Motivation Letter

I am applying for the Master's degree in chemical engineering at NTNU. I have worked on my motivation letter for a couple of weeks and it would be really helpful to have some extra corrections. Thanks in advance. Here is my letter:

Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU
January 13, 2013
Dear Sir/Madam:
I am applying to your master program of Chemical Engineering with emphasis on Process System Engineering starting in August 2013. My career goal is to become a doctor researching new control and optimization systems for chemical processes.
Since I was a child, I have always been interested in the processes which continuously create the things that build our world. When I was at school, I was an excellent student in the areas of mathematics, chemistry and physics. At the age of 11 I decided to study apart from the school taking private lessons focusing on the areas mentioned before. That same year I saw the chance to take the test in order to validate my high school studies and I passed it with excellent results at the age of 12. Also as I result of those studies in chemistry I achieved a bronze medal on the Colombian Chemistry Olympics, which took place a couple of weeks before the High School Certification test.
Before I started to study at the University I studied English for 1 year. I choose chemical engineering as bachelor because of the chance to further gain knowledge in chemistry, thermodynamics and mathematics and the huge variety of industries where all those subjects could be applied. I started my career as the youngest student of the faculty only being 13 years old.
My interest to focus on process systems engineering started when I took the course “Process Control”. I was surprised to see how advanced are the control systems nowadays and even so there are still plenty of possibilities of further developments. In order to gain further expertise in that area I decided to join as Teaching Assistant for the course “Process Modeling and Simulation”. I worked there for year and a half exposing case studies for the students. As a result of this work I am co-author of the book “Análisis y Simulación de Procesos en Ingeniería Química” (Process Analysis and Simulation on Chemical Engineering), this book covers all the stages of process design, from the design of one simple unit to plant wide economic analysis, control and optimization. Also as a part of this work I took part on the course “Process Dynamics and Control Using Aspen Hysys Dynamics”, this course was given to professional Chemical engineers currently working on a process design company. During this work I also took part on an international publication “Control of an azeotropic distillation process to acetonitrile production” for the journal “Computer Aided Chemical Engineering”. Finally my bachelor’s thesis work was “Study and Control of the Azeotropic Distillation System Ethanol - Water - Cyclohexane”, where the system was studied from its conceptual design to the analysis of a plant wide control strategy.
At the end of my career I decided to join the international exchange group IAESTE. There I helped the incoming international students to adapt and know the National University of Colombia. This helped me a lot giving me the chance to improve my interpersonal relations while improving my English and knowing several different cultures and languages. This encouraged me to learn German as soon as I got my degree.
During the time I was teaching assistant, I knew the research group led by professor Sigurd Skogestad at NTNU, which is one of the world’s best process engineering research groups. I found their publications very important as one of the main references to carry out my thesis. Since the work I have carried out is closely related to the focus of NTNU’s Process System Engineering group’s research, I decided to contact professor Skogestad in order to be part of his group and he encouraged me to apply for the NTNU’s master’s degree. I want to study at NTNU because of your outstanding educational system, which involves research while closely working with the industry. Being part of NTNU will allow me to gain further expertise in the areas of process engineering and control while also showing me a broader view of the industry and being part of the future developments in this area.
Given all the work I have carried out in the area and my history of excellent results and commitment, I consider myself as a good candidate for the Master’s Program in Chemical Engineering.
Thank you for considering my application, and I look forward to your acceptance.

Sincerely yours,