MS in Mechanical Engineering

From individuals who can attest to the academic or professional competence and to the depth of the applicant's interest in pursuing graduate study. We accept online Letters of Recommendation only. For the online Letter of Recommendation process, you must provide the email address of each Recommender in your application.

COVID-19 Personal Statement This section of the application gives you an opportunity to describe how COVID-19 has impacted your educational experience in relation to your academic performance or grading scale. For example: “For the spring semester, my university let us take two classes P/NP and I chose this because..” or “For the spring quarter, my college graded all classes as P/NP and we didn’t have an option for a letter grade.”

Five primary topics to cover in your statement of purpose: How did you become interested in this field? Establish that you have had a long-term interest in the field and that you have taken positive steps in pursuing your interest. Give the committee members a sense of your particular talents and abilities and their relevance to your academic interests. What experiences have contributed toward your preparation for further study in this field? Demonstrate your interest by providing examples of research experiences, internships, work experience, community service, publications, or life experiences. Briefly describe what you did in each experience. Also, make sure to articulate what you have learned about the field and how those lessons stimulated you to pursue an advanced degree. What are your future goals? Specifically state your degree objective (Master's or Ph.D.) and specify what subdisciplines you are interested in pursuing. For example, if you are applying in political science, the committee needs to know whether you are pursuing American Politics, Comparative Politics, International Relations, or Political Theory. Let the reader know that you are planning a future career as a university professor, researcher, or consultant, or in public service or private practice (or whatever your goal happens to be). What are your research interests? Within your subdiscipline, you should be able to identify one or two topics that are of interest to you. When possible, be specific about your research agenda. Remember that you will be working with professors in research; therefore, your research interests should parallel those of the faculty. (You will usually not be expected to know exactly what you want to research; faculty know that initial interests often change.) How are you a "match" for the program to which you are applying? Explain what attracts you most to the institution/program to which you are applying. Align your research interests with those of one or more of the affiliated professors. The better the "match" with the program/professors, the better the chance that you will be admitted.