Statement of Purpose and/or Personal Statement?

[laurynap]

Hello GradCafe Community, 

 

Apologies if this has been asked before but as I am working through the grad app process for several PhD programs, I was hoping to get some clarity on this topic. I see that some schools solely require a Personal Statement, some solely require a Statement of Purpose and some require both. I was hoping someone could help me with some questions on this; 

- If they require both, how should I differentiate the Statement of Purpose from the Personal Statement? 

- Can I use most of the content from my statement of purpose I have written and re-work it for a school that only requires the Personal Statement? 

 

Thank you! 

 

Appreciate any help.