Statement of Purpose

Statement of Purpose

Statement of Purpose

Many professors, department websites, applications, and current graduate students will tell you that the statement of purpose is the most important part of the application. While the statement of purpose is the best way for the admissions committee to gauge your writing skills, it is quite different from the college admissions essay, or the law school personal statement. Admissions committees will not be looking for the most well-written essay with the catchiest introduction. What they really mean when they talk about the statement of purpose is that the research interest match between you and the program is the most important factor for admission, and your interests are revealed in the statement of purpose. In addition to making sure your interests and experiences are aligned with the program’s offerings, the statement of purpose is a way for the admissions officers to see how you think, either by your evaluation of your prior research experiences and coursework, and/or by your presentations of new ideas that you wish to pursue in graduate school and beyond.

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In bullet point form, here are some tips for the personal statement.

• Leave roughly 1/3 of the essay to talk about the future
  In this section you can describe your interests, goals, career plans after graduate school, and why the school you are applying to is a good choice to pursue these interests. If there is a stringent word limit, make sure you include this part, even at the expense of leaving out some of your past. Your history should be reflected elsewhere in the applications, through your recommendations, cv, etc.
• Don’t list experiences and awards
  If awards are listed elsewhere in the application (which they are according to nearly all forms), don’t put them here again! Not only is it a waste of space but it also makes you sound arrogant. If there is something listed on your c.v. that deserves explanation, you can put it in here, but even then it could be better to have a letter writer mention it, if the award is something s/he is familiar with.
• Write for each school
  Your statement should read as though you wrote it specifically for the school to which you are applying. This may mean that you can leave 5 paragraphs the same for each school and change just the 6th for each application. However, sometimes it means tweaking other parts of the essay as well. I did this for 19 schools, and it was definitely worth it! You should definitely mention specific professors you would like to work with. If you do not do this, your application may be missed altogether (one school said they worked this way, even though they didn’t warn applicants ahead of time!) You may even mention how your interests are specifically aligned to work that some of the professors have done. This step should not be hard if you have already done your research on the schools you’re applying to.
• Show, don’t tell
  Sometimes the best way to demonstrate your passion for or knowledge of your field is to include an anecdote. It takes up space, but it can be engaging to the reader, and is much more convincing than saying, “I love reading about…”. Instead, say, “One night I stayed up until 8am doing non-required reading on XXX because I was so curious as to why….”
• Don’t get too personal
  Remember, it’s called a “statement of purpose”, NOT a “personal statement.” This is not an essay about your emotional development. If something in your personal life is integral to your studies, then you should include it. However, most of the time, professors do not want to read about your personal life. The statment of purpose should read more like a professional document. However, there are exceptions to this:
• DO mention/explain rough areas
  If there is a specific reason you had a semester where your GPA was a 2.0 or your math GRE section was a 520, then very briefly mention it in the statement. However, if there is a separate optional essay for this sort of thing, include it there and don’t mention it in the statement. If there is a reason you should mention it somewhere, because otherwise professors will not give you the benefit of the doubt. However, be as quick as possible and do not make excuses for yourself.
• Use professional language
  Convey passion, but avoid using “passion,” “love,” and similar words to describe your research. Also avoid superlatives. Don’t say, “this is the best program for me” unless you’re absolutely sure it is. Instead, say, “ideal program,” which may be true of more than one school. Do not use colloquial language in your statement.
• Avoid cliches Many students will say, “I’ve always wanted to be a psychologist/scientist/writer/historian,” or, “ever since I went to the ___ museum when I was five, I knew I wanted to ___.” These stories will make the committee members’ eyes roll and they don’t do anything to explain your current knowledge, ideas, and goals. It is ok to start off with a “boring” introduction in order to avoid these openings. If you start with a meaningful anecdote that demonstrates your intellectual development, that is a great idea, but avoid throw-away sentences.
• Be concise Many applications will have a page or word limit which is usually about 1 page single-spaced or 2 pages double-spaced. Adhere to these guidelines, unless they sound unreasonable, in which case you should call the department to ask whether the guideline is strict. (One of my applications called for a 500 word limit, which is quite short! When I called about it, they said there was no actual limit.) Even if an application does not have a word limit, you should cut unecessary information and verbiage wherever possible. A committee member is more likely to read your essay thoroughly if it is no more than 2-3 pages long.

/www-personal.umich.edu/~mooreks/sop.html

Economics (STATEMENT OF PURPOSE SAMPLE 1)

The Economics Student
In this essay I am going to concentrate mostly on the incentives that stimulate me to pursue further studying, and reflect the motives for my choice of Princeton University as well as state my future career objectives.

I have chosen to work in the area of international microeconomics because it has such a demand for new ideas. At the same time it requires a good mathematical background and has obvious implications in real life.

My education suits this field very well, I have Master of Science with Honors in the field of applied mathematics and physics and a Master of Arts in economics with a specialization in international economics. I already have extensive research experience both in applied sciences and economics, know basic economic models and have strong background both in abstract modeling and data manipulation. All this probably makes me an economist, but my objective is to become a good one.

I have been taught by very good lecturers. After course I took with Professor Branson I decided that there is nothing more interesting than international economics. Professor A made issues of monetary economics and government policy fascinating. Lectures delivered by Professor B attracted me to labor market problems. I enjoyed listening to them and want to teach my mind to operate in a similar manner — attention is paid to every individual fact and each formal problem solved reflects a real economic situation.

While writing my master’s thesis I had a chance to see that a simple look at a graph can be more useful than application of sophisticated economic techniques. One of the reasons I want to study further is to reach at least the same level of intuitiveness and panoramic view of the subject as my teachers have.

My Master of Arts degree was in the field of Health Economics, which I am very interested in. It was mostly empirical dissertation. My dissertation was titled “..” and I worked under the guidance of Professor C. The greatest part of my work was devoted to macroeconomic cross-country econometric (panel data) analysis. The task was complicated by the necessity to work with omitted variables and low quality data as well as the low reliability of data for developing countries and countries in transition.

We also made efforts to build a model that explains the impact of macroeconomic parameters on health deterioration and the probability of death. My master’s thesis has been presented at the “Russian Economic And Political Institutions In Transition” conference and currently we are preparing it for publication.

At this time I am also doing empirical research devoted to inflation and monetary policy. I feel cautious specifying which area of economics interests me most for further study, but I do not think that this is a drawback. I find economics particularly attractive for the fact that it is broad, and has not yet been split into a set of narrow sub-branches — economists all speak almost the same language. I also think that in the face of complexity we face in this discipline, it would ineffective to specialize too narrowly.

This year I realized as I had not before that I wish to continue my studies. Being a teaching assistant in Professor A’s Macroeconomics and Advanced Macroeconomics classes, I understood a lot of effort must be applied for a good student to turn into a good teacher. I feel that a similar gap lies between a good student and a good researcher.

I am a hard-working and determined person, and I am ready for a new leap in my economics career. I will work hard in hope that the quantity of the effort I put in will result in high quality knowledge. The fact is that the best possible supervisors and a highly competitive atmosphere are necessary for this quality. The only reasonable decision for me was to aim for such a place. All this gives me the motivation to apply to Princeton University.

www.achieverspoint.com

Statement of Purpose (Sample 2)


My purpose for applying to graduate school is to both expand on my existing knowledge and to create additional opportunities for myself in the future. I believe that graduate school will prepare me for a successful and challenging career in the aerospace industry.

Even though I have chosen dynamics as my field of specialization, I am keeping my mind open to other areas of aerospace so that I do not limit myself. I am currently working at JPL in an academic part time position and I believe that this first hand experience will clarify my future educational needs and directions.

While attending UCLA, I have had a number of part time positions, which included being a computer consultant, AutoCAD operator, and a lab for the Non-Destructive Evaluation Laboratory at UCLA. My diverse work experiences have given me a better understanding of what opportunities are available to me. There is so much that I would want to learn and under- stand. I have always been fascinated with the space program, and some day,I want to be instrumental in operating in the space program.

I have wanted to be an engineer ever since my father shared with me some of his published engineering ariticles. I have always been a hard worker and have shown that I can handle a diverse work load incoporating work and college intocollege into my schedule.

I believe that UCLA can provide me with the tools to succeed in the aerospace industry. I have enjoyed attending UCLA as an undergraduate student and would enjoy being a graduate student here as well.

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