Choosing a focus for my SOP

[longsuede]

Hi everyone. Just as a preface, I’m aware that this isn’t an incredibly unique problem. I’ve already read some topics talking about the same general issue, and have gotten some really great ideas, but I’m still feeling like I need some guidance. So here we are. I’m looking into PhD programs in cultural anthropology for Fall 2015. Even though I'm coming in without an anthropology background and am still a little rough in my ideas, I'm pretty certain that after a couple years of coursework I'll be more than ready. Which is why I'm considering entering directly into a PhD.

 

For some background: I’m coming from several years experience “in the field”, so to speak, working for non-profits and as a journalist in my region of interest (Southeast Asia). So I feel like I have a lot to draw on to demonstrate my skills and temperament for research. I haven’t had any one particular “thrust” during this time, but I’ve spent a lot of time looking at political speech, land rights, and development. And I believe I could write a pretty impressive SOP that would leverage those experiences into a compelling and achievable project.

 

The problem is, when I really ask myself that essential question, “what am I really interested in”, it takes me all the way back to my undergrad, which focused on Film/Media Studies. I’m deeply fascinated with popular culture, mass media, and advertising. But I really left that work behind, and never did anything related to it in all the years since college. I know I feel it in my bones though, and all the professors that I’m currently obsessed with are working in media and popular/public culture.

 

Herein lies my dilemma. The programs I’m looking at all have professors working both in the areas I’m more experienced in, as well as the areas I'm more interested in. Do I write a SOP geared towards the former, plotting out an impressive and viable plan of study that draws on my experience, knowing full well that I have little interest in following through with that topic? Or do I write about what I really, inwardly, passionately want to research, even though I have way less experience (other than undergrad) and specificity to back it up, and risk not being impressive enough to get accepted?

 

In short, is it still “faking a fit” if I know that the program in question is the right one for me, just not in the way that I’m applying to it?

 

Sorry if this was overly verbose. I am a future academic, after all. (Hopefully, anyway)

 

Thanks for any and all help!

Edited August 8, 2014 by sisyphit

[bsharpe269]

I am in a completely different field so take what I have to say with a grain of salt. I think it might be applicable though so I will share my thoughts!

 

I have found my perfect research area, the one that I want to stay in for my entire life. It even takes effort for me to put my computer at dinner because I don't want to stop working! This perfect area for me leverages my experience, my interests, my skills, everything. This says a lot because like you, my experience is all over the place. My undergrad degree is in math but I did biomath and bioengineering research. I really enjoy mathematical modeling but also love chemistry and programming. I also almost pursued medical school or biomedical science research instead because I really enjoy wet lab/medical sort of work. My current research area combines all of this!

 

For you, I think you may be asking the wrong question. Instead of choosing one or the other, is there a way to combine all of your interests? I think your "perfect fit" research area would lay at the intersection of all of this.

 

Anyway, academia requires ridiculus hours and pays little in return. I dont think you can get through it without passion so if you have to choose then I vote passion. I am sure there must be some way to apply your expeirence to this passion though.

 

Edit: I clicked on this from the the side bar and then realized it was in the anthro thread.... not trying to hijack the thread but I still feel like more advice can never hurt!

Edited August 8, 2014 by bsharpe269

[maelia8]

Sisyphit, I think that you could easily find a way to equally emphasize your interest in what you focused on during undegrad and what you did to gain experience after you graduated. I'm in a different field, but I honestly believe that it can't hurt to have balanced coverage (mentioning what you worked on during undergrad and how passionate you feel about it as well as describing what you've done since then to show that you have practical experience in your field of study. I don't think this is an either/or situation, but rather an and/and situation. Good luck

[smg]

Throw it all in the blender and hit puree. For example, your SOP could be about wanting to do ethnography on a particular Southeast Asian advertising firm, newspaper, ngo or the political campaign of a local politician focusing on their media team.  I wouldn't propose a project that you are not passionate about. You can't fake the funk.  You also cannot get yourself into a PhD program if you have rough ideas about what you want to do you need a concrete and particular plan of action.  

 

For my own SOP I am trying to combine seemingly disparate interests and experiences into a single project--livestock based agriculture and critical theory/continental philosophy.  

[longsuede]

Awesome advice, thank you. I like the "and/and" approach, and the puree. It's the most difficult option of the three, which in my experience tends to be the right one. But I guess combining together different topics and areas that you previously thought to be unconnected is what this kind of work is all about. I'll start thinking about that.