Post #3: Cover letter

The following is my cover letter for application to MSc(statistics) Imperial. More information about the course can be found via navigating this link:http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/statistics/msc

Leow Min Yu

Block XXX Tampines Avenue X #XX-XXX

Singapore XXXXXX

17^th Feb 2012

Dr Axel Gandy

Course Director of the MSc in Statistics

Department of Mathematics

Imperial College London

South Kensington Campus

London

SW7 2AZ

UK

Dear Dr Gandy,

Application for the MSc Statistics

I am keen to pursue the MSc Statistics in your esteemed organisation, Imperial College London as advertised in your school website. Currently, I am a year three student with National University of Singapore pursuing a degree in Science (Statistics). I expect to graduate in 2014 with second upper honours. I always have a strong interest in widening my knowledge of statistics as I am passionate about the applications in statistics and also in equipping myself with a stronger theoretical background.

My interest in gaining a deeper theoretical background was further reinforced by taking a postgraduate course during my exchange programme in Queens’ University at Kingston. During the course of one school semester, I developed a stronger understanding of the stochastic process due to the extra content covered in the postgraduate course as compared to the undergraduate course offered in my home university. I appreciated the extra knowledge gained as the stochastic process is largely relevant to research and real problems arising in science, industry and commerce. Even as an undergraduate then, I find my passion to learn more about the different application models in statistics has allowed me to read and pass the postgraduate course successfully. The experience has prepared and strengthened my personal belief that I am suited to further my studies in statistics.

My two months attachment as a secondary school teacher for the Ministry of Education (Singapore) has provided me with an invaluable working experience. I was tasked to write and research on a report on ‘Mathematical Modelling’ and later on presented my findings to the school management. I am confident of my ability to not only conduct extensive research as an individual but also liaise with my mentor to procure a stronger understanding of the research problem.

I am extremely interested in MSc Statistics offered by Imperial College London and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours sincerely,

Leow Min Yu

Tel: (+65 XXXXXXXX)

emailaddresswhichwillnotbedisclosed@hotmail.com

Resolving Interpersonal Conflict

When we work with people of different interests, conflicts are bound to arise. Learning to resolve such interpersonal conflicts has never been easy for me, be it with people of similar or different status from me. I feel that the difficulty lies in being able to make my stand yet not willing to spoil the professional relationship I share with the implicated party. 

The conflict I am about to share happened to me recently. Last semester, I participated in an exchange program to Canada and became good friends with my roommate. We decided to group together with another guy, X for a school project. 

As time progressed I started to get a good grasp of the two different working styles of my roommate and X. X is someone who is result-driven and believes in finishing the task on hand as soon as possible. On the other hand, my roommate prefers to embrace the life of an exchange student and believes in living for the moment. Inevitably, their different working styles soon led to a quarrel between them halfway through the project. 

As an onlooker, I am able to make unbiased judgements behind the cause of the quarrel. However, the difficulty lies in expressing my opinions and yet maintaining the friendship I share with both of them. In addition, I also faced difficulty then in getting them to put aside their differences and work on the project. 

What should I have done?

Why effective communication is important to me?

If you can understand the picture without further explanations, you have heard of Singlish (English spoken by Singaporeans) and are probably quite an expert in it. No doubt, Singlish, as amusing as it can get, is commonly agreed to be a barrier to effective communication. This mindset is shared by Singapore’s government as they implemented the Speak Good English Movement (SGEM) in 2000 to eradicate the usage of Singlish in society.  

Being a Singaporean, I am, like many of you, not infallible to Singlish phrases slipping in my daily conversations. ‘Old habits die hard’. Even though I constantly stress upon myself the importance of Standard English during formal presentations, certain suffixes, like ‘lah’, ‘loh’ to name a few, have even creep into the end of my sentences. This has occurred one times too many to be a cause of worry for me. Living in a rapidly developing city, one cannot escape making formal presentations, whether your audience is your superior or our overseas friends. Being able to communicate effectively with them has never been more important.

Besides being able to communicate effectively in formal occasions as mentioned earlier, the need to communicate effectively is also critical in a classroom. My mentor teacher once mentioned to me before, ‘it is pointless to hold the knowledge of a hundred books and to not be able to impart the knowledge of a single book to your students’.  This statement succinctly summed up the importance of effective communication between a teacher and her students in a classroom. Not only the teacher has to pass on her information, she needs to be able to determine if the knowledge has been passed on effectively. 

In conclusion, the ability to communicate effectively is not only crucial for me currently (to do well in ES2007) but also as the roles I will play as in the future.