If you think your GRE score is bad, you should see mine... Rest assured, yours is just fine, do not worry about it. I've heard from multiple people that the SOP is the main thing that will grant you admission so heres the tips I've gotten. I've been working on my SOP since July, and I'm finally comfortable where it is now. My fiance is a Harvard student and I've gotten 2 HGSE'ers to look over it. They all say it seems great.
My SOP is:
- personal - hints at part of my story but I expand more on it in my personal challenges essay.
- it starts off with a "story" having to do with my challenges with a few strong and effective sentances
- Why I want to study IEP
- provided some examples from professional experience which led to:
- Why I want to study IEP at HGSE
- Why now. - I've been told this is the most important part, I have yet to be at a comfortable place. You really need to explain to admissions what you can offer, why you're important.
But mainly. Admissions have said write from the heart. So IMO, I would get as personal as you can.
The majority of my essay highlighted the why I want to study IEP.
I hope that kind of helped, I repeated what most people have said in these forums, but decided I'd dispense it again.
And really, don't worry about the GRE. Your scores are much better than you think. I think my GRE scores will for sure be the cause of my rejection, and they are much MUCH lower than yours. You're fine! I just really hope they employ the holistic approach and don't weigh the GRE as much, it's a silly, horrible test. Haha