sarah_policyhopeful

I'm concerned that my personal history statement is not personal enough.. I start by talking about my Jewish heritage and my synagogue's focus on social justice, and then go into how that led me to my interest in promoting equality and human rights, and mention a few projects/internships/jobs i've had in this area. I tell a story about a client of mine who was homeless, when I worked in social services, and how it relates to my interest in improving public policy. (i'm applying for the MPP program.) My worry is that this amounts to a repeat of my resume, and I don't really have any personal barriers I can discuss. Should I mention how my undergrad degree in women's studies and anthropology focused on issues of inequality? do I need to state something specific about how my work with marginalized populations helped me to understand the barriers others face to higher education, or is that too contrived?

I would love to swap with someone- I really need some help with this one! Please hit me up, I'll be happy to edit for you.

It seems like a lot of the advice about application on here is geared more towards those who are applying for PhD programs, and I was wondering how applicable it is to those of us just applying for a MA. I am applying for the MPP program at Berkeley, and I'm not sure how specific my SOP needs to be about which professors I'd like to work with, etc, since the program is fairly regemented. Shold I list a few people who's work interests me? I can propose a project, but I'm not sure if I need to or should. The MPP program does include a thesis/independent study project, and I have a basic idea of what I'd like to do for that but not alot of details. Should I include this? Should I be researching the specific methodologies that the department favors and including them in my project proposal portion of my SOP? I realized after reading some posts on here that a lot of my SOP is really more appropriate for the personal history statement, so I need to rework the whole thing. Help!