Hey thanks, for your review which I just noted. You however did not exclude one possibility- a person can be genuinely passionate about a field. I built a motor at age 13 - does this not signify my passion? Talking about placing engineering on a pedestal, I can only say that since I have not worked in any other area, and believe myself to be a proud engineer I do not think how my bias towards engineering could help endangering my cause. Regarding the example or Emerson, Ramanujam- it signifies that I draw inspiration from them, even if they don't care for my 'philosophizing', a human mind can judge a person by taking into account the people who have inspired him (refer Sigmund Freud on this).
The best point that you make is that I must note whether I worked independently or not and regarding that advice of OP's pinned post I went through it.
Oh yes I forgot to mention one thing- this was only the second draft which you read- it has gone 3 complete revamps and 6 minor adjustments.
Thanks for the advance intelligence (in the military sense) though
-Ghost