Littering the Countryside with Pleas

This one is a bit personal, but hopefully I've crammed enough philosophy into it to keep interest. I have been charged with the task of commiting my personality and life goals to a single peice of paper to accompany my pleas that will soon pepper the country from New York to Florida to Califronia and back to right here at my modest alma mater. It has been a difficult period of brainstorming and tonight I have finally managed to spill some ink. The following paper is my first insufficient and yet audacious attempt at a personal statement to MIT, the number one chemical engineering graduate school in the country. I'm posting this in part because it required conciderable reflection and the results may be telling to some, but more becuse I am humbly requesting your comments: phrases that work, phrases that don't, discontinuities, unclear passages, anything.... Please.

If there's one thing I have been at no loss for, it is opportunity. In the past few years I have experienced nearly every manifestation of intellectual application. I have seen the bottom line of the chemical plant, the vision of the research laboratory, the benefit of associations, the oppressive time line of the classroom, and the after hours coffee house right down to the familiar blur of a text stared at almost long enough to sink a purpose. But after years at an institution that inevitably becomes so much more than deadlines and percentages, one of these now tugs at my attention with a real promise of fulfillment. I intend to make the pursuit of knowledge my life's work and I feel that the academic research laboratory is the only arena that adequately fosters the notion. After completion of my doctorate, I will seek a faculty position at an appropriate university. Academia stands for a set of principles that remain pure and logical even as the scope embraces a scale nothing less than epic. To attack a problem for the pride of the solution; to pair a phenomena with a truly profound impact through a novel application that does not fail to recognize the needs of a society nor the progress of a people. I require academia's unique combination of open minded approach, scientific rigor, and communal inspiration to leave a footprint I can be content with. My present solidity aside, I have not always borne this future in mind and I have my undergraduate experience to thank for giving me the clarity to establish a cause. On four years of personal redefinition and now confidently poised at the decision of a lifetime, I suppose there are a few comments to make.

When I decided I would pursue a college education in chemical engineering, it was more than a little arbitrary. I knew it was supposedly challenging and I'd be lying if I said I didn't derive any sadistic attraction from the fact. But at the time my decision had much more to do with dollar signs and the status quo's definition of success. If my education over the last four years has imprinted anything timeless on my personality it is my own personal definition of success. In the broadest sense, it is the requirement that I exert some lasting influence on a large scale. More specifically and for reasons more numerous than I could effectively list here, I have come to the conclusion that the most productive way for me to exert this influence is through the addition of something novel to the general knowledge base. Maybe it's my science fiction viewpoint insisting that researchers have a more dominant influence on the direction of society than those officials that we've elected for governance, or maybe its some leftover from my auxiliary study of evolutionary biology that has me aching for progress. On a more personal note, it could just be the result of my eventually successful campaign to conquer and hone my obsessive compulsive tendency to demand the world of myself. Whatever the cause, it took no more than a week of laboratory experience to convince me I'd found the ideal environment for my life's work.

The next several months investigating polymer nanocomposites only strengthened my resolve, all the while rooting out the blunders of my inexperience. I learned patience and persistence in experiment, and the occasional slap of clarity taught me that the simplified picture scribbled on the back of a paper can lead you astray if your lose sight of where it came from. In complicated systems, you can convince yourself of just about anything if you don't understand the comparative magnitudes of the forces at play. Most of all, research has shown me that I can actually satisfy my delusions of grandeur by taking incremental steps on a practical scale and recognizing the pride in being an integral part of something greater. My attendance at this years AIChE national conference affirmed the power of such cooperation by displaying those 'stranger than fiction' advancements of an aggrandized popular science magazine in a rigorous and supported format. I have developed a profound interest in polymer properties and the macroscopic effects of micro and nanoscale manipulation, including self-assembling structures. The potential of this field is overwhelming and I have no doubts that it can contain my aspirations and foster my progress.

I have chosen to appeal to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for my graduate education for several reasons. I have been at the top of my class at Wayne State University for the entirety of my core engineering education. That status has offered me numerous opportunities that I would not have otherwise had, including a position in a competitive research group, nominations and leadership positions in student and local organizations, and invitations for research presentations. While all of these opportunities have resulted in valued experiences and lessons learned, the top offers certain limitations and I fear I may have outgrown my cage. Just as I couldn't turn my back on a field that has never failed to push me to the precipice, I know I would be cheating myself if I willingly entered into anything but the highest level of competition, although I do so at the sacrifice of a certain comfort. Insofar as comfort belies stagnancy, it is a challenge I am eager to begin. I should mention that my intentions at your institution have nothing to do with succumbing to a particularly prestigious form of mediocrity, but rather have everything to do with rising to the top of the most competent group of engineers in the country. Secondly, a review of current research projects leaves me convinced that MIT has numerous avenues for development in my areas of interest and seems to have a more bracing view of the potential and importance of the applications. In its finest form, engineering represents that insatiable drive to overcome adversity that defines the human spirit. It is precisely this connotation that has set MIT firmly at the top of my list. I look forward to hearing from you.

Joseph K. Scott
Department of Chemical Engineering and Material Science
Wayne State University
Detroit, MI 48202