My SOP is a POS

[Happy to be here]

Geez, for some reason this phase of the application process is just really sucking. I mean, the GRE was several months of studying and stress, working with faculty to earn good letters of recommendation has been/is difficult, but writing a statement of purpose is just putting me over the edge for some reason. I only have a rough outline and already I want to crawl under my graduate carrel and suck my thumb, crying for mommy. I mean, I enjoy research, I enjoy sociology, writing research papers is fine, and doing a PhD would be tremendous work (but still enjoyable)... but when it's this strangely personal, 'selling yourself' ass-document, I feel like it's an affront to all other writing.

[newms]

I don't know if this gives you much solace, but you're not the only one! What has helped me is that I try to limit my focus on myself (I'm never good at talking or writing about me) and focus instead on my research interests. It's still easier said than done, but I find it a lot more manageable.

[UnlikelyGrad]

I absolutely abhorred writing my SOP and was very glad when it was over. Sadly, I'm still applying for fellowships (in my 2nd year of grad school), so I've had to write what is essentially another SOP both years of grad school.

[jacib]

Geez, for some reason this phase of the application process is just really sucking. I mean, the GRE was several months of studying and stress, working with faculty to earn good letters of recommendation has been/is difficult, but writing a statement of purpose is just putting me over the edge for some reason. I only have a rough outline and already I want to crawl under my graduate carrel and suck my thumb, crying for mommy. I mean, I enjoy research, I enjoy sociology, writing research papers is fine, and doing a PhD would be tremendous work (but still enjoyable)... but when it's this strangely personal, 'selling yourself' ass-document, I feel like it's an affront to all other writing.

I'm currently in a PhD program and one of the masters students asked to look at my old SoP to have an idea of what a successful SoP looks like. As I was rereading it, I realized how much useless and extraneous information I was including. I justified all these things that didn't need to be justified. However, I still liked what I had written in my research proposal section. Word count numbers varied, and the schools I got into had the highest word count (2500) and the lowest word count (500). I think my 500 word one was the best because it forced me to get rid of all that extra crap and really focus on my core research ideas, and the 2500 word one I could just go wild and wow them with lots of interesting detail.

As I'm helping my friend write hers, I'm not telling her what to write or line editing or anything like that (yet), I'm just talking to her about what she wants to do and how she'd want to do it, and whether it is a good idea or not. She has two things (poverty and collective memory) that she is really interested in and is trying to connect using a research method and a particular site, she doesn't know the particulars yet, but she is clearly excited about poverty, collective memory, and certain methods. In my SoP I was much vaguer about a research method, or even if my study was going to be qualitative or quantitative (I implied that it would historical by who I asked to work with, and one could probably infer that it would use both quant and qual methods). But seriously, rereading the first few paragraphs, I cringe now seeing myself give so much biographical information*, but rereading my research ideas I think "Wow, these are much better ideas than I remembered. I should really do this." I think if you're applying at a top school, that's what you really want--research ideas that still sound good a year later, even if you're not sure you're going to do them (selling experience is also a bonus; I get that impression from others in my peers, but I didn't have any experience to sell besides language competency). And the best way to express your research ideas tightly in a statement will be to really have talked them through with lots of people beforehand. I had been talking about my idea for two years before I put pen to paper to write my SoP.

*Note: obviously you need some amount of biographical information.I can just say for myself, I needed half as much as I put in. At least at my school, from day one it's clear you will be valued first and foremost as a researcher and a thinker, far above anything else. You don't get in because you're interesting, or you're a nice person, or you're a passionate teacher, or you've done interesting things (unless it relates to your research). I switched from a religion department to sociology for my PhD and while I think I needed to justify that switch and my lack of sociology background, I think I spent too long on it. I could have been giving other cool pieces of information to show that, in terms of my proposed project, a) I had done a lot of legwork I was already forming a thesis and doing haphazard preliminary mental analysis, or at least engaging with the issues I would encounter c) I was passionate about this particular topic.

EDIT: I noticed that the other posts were not people in sociology. I mean this advice for sociology students and social scientists more generally. While I think it would be similar in other fields, I don't actually know.

Edited October 15, 2010 by jacib

[SocioEd]

I'm currently in a PhD program and one of the masters students asked to look at my old SoP to have an idea of what a successful SoP looks like. As I was rereading it, I realized how much useless and extraneous information I was including. I justified all these things that didn't need to be justified. However, I still liked what I had written in my research proposal section. Word count numbers varied, and the schools I got into had the highest word count (2500) and the lowest word count (500). I think my 500 word one was the best because it forced me to get rid of all that extra crap and really focus on my core research ideas, and the 2500 word one I could just go wild and wow them with lots of interesting detail.

As I'm helping my friend write hers, I'm not telling her what to write or line editing or anything like that (yet), I'm just talking to her about what she wants to do and how she'd want to do it, and whether it is a good idea or not. She has two things (poverty and collective memory) that she is really interested in and is trying to connect using a research method and a particular site, she doesn't know the particulars yet, but she is clearly excited about poverty, collective memory, and certain methods. In my SoP I was much vaguer about a research method, or even if my study was going to be qualitative or quantitative (I implied that it would historical by who I asked to work with, and one could probably infer that it would use both quant and qual methods). But seriously, rereading the first few paragraphs, I cringe now seeing myself give so much biographical information*, but rereading my research ideas I think "Wow, these are much better ideas than I remembered. I should really do this." I think if you're applying at a top school, that's what you really want--research ideas that still sound good a year later, even if you're not sure you're going to do them (selling experience is also a bonus; I get that impression from others in my peers, but I didn't have any experience to sell besides language competency). And the best way to express your research ideas tightly in a statement will be to really have talked them through with lots of people beforehand. I had been talking about my idea for two years before I put pen to paper to write my SoP.

*Note: obviously you need some amount of biographical information.I can just say for myself, I needed half as much as I put in. At least at my school, from day one it's clear you will be valued first and foremost as a researcher and a thinker, far above anything else. You don't get in because you're interesting, or you're a nice person, or you're a passionate teacher, or you've done interesting things (unless it relates to your research). I switched from a religion department to sociology for my PhD and while I think I needed to justify that switch and my lack of sociology background, I think I spent too long on it. I could have been giving other cool pieces of information to show that, in terms of my proposed project, a) I had done a lot of legwork I was already forming a thesis and doing haphazard preliminary mental analysis, or at least engaging with the issues I would encounter c) I was passionate about this particular topic.

EDIT: I noticed that the other posts were not people in sociology. I mean this advice for sociology students and social scientists more generally. While I think it would be similar in other fields, I don't actually know.

Jacib, thanks for your explanation about SoP. I still have a question about it. Some universities (like University of Michigan) requires SoP and PS both. Does it mean that I should put research ideas into SoP, and biographical stories into PS? Do US professors actually distinguish between the two? Eh, you see that I am applying to schools in a country I know little about.

[socialcomm]

Jacib, thanks for your explanation about SoP. I still have a question about it. Some universities (like University of Michigan) requires SoP and PS both. Does it mean that I should put research ideas into SoP, and biographical stories into PS? Do US professors actually distinguish between the two? Eh, you see that I am applying to schools in a country I know little about.

Typically, there're some kind of descriptions associated with SoPs and PSs that can help distinguish what they want to see in each. If not, if you're in touch with any current grad students or the grad assistant, they may be able to clarify.

[jacib]

Jacib, thanks for your explanation about SoP. I still have a question about it. Some universities (like University of Michigan) requires SoP and PS both. Does it mean that I should put research ideas into SoP, and biographical stories into PS? Do US professors actually distinguish between the two? Eh, you see that I am applying to schools in a country I know little about.

Is one of them a "diversity statement" type thing? And the other one about your research interests? Different schools use different terminology and its more or less interchangeable for the most part, but some (most? all?) state schools (and perhaps some private schools) want a biographical "diversity statement" in additional to the more typical "statement of purpose". If it's not that, I don't know what it is. I get the impression that the diversity statement can only help you, but it will not hurt you. I don't know how big a deal diversity statements are, really, and I don't know if they will be read with your other statement of purpose.

As as I know, usually the graduate committee gets a file on every person, so I believe the adcomm would see it all together, rather than see 600 test scores, then 600 statements of purpose, then 600 diversity statements, then 600 writing samples. On the forum last year, some people mentioned going to schools and actually seeing their files (some of them mentioned printed out emails to the graduate secretary). I would guess that they are read together, but it might be useful to have some crossover between the two so that they compliment each other because its still easy to imagine circumstances where members of the adcomm might read things separately. Obviously, different schools would probably select people differently.

If you're apply to a UC, look at their diversity statements and if Michigan's "personal statement" sounds similar, then treat it as the same thing. I have no idea how much universities take into account diversity, especially invisible diversity (like economic background) that can't be published in little charts, when selecting students. There are a lot of theories on it, and if you search "diversity" or "diversity statement", you can find out more. And as SocialComm says, when in doubt, read the website more carefully. If that fails, email the graduate assistant. If it's confusing, post it here and someone might be able to help you. I remember there was a lot of talk about what to write in diversity statements last year, and what individual guidelines wanted (I remember I was particularly frustrated and confounded then... but to be honest, until right now, I had forgotten they existed).

[Happy to be here]

Hmmm...I'm seeing lots of similarities between "statement of purpose", "letter of intent", and "personal statement" as I'm going through applications. Maybe these are synonyms, maybe they're only meant to be confusing, and maybe I'll get a kiss from Kurt and/or Will Schuester this week?