using ML techniques. My research interests also greatly overlap with Dr. Madden’s work, such as Data Civilizer, on building end-to-end systems to facilitate domain experts with data exploration. I would be excited to work with Dr. Madden by bringing my skills and experience in applying ML techniques to SQL queries.

Where I See Myself

I wanted to address why I spent 6 years at UBC, which is relatively uncommon and often raises questions (e.g., if I can handle a rigorous course load). However, it was difficult to word my reason in a professional way at first. So I only briefly mentioned the personal aspect while elaborating on my work experience. Xuan pointed out the key is to relate personal struggles to professional development and helped me further emphasize the value of the experience and how it contributed to my goals in graduate studies.

As a first-generation college student from a low-income, single-parent family, working puts additional constraints on my course load yet is the most effective way to support myself. Although I spent six years on my undergraduate degree, I did two years of co-op at three different places in industry, non-profit, and academia. While studying full-time, I have also worked part-time in retail, administration, and teaching. Through these valuable experiences, I not only learned about the many real-world challenges that people face on the job, but also discovered research interests that would allow me to address some of those challenges.

Let’s not leave any loose ends and tie the two goals together to wrap up.

After graduate studies, I aim to pursue a career in academia, so that I can develop the research and tools to address these challenges and more. Furthering my education at MIT would bring me one step closer to my goal of advancing data-driven decision-making in a wide range of fields and improving equal access to educational resources for students like me in marginalized groups.

Other Takeaways

I also learned and applied these general/minor things.

Just start writing. It is an iterative process. The first draft is the hardest and almost guaranteed to suck, but it gets our brain going. It gets a lot easier once we gain the momentum and just have to make incremental changes.

Start early , which goes hand-in-hand with the last point. I wanted to leave ample time for that interactive process, finished my first draft in late August, and finalized it in the first week of December 2020. I feel grateful that I took the time to reflect on my why’s, which also came in handy later in the (quite intense) interview process in January 2021.

Don’t stress too much about tailoring the SoP to each program. Partial thanks to SIGMOD ‘20*, I had a general research direction when applying. The programs and labs I applied to may have nuances in their research interests and strengths, but my motivation, research interests, and skillsets didn’t need to change much. I only swapped out the second half of the future work section for each program. However, someone with a broader interest and a more diverse set of programs may want to customize the SoP more and have different answers for each why depending on the program.

*Note: More on my experience at SIGMOD ‘20 .

Read each program’s prompts and formatting requirements carefully. The point above is about the content, while this one is about the format and separation of the content. Programs like Berkeley EECS require an SoP and a PS so the separation depends on the prompts. I include my final copy of SoP and PS to Berkeley to show how I did it with minimum additional effort, which also helps illustrate the point above. The formatting requirements all have slight differences (e.g., word limits, header, title) so just be aware.

Choose what feedback and advice to take in. Going back to the point of being resourceful, we may later find ourselves getting various or even conflicted advice from different sources, which can be confusing and overwhelming. My apologies if this post is making it worse. But I always ask two questions whenever I get advice from people:

Do they know the field ?
Do they know me ?

Although some advice is generalizable, this sanity check is a reminder to further verify if the information is credible and applicable to me, especially when I get negative (but not necessarily constructive) feedback.

An extreme example is the words from my relatives and family friends when they laughed at my school list. It still hurt at the moment, but the rational me didn’t take their comments to heart because they’re not in CS, and they don’t know my profile. More than a filter to allow in helpful advice, the questions are also shields to protect us, much needed in such a sensitive time.

Through the applying process, I had countless breakdowns moments where I felt that I had already tried everything, but my SoP just read shallow, and my writing would never be good enough.

But it’s because SoP is hard to write!! It not only demands writing techniques but also deep reflections of the why’s from our experiences. Although writing the SoP challenged me hard on both fronts, I’m glad that I took the time and saw it as an opportunity to grow: It reminded me that improving my writing is a never-ending process, and the reflection indeed made me question my life but also assured my decision to pursue graduate studies.

However, I do want to acknowledge that not everyone has the privilege to afford the time and energy. Further, if we consider our individual profile (e.g., GPA, LoRs) as a whole, pouring our limited resources into SoP alone may not be a strategic move. Nothing is perfect nor needs to be. So knowing when to say good enough is an important skill too (which is something I still need to work on).

Lastly, taking one step further, I find some of the takeaways transferable to other written pieces (e.g., papers), other forms of communication (e.g., presentations), or professional development in general.

Although I had much fun reflecting on my learning, I genuinely hope this post would be somewhat helpful to at least one other person on the planet, and very best of luck if you are applying soon!! <3

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Although it’s been a while since I graduated, the passion to acquire knowledge has never ceased. Being a STEM educator, I had the privilege to constantly interact with students and learning community, who gave insights to look onto the latest trends in the field of science, technology and mathematics education. I acquired expertise to design curriculums, deliver differentiated inquiry based lessons for students coming from varied cultural backgrounds across wide range of educational programs.

By receiving Outstanding Teacher Certificate from Cambridge Evaluation Team and Certificate of Appreciation from School Head, I assured to deliver my duties with desired competence and diligence. While working as a full time math teacher and online instructor for almost a decade, I have had encountered several instances exemplifying the extravagant role of technology and computing. Designing lessons or schedules, availing advanced pedagogical tools, conducting virtual days or maintaining data for students’ progress, smart technology has played humongous role. I gained familiarity with the basics of data handling, processing and analyzing while managing students’ database as part of my career.

I wanted to know more about what goes behind the scene even while using mobile phone, social media or watching online lessons. Moreover, I believe computing is a powerful tool to engage effectively with the world. This has instilled a curiosity in me to explore computing specializations like Programming, Artificial Intelligence and Data Science. Passion in self-learning with solid research and inquisitiveness led me to attain working knowledge of Programming Fundamentals, Data Structures, Algorithms, Object Oriented Programming concepts, and also execute Coding, debugging and designing skills with Python, SQL and HTML.

Completed mini projects - Conversion scales, time zones, board game and DNA processing. I am also looking forward to gaining hands on experience by enterprising internship jobs either as an IT enthusiast, programmer or Data analytic. This will be certainly useful in acquiring peripheral knowledge; however I wish to attain more holistic education by joining master’s program at a reputed university to leverage my career. My future endeavors would be to take slight detour from my current career to establish myself in another exciting province, where I can blend my existing knowledge (in mathematics) with the expertise in programming skills to develop advance IT models.

Achieving distinction grades at school enabled me to build an integrated personality with a passion for learning and self-growth. Obtaining Master’s (Math) and Bachelor’s (Math, Electronics and Computer Science) helped me gain essential strategic and adaptive reasoning in the study of Algebra, Geometry, Statistics and Calculus, also the logic and problem solving approach in designing Algorithms and intuitive programming skills. I believe, Integration of mathematics with computing widens the scopes and facilitates challenging yet interesting opportunities.

The problem solving and analytical techniques in Operations Research fostered the logic and decision making, which I believe, is one key component for developing models in real world or an approach towards mathematical modeling. While reading an article recently , ‘Mathematical modeling for Covid19 pandemic - A comparative analysis’, I was intrigued by the coherence of mathematics and programming, which facilitates understanding evolution of pandemics, their statistics and implementing safety measures.

The analytical methods in problem solving approach could be beneficial for not only eliminating abstractness of math, but also solving certain existing issues required for a better human sustenance. “Computers themselves, and software yet to be developed, will revolutionize the way we learn.” – Steve Jobs. This has been manifested significantly by how humans have adapted exquisitely to changes in recent times.

During graduation, I was successful in leading group works like – Community Service Project, Computer Education Project, Personality Development and Communicating English project. The Leadership and Management Certificate course (CSML) from Harvard Business School online, taught me the aspects of management, multitasking and decision making from the perspective of a leader. Counseling Practitioner course, from Academy of Modern Applied Psychology, enlightened in me the importance of mental wellbeing and the associated human behavior.

I took immense pleasure in organizing workshops and seminars for a regional organization, as part of enrichment program to train educators in areas like – Teaching math to young learners, Educational psychology, Cambridge Checkpoint training and SAT Math. While all teaching lets sharing experience, online teaching gives the flexibility to do so at a global scale and convenience. I also strive to support learners struggling in studies or achieving desired grades, by conducting one on one tutoring sessions.

For the past couple of months while in quarantine, I learnt abundantly about health and nutrition. By doing cardio, strength training, cycling I was successful not only to robust my fitness, but also obtained positivism to take forward my journey to explore new horizons. I love watching movies, documentaries, listening music, travelling and exploring nature extensively. Sometimes I read blogs, books and the two most recent I could remember are, – Atomic habits by James clear and – Ikigai by Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles.

I am a lifelong learner and takes pleasure in every opportunity to explore the world and its inhabitants. I believe there are no limits to what a person can accomplish; the only ones are what we create in our mind.

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Computer Science Personal Statement

My fascination with technology was sparked when, as a child I thought it would be a great idea to take apart my Playstation console. Aware of the danger, I was still eager to see how it all worked inside. I find it intriguing how fast society has been shaped and continues to be, by the influence of Computer Science. A few years ago if someone were to have claimed that cars would become autonomous, people would have doubted them. Now we are at a stage where nearly anything is possible and this is due to the relentless problem solving of computer scientists. The latest software update released by Tesla motors allows their cars to learn how to drive themselves, and is an example of artificial intelligence, a sector which I am most interested in. I want to study Computer Science because I want to gain the knowledge needed to be able to help find solutions to world problems, with the efficient use of computer technology. With the knowledge and skills, I will attain from this course, the creative ideas that I could bring into fruition would be endless. I hope to become one of the computer scientists who adapt technology to help the human race evolve. One possibility would be for artificially intelligent gadgets to recognise different people and adjust to their individual needs based on personal preferences. I have been teaching myself Objective-C syntax in my spare time and have completed online programming courses, which have allowed me to explore the endless possibilities that computer science can bring to the world. I have also learnt to create a simple iOS game using Apple’s syntax called ‘Swift’, in XCode alongside Photoshop.

I understand that computer science is not just about programming and hardware but also about the ethics entailed in the process of a design as well as innovative thinking. Studying A-Level Philosophy and Ethics has given me an insight into many ethical situations that may arise around computer science such as the creation of artificial intelligence. This raises controversy of whether or not we should be trying to create artificial intelligence, as people have different beliefs and faiths. One example of such controversy was during the development of Honda’s Asimo robot when engineers had to visit the Vatican to seek permission to continue the project due to how human-like the robot was developed to walk. During a week of volunteering on NCS I visited Wazoku, the creators of an idea-sharing software used by major corporations such as Waitrose and The BBC. I was given an insight into the working environment that I hope to join after completing my degree. I am applying for work experience at Wazoku, in order to learn about how the software industry can influence the progress of companies.

I am constantly seeking to learn new skills and gain experience from various activities. I have been a member of the RAF Air Cadets for four years, where I have learnt many valuable life skills such as discipline, leadership, charity and confidence. Alongside these life skills I have gained various qualifications such as The St. John’s Ambulance Youth First Aid qualification and Leading Cadet qualification. Being a cadet also involved doing charity work such as raising money for the RAF Benevolence Fund and the Poppy Appeal. Through all these experiences I have learnt how to work with people from all walks of life, different backgrounds and people who have different beliefs and ideas to the ones I do. This has enabled me to adjust my approach to solving different problems and situations.

Technological advancements take place around us everyday, from the evolution of bulky antenna phones into smart phones to the introduction of smart virtual assistants such as Apple’s Siri, Google Now and Windows’ Cortana. I am inspired by the fact that computer science has become a fundamental element in the development of a better, smarter future for our world and my goal is to be part of that development process.

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Writing a Statement of Purpose

Tips on writing an sop - by arun vasan.

Universities in the US appear to believe that the logical end of education is enabling an individual to think on her own. This is why they ask you for a "personal" statement to give an account of experiences which you believe helped you decide to apply, your expectations from graduate school, what you propose to do in school.... Of course, the typical personal statement is not so personal, and is usually edited by half a dozen people at least.

The main idea behind this exercise is to give the admissions committee an idea of what to expect from a prospective student apart from her scores, GPA, and letters of recommendation. Who would've thought that actually asking a student to tell what he thinks of himself was a good idea ? The SOP, though it sounds unparliamentary, is a crucial part of the application process and needs a lot of time and effort.

I have put a few points down with my tongue firmly in my cheek. These are CS specific, but may apply to other disciplines as well. There are sharp differences of opinion among the graduate student/ professor community as to what makes an SOP tick. I take responsibility for neither the grammar nor the contents of this page. Use these tips at your own risk.

In case you are wondering, NO, I am not jobless. Yeah, I know, my soul just cries out to be blessed. Now, now, wipe the tears of gratitude, and prepare for the most enlightening sermon you will hear about grad school admissions.

Algorithm S

0. RTFAF: Read The Fine Application Form. Don't write a one-size-fits-all-univs SOP.
1. State upfront who you are and what you want. One should not have to search using a word processor whether you want an MS or a Ph.D.
2. Tell what you intend doing with your degree. Inevitably, this boils down to a suitable permutation of words from the set {creative, career, industry, academia, research, professor, university, lab,startup}.
3. Avoid hot air. Adjectives like thrill, passion, excitement, joy, etc., should be avoided like the plague. Explain what you expect from grad school. Of course, we all want a job, but try putting it down as politically correctly as you can.
4. Avoid quotations. You may have "miles to go before you sleep", "chosen the road less travelled", or "your-favourite-cliche-quote-from-high-school-here", but it ain't a personal statement unless you are quoting yourself, is it ?
5. Use simple English. Resist the temptation to use your new-found vocabulary from the GRE word lists.
6.Describe your experience. Don't say you were introduced to CS as a suckling infant, you started speaking in Python before your mother tongue, yada, yada, yada... No one actually cares for your experience as a kid, so keep it brief.
7. The most important experience you would've had would be your undergrad. Of course, I mean academic work. As an aside, I firmly believe that the day you really graduate is the day you realise you wasted four years. Describe your coursework tersely.
8. Explain a select few projects you did in gory detail and why that got you interested in research. This is a point of much debate. Personally, I like explaining things in detail while many people prefer "high level" stuff. The catch with my way is that you could say something blatantly wrong and possibly screw up your chances completely. Again, I feel that if someone knows what the hell she is talking about, she should be confident enough to sell what she did. I suggest you show your SOP to profs, preferably those who are writing your letters, to make sure you are not shooting yourself in the foot with amazing accuracy.
9. Articulate why you choose to work in the area you want to work on. For example, kernel hacking gives you the high, your best buddy is the memory allocator, etc., so you want to work in O/S. Or, you increase your treadmill speed like TCP increases its cwnd , you do a packet sniff to find out protocols used instead of chatting in a messenger, your concept of networking is making computers talk, so you want to work in networks. In particular, it will be ideal if it was something you did best. I've heard of a case where someone said the thing she did best was cooking. The story goes she baked a cake and sent it to the admissions committee. Harvard, rumour has it, fell hook, line, and sinker for this. The professors in CS@UM most likely don't care for your culinary expertise, in case this gives you ideas.
9.1 You could possibly angle for more than one area. If you can show some prior work, or what you can do, in more than one area, you are good. However, you should avoid things like "I like theory, systems, AI, and NC very much. Graphics and Software, a little less".
10. Once you've explained why you like some area(s), explain how you will fit in with work being done in *that* univ. Say how you, Prof.Foo, and Prof.Bar can attain the holy grail of networking together. You should appear in awe of them, yet appear indispensable to their work. Avoid mentioning persons alone, i.e., qualify a professor by the group he leads/is part of. You can rest assured any CS prof will be part of some group with what she thinks is a cool abbreviated name. This way you won't antagonise a rival professor in the same area who actually sits on the committee.
11. Market yourself with concrete statistics. I won't believe it myself if you claim you are the second coming of Knuth. It is very unlikely that the profs of a dept. will. After all, it is their fate to have seen a billion SOPs before yours and see many more after yours. That said, mention things like "I was ranked in the top 0.123% of the FOO exam conducted by the BARs." exactly once.
12. Try being humorous without sounding like a clown. Wit is something which really can't be forced into writing. So it is perfectly fine if you write something totally serious as long as it is cogent and forceful. Finally, finish off with a flourish.
13. If (you aren't sick and tired) goto step 0.
14. Stop reading this page this minute and go work on your application.

I most definitely assert my rights to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with all known, unknown, and yet-to-be-framed copyright laws of this planet. Any resemblance to work produced by a certain Don of the west coast is entirely intended. © Arunchandar Vasan.

Sample Personal Statement in Artificial Intelligence

by Talha Omer, MBA, M.Eng., Harvard & Cornell Grad

In personal statement samples by field.

The following personal statement is written by an applicant who got accepted to the doctorate program in Artificial Intelligence at Imperial College in London. Variations of this personal statement also got accepted at Caltech, UCLA, and Rutgers University. Read this essay to understand what a top personal statement in Artificial Intelligence should look like.

I’ve always had a penchant for creating things to solve problems. The first time my proclivity utilized computers was when I made a simple quiz program in Visual Basic for my school Mathematics class at age 11. I still remember the accomplishment I felt, followed by imaginative thoughts of what else I could do with a computer. In retrospect, this was probably when it was decided that computers would somehow be well-woven in my career.

I worked hard and gained admission to the country’s top-ranked engineering university, Caltech, where I performed exceptionally well in computing courses and particularly enjoyed the lab modules. During my studies, I wondered how everything I learned could be applied to deal with the current problems around me. My thoughts culminated in my final year project, where I developed a remote energy monitoring, profiling, and control system for smart grids to deal with the energy crisis in third-world countries. Designing and developing the prototype was an enthralling experience for me, leading me to choose a career in product development. I applied and was successfully offered a role at the Center for Advanced Research in Engineering (CARE). Since joining, I have been on the Software Defined Radio (SDR) project’s development team. As a result, I have gained a professional understanding of reliable technical coding for multiple platforms in various programming languages.

While working at CARE, I was sponsored for my graduate studies in Computer Engineering. Intrigued by articles on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the MIT Technology Review magazine, I first formally studied Machine Learning (ML) in my graduate coursework. Although I was initially skeptical, primarily due to my ignorance of the field, the futuristic subject captivated me by its applicability to modern problems. My enthusiasm led me to work on an experimental project of a human crowd motion classification system that intelligently detected panic states in crowds. The idea was that this would facilitate effective policing by automating the monitoring large numbers of live security feeds. The project helped me practice and develop my knowledge and further strengthened my interest in AI. AI is currently revolutionizing the industry with its applications in the healthcare to the automobile industry, providing exciting new avenues to explore. It is changing the world, and I want to be a part of that change.

My long-term goal is to be in a leading technical role in the industry utilizing specialist AI for consumer-driven applications. I am sure that my expertise in embedded systems will be helpful in this path. As the next step towards my aim, I’d like to build on my knowledge and study advanced AI concepts in a focused graduate degree. The specialist programs at Imperial College London are the most comprehensive in the UK. Moreover, London is the AI start-up hub of the UK, spawning companies like Deepmind, Babylon Health, and Verv. During my studies, I would also be on the lookout for part-time internship opportunities and possible industry collaborations while working on my master’s project to gain valuable industrial experience. Aside from academics, as an avid guitarist and singer, I would be looking forward to joining the universities music society, where I could learn from the multicultural experience Imperial has to offer while contributing from my own.

In my undergraduate studies, I was heavily involved in extra-curricular activities. Although I gained invaluable life skills which have benefitted me immensely in my professional career, I also learned the importance of maintaining balance. As a result, I lost focus on my studies, and my CGPA suffered. However, determined to make things right, I recently graduated with a 3.63 CGPA in my master’s and scored 331 on the crucial GRE. I believe this is an accurate indicator of my academic ability. I am fully aware of the challenges of a graduate degree at a top-tier institute like Imperial College London. I am confident that I possess the relevant exposure, intellect, and resolve to best these challenges and make significant contributions to the industry.

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How to write a personal statement

How to approach writing your personal statement for graduate applications.

If you’re applying for a grad course that requires a personal statement (sometimes also called a ‘statement of purpose’), it can be difficult to know where to start and what to include. Read on for tips from some of our masters’ students about their process and what they found helpful.

1. Before you start

The academic work is the most important reason why we’re here, but that also translates into work experiences, internships, volunteering. I think a big part of the personal statement is crafting that narrative of academic self that fits alongside your professional experiences, to give that greater picture of who you are as an academic. Lauren (MSc Modern Middle Eastern Studies)

Start by thinking about the skills, knowledge and interests you’ve acquired over time and how the course at Oxford will take them forward.

Your statement is the story you want to tell about yourself and your academic work to the department you are applying to.

Most of your application and its supporting documents communicate plain facts about your academic career so far. Your personal statement is your best opportunity to put these facts into context and show assessors how you’ve progressed and excelled.

Make sure you highlight evidence of your achievements (a high grade in a relevant area, an award or scholarship, a research internship).

Presenting yourself

When I was writing my personal statement, I went onto my course website. I looked at what they emphasised and what kind of students they were looking for, and I wrote about my experiences based on that. Kayla (MSc in Clinical Embryology)

Make it easy for an assessor to see how you meet the entry requirements for the course (you can find these on each course page ).

Don’t make any assumptions about what Oxford is looking for!

Get to know your department

You want to study this particular subject and you want to study at Oxford (you’re applying here, so we know that!) but why is Oxford the right place for you to study this subject? What interests or qualities of the academic department and its staff make it attractive to you?

Use your academic department’s website for an overview of their research, academic staff and course information (you'll find a link to the department's own website on each course page ).

I said, ‘why do I actually want to be here? What is it about being at Oxford that’s going to get me to what I want to do? Sarah (Bachelor of Civil Law)

Talk it out

Talking to others about your statement can be a great way to gather your ideas and decide how you’d like to approach it. Sarah even managed to get benefit out of this approach by herself:

“I spent a lot of time talking out loud. My written process was actually very vocal, so I did a lot of talking about myself in my room.”

2. The writing process

Know your format.

Make sure you’ve read all the guidance on the How to Apply section of your course page , so you know what’s needed in terms of the word count of the final statement, what it should cover and what it will be assessed for. This should help you to visualise roughly what you want to end up with at the end of the process.

Make a start

When it comes to writing your personal statement, just getting started can be the hardest part.

One good way to get around writer’s block is to just put it all down on the page, like Mayur.

First - write down anything and everything. In the first round, I was just dumping everything - whatever I’ve done, anything close to computer science, that was on my personal statement. Mayur (MSc Computer Science)

You’ll be editing later anyway so don’t let the blank page intimidate you - try writing a little under each of the following headings to get started:

areas of the course at Oxford that are the most interesting to you
which areas you’ve already studied or had some experience in
what you hope to use your Oxford course experience for afterwards.

3. Finishing up

Get some feedback.

Once you’ve got a draft of about the right length, ask for feedback on what you’ve written. It might take several drafts to get it right.

This could involve getting in touch with some of your undergraduate professors to ask them to read your draft and find any areas which needed strengthening.

You could also show it to people who know you well, like family or friends.

Because they’re the first people to say, ‘Who is that person?’ You want the people around you to recognise that it really sounds like you. It can be scary telling family and friends you’re applying for Oxford, because it makes it real, but be brave enough to share it and get feedback on it. Sarah (Bachelor of Law)

Be yourself

Finally - be genuine and be yourself. Make sure your personal statement represents you, not your idea about what Oxford might be looking for.

We have thousands of students arriving every year from a huge range of subjects, backgrounds, institutions and countries (you can hear from a few more of them in our My Oxford interviews).

Get moving on your application today

To find out more about supporting documents and everything else you need to apply, read your course page and visit our Application Guide .

Applicant advice hub

This content was previously available through our Applicant advice hub . The hub contained links to articles hosted on our Graduate Study at Oxford Medium channel . We've moved the articles that support the application process into this new section of our website.

Application Guide: Statement of purpose

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Personal Statement Examples for Graduate School: Computer Science
In this post, we're excited to open our collection of personal statement examples for graduate school. We're sharing two that students just like you used to get into graduate Computer Science programs: Essay #1: First this Master's application essay for California State University delves into the transformative power of technology in the ...
PDF Personal Statement, Department of Computer Science: Nelson Feng Liu n
Personal Statement, Department of Computer Science: Nelson Feng Liu n [email protected] My research interests are in natural language processing (NLP), particularly in its intersections with machine learning and linguistics. These interests have drawn me toward two main research directions:
PDF k shares.
This is an example personal statement written by a student who was accepted and enrolled in the MIT EECS PhD program. _____ Throughout my life, I have been compelled by a desire to understand what ... Earning a Ph.D. in Computer Science at MIT would allow me to pursue
Computer Science Personal Statement (Guide + Examples!)
A computer science personal statement is a document that you submit as part of your application to study computer science. In this statement, you'll need to talk about your motivation for wanting to study computer science, as well as your skills and experience. This is your chance to sell yourself to the admissions committee and demonstrate ...
Graduate School Statement of Purpose : EECS Communication Lab
Purpose. The graduate school statement of purpose should strengthen your chance of acceptance into a graduate program by demonstrating that you are a good match for the particular department or program. Matching goes both ways: they should be interested in you, and you should be interested in them. Your statement should make this match clear by ...
Computer Science Personal Statement Examples
Computer Science & AI Personal Statement Example 1. I don't want to change the world. I want to change the way we interact with it and programming is a good way to accomplish it. Every day I challenge myself to imagine new possible solutions for real-world problems and create them by writing new lines of code...
Computer Science Personal Statement Examples
Computer Science Personal Statement Examples | Uni Compare. Find the perfect Criminology degree which allows you to specialise in your interests. Gain experience and internship opportunities. Explore construction courses. Taken from 65,000+ data points from students attending university to help future generations.
PDF enrolled in the MIT EECS PhD program.
This is an example personal statement written by a student who was accepted and enrolled in the MIT EECS PhD program. _____ My research interest lies in quantum information science and technologies, especially quantum information processing. Building on a strong background from my undergraduate research in this field and the related field of
Successful Personal Statement Example For Computer Science At Oxford
With some restructuring, this could be an excellent statement. This Personal Statement for Computer Science is a great example of how to tackle applying to two different degrees or dual honours. The candidate's interest and achievements are clearly shown which is vital to Admissions Tutors. Remember, at Oxford, these Admissions Tutors are ...
Computer Science Masters Personal Statement Sample
This is an example personal statement for a Masters degree application in Computer Science. See our guide for advice on writing your own postgraduate personal statement. Having grown up in a world increasingly dependent on computers, I have witnessed the fast-paced innovative world that computer scientists work in.
Computer science, computing and IT personal statement examples
This, coupled with the logic and..." Computer science degree personal statement example (1z) with philosophy. Submitted by: Anonymous. "I am fascinated by the efficiency and power of computers: we route ourselves through traffic using mapping programs in our pockets..." Computer science degree personal statement example (2i) Imperial offer.
Postgraduate Computer Science Personal Statement Example
This personal statement is unrated. I want to study computer science because it pairs together two wonderful things; mathematics and technology. Although I have enjoyed working with computers since a young age, it wasn't until I began studying decision mathematics that I decided this is the field I want to study at university.
Eugenie Y. Lai
Another Annotated Example: CS PhD Statement of Purpose. Date: 2021-04-22. This post is inspired by the Statement of Objective examples provided by the MIT EECS Communication Lab. Some programs (e.g., Berkeley EECS) require a Statement of Purpose (SoP) and a Personal Statement (PS). In this post, we will dissect and annotate my SoP submitted to ...
PDF Fastlane Personal Statement
computer science that I not only enjoy, but can be applied to further this long term goal. The NSF fellowship will allow me to explore diﬀerent ﬁelds and diﬀerent research approaches in computer science to ﬁnd which one is best for me. An NSF fellowship will also allow me to focus more on research instead of teaching assistantships.
How to Write a PhD Personal Statement For Computer Science
7. Briefly outline your 5-year plan. Universities will be looking for PhD applicants who are driven and committed to their industry. A strong personal statement should outline your goals for the future and explain how studying a PhD in Computer Science will help you to achieve your 5-year plan.
Personal Statements for PhD Study
How long should a PhD personal statement be? A PhD personal statement should be 400-500 words, fitting on one side of an A4 sheet of paper. Your university may set a specific word count or maximum length, so make sure to check the application details. Either way, you should aim to be disciplined and concise.
PDF Research in Robotics.
introductory computer science, and computer architecture. Next semester, I'm excited to be a Teaching Assistant for the course on machine learning! Student feedback on my teaching averages 4.7/5.0, leading me to receive a 2015 UC Berkeley Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award, given to the top 10% of
Postgraduate Personal Statement Example: Computer Science
Postgraduate Personal Statement Example: Computer Science. Although it's been a while since I graduated, the passion to acquire knowledge has never ceased. Being a STEM educator, I had the privilege to constantly interact with students and learning community, who gave insights to look onto the latest trends in the field of science, technology ...
Computer Science Personal Statement 4
Computer Science Personal Statement. My fascination with technology was sparked when, as a child I thought it would be a great idea to take apart my Playstation console. Aware of the danger, I was still eager to see how it all worked inside. I find it intriguing how fast society has been shaped and continues to be, by the influence of Computer ...
Writing a Statement of Purpose
3. Avoid hot air. Adjectives like thrill, passion, excitement, joy, etc., should be avoided like the plague. Explain what you expect from grad school. Of course, we all want a job, but try putting it down as politically correctly as you can. 4.
Sample Personal Statement in Artificial Intelligence
The following personal statement is written by an applicant who got accepted to the doctorate program in Artificial Intelligence at Imperial College in London. Variations of this personal statement also got accepted at Caltech, UCLA, and Rutgers University. ... I was sponsored for my graduate studies in Computer Engineering. Intrigued by ...
How to write a personal statement
1. Before you start. The academic work is the most important reason why we're here, but that also translates into work experiences, internships, volunteering. I think a big part of the personal statement is crafting that narrative of academic self that fits alongside your professional experiences, to give that greater picture of who you are ...
Personal statement advice: computer science
What to include in your computer science statement. A strong opening: explain succinctly where your enthusiasm for computer science comes from, and why - but avoid the temptation to begin with a potted history describing when you got your first computer! How you're engaged with the subject: talk about what's inspiring you or motivating you ...