Is this a Good Statement of Purpose (Master of science in Civil Engineering)

[Raja Jul Haziq]

Hi guys, I am trying to apply for grad school. i am an international student currently a senior at University of south Alabama. Please leav a comment on my statement of Purpose and hopefully help me get admitted. Also let me know if the school im applying for fit my profile. My detail profile is shown below:

BS Civil Engineering

CGPA: 3.98

Member of Tau Beta Pi

Active in extra curricular activities.

1 summer internship

Applying for:

UC berkeley

UCLA

Rice

Virginia Tech

U of Michigan

SOP:

Statement of Purpose

I am a senior civil engineering student at University of South Alabama and am expecting to graduate in May 2013 with Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering. As an undergraduate, I was given the chance to explore several numbers of different fields in civil engineering such as structural, geotechnical, coastal, environmental and water resources engineering. Having to take the courses from each of these fields, I realize that I have a very strong interest in structural engineering.

Structural engineering is the branch of civil engineering that I find most interesting, challenging and practically satisfying which combines engineering principles, math and physics. To satisfy my urge in exploring deeper into structural engineering, I chose to take all of the available design courses related to this area, such as reinforced concrete design, steel design and timber design, for my undergraduate study. I had worked diligently these past four years to fully understand, and master the concept of these subjects. Having to take all of these courses, I found myself left wanting more and wanting to go deeper into some specific area of structural engineering.

Over the summer of 2012, I was hired by Penang Second Bridge Sdn Bhd (PSB), a construction management company in Malaysia, as an engineering intern. This company was specially established to manage the project of constructing a 16 miles bridge connecting two states in Malaysia. As an engineering intern, I was assigned under the design department where I was exposed to the detailed design of the cable stayed marine bridge. During my time at PSB, I learned a lot about the design of the specific part of the bridge including the design of pre-stressed concrete beam, segmental box girder, seismic load isolation system and the structural design of the deep pile foundation. At the same time, I was given various tasks including site investigation, resources estimation, and scheduling with Primavera Project Management software.

Over the duration of three months working as an engineering intern at PSB, I develop a substantial amount of interest in bridge engineering. I intend to enroll for the thesis option for my graduate study so that I will be able to do a research related to bridge engineering. This includes some specific topics such as structural health monitoring system, the structural behavior under seismic load, and mitigation strategies for bridge cracking. As United States of America is facing a lot of problems with its infrastructures, I believe those specific areas of research that I chose will be practical and beneficial. I found that faculty members specializing in structural engineering in your school had done numbers of excellent researches and projects related to the area that I mentioned. Therefore, with the knowledge and experience that your faculty members have, I believe I can use it as guidance to achieve my goals in my graduate study. It is also an honor if I were given the opportunity to be involved in one of those great research projects as a research assistant. Learning and working besides the faculty members will be a remarkable experience for me.

After earning my master’s degree, I intend to work with any consultancy firms that are involve with structural designing for infrastructures and buildings. I wish to work under a Professional Engineer which will guide me in pursuing my career goal of being a Professional Engineer (PE). This way, I believe I will be able to apply everything I learned from my undergraduate and graduate studies, and finally be able to contribute to the society.