PhD Cover Letter (HELP)

Hi everyone. I am new in this forum and hope you all could help me improve my cover letter for a PHD position.

Thank you all in advance.

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Dear selection committee:

I am applying to your Ph.D. Programme in the Department of Evolutionary Genetics in the Human Population History Group starting in September 2013. My career ambition is to become the first leading research doctor in Molecular Anthropology in COUNTRYX.

I majored in X in 2011 at University X placing the upper third of my class. As part of my undergraduate education I had an international student exchange at University Y thanks to a national scholarship I won. Since October 2012 I am working towards a MSc. in Anthropological Biology at University Y. Even though I haven’t obtained my final grades, based on my exam scores, I rank among the five top students.

My first exposure in a research environment began early in my career. Since the third year of my undergraduate student I was member in one of my university laboratories whose main area of research was population genetics. There I learned and mastered various laboratories techniques and gained new theoretical knowledge thanks to the different laboratory activities I took part in. I ended doing my Bachelor thesis in population genetics there. Before my graduate studies I had an independent research experience at Stanford University in John X’s Lab under the internship of John2. I learned how to perform admixture analysis using wide genome data in a Mexican mestizo population. I learned the different methods for estimating ancestry components as well as correctly interpreting the results. I was also part of an International Collaboration research were I conducted ADMIXTURE analysis using the genome of the Tyrolean Iceman together with a large set of publicly available as well as newly generated genomic data, from both modern and ancient European individuals. Thanks to this enriching experience, my interest in admixture studies led me to develop my Master thesis project in this area. I am currently working with a Puerto Rican sample using ancestry informative markers to determine the ancestral components of the population and integrating genomic with socioeconomic data. One the objective of the study is to show how social factors as well as historical factors have an impact in the genetic variation in Hispanic populations.

I am aware that the Human Population History group has current ongoing research projects, which include studying populations in different parts of the world, and I would love to add to its current studies the admixed Hispanic populations. Given my academic background, especially the experience I have acquired this subject I feel confident that I am well placed for the role.

Thank you for considering my application, and I look forward to your acceptance.

Fernando XXX