When mailing in your Statement of Purpose, should you paper clip it or staple it or do nothing to it?

[grad29]

Silly question, but just wondering what you did  

[med latte]

Are you sure the program wants a mailed copy? I thought most use online application systems now. 

[fuzzylogician]

^ Even when I applied only 1/8 wanted hard copies of statements, and that was 8 years ago.

Also, FWIW I think this really doesn't matter. I'm sure you'll get conflicting opinions, which is a good way to get confused and psych yourself out, but this is really not going to make the difference in your admissions decision. Make sure your name appears on each page of each document you send and that the bottom indicates "Page X of Y" so they know if anything is missing. I honestly don't remember what I did but I bet I stapled the pages together because I've never owns a box of paper clips.  

Edited August 23, 2015 by fuzzylogician

[shadowclaw]

Interestingly, while the majority of the programs I applied to did everything online, the two programs I chose to attend (for my masters and PhD) both required materials to be mailed in. The school I did my masters at wanted everything mailed except the actual application that I filled out online - transcripts, LORs, statement, application fee. Where I'm going in the fall at least does LORs and application fees online, but I had to put all of my transcripts, my statement, and an application for a TA position into one envelope. However, this was program-specific. I applied to another program at the same school, and they preferred to receive everything digitally.

As for paperclip vs staples vs nothing, I personally use paperclips for everything, just because several previous professors didn't like having papers bound together when they read papers and required paperclips. So in case whoever is reading my work doesn't like folding back pages, I use a paperclip. Plus it's really hard to staple papers that are more than 15 pages or so  Not that a personal statement will be that long. So yeah, I used paperclips when I mailed my materials, but I doubt it matters.

[grad29]

2 of the 7 programs ask for a hard copy be mailed in. The other 5 ask that it be submitted online. One of the programs I applied to last fall that I didn't get accepted to also asked it be mailed in as a hard copy. 

I think I'll choose the paperclip method lol

Edited August 24, 2015 by westy3789

[TakeruK]

Although I did not mail any paper copies of anything to my US grad schools (paper materials are common (at least in 2010-2012) in my field in Canada though, for both schools and fellowships), I generally always use paperclips whenever I submit hardcopies of anything to any organization. I feel that paperclips allow the reader to decide if they want the pages together or separate, and it's especially easy if the receiver needs to scan or photocopy the individual pages for multiple members on the committee etc. A staple forces the pages to be stuck together! Like fuzzy, because paperclips would mean that it's possible for one of your pages to go missing, I put my name and Page X of Y on every page for things submitted in this way.

Edited August 24, 2015 by TakeruK

[knp]

Just because it amuses me, but when somebody asked this question about CVs on the Chronicle forum, the thread went on for 24 pages. Academia sometimes really is a marvel, and you can take my tone there any way you like: http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,32865.0.html