Statement of Purpose

[Maali]

I have been applying to different graduate programs. But so far I have not been admitted into any. I have a Master of Science in Biotechnology from the University of Alabama GPA 3.6, and a B.S in Biochemistry from the University of Illinois, GPA 3.2. with GRE score of 312. These are some of my statements.

 

Muhammad A. Maali                                                                                                     Statement of Purpose #1

I am writing this statement as a step forward toward finding a stable career and at the same time by the propelling thoughts and intention of making a positive change in the field of pharmaceutics or developing a medicine. In addition, watching my relative struggle with myeloma, exhausting all the available experimental treatment to no avail, may have influenced my decision to seek a PhD education in drug development and more specifically pharmaceutical sciences and to gain relevant experience that would allow me to assume a more advanced position in industry or academia.

Every once in a while we hear about a breakthrough in the treatment of some diseases or a potential cure for some chronic illnesses. But then we do not see that promising breakthrough or drug make it to the market. This might be because a drug might be effective in vivo or through certain stages of clinical trials but then fails to be approved because it is not successful in later stages of clinical trials or due to various detrimental side effects, thus incurring a huge loss of time and money. I think pursuing higher education in pharmaceutical sciences would give me the chance to tackle some of these problems toward making the process of producing a medicine less expensive and to evaluate the effectiveness of certain promising medicines before spending unnecessary time and money.

Furthermore, I think a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences is the most focused approach on advancing my skills and career into a productive role in delivering products that benefit society. I think pharmaceutical sciences is a holistic and specific science at the same time. In that, it involves studying most processes of medicine development while focusing on solving a specific problem to find a specific solution to that problem.

Where many drugs failing the various stages of clinical trials and incurring a huge amount of money I think studying pharmaceutical sciences will allow me, to a certain degree, predict the outcomes or success of many potential drugs. By knowing how this drug will interact in the body we might be able to predict its success before testing or going into clinical trials; where many drugs showed very promising results were not allowed to continue. I believe it is theoretically possible, but not sure how applicable or how we can verify this practically due to the complexity of the various systems of the body or how further we are toward that goal.

I hope that you find in me the qualities and aspiration that make me a strong candidate for your program. And I welcome the opportunity for the post application interview to answer any question or concern.

 

Muhammad A. Maali                                                                                                     Statement of Purpose#2

 

I am writing this statement as a step forward toward finding a stable career and at the same time by the propelling thoughts and intention of making a positive change in the field of pharmaceuticals or developing a medicine. In addition, watching my relatives struggle with myeloma, exhausting all the available experimental treatment to no avail, may have influenced my decision to seek a PhD education in drug development and more specifically pharmaceutical sciences and to gain relevant experience that would allow me to assume a more advanced position in industry or academia. Furthermore, getting my PhD is a culmination of my previous experience and skills that I think would give me a unique prospective and focus on my future career.

 

Every once, and a while we hear that there is a breakthrough in the treatment of some diseases or a potential cure for some chronic illnesses. But then we do not see that promising breakthrough or drug make it to the market, and we still see the old not so effective treatment being prescribed for a long time. This might be because a drug might be effective in-vivo or through certain stages of clinical trials, but then fails to be approved because it is not successful in clinical trials or due to various detrimental side effects, thus incurring a huge loss in time and money. I think pursuing higher education in pharmaceutical sciences would give me the chance to tackle some of these problems toward making the process of producing a medicine less expensive and to evaluate the effectiveness of certain promising medicines before spending unnecessary time and money. Furthermore, I think a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences is the most focused approach on advancing my skills and career into a productive role in delivering products that benefit society.

 

I think choosing pharmaceutical sciences is a good decision because it is, in my opinion, a holistic and specific science at the same time. In that, it involves studying most processes of medicine development and at the same time focused on delivering and solving a specific problem related to finding a specific solution to that problem.

 

Where many drugs failing the various stages of clinical trials and incurring a huge amount of money I think studying pharmaceutical science will allow me, to a certain degree, predict the outcomes or success of many potential drugs. For example, a medicine that might be effective therapeutically, but its structure has groups that might cause serious side effects on the body. By knowing how this drug will interact with various other parts of the body we might be able to predict its success before testing or going into clinical trials and possibly modify it, thus saving many years and a lot of money than to halt the trials; where many drugs showed very promising results were not allowed to continue. This is theoretically possible, but not sure how applicable or how we can verify this practically due to the complexity of the various systems of the body or how further we are toward that goal. But I think pharmaceutical sciences would give me the opportunity to investigate further on this issue.

 

I think I have gained many skills and experience that prepared me to be successful in pursuing further education and training in pharmaceutical sciences. During my undergraduate years at the University of Illinois at Chicago I have done research in biochemistry under the supervision of Dr. Richard Kassner, an emeritus professor, on the kinetics of binding certain carcinogen to protein where it was evident that the substance might negatively affect or cause modification to a certain protein.

 

Furthermore, while I was working part -time I volunteered at the Pharmacology lab of Dr. Mahmoud Elkouni, under the supervision of Dr. Omar Alsafarjalani. There, I worked on verifying the result of in-vivo experiments to compare tumor activity of different cell lines. During that time, I developed many skills and good experience in pharmacology such as Enzyme Assays and Cell Culture Assays and I was trained on using various instruments to compare Human Tumor cells with other species achieving high precision in conducting and following experimental protocols. But then I was aspiring to being involved in a more advanced role in the development of drugs and I got accepted to the Biotechnology Program at the University of Alabama. In addition to learning more about the development of drugs through academia, I secured an internship in the Organic Chemistry lab at the University of Alabama as a graduate assistant researching on photo-labile chemistry, under the supervision of Dr. Pengfei Wang.

 

I believe I have acquainted myself with core concepts of science in a way that I can navigate to the relevant material and extract the information that is necessary for carrying out a specific experiment or evaluate certain phenomena to try to understand it. For instance, I can relate to the concept of modifying novel molecules with specific properties from my internship at the Organic Chemistry lab during my graduate study where I was a graduate assistant working on photo-labile groups to find novel pathways of producing such molecules. Also, during the graduate study in biotechnology I have developed applicable knowledge through my research proposal and poster under the mentorship of Dr. Tino Unlap. Additionally, I was fortunate to have highly qualified professors, Dr. Kathy Nugent and Dr. Joseph Garner, where I have learned many aspects of developing a medicine and who prepared students to be independent thinkers and to take on independent projects or researches.

 

During the Biotechnology Program I worked on a formulation project at BioCryst Pharmaceuticals where I have gained experience in formulation, stability studies, and I was trained to use HPLC and various instruments related to testing and evaluating drugs. Then, I was hired as Chemist I at BioCryst, working in the discovery department where I was exposed to various instruments and techniques related to separation and purifying certain potential therapeutic compounds.

 

During my undergraduate education I have taken most of the core courses like inorganic chemistry, analytical chemistry, physical chemistry, organic chemistry, biochemistry and calculus. The most difficult of these courses was physical chemistry. I think physical chemistry would have been easier if I had taken thermodynamics before it. Also, at that time I was not focused on achieving high academic scores. During that time, I have struggled to maintain financial stability and my goal was to graduate with a degree and I was focused on establishing a good career. Also, I have decided that I could continue education afterward, when I was ready. Also, at that time I struggled to find a job in the field of biochemistry though I was not determined on developing my experience specifically in that field.

 

One of the reasons that I chose to pursue education in biotechnology was to raise my GPA to enter medical school to possibly enroll in an MD/PhD program, because while I was aspiring on studying medicine I had a niche for doing challenging research. But I have realized afterwards that my potential best be focused on research where I think I am accustomed to, despite the discouragement and obstacles where my responsibility lies.

 

I have a genuine interest in the Pharmaceutical Science Program and I am determined to develop myself into a well-trained scientist. I am aware of the immense dedication and efforts that I have to make to achieve this goal. I would bring along a strong grasp of fundamentals, an aptitude for teaching, learning and team work, an enthusiasm for challenges and an enthusiastic desire to deliver novel ideas and research. I hope that my qualifications and background are found suitable for your PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences program at the University of Illinois at Chicago. I would be delighted to get accepted to your esteemed university where there are many well established faculties and a strong program. Moreover, I appreciate the time and attention that were invested in evaluating my application and I hope that you find in me the qualities and aspiration that make me a strong candidate for your program. I look forward to the opportunity of the post application interview to answer any question or concern.

                                                                                                                                   Statement of Purpose#3

I have never been certain about pursuing a PhD education than now, and to strive to achieve a PhD

level education and training that would allow me to carry out research that brings joy to people’s lives

and well being. My interest in pursuing the PhD stems from my interest in making improvements into

our daily lives’ tools and products. Also, from trying to come up with inventions that save time and is

cost effective. Many great inventions started with vague and seemingly useless ideas that grew into

more beneficial tools that made a great impact on our lives. I think pursuing a higher education in

biomedical engineering would give me that training and experience to sculpt my ideas into something

relevant and practical. Also, I think a PhD training in Bioengineering would allow me the opportunity

to do further research on challenging issues and becoming a well-established university professor;

since some research topics are best done in an academic environment. Also, my recent experience

watching my relative struggle with myeloma, where all the available and most of the experimental

treatments were exhausted to no avail, may have strengthened my determination.

I was not interested in biomedical engineering until recently, after I have evaluated my interests and goals to

be involved in delivering something unique and innovative. And to work on solving many current and

evolving problems that could naturally arise as a result of our demands and needs to acquire better

services, or products that we never had before or that we seek to improve. Some of these problems

spring up, for example, as a byproduct of a new industry that creates toxic waste that would damage

our environment. So there would be a need to eliminate such problem. In solving the problem we

might be completely successful. Or, we might be partially successful by creating another problem.

Another example is when creating a product that is cost effective and easily produced but causes

health issues. For example, the plastic industry is a huge industry that brought us products that

changed our lives. But, it causes another problem to our health. According to many researches and my

undergraduate research on the chemical BPA which is added to the plastic to make it soft and also is

used in many other products is a potential carcinogen. Setting aside the argument about its safety,

currently, there is no safe and effective alternative to this chemical to be used especially when using it

in products that deliver food to our bodies. I believe it is possible to use engineering to create an

alternative or at least modify it to withstand higher temperatures or strengthen its bonding so it won’t

easily dissolve and get into our bodies where it might be associated with certain types of cancer. I am

not focusing my research interest now on the mentioned example because it needs more research and

information but I am also trying to show that I have the ability to generate research topics and

attempt to find solutions.

Another of my research interests is toward finding a cure for cancer. I believe that immunotherapy and

bioengineering has a great potential on delivering effective treatment for cancer since it has specificity

toward cancer cells. I think by using biomedical engineering tools and concepts it would be possible to

advance the immune cells to overcome cancer cells and possibly making specific vaccine using the

engineered immune-cells.

Another of my interests in the field of science is nanoparticles and the potential to integrate them into

our lives. I have done some searches on nanotechnology and I was amazed how engineering could

create new properties of materials using nanotechnology. And that got me asking questions on the

applicability of nanotechnology to be integrated in designing new therapies that are more specific and

have fewer side effects. Since my biotechnology education gave me the knowledge and the

understanding of the science of monoclonal antibodies, after reading some of the researches I asked

myself how do we integrate nanotechnology to create hybrid materials. Using other novel molecules

that have biological properties that could interact with biological molecules, and have non-biological

properties that allow us to manipulate them to perhaps design molecules that interacts specifically to

deliver new therapies, or available therapies that was rendered ineffective due to ineffective methods

of delivery. A research on this subject might be valuable but also we need to see how applicable it

would be to carry it out.

I strongly believe that my undergraduate education in biochemistry and the Master’s degree

education in biotechnology have laid a strong foundation for me to pursue higher education in the

Biomedical engineering field. This diverse background may give me important advantages over other

applicants. I also have the experience of working as a teaching assistant for general chemistry. This

may enable me to contribute to your program through teaching assistant program. Additionally, I have

evolved a strong ability to perform independent research. My graduate thesis was about the effect of

diet on cancer. Later I have developed a research proposal to evaluate certain substances on DNA sitemutated

mouse models. I have not published due to the condensed program structure and time

constrains. Additionally, I am not sure if it would be as innovative as I would hope to be and I think

now many studies have been done on that subject. Instead, since I have been reading researches on

the success of immunotherapy on cancer. I would like to focus on engineering immune-cells to better

identify cancerous cells or designing novel carriers to carry effective drugs to specifically target cancer

cells or overcome them distinctively.

I believe I have acquainted myself with core concepts of science in a manner that I can navigate to the

relevant material and extract the information that is necessary for carrying out a specific experiment

or evaluate certain phenomena to try to understand it. For instance, I can relate on the concept of

modifying novel molecules with specific properties from my internship at the organic chemistry during

my graduate study were I was a graduate assistant working on photo-labile groups to find novel

pathways of producing such molecules. I have chosen the Bioengineering field to pursue PhD because

I think it is easier for me to grasp topics from an engineering perspective.

During my undergraduate education I have taken most of the core courses like inorganic chemistry,

analytical chemistry, physical chemistry, organic chemistry, biochemistry and calculus. The most

difficult of these courses was physical chemistry. I think physical chemistry would have been easier if I

had taken thermodynamics before it. Also, at that time I was not focused on achieving high academic

scores. During that time, I have struggled to maintain financial stability and my goal was to graduate

with a degree and I was focused on establishing a good career. Also, I was deciding that I could

continue education afterward when I was ready. Also, at that time I struggled to find a job in the field

of biochemistry, though I was not determined on developing my experience specifically in that field.

One of the main reasons that I chose to pursue education in biotechnology was to raise my GPA to

inter medical school to possibly enroll in an MD/PhD program because while I was aspiring on

studying medicine I had a niche for doing valuable research. But I have realized afterwards that my

potential best be focused on research, especially academic research. Moreover, I think choosing the

field of biomedical engineering is my best choice since I can extend my ideas from my background and

experience into applications in biomedical engineering, though I think most of the PhD education are

intertwined and interrelated on some levels, like physics and chemistry.

I have a genuine interest in bioengineering as a lifelong career and I am determined to develop myself

into a well-trained scientist. I am aware of the immense dedication and efforts that I have to make to

achieve this goal. I would bring along a strong grasp of fundamentals, an aptitude for teaching,

learning and team work, an enthusiasm for challenges and an enthusiastic desire to deliver novel

ideas and research. I hope that my qualifications and background are found suitable for your graduate

program at Texas A&M University. This has created the very motivation behind my present application

for a PhD from the Biomedical Graduate program at Texas A&M University. I would be delighted to get

accepted to your esteemed university where there are many well established faculties. Moreover, I

appreciate the time and attention that was invested in evaluating my application and I hope that you

find in me the qualities and aspiration that make me a strong candidate for your program.

                                                                         Statement of Purpose#4

I have never been certain about pursuing a PhD education than now, and to strive to achieve a PhD level education and training that would allow me to carry out research that brings joy to people’s lives and well being. My interest in pursuing the PhD stems from my interest in making improvements into our daily lives’ tools and products. Also, from trying to come up with inventions that save time and is cost effective. Many great inventions started with vague and seemingly useless ideas that grew into more beneficial tools that made a great impact on our lives. I think pursuing a higher education in biomedical engineering would give me that training and experience to sculpt my ideas into something relevant and practical. Also, I think a PhD training in bioengineering would allow me the opportunity to do further research on challenging issues and becoming a well-established university professor; since some research topics are best done in an academic environment. Also, my recent experience watching my relative struggle with myeloma, where all the available and most of the experimental treatments were exhausted to no avail, may have strengthened my determination.

 

I was not interested in bioengineering until recently, after I have evaluated my interests and goals to be involved in delivering something unique and innovative. And to work on solving many current and evolving problems that could naturally arise as a result of our demands and needs to acquire better services, or products that we never had before or that we seek to improve. Some of these problems spring up, for example, as a byproduct of a new industry that creates toxic waste that would damage our environment. So there would be a need to eliminate such problem. In solving the problem we might be completely successful. Or, we might be partially successful by creating another problem. Another example is when creating a product that is cost effective and easily produced but causes health issues. For example, the plastic industry is a huge industry that brought us products that changed our lives. But, it causes another problem to our health. According to many researches and my undergraduate research on the chemical BPA which is added to the plastic to make it soft and also is used in many other products is a potential carcinogen. Setting aside the argument about its safety, currently, there is no safe and effective alternative to this chemical to be used especially when using it in products that deliver food to our bodies. I believe it is possible to use engineering to create an alternative or at least modify it to withstand higher temperatures or strengthen its bonding so it won’t easily dissolve and get into our bodies where it might be associated with certain types of cancer. I am not focusing my research interest now on the mentioned example because it needs more research and information but I am also trying to show that I have the ability to generate research topics and attempt to find solutions.

 

Another of my interests in the field of science is nanoparticles and the potential to integrate them into our lives. I have done some searches on nanotechnology and I was amazed how engineering could create new properties of materials using nanotechnology. And that got me asking questions on the applicability of nanotechnology to be integrated in designing new therapies that are more specific and have fewer side effects. Since my biotechnology education gave me the knowledge and the understanding of the science of monoclonal antibodies, after reading some of the researches I asked myself how do we integrate nanotechnology to create hybrid materials. Using other novel molecules that have biological properties that could interact with biological molecules, and have non-biological properties that allow us to manipulate them to perhaps design molecules that interacts specifically to deliver new therapies, or available therapies that was rendered ineffective due to ineffective methods of delivery. A research on this subject might be valuable but also we need to see how applicable it would be to carry it out.

 

Another of my research interests is toward finding a cure for cancer. I believe that immunotherapy and biomedical engineering has a great potential on delivering effective treatment for cancer since it has specificity toward cancer cells. I think by using biomedical engineering tools and concepts it would be possible to advance the immune cells to overcome cancer cells and possibly making specific vaccine using the engineered immune-cells.

 

I strongly believe that my undergraduate education in biochemistry and the Master’s degree education in biotechnology have laid a strong foundation for me to pursue higher education in the Bioengineering field. This diverse background may give me important advantages over other applicants. I also have the experience of working as a teaching assistant for general chemistry. This may enable me to contribute to your program through teaching assistantship program. Additionally, I have evolved a strong ability to perform independent research. My graduate thesis was about the effect of diet on cancer. Later, I have developed a research proposal to evaluate certain substances on DNA site-mutated mouse models. I have not published due to the condensed program structure and time constrains. Additionally, I am not sure if it would be as innovative as I would hope to be and I think now many studies have been done on that subject. Instead, I think it is best for me to focus my potential with a graduate program that has a multidisciplinary environment to tackle current and emerging problems such as the Engineering program at the University of Washington.

 

I believe I have acquainted myself with core concepts of science in a manner that I can navigate to the relevant material and extract the information that is necessary for carrying out a specific experiment or evaluate certain phenomena to try to understand it. For instance, I can relate on the concept of modifying novel molecules with specific properties from my internship at the organic chemistry during my graduate study were I was a graduate assistant working on photo-labile groups to find novel pathways of producing such molecules. I have chosen the Bioengineering field to pursue PhD because I think it is easier for me to grasp topics from an engineering perspective.

 

During my undergraduate education I have taken most of the core courses like inorganic chemistry, analytical chemistry, physical chemistry, organic chemistry, biochemistry and calculus. The most difficult of these courses was physical chemistry. I think physical chemistry would have been easier if I had taken thermodynamics before it. Also, at that time I was not focused on achieving high academic scores. During that time, I have struggled to maintain financial stability and my goal was to graduate with a degree and I was focused on establishing a good career. Also, I was deciding that I could continue education afterward when I was ready. Also, at that time I struggled to find a job in the field of biochemistry, though I was not determined on developing my experience specifically in that field.

 

One of the main reasons that I chose to pursue education in biotechnology was to raise my GPA to inter medical school to possibly enroll in an MD/PhD program because while I was aspiring on studying medicine I had a niche for doing valuable research. But I have realized afterwards that my potential best be focused on research, especially academic research. Moreover, I think choosing the field of bioengineering or biomolecular engineering is my best choice since I can extend my ideas from my background and experience into applications in biomedical engineering, though I think most of the PhD education are intertwined and interrelated on some levels, like physics and chemistry.

 

I have a genuine interest in bioengineering as a lifelong career and I am determined to develop myself into a well-trained scientist. I am aware of the immense dedication and efforts that I have to make to achieve this goal. I would bring along a strong grasp of fundamentals, an aptitude for teaching, learning and team work, an enthusiasm for challenges and an enthusiastic desire to deliver novel ideas and research. I hope that my qualifications and background are found suitable for your graduate program at the University of Washington. This has created the very motivation behind my present application for a PhD from the Engineering Graduate program at the University of Washington. I would be delighted to get accepted to your esteemed university where there are many well established faculties. Moreover, I appreciate the time and attention that was invested in evaluating my application and I hope that you find in me the qualities and aspiration that make me a strong candidate for your program.

 

Statement of Purpose #5

 When I decided to major in biochemistry I had in my mind that I could understand things better or approach problems differently having knowledge of mixed scientific disciplines. Today, interdisciplinary approaches to problems are becoming more common, which require someone to have a multidisciplinary knowledge which I believe I possess. I have never been certain about pursuing a PhD education than now, and to strive to achieve a PhD level education and training that would allow me to carry out research that brings joy to people’s lives and well-being.

I am writing this statement as a step forward toward finding a stable career and at the same time by the propelling thoughts and intention of making a positive change in the field of pharmaceuticals or developing a medicine. In addition, watching my relatives struggle with myeloma, exhausting all the available experimental treatment to no avail, may have influenced my decision to seek a PhD education in drug development and more specifically pharmaceutical sciences and to gain relevant experience that would allow me to assume a more advanced position in industry or academia. Furthermore, getting my PhD is a culmination of my previous experience and skills that I think would give me a unique prospective and focus on my future career.

Every once, and a while we hear that there is a breakthrough in the treatment of some diseases or a potential cure for some chronic illnesses. But then we do not see that promising breakthrough or drug make it to the market, and we still see the old not so effective treatment being prescribed for a long time. This might be because a drug might be effective in-vivo or through certain stages of clinical trials, but then fails to be approved because it is not successful in clinical trials or due to various detrimental side effects, thus incurring a huge loss in time and money. I think pursuing higher education in pharmaceutical sciences would give me the chance to tackle some of these problems toward making the process of producing a medicine less expensive and to evaluate the effectiveness of certain promising medicines before spending unnecessary time and money.

Furthermore, I think a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences is the most focused approach on advancing my skills and career into a productive role in delivering products that benefit society. I think choosing pharmaceutical sciences is a good decision because it is, in my opinion, a holistic and specific science at the same time. In that, it involves studying most processes of medicine development and at the same time focused on delivering and solving a specific problem related to finding a specific solution to that problem. Where many drugs failing the various stages of clinical trials and incurring a huge amount of money I think studying pharmaceutical science will allow me, to a certain degree, predict the outcomes or success of many potential drugs. For example, a medicine that might be effective therapeutically, but its structure has groups that might cause serious side effects on the body. By knowing how this drug will interact with various other parts of the body we might be able to predict its success before testing or going into clinical trials and possibly modify it, thus saving many years and a lot of money than to halt the trials; where many drugs showed very promising results were not allowed to continue. This is theoretically possible, but not sure how applicable or how we can verify this practically due to the complexity of the various systems of the body or how further we are toward that goal. But I think pharmaceutical sciences would give me the opportunity to investigate further on this issue. I think I have gained many skills and experience that prepared me to be successful in pursuing further education and training in pharmaceutical sciences.

During my undergraduate years at the University of Illinois at Chicago I have done research in biochemistry under the supervision of Dr. Richard Kassner, an emeritus professor, on the kinetics of binding certain carcinogen to protein where it was evident that the substance might negatively affect or cause modification to a certain protein. Furthermore, while I was working part -time I volunteered at the Pharmacology lab of Dr. Mahmoud Elkouni, under the supervision of Dr. Omar Alsafarjalani. There, I worked on verifying the result of in-vetro experiments to compare tumor activity of different cell lines. During that time, I developed many skills and good experience in pharmacology such as Enzyme Assays and Cell Culture Assays and I was trained on using various instruments to compare Human Tumor cells with other species achieving high precision in conducting and following experimental protocols. But then I was aspiring to being involved in a more advanced role in the development of drugs and I got accepted to the Biotechnology Program at the University of Alabama. In addition to learning more about the development of drugs through academia, I secured an internship in the Organic Chemistry lab at the University of Alabama as a graduate assistant researching on photo-labile chemistry, under the supervision of Dr. Pengfei Wang. I believe I have acquainted myself with core concepts of science in a way that I can navigate to the relevant material and extract the information that is necessary for carrying out a specific experiment or evaluate certain phenomena to try to understand it. For instance, I can relate to the concept of modifying novel molecules with specific properties from my internship at the Organic Chemistry lab during my graduate study where I was a graduate assistant working on photo-labile groups to find novel pathways of producing such molecules. Also, during the graduate study in biotechnology I have developed applicable knowledge through my research proposal and poster under the mentorship of Dr. Tino Unlap. Additionally, I was fortunate to have highly qualified professors, Dr. Kathy Nugent and Dr. Joseph Garner, where I have learned many aspects of developing a medicine and who prepared students to be independent thinkers and to take on independent projects or researches. During the Biotechnology Program I worked on a formulation project at BioCryst Pharmaceuticals where I have gained experience in formulation, stability studies, and I was trained to use HPLC and various instruments related to testing and evaluating drugs. Then, I was hired as Chemist I at BioCryst, working in the discovery department where I was exposed to various instruments and techniques related to separation and purifying certain potential therapeutic compounds. During my undergraduate education I have taken most of the core courses like inorganic chemistry, analytical chemistry, physical chemistry, organic chemistry, biochemistry and calculus. The most difficult of these courses was physical chemistry. I think physical chemistry would have been easier if I had taken thermodynamics before it. Also, at that time I was not focused on achieving high academic scores. During that time, I have struggled to maintain financial stability and my goal was to graduate with a degree and I was focused on establishing a good career. Also, I have decided that I could continue education afterward, when I was ready. Also, at that time I struggled to find a job in the field of biochemistry though I was not determined on developing my experience specifically in that field. One of the reasons that I chose to pursue education in biotechnology was to raise my GPA to enter medical school to possibly enroll in an MD/PhD program, because while I was aspiring on studying medicine I had a niche for doing challenging research. But I have realized afterwards that my potential best be focused on research where I think I am accustomed to, despite the discouragement and obstacles where my responsibility lies.

I have a genuine interest in the Pharmaceutical Science Program and I am determined to develop myself into a well-trained scientist. I am aware of the immense dedication and efforts that I have to make to achieve this goal. I would bring along a strong grasp of fundamentals, an aptitude for teaching, learning and team work, an enthusiasm for challenges and an enthusiastic desire to deliver novel ideas and research. In addition, graduate school requires commitment and sacrifices to some personal aspects of one’s life; many students end up quitting graduate school. For example, I am accustomed to the life of graduate students since my jobs’ salary have not exceeded the ones earned by someone in a graduate school. I hope that my qualifications and background are found suitable for your graduate program at Northeastern University. I would be delighted to get accepted to your esteemed Institute, where there are many well established faculties and a strong program. And I welcome the opportunity for an interview to discuss this opportunity or answer your questions.

End of statements

I am not sure what could I do to improve my application or if my statements are need improvements?

 

 

Edited October 12, 2019 by Maali