Prompt:  With the understanding that the choice of academic school you indicated is not binding, explain why you are applying to that particular school of study. (150 word limit)

"Yes!" I stared excitedly at the "program completed" text shown on the Statistical Analysis Software. Graphs and data charts showing various statistical relationships between different biomarkers and cognitive functions are strewn across the screen in victory. Exhilaration rushed through me as I looked at my months of combing through research paper and hours spent on Saturdays debugging the program come to fruition. It is with this same undying passion for discovery and creation that I had crafted cardboard boats, programmed robots, and executed my first Gram-Schmidt problem. That moment of self-fulfillment was genuine happiness - yet, that intellectual thirst for discovery is unsatiated. To further nurture my passion in science and engineering, I look to Rice. With a whirlpool of innovative ideas from many top thinkers in the world for inspiration and the multi-purpose Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen for resources, George R. Brown School of Engineering is a dream come true.