Biomedical Engineering Personal Statement Example

Sample Statement

Physics and maths have always been my strongest subjects and a natural pathway for me would be a career in engineering. Coupled with that I have a leaning towards medicine; I also enjoy biology and I would love to be able to work towards helping people in a healthcare environment. Doing work experience in the radiology department of a large teaching hospital was exciting because it demonstrated the role of physics and engineering in modern medicine. Physicists and engineers have made MRI scans, CT scans and even more exotic techniques such as laparoscopic and robotic surgery possible. These are now benefiting many thousands of patients worldwide.

Biomedical engineering is therefore my dream subject and I would relish the opportunity to study it at university and progress into working as a biomedical engineer. Many challenges in medicine remain that will require the ingenuity and innovation that can only come from people who are highly qualified in engineering concepts but also have a deep knowledge of the way the human body works and what can go wrong. I am thrilled that there is a career pathway open to me to combine my own special interests and to potentially make a difference to the way medicine is practised in the future.

In addition to human biology I also have a strong interest in ecological science and a belief that we all need to be much more responsible about our individual impact on the environment. I participated in an award scheme at school to improve the environment in our village. We raised money for two extra waste bins at the local football ground, where littering was a constant problem, by doing a sponsored swim and a sponsored 10k run. I am no athlete but following advice from the Physical Education teacher at college, I started running 5 times a week, building up slowly so that by the time of the race I could run 10K comfortably. It wasn’t about winning, which I didn’t, but the sense of achievement in fulfilling a physical challenge was enormous.

Since then I have been much more aware of the pleasure of exercise and plan to keep running. Part of my work experience this year has been to work with the local primary school to set up physics experiments on motion. We had great fun building ramps and measuring the times of different toy cars over different lengths and inclines. To my surprise, one of the teachers had also run in the 10K and I was asked to help organise the school sports day. Working with the children to set up the races and to manage the teams on the day was very rewarding.

Last summer I signed up to visit Tanzania to participate in a project to build a classroom at a local school. This was hard work but one of the best experiences of my life. I was using my engineering knowledge in a real-life construction, which was a lot more challenging and physical than I expected but the reaction of the local children was amazing. It made me reflect on the way that we take education for granted in the UK.

Biomedical engineering will enable me to build on the skills and experiences I have had so far and to stretch myself in many different directions. I feel that I will rise to the challenge of undergraduate study and intend to make the most of every moment as a university student.