Arky

Hi everyone, I'm starting to write my Statements of Purpose for multiple universities, as well as composing e-mails to professors to express interest in their work. But I'm unsure of how specific I have to be ABOUT my research interests. I know it's not enough to say, for instance, that I'm interested in paleopathology within anthropology (*random topic chosen for anonymity) . But I also don't want to limit myself by becoming too specific in my interests, to the point where I'm not flexible enough to work with universities. And, of course, my interests from an undergraduate perspective are quite varied within paleopathology*, as I only had limited courses to pique my interests, and I hope to learn more in graduate school. So...how specific should I be? How far down the hole do you go, in your statement? For instance, can you say you're very interested in paleopathology* and then list the things about it you specifically enjoy and would like to work in (lab work, trauma, examining age-sex estimations, etc)? Is it enough to say that your general interests align with a certain Professor, and you would like to explore these interests under their supervision? Can you be open to site possibilities, or must you be more specific and say that you want to work in a certain site or geographical area - and if so, how narrow do you become (The US, the west coast, Washington state, a specific archaeology site)? Or is acceptance into a Masters contingent on creating a general thesis in your SoP: that should you be accepted into the program, you plan to continue the work of Author A by investigating A, B C, but how x, y contributes to these factors? I just don't want to be too specific, or pretend I'm already an expert at something I have interest in, but I also don't want to sound flaky. Any help would be great!