Cover letter for university application

Hi everyone,

Recently I finished a cover letter for a application of studentship. The following is what I wrote, and I was wondering if anyone can do a bit proof reading for me. I appreciate your help!
Actually, I am Chinese, so there might be some mistakes in the letter or the structure and content of it that I cannot cheek them out.
If anyone can help to point out the weakness of my letter, that would be very helpful and brilliant.

Thanks a million!
Jaycee

--------------------------------------------------------------------Cover Letter --------------------------------------------------------------
Jaycee XXXX
XXXX Avenue
XXXX Post Code

7th November 2014
Prof. XXXX
XXXX Institute
University of XXXX
XXXX Centre
XXXX Way
XXXX Post Code

Dear Prof.XXXX,
Application for PhD studentship
of XXXX
I’m writing in response to your advertisement for the PhD studentship supervised by you in XXXX Institute, as advertised on XXXX.com. I graduated this September from The University of XXXX with an MSc (Merit) in Advanced Computer Science and IT Management, and previously obtained GPA of 85.5 (out of 100) for the BEng in Automation from XXXX College in China.

Since I firstly performed the project of Research Methods by statistical analysis on XXXX programme, I’ve attracted by statistics that finds relations in uncertainties, and the project was finally obtained distinction. Then, I continued to do statistical research in my MSc dissertation and achieved 65 (out of 100). Hence, to achieve a highly advanced understanding within this area, the PhD is of extreme importance and interest to me, since it’s a challenge but a good chance for my individual development to integrate my previous experience of computer science with of statistical analysis.

I believe that my experience across computer science and statistics will support the PhD project, especially in computer science, such as, developing R package and confirming the validity of the functions. As an automation student, I studied a variety of programming language, such as C and Java. To apply these to practical use, I participated in National Undergraduate Electronic Design Contest twice, and my performance in the contest set a new grade in this aspect in my college. Besides, I accomplished several projects of system design during undergraduate studies, laying a strong programming foundation. Then, Master’s courses, such as data engineering and text mining, further strengthened my competency of programming and data processing. Although I had no experience in R programming, I’ve started to learn R, and I think that I could be skillful at R before the PhD program. Hence, I believe that my academic background and proficiency in research techniques make me a suitable candidate for the above-mentioned studentship.

I am enclosing my CV below. If you require any additional materials or information, I would be happy to supply them. Thank you for your consideration.

Yours sincerely,
Jaycee XXXX