I was always a dramatic child. During my sixth grade year we were asked to chronicle our young lives in a journal. At the end of our month-long endeavor we looked back over our diaries and summarized our thoughts. This seemingly benign project pitched my ten-year-old brain into its best attempt at an existential crisis. I realized that my parents had once been my age and, conversely, that I would one day be theirs and surely die shortly thereafter.

The twenty years following have all been colored by that surprisingly weighty revelation. From university to working on the missile defense system to teaching in Africa and most recently contracting in DC, doing interesting and challenging things with my brief life has been important to me. I've spent countless hours doing myriad activities on the computer. In all this time, the pastimes that are the most satisfying to me are teaching and systems design.

There is something intoxicating in that moment when a student goes from understanding not only how to do something but why it works. While in the Peace Corps I had an opportunity to teach at the university level. I had taught before, but this was my first time structuring my own class. Other than my wretched French, which was painful for all parties involved, I loved it as I always have.

The bulk of my professional life has been either as a designer or a programmer. Honestly, I became a solo designer before I was ready for it. The issue was never the technology: from the first dismantled VCR years ago, learning has been nothing but fun. The first 75% of my projects were always a breeze. It was the drudgery of the last 25% where my ventures tended to flounder. Learning to set firm, attainable goals and drop features to stick to a timeline was a skill I started to develop in Africa, but have only gotten good at it working contracts in DC.

I have several friends who completed post-graduate work and a couple who failed to. I have no illusions that it is either an easy or appreciated task. It is, however, an opportunity to explore full-time and eventually extend the field of computer science, and that is an extremely attractive prospect. Immediately following my undergraduate studies, I attempted to do serious research while also working full-time and it proved nothing more than an extremely painful way to produce mediocre work.

In that research and previously, I had an opportunity to work with data clustering algorithms. The effectiveness and popularity of such simple systems as the use of Baysean filtering for spam detection show a potential for the application of machine learning to non-research areas that has not been properly explored. Participation in online communities continues to increase and it provides a new type of environment. Thousands of mildly interested users can be harnessed to create useful structures with the proper interface and some intelligence coordinating and guiding their input.

Close with a sentence or so specific to the school. Artificial intelligence is common enough that every school should have something to focus on in that area.

Berkeley

Please describe your aptitude and motivation for graduate study in your area of specialization, including your preparation for this field of study, your academic plans or research interests in your chosen area of study, and your future career goals. Please be specific about why UC Berkeley would be a good intellectual fit for you.

The high academic standards and vibrant learning environment of Berkeley combine to make an extremely attractive location to study. I have spent some time examining the different research centers and feel confident that I could contribute meaningfully to their work.

I did a horrible job on my application to Berkeley. I erroneously assumed that it wouldn't matter if I was an hour or so late and only realized with fifteen minutes to spare that I had to complete this essay and my diversity essay.

University of Maryland

Write a brief (1,000-2,000 word) statement addressing the following two questions:

  1. What are your reasons for undertaking graduate study at the University of Maryland? Indicate, if appropriate, any specific areas of research interest. You may wish to discuss past work in your intended field and allied fields, your plans for a professional career, or how you developed your interest in or knowledge of your chosen subject.
  2. What life experiences you have had that you feel have prepared you to pursue a graduate degree at a large, diverse institution such as the University of Maryland? Among the items you might care to include would be your financial, community and family background, whether you are the first person in your family to pursue a higher education, or any other factors that you feel would contribute to the diversity of our academic community. You may also wish to give the graduate admissions committee some examples of your determination to pursue your goals, your initiative and ability to develop ideas, and /or your capacity for working through problems independently.

I am particularly interested in the University of Maryland based on the work coming out of the Information and Network Dynamics Laboratory. With broadband connections poised to overtake dialup and over half of MySpace users over 35 years-old, there are good indications that the phenomenon of social networking is going to continue it's growth into currently untapped segments of society. The issues explored by Jennifer Golbeck in her work with trust at the MIND Laboratory are going to be of increasing importance and will have a significant effect of how this landscape is shaped.

I am interested in the problem of trust from two perspectives: the computer science issues of categorization and correlation of data, and also the psychology of interface design. I've been working primarily with the web for the last year and I know that regardless of how technically spectacular content is, it must be easily usable to build a user base. I'm interested both in continuing research along the lines of what Golbeck has done, and also looking at interface design options to encourage users to input data meaningful in trust metrics.

There are other interesting issues such as how to encourage users to develop more permanent profiles and the use of cryptography for verifying identity. In sort it is a rich field with a variety of meaningful research possibilities. I have the interest and skill to do productive work, and Maryland has the environment to enable and facilitate me.

Vanderbilt

Provide a statement giving your reasons for wishing to undertake graduate study, your future plans or any additional information that may aid the admissions committee in evaluating your preparation and your aptitude for graduate study at Vanderbilt University.

I have spoken with graduates both of the bioinformatics and electrical engineering doctoral programs at Vanderbilt, and the reviews have been very positive. I am particularly interested in applications of computer science that have direct impact on human lives and Vanderbilt has several laboratories that are doing interesting work with real-world repercussions. I believe that the environment at Vanderbilt would be challenging and interesting enough to satisfy me as a student and I believe that my technical skills and professional experience would make me a useful addition to the school.