Motivation letter for Master's degree

Hey guys,

My name is Ricardo and I'm applying for a Master's programme in a Swedish institution. I have to write a motivation letter. I'm not a native speaker so I would highly appreciate any feedback. This is my first draft and I've been working on it for two days. I feel like I have included everything I wanted but also a little more.

Dear Selection Committee,

It is with great enthusiasm that I submit my application for the Master's programme in Computer Science for the autumn of 2015 at the $UNIVERSITY.

As a Bachelor of Communication Networks Engineering, I can assure I have an excellent academic background. Such confidence may seem odd, as my grade point average might not be absolutely high, but I don't believe it to be a valid indicator of my potential. I earned my degree from a highly respected institution and my course transcripts categorize into two halves [This is visible in my course transcripts, which they already have a copy of. On the first half I got some bad grades, except for programming courses. On the second, I got my *** together and raised all my grades.]. My dedication and passion for computer science appear from the beginning, but I truly grew as a student after reaching the engineering courses.

Being extremely curious and meticulous, I joined various optional courses such as virtual reality from the second year, when I was granted a research scholarship at $SCHOLARSHIP1. For the next four semesters, I tutored students in programming systems, improving my communication skills and bringing myself closer to the academic environment. In the meantime, I focused on cloud computing, distributed applications and security, which granted me another research scholarship at $SCHOLARSHIP2. This project, supported by the Ministry of Health and in cooperation with two professors and the Swedish clinic $CLINIC, was responsible for my Bachelor's thesis, an article, currently in production, and also a functional prototype of the proposed healthcare system. By the end of my undergraduate studies, my advisor assigned me to $INSTITUTE, a research institute in which I'm currently leading the development of a remote network management tool based on the SNMP protocol. Our team works with $COMPANY, a Brazilian telecommunication solutions manufacturer.

I devote particular attention to details and I believe them to be the key to excellence. As a professional, I am expected to succeed in my tasks, so in order to stand out I have to take a step further. During my academic experience, I volunteered to every chance to learn new abilities, programming languages, mobile and web frameworks . Technologies evolve rapidly and we must be ready. In fact, even after fulfilling the requirements for the acquaintance of my degree, I coursed image processing, through a graduate discipline offered optionally to undergraduate students, and developed a frequency domain watermarking mechanism designed to sign private images for healthcare systems. Such an incredible opportunity to take part in a practical lecture and create a solution related to my previous work made me sure about seeking a future in the Academy. As for my career prospects, I would like to improve my knowledge in distributed applications, security and software engineering through research and cooperation with the leading industry. Despite the privacy concerns, cloud computing has an undeniable importance. During my final project, we developed a secure multiple access architecture for public clouds, but one problem remained for further studies: how can we trust an application served by a potentially malicious provider to be the one originally deployed? My proposal is that it starts with code validation and I would like an opportunity to investigate it.

Finally, I am really excited to pursue a Master's degree in Computer Science, and the $UNIVERSITY is the perfect option, not only for being a leading world-class institution but also for its strong relationship with the industry. Moreover, being in an academic position is a great honor. That being said, living in one of the world's most beautiful capitals is also a big advantage. Thank you for your considering my application and for your time. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,
$SIGNATURE
$NAME, B.Sc.