SOP: The importance of opening statement?

Hi,

I was wandering what should be the opening statement in SOP. Is the following sentence an apt choice? Please comment!

Being a gold medalist at ----------------------------, being among the 20 Summer Fellows selected in India to work on the proposed research project at -----------------------, being the Most Promising Graduate Trainee Engineer at ---------------- for reducing the gear shifting effort of a four-wheeler transmission by more than 50%, being the recipient of ASME Best Paper Award and a member of one of the 15 teams working on the DARPA ----------Program in the world, life so far has been a thrilling experience both in academia and industry.

Thanks.

I think this would be better in the body of your statement. In your opening, you want to say your purpose. Grab the readers attention with why you love doing what you do and how you want to apply it. For me anyways, I don't want to start out reading a paper with a list of accomplishments. Every body lists their accomplishments, you want to stand out and show the reader, WOW this person loves what he's doing and he knows what its purpose is.

Yeah... this is a lot to dump on the reader right at the start...

I suggest starting with a short sentence. Let the reader settle in.

has been a thrilling experience both in academia and industry. ---- this is very general and not very meaningful.

Let's try to get focused on your THEME.

:-)

Thanks for the comments guys.