How to get into Grad School

[newms]

Hey everyone,

I thought I'd share this site that was put up by Katherine Sledge Moore, who has sat on admissions committees, about what to do to get into grad school. It has lots of information about all aspects of the application process, including a sample SoP and CV from Moore when she was applying to 19 (!) schools. She is in psychology, but the advice is very relevant to most, if not all, fields. I came across the site by browsing her sample SoP that Deven pointed out in

[schoolpsych_hopeful]

I've seen this before, and it's an awesome resource. Highly recommended to applicants of all fields.

[fuzzylogician]

This is a great resource, one of the best I used when I was applying. I'm glad to see that it's been kept up to date!

[hahahut]

Anyone tried to bargain the SOP length like she mentioned? I do have a school giving only 500 words while most others allow at least 1000. Not sure if it is ok to check with the department (don't feel right)

[newms]

Anyone tried to bargain the SOP length like she mentioned? I do have a school giving only 500 words while most others allow at least 1000. Not sure if it is ok to check with the department (don't feel right)

Is it possible to tailor your 1000 word version down to a 500 word version for that school? It will take a little more work but I think it's best to give them what they ask for in their instructions.

Edited October 4, 2010 by newms

[hahahut]

That is what I was going to do. But her website mentions she had one school asking for 500 words which she thought was too short. When checking with the department, the reply was there was no actual limit. That is what got me to think if that is a valid thing to ask.

[newms]

That is what I was going to do. But her website mentions she had one school asking for 500 words which she thought was too short. When checking with the department, the reply was there was no actual limit. That is what got me to think if that is a valid thing to ask.

Ah ok. It might be valid to ask but I'm guessing they'll probably state what's on the website, but there's no harm in asking.

[fuzzylogician]

I also had one school that asked for a 500 word essay but when I asked it turned out that the requirement was imposed by the graduate school and they didn't mind if it was longer. It always pays to ask.

Also: yes, it's possible to condense a 800-word essay to a 500-word essay. I ended up having to do that. It's a painstaking process where you have to strip the essay down to the bare essentials, but I actually ended up really liking the short version. It had no choice but to be very concise and professional...though I still would have preferred to submit the longer version, if I could.

[strokeofmidnight]

Anyone tried to bargain the SOP length like she mentioned? I do have a school giving only 500 words while most others allow at least 1000. Not sure if it is ok to check with the department (don't feel right)

It depends. When I applied, I sent my 1,000+ word SoP to every program, including ones that asked for 300 or 500 words. [i did something similar with my writing sample: I sent 25 pages--which was really 35 carefully reformatted--to schools that asked for 20. I did cut down to 18--ie, 25 reformatted--for schools that asked for 10-12 pages]. Every program with a "short" limit accepted me, so it would seem that I wasn't penalized for going over the word count.

This story does need a few caveats:

1. This will likely vary from field to field. I'm in English, a field that tends to reward risk-takers and rule-breakers who can (implicitly) justify their actions. I'd imagine that my flouncing of the application requirements wouldn't be nearly as well received had I been applying in a field that prizes students who follow directions meticuously.

2. This was my third (successful) round of applications. By this point, I knew what I was doing. The SoP had absolutely zero "fluff"--no attempt at a hook, no discussion of past classes, very little narrative background. It was simply a dissertation proposal and I needed the room to explain what I planned to do. Then again, I was much further along then most applicants (several of the programs that accepted me--none of which normally accept transfer credits or will give advanced standing--offered to let me in as a second or third year), and this was an unusual approach. I banked on the fact that--although my SoP was incredibly long--the content was sufficiently compelling and concise to justify the space. If you've cut absolutely that you can and your sense of your project is sufficiently advanced that it takes that many words to describe it, you might want to consider using all the space that you need. But if you can cut it down, definitely do so...even if you're not cutting all the way to the word limit.

In short, it is your job (not to mention good writing) to make your SoP as concise as possible, but I wouldn't sacrifice quality just to meet the word count.

[morningdew]

It depends. When I applied, I sent my 1,000+ word SoP to every program, including ones that asked for 300 or 500 words. [i did something similar with my writing sample: I sent 25 pages--which was really 35 carefully reformatted--to schools that asked for 20. I did cut down to 18--ie, 25 reformatted--for schools that asked for 10-12 pages]. Every program with a "short" limit accepted me, so it would seem that I wasn't penalized for going over the word count.

This story does need a few caveats:

1. This will likely vary from field to field. I'm in English, a field that tends to reward risk-takers and rule-breakers who can (implicitly) justify their actions. I'd imagine that my flouncing of the application requirements wouldn't be nearly as well received had I been applying in a field that prizes students who follow directions meticuously.

2. This was my third (successful) round of applications. By this point, I knew what I was doing. The SoP had absolutely zero "fluff"--no attempt at a hook, no discussion of past classes, very little narrative background. It was simply a dissertation proposal and I needed the room to explain what I planned to do. Then again, I was much further along then most applicants (several of the programs that accepted me--none of which normally accept transfer credits or will give advanced standing--offered to let me in as a second or third year), and this was an unusual approach. I banked on the fact that--although my SoP was incredibly long--the content was sufficiently compelling and concise to justify the space. If you've cut absolutely that you can and your sense of your project is sufficiently advanced that it takes that many words to describe it, you might want to consider using all the space that you need. But if you can cut it down, definitely do so...even if you're not cutting all the way to the word limit.

In short, it is your job (not to mention good writing) to make your SoP as concise as possible, but I wouldn't sacrifice quality just to meet the word count.

I have question on your second part, you said you wrote no "fluff" materials. I'm applying to masters media communication graduate program, but I feel like I should distinguish myself from others by having that "hook" and discussing my unique background. I also have low gpa so i need to justify in a brief sentence. is that all right? 1/3 of my SOP talks about why this grad school is right for me and my future research topics.

What do you think?

[hahahut]

By the way, the program I checked did reply that they don't have limit on word count and it is up to me to write as much or less as I want. However, I will still try to cut to that limit. I guess unless there is a very good reason to keep something in my SOP, I wouldn't risk.

[fuzzylogician]

I have question on your second part, you said you wrote no "fluff" materials. I'm applying to masters media communication graduate program, but I feel like I should distinguish myself from others by having that "hook" and discussing my unique background. I also have low gpa so i need to justify in a brief sentence. is that all right? 1/3 of my SOP talks about why this grad school is right for me and my future research topics.

What do you think?

So, 2/3 past, 1/3 fit+future? That sounds like the wrong balance. I'd say a good balance is about 1/3 past, 2/3 fit+future. Your background is important, but in order for the adcom to know whether or not you'd fit they need to know more about what you are currently doing and what you plan to do in the future. If you are knowledgeable about your plans and can articulate your interests, the department will know if there are faculty members around who could guide your work. Being very clear and articulate about your interests will set you apart from the crowd in a much more significant way than telling the adcom about how you first got interested in X or what classes/projects you did in the past.

[Kitkat]

I thought I'd share this site that was put up by Katherine Sledge Moore, who has sat on admissions committees, about what to do to get into grad school. It has lots of information about all aspects of the application process, including a sample SoP and CV from Moore when she was applying to 19 (!) schools. She is in psychology, but the advice is very relevant to most, if not all, fields. I came across the site by browsing her sample SoP that Deven pointed out in

I know she talks about how she put information into excel to help put in the data and compare programs. I was wondering if anyone else has done this, and how they did it. I like the idea, but am finding it difficult to reduce the schools and their qualities down into pure numbers. But I am also finding it hard to compare the schools with pure words as well. I do like the idea though of putting everything on an easily compared chart.

[newms]

I know she talks about how she put information into excel to help put in the data and compare programs. I was wondering if anyone else has done this, and how they did it. I like the idea, but am finding it difficult to reduce the schools and their qualities down into pure numbers. But I am also finding it hard to compare the schools with pure words as well. I do like the idea though of putting everything on an easily compared chart.

I did something similar to this. Just decide on what categories you want to grade schools on - I used five (Reputation, Research Fit, Location, Admission Rate, Funding Rate). I think she used more, but it's up to you. For the first 3 categories I assigned a score out of 10 and then multiplied the totals by the acceptance rates and then by the funding rates (which I estimated as the percentage of students that get full funding). You can play around with the numbers by having the categories weighted, so if you value research fit more than location, you could always weight the research fit values to be more. Personally I preferred to use a google spreadsheet since its online rather than an Excel one that is tied to my machine.

[Comet7777]

I know she talks about how she put information into excel to help put in the data and compare programs. I was wondering if anyone else has done this, and how they did it. I like the idea, but am finding it difficult to reduce the schools and their qualities down into pure numbers. But I am also finding it hard to compare the schools with pure words as well. I do like the idea though of putting everything on an easily compared chart.

Yeah I noticed this as well. I opened up her spreadsheet and it seems useful but kind of messy. I may go back and either tweak it to match my upcoming applications or just start from scratch using some of those ideas. Though I must say, Excel is kind of foreign to me