Motivational Letter For Phd - Second attempt

Good evening,

I am a Master student, and I wrote a letter of motivation for a Ph.D. application.

I made it checked already twice by a couple of friends who are more experienced than me, but if you could be so kind to have a look too, it would really help me.

Thanks in advance.

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Dear Evaluators;

I am writing to apply to the double Doctoral Program in Economics and Management at Graduate School of Management (GSOM) of the Saint Petersburg University (SPU). Specifically, I want to belong to the Department of Operations Management.

I am a Brazilian student who carried out the studies in Recife (Brazilian city), at Federal University of Pernambuco (Portuguese: Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, UFPE), where I received my Bachelor of Science degree in Economics (2009-2013). After completing my graduation, I remained at the same university and I undertook the master program in Production Engineering (2014-2016). Finally, from 2016 to 2017, I worked as an Economics Professor at UFPE, teaching Microeconomics, Statistics, Linear Algebra and other subjects.

Through my years of studying, I have developed the interest in the research field associated with the After-Sale Services (ASS) applying the game theory design to model this research problem, once there are multi-agents (players) with different goals. The outputs of my research have been published since 2015 in Brazilian and international conferences. In 2017 I was at the 11ª International Conference Game Theory and Management and I published my paper at Russian Management Journal (EXTENDED WARRANTY: AN APPROACH VIA STACKELBER GAME) in which I explain how the Stackelberg Game can be applied in modeling in an ASS environment.

During the search for a university to keep my studies, I found the Saint Petersburg University. Throughout the centuries, this academic center has been highlighted in areas of teaching and academic research. Many good researchers and scientists have studied or taught at SPU, for instance Pafnuty Chebyshev, Andrey Markov, Dmitri Mendeleev, Wassily Leontief, Leon Petrosjan and others. Moreover, among a wide range of postgraduate programs provide to students, I am particularly interested in undertaking my doctorate in Management and Economics at Graduate School of Management.

The possibility to develop my doctorate in a foreign country, at the best Russian business school is a fantastic, motivating and challenging opportunity for me. I saw the GSOM listed among the best European Business Schools (Financial Times Ranking), that is, it is a sign of teaching quality that will allow me to obtain necessary skills, which will be decisive for my career growth. Other key points must be emphasized:

1. The quality of the academic advisors in the support of the Doctoral thesis;
2. A wide variety of research centers, departments and many strategic partnerships (Universities from Europe and USA);

• To be in an academic environment focused on research with the purpose of publishing in the best academic journals and get the possibility to earn extra money as research assistant or teacher assistant;

1. The curriculum composed of educational components related to quantitative and qualitative subjects, focusing on Statistics and Management;
2. The alumni testimonial about their experiences in studying at GSOM;
3. And as important as the other elements mentioned, THE FINANCIAL SUPPORT provided to the student to dedicate to exclusively their studies and researches is a relevant motivational factor.

My academic curriculum has provided me a solid knowledge of the different theoretical subjects, encompassing the areas of economics and production engineering. In my master, I learned about operations research and the subjects which I have developed interest were Operations Management, Game Theory, and Statistics Methods. These subjects added know-how in mathematical modeling and in developing of quantitative models.

It is important to emphasize my academic competitive differential in Statistics, Probability Theory and Econometric Methods. In 2017, I took classes about Probability Theory, Econometrics and Design of Experiments. These subjects were very useful to improve my knowledge in the random phenomenon, regression analysis and experiments in different groups. Furthermore, I have learned how to use R statistical software to do a complete econometrics analysis.

After completing the PhD, I plan to work in academic (as professor and researchers) and professional (Statistics Analyst and Economic Consultant) fields. I note Russia as a land what appreciate meritocracy and support the education in high level and I want to explore this environment.

Thank you for considering my application, and I look forward to your acceptance. I hope to contribute to help this program to keep satisfactory results in the international standards and I am extremely motived and interested in belonging to this academic team.

Henrique Santos