Statement of purpose for a PhD in civil engineering
Who wrote it
Duaa Shaheen holds an MSc in structural engineering from Gaza and has assessed some 600 damaged buildings. She is applying for a PhD on concrete made from recycled rubble.
The writer and every detail about them are fictional.
What went into the template
- Programme and university
- PhD in Civil Engineering (building materials), KU Leuven
- Research interests
- Recycled aggregate from demolition rubble in structural concrete: predicting and controlling its quality when the source rubble is mixed and of unknown origin
- Academic preparation
- BSc Civil Engineering 2019; MSc Civil Engineering (Structures) 2023, Islamic University of Gaza, GPA 91%
MSc thesis: 96 cubes with 0, 25, 50 and 100% recycled coarse aggregate; strength and water absorption at 7, 28 and 90 days; 25% kept 94% of reference strength, 100% lost more than a third; batches of the same rubble varied more than replacement levels
Sulfate content of 12 rubble samples: 3 above the usual limit for aggregate, most likely from gypsum plaster
Regression in R: aggregate water absorption explained about 70% of the variation in 28-day strength (R² = 0.71)
Conference paper on the thesis, 2023; a question from the audience: how would a contractor know which batch they had?
Three years site engineer with a contractor; 2024 to 2026 field engineer in a shelter programme, about 600 damaged buildings assessed
Teaching assistant, concrete technology laboratory, two semesters (2022 to 2023)
Aggregate testing, mix design, R - Fit with the department
- The department’s research on concrete with recycled aggregates and on durability testing
- Career goal
- Lead materials testing for reconstruction at home and teach at a university
The writer’s facts, as typed into the template’s form. The example uses nothing else.
The example
Statement of purpose: PhD, engineering
Numbered notes in the margin explain each choice.
Most of the buildings I have assessed over the past two years will have to come down, and their concrete will become rubble. Crushed and screened, much of it could become aggregate for new concrete. Whether it can go into beams and columns, rather than only into roads and fill, depends on one question: how to predict and control the quality of recycled aggregate1 when the rubble it comes from is mixed and of unknown origin. That is the question I want to study in a PhD.
The question
Note 1: A PhD statement lives or dies on its question. This one is precise enough to research and important enough to fund.
My MSc thesis at the Islamic University of Gaza asked a narrower version of it. I cast 96 concrete cubes with 0, 25, 50 and 100% of the coarse aggregate replaced by crushed rubble, and tested their compressive strength and water absorption at 7, 28 and 90 days. At 25% replacement the concrete kept 94% of the reference strength; at 100% it lost more than a third. What the averages hid was the spread2: cubes made from different batches of the same rubble varied more than cubes with different replacement levels. When I presented these results at a conference in 2023, someone in the audience asked the question I could not answer3: how would a contractor know, before casting, which batch they had?
Where the question came from
Note 2: She noticed what her own data did not explain. That observation is where research begins.
Note 3: Admitting the limit of her thesis turns it into the reason for a PhD.
Two further results pointed the same way. When I measured the sulfate content of 12 rubble samples, three were above the usual limit for concrete aggregate, most likely because of gypsum plaster that crushing had not removed. And when I fitted a simple regression in R, the water absorption of the aggregate alone explained about 70% of the variation in 28-day strength across my 96 cubes (R² = 0.71). In other words, a quick test on the aggregate already told me much of what a month of curing did.
Two clues
Since then my work has moved from the laboratory to the field. After three years as a site engineer with a building contractor, I spent 2024 to 2026 as a field engineer in a shelter programme, assessing about 600 damaged buildings4 and deciding which could be repaired safely. The work gave me a practical sense of what rubble actually contains: plaster, steel, tiles, plastics, and concrete of very different ages and strengths. In the laboratory I am at home with aggregate testing and mix design, and I analyse my results in R. For two semesters, from 2022 to 2023, I was also a teaching assistant in the concrete technology laboratory.
Preparation
Note 4: Fieldwork told as an engineer would tell it: a number, a task, a decision. It is evidence, not a plea.
KU Leuven’s research on concrete with recycled aggregates and on durability testing is where I could turn this practical knowledge into method. I would like to begin by testing whether quick measurements on the aggregate itself, such as water absorption and density, can predict the strength and durability of the concrete made from it well enough to grade rubble at the crushing site. That is a first step rather than a full proposal5, and I would expect to shape it with my supervisor.
Fit and a first step
Note 5: Modesty in the right place: she shows a testable start and knows the project will be shaped with a supervisor.
After the PhD I want to lead materials testing for reconstruction at home and to teach at a university, so that the engineers who rebuild Gaza can treat rubble as a material with known properties rather than as waste.
Goal
Structure
How it is built
Each part in order, with its share of the words.
Checklist
Before you send
Go through your own draft line by line.
Before and after
Common mistakes and how to fix them
Lines like these turn up in many drafts by Arabic speakers. Each fix keeps the meaning and changes only the English.
Gaza is completely destroyed and I want to rebuild my country.
Most of the buildings I have assessed over the past two years will have to come down, and their concrete will become rubble.
In my thesis I did many experiments on concrete.
I cast 96 concrete cubes with 0, 25, 50 and 100% of the coarse aggregate replaced by crushed rubble.
The results showed that the recycled aggregate is good.
At 25% replacement the concrete kept 94% of the reference strength; at 100% it lost more than a third.
Questions people ask
How is a PhD statement of purpose different from a master’s one?
It has to show that you can already do research: a precise question, how it grew from work you have done, the methods you master and a first step you could take. It says less about what you will learn and more about what you will contribute.
Should I contact a supervisor before applying for a PhD in Europe?
Usually, yes. Many European PhD places are tied to a supervisor or a funded project, so a short email to a professor whose work fits your question often comes before the application. The supervisor email examples in this library show how.
Is it wise to write about Gaza or the war in a PhD statement?
Write about it as an engineer: what you saw, measured and decided. Facts from the field are strong evidence of motivation and experience. Keep the language plain, so the committee finishes the statement thinking about your question.
Every writer in this library is fictional, and so is every detail about them. Universities and companies appear only as places someone applies to; the professors, papers and facts mentioned around them are invented for teaching. Use the examples to learn the moves, never as text to copy: committees notice, and your own facts are stronger.