Graduate School and Early Modern Europe

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE The phenomenal growth in intimacy, which we argon witnessing at present in m some(prenominal) atomic number 18as of science and engine room, is the settlement of the tireless(prenominal) efforts of a macro fig of t from from each ace oneers and students late committed to widening the horizons of forgiving knowledge through painstaking inquiry. legion(predicate) of us of the younger generation be the beneficiaries, both(prenominal) in seeectually and materially, of the awaystanding depart by reversal do in the subject field of data processor engineering.As a student of information applied science and computing device science, it is my am compositionion to contri oftentimesovere my cutaneous senses to the widening and deepening of knowledge in the celestial sp here(predicate) of information technology and computing device science in world-wide. My undergrad fosterage in Information technology has enabled me to keep the fundamental co ncepts in this area of involve. I hurt excelled in most of the trends that I re distribute taken which include estimator net induce fors, Operating Systems, Microprocessor & Interfacing and Database Management Systems among others a cursor to my sound analytical and computational skills.My civilizeman prowess do- nonhing be gauged from the position that I topped my de eccentricment in the Microprocessors course and tightend the 3rd rank in my quartetth semester examinations in a super competitive class. One of my grotesque actions has been in pedagogy. It was during my fifth semester, when I was helping my peers with the computationally intensive courses we had to take up then, that I realized the efficacy of the dictation To name better, teach. The incessant queries of my friends made me mop deeper into the subject whilst they enhanced their grounds of it.My carry protrudement was the substantial improvement in grades for both my peers and me. The numerous sem inars, which I impart conducted in my class in areas both indoors and out of the scope of my curriculum, have honed my conference skills and I am confident that I would be an effective teaching assistant. My team-playing force and leadership qualities came to the fore during Interrupt 2006, a national level technical symposium conducted by the Department of Computer Science, wherein I twin(a) a variety of technical and non-technical events that were widely appreciated.I am currently working in Egrove Systems Corporation as a coder and Analyst, a ren professed multi-national firm problematic in IT solutions. My first hand ikon to the industrys working in aiming and developing has helped in redefining my thought and entree towards creating new ones myself. I have a dream to work in a place where latest technology is devised and where shopworns and protocols are dictated. Ultimately however, I do non regard to engage often beaten trails but blaze a new one for others t o follow.It is to realize this that I call for to work towards a know peak and later for a PhD. It is each persons dream to grade from a prestigious teach that put up provide the launching-pad for his/her career. though there is a plethora of excerptions, the pride of place goes to the University that is reputed for its standard par excellence an honor that goes to no(prenominal) other than to your university. I understand that this University wisecracks exiting and incomparable opportunities for re hunting and learning. As for my incoming, it is my impulse to air the realms of computer net plant life and course of instructionming design.I in any case necessity to build on the soaked alkali that I have acquired during my under polish field of honor with a Masters degree and follow it up with a Doctoral one. To achieve this and to attain my goals, I strongly consider that the Computer Science program at your university would place me at the fulcrum of todays tec hnology in computers. I look forward to being a part of your program in Advanced computer science and would consider myself fortunate to secure an admission into the Masters program at your University since it scores my evokes exactly.It is with with child(p) optimism that I apply to your coach and I sincerely hope for an joining that would be mutually beneficial. Ramji Prasad Myrtheunjayan Graduate instruct is not for slackers. It takes focus and determination to engross an advanced degree. Thats why admissions committees examine your call downment of settle precise nighthey want to see whether you have the powerful compact to succeed in alumnus school. What are they really subscribeing anyway? divers(prenominal) schools get out give you different prompts for the submitment of purpose.Nonetheless, theyre all asking for the analogous four pieces of information What you want to study at alumnus school? Why you want to study it? What experience you have in your field? What you plan to do with your degree once you have it? Admissions committees look for beardidates with white, clear(p) search interest groups that arise from experience . With that in mind, your statement should reveal that you care deeply round your chosen discipline and that you have the background to support your ideas and sentiments. It should alike leaven that youre a diligent student who depart remain committed for the long haul.However you approach these blames, its imperative that you answer the indecisions asked in the taste prompt. Being substantive and direct is much(prenominal) better than being creative or flashy. Avoid this mistake Grad school applicants comm totally if nock the error of including a split up n archeozoic how well move they are Theyre avid ultimate-frisbee players, they write short-circuit stories or they love to cook. Colleges are concerned in this stuff fine-tune schools are not. Grad schools are looking for great minds who leave behind achieve mastery of a detail subject area.They dont care that you make a great chicken casserole or play intramural bocce ball. They do care to the highest degree those activities that speak to your causal agencyability for graduate work. As a graduate student, youll be called upon to do gruelling coursework and inquiry. You may have to teach undergraduate classes at bottom your field and conceivably even design a course. And youll have to get on with a diverse group of colleagues who testament sometimes work very closely with you. Any experience in school, work or your extracurricular life that speaks to those abilities is outlay talking approximately.Make your statement of purpose unique While its grave to be focused, theres no need to be boring. To distinguish your es ordain, sleep together unique (yet relevant) information. One of the best ways to do this is to discuss, briefly, an idea in your field that turns you on intellectually. Its an effectiv e essay-opener, and it lets you write just about something besides yourself for a bit. Remember, the idea you consume to talk about can tell an admissions committee a lot about you. And it demonstrates your interest in your field, rather than safe describing it. Dont forgetBe sure to show your statement of purpose to someone you respect, preferably the professors who are physical composition your recommendations, and get some feedback on the center before you send it in. If you need to order it, do so and then ask for more feedback. Have someone else ascertain your essay for spelling and grammar. A seraphic set of eyes often picks up something you missed. Better yet, if you have enough unbidden friends, have a couple of batch proofread each statement. Finally, dont fair use the same statement of purpose for each school to which you apply.You can recycle the same information, but make sure you change the presentation to fit each schools several(prenominal) program. Sampl e rumor of Purpose Statement of Purpose Please describe your skill and motivation fo r graduate study in your area of specialization, including your supplying for this field of study , your pedantic plans or question interests in your chosen area of study, and your succeeding(a) career goals. Please be particular proposition about why UC Berkeley would be a good intellectual fit for you. The writer of the statement below was admitted into UC Berkeleys bill Department. With her permission, I reprint her essa parsed with my commentary about why it works as a winning essay. Luscious fare is the jewe l of inordinate desires, 1 cautions 2 the motive of The Gentlewomans Companion (1673), one of many proterozoic young conduct books I surveyed this bygone socio-economic class for an honors dissertation entitled Chaste, Silent, and Hungr y The caper of Female Appetite in archaean Modern England, 1550-1700. 3 As indicated by the title, this pr oject explores a provocative but a s of yet scarcely examine facet of primeval m odern sex constructions female person nutrition desire. 4 I use the article desire here rather deliberately, as ea rly unexampled definitions of ppetite elongate well beyond the physiological ride to eat to encompa ss all those physical (and shameful) longings associated with the body. And, in a goal wh ere women were by defi nition steep and sensual, female food desire, I argue, constituted an unruly 5 desire that demanded both social and moral discipline. In brief, my look for con cerns the patriarchal cont rol of womens bodies in 16th and seventeenth-century England vi svis a pagan idea about food desire and satiation as sugges tive and immodest. 6 In lieu of a formal demonstration of my research interests and aspirations I finisher a summary of my enior thesis, which earned me the 2003 Chancel lors apportion for Excellence in Undergraduate query at the University of California, Davis. 7 This first ship into seri ous historical savantship has affirm my passion for previous(predicate) m odern coating and histor y and it has given me the cartel to raise and cont est my opinions regard ing the status of women in archaeozoic redbrick Europe and the current state of archeozoic new-made historiography. 8 act along these avenues of research in graduate school, I would like to use my thesis as the basis for a future dissertation. though I remain on the alert about committing myself premat rely to a specific t opic of research, I am in like manner eager to elaborate, modify, and complicate 9 my authoritative rollions about the nature of the problem of female inclination in aboriginal modern England. Indeed, many of the conclusions reached in the thesis, such(prenominal) as my claim that the cultural er oticization of fair(prenominal) appetite in early modern England betrayed a deep-seated masculine scruple of female grammatical gender and sexual power, serve as starting points 10 for future research and study. On a more basic level, write a thesis gave me the chance to become better acquaint with the essentials of historical resear h. Suspecting that normative disc ourses in early modern England participated aggressively in the monitoring of womens appetites, I navigated the sea of early slope printed sources in pursu it of the slightest mention of food and diet. Those sources I encountered during my research, wh ich ranged from the popular conduct book, The grooming of a Christian Woman by Juan Luis Vives, to the anonymous sex manual, Aristotles Masterpiece, challenged my basic understanding of autobiography and the original prem ise of my thesis in ways not anticipated. From deciphering esot eric type-fonts to developing n awareness of the importance of time and funds, I experienced the mundane realities of research that inevitably stunt the historians aspirations. Even more important wa s my gradual bankers acceptance of the fact that early modern sources, no intimacy how we read them, do not always accommodate modern biases and expectations. 11 Though I cannot predict the course this project talent take in graduate school, I expect that it depart address the following themes and issues. First is the overarching issue of distinguishing the phenomena I observe from other forms of food re striction and obsession, namely the modern itual of diet and its most extreme manife station, an eating disorder. Though not provideing to evade those complicate (and controversial) para llels amidst modern and early modern usages of food and food symbolism to cont rol the lives of women, I also worry to wrap uper as an historian a nuanced line drawing of how early modern conceptualiz ations of female appetite were infused with contemporary, historically contingent notions of sexuality and gender. Furthermore, the question of fema le agency in a project devote d or so exclusively to male prescriptions for diet and deportment deman ds further discussion.Admittedly, on more than one occasion, my own extensive use and psychoanalysis of conduct books and various obstetric manuals, works composed primarily by educated men, cause d me to pause and wonderment whether it was best to relate a floor abou t womens actions or the patriarchal instrument under which those actions were oppressed. While I abnegate to see women as simply resistless receptacles of masculine command, I neither wish nor aspire to focus sole ly on their achievements for, in my mind, the account of women and the story of patriarchy are inextricably related. 12 My goal, then, will not be to detail just another example of how wome in invoice were dominated by men, but, rather, to interrogate the means, in this case food, or, better yet, the cultural intend of appetite, by which womens desires were suppressed or denied. 13 Indeed I am royal of my thesis and, given extra time, could say much more. But I should also stress that that at the heart of my specific res earch concentration lies a more general interest in early modern European history, cultural and womens history to be more exact. 14 To date, my knowledge of the early modern period has been intercommunicate and my imagination sustained by an vagabond of courses on early modern history and lite ature (I was a joint hist ory and English major), including a graduate seminar on spiritual rebirth urban culture taught jointly by Professors Margaret Ferguson and Deborah Harkness. My personal pe nchant for cultural history stems largely, I believe, from my training in litera ture and literary criticism, wh ere sensitiveness to the importance of language and metaphor is a neces sary skill. Also of crucial importance to a professional career in history are my growing skills in Latin and French, and my fluency in Spanish. 15 This socio-economic class I find myself in that difficult and fr ustrating transitional peri od between undergraduate nd graduate studies. Th ough I would have preferred to out pay co ntinue graduate school later on graduation, I opted to take a year strike. A year aw ay from school, I reasoned, would allow me the time take to recuperate from an staring(a) und ergraduate upbringing, gain some perspective, and work on fulfilling the language requirement for a doctors degree in European history. In fact, I am currently enrolled in a French course at a nearby university and plan to take a subsequent course during the upcoming leak semester. This academic hiatus, moreover, has imposed some much- needed distance between myself and my thesis, wh ch I can now reread from a more tiny, less invested stance. And, finally, a break from school has given me sufficient time to search and research for graduate programs that best suit my needs. 16 UC Berkeleys history program looms large in my mind, largely because of its outstanding skill and interdisciplinary approach to hist ory. In my own quest for a suitable graduate progr am, I was thrilled to learn that Professors doubting Thomas Laqueur and Carla Hesse both taught at Berkeley. Professor Laqueurs book, devising Sex Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud , stands out among the many books I ead during my undergraduate education and I credit his book with introducing me to the emerging but fascin ating field of the history of sexuality and the body. Together, Professor Laqueurs cutting edge research and Professor Hesses knowledge of early modern womens history would make my experience at Berkeley a challenging and enjoyable one. 17 In addition, Berkeley provides an id eal climate for me to develop my cross-disciplinary interests. In particular, I am interested in pursuing a desi gnated emphasis in women, gender, and sexuality, a unique option that distinguishes Berkeleys hist ry program from that of other institutions. The cross-disciplinary nature of Berkeleys gra duate program would foster, I hope, fruitful discussions with other departme nts, no tably the division of English and Womens Studies, thus broadening and enriching my research as well as my general understanding early modern culture and history. 18 1 The writer begins with a vivid quote that grabs the proofreaders attention right away. 2 Cautions is an excellent verb choice. Carefu l word choice makes fo r spanking writing. 3 tear down how neatly in one well-packed doom , the writer gets right to the point of her urrent research. 4 Provocative is an clever and colorful word c hoice. This sentence explains the nature of her study and situates her subject in historical and thematic context. 5 mutinous is another capably c hosen adjective. Adjectives can create dead places in writing if they add nothing significant to the noun that it is describing. 6 The summary sentence not only recaps the gist of the first paragraph, but also provides further nuance of the subject at hand. 7 This first sentence makes clear that research first and foremost will be cen tral to her argument in the essay. Mentioning the Cha cellors Award in the context of her research is a clever way of ostentation without seeming to. 8 It is a very good idea to explicit ly state the chosen subfield within history early modern Europe. You cant assume that your readers will make the inference from the research topic alone. To assert and contest opinions is, of c ourse, the marksmanship of historians making elongation to the current state of early modern historiography conveys familiarity with the subject on the one hand, and confidence and intellectual poise on the other. unwrap how much more powerful is such a statement as compared to ne poorly written, such as I am passionate and committed to my interest in early modern Europe. 9 Again, to say that as a historian, she will e laborate, modify, and complicate the subject matter is to show that she really understands the work of historians. A less experienced candidate might have written that she wa nts to intr oduce the truth in history. 10 starting points referring to her research interestsis a very deliberate way of saying that she knows what tugs at her heart, has done enough research to have some hunches, but is open to surprise endings. A beautiful re ndition of a historians sentiment.You may turn off your readers if you come off sounding overly confident. Maintaining a heedful tone is very important. 11 This paragraph details further specific less ons and skills earned through this research project. railway line the use of colorful verb s such as navigated and stunt. 12 Note the nuanced and guardedly measured way of speaking about her subject. Clearly the writer is well-read in theory and show s strong ability in cri tically evaluating her subject. Moreover, she tries to be the obj ective scholar in that she does not champion any cause. That is, she does not champion the ause of women even as she conveys deep empathy. 13 The reference to a parallel example of female appeti te in contemporary culture as holding interest for the writer is aptly placed here. Were she to have mentioned it any earlier, it would have clouded the primarily hist orical nature and focu s of her venture. 14 It is wise at this point to zoom out a bit and show that th e writers interest lies more broadly in early modern Europe and the hist ory of women. Zooming in and out from the narrow to the general shows th at you are capable of becomi ng a specialist without being overly narrow. 15Showing interdisciplinarity and your abilities in language are tell apart to your academic biography. In this case, the reader learns that she is a historian with training in literary and critical theory. 16 This is a model paragraph for showing what you did in your time off from school. Note how nothing extraneous to her study is me ntioned in this paragraph. The paragraph shows that the time off was spent wisely in preparing herself for graduate school. 17 She demonstrates a thorough-going k nowledge of UC Berkeley. She mentions not one but two key scholars with whom she could pur sue her studies. She mentions how their rea of specialty dovetails with her own resear ch interests. Note how she does not make empty, flattering remarks about the professors or the school. 18 She continues to list bounties beyond the department strengthening the argument that Berkeley is well-suited for her. The reader will be impressed with the research and the seriousness with which she has examined UC Be rkeley as an option for graduate school. A well-written essay unveils much information about the writer, not only in her intellectual capacity, but also about her character and core values. through and through her writing, she makes a distinctive impression.