Specificity of SOP

[salome]

My second post of the day--I have a lot of questions! I'm curious what people's opinions are about how specific you need to be in a SOP for Master's degree programs. Most of the previous posts here seem to be PhD-focused so I didn't find quite the answer I was looking for while browsing. I, for example, am applying to policy programs with a focus in health. Within the realm of health policy, I have a variety of interests ranging from health IT and chronic disease management to health disparities and access to care. I planned to discuss my experience with 2 or 3 of these topics in the SOP. However, I get the sense from the posts I'm seeing (although maybe these are more for PhD apps) that I'm supposed to develop a very specific research question, regardless of whether or not I end up pursuing that topic in a Master's thesis. So, my question is: how specific does one really need to be in a Master's SOPs? Thanks!

[rising_star]

You definitely do not need to have a research question. In fact, I think a lot of schools would be turned off by that since you're supposed to take the knowledge gained from your courses and apply it to whatever area you end up doing research in. I do think 2-3 areas might be too many to talk about, if for no other reason than that you'll quickly run out of space. I guess what I'm saying is that for a master's, you should be somewhat focused but no one will hold you to exactly what you've written. You should give them an idea of what you want to study, why you want to study it, and why that department is the right place for you to study it. Good luck!

[db2290]

I am applying to Phd programs, but it seems that even for these, your research question needs only to be general and not particularly specific. Therefore I would be surprised if Masters adcoms were looking for anything but generalities about what you would like to study