how much time to spend on SOP?

[waddle]

Hi all,

I'm planning on spending 10-20 hours on my Statement of Purpose; I just haven't yet had a large block of time to actually sit down and write the thing. (Yes, I know, it's really late in the game to be getting started.)

I keep seeing advice that one should spend a great deal of time on writing the SOP, but does anyone have a quantitative estimate for how much is recommended? (I understand that it obviously differs from person-to-person, but I'd just like to get a sense as to how long these things really take to write. I've only written a couple of personal statements in my life, so I'm very inexperienced when it comes to writing about myself.)

Thanks!

waddle

[fuzzylogician]

It's not only about the amount of time you spend on your SOP, it's also (more so, in my opinion) about the time interval you have at your disposal. I think it's a very good idea not to write the whole essay in one long session, but rather to have drafts that you repeatedly revisit and revise. It's important to have enough time to let your draft sit aside for a week or two before you look at it again because that often changes your perspective. I wrote a first draft in the summer (probably August) and finalized each SOP as I submitted each of my 8 applications in December-January. In terms of net time I spent on my SOP, I think I had a total of about 10 drafts, at which point I had a finished skeleton to which I appended the fit paragraph(s). The fit research alone would have been at least one hour per school; each draft revision is at least 1-2 hours of net work, maybe more. Overall it took much longer because I also had to wait for comments from other readers. The original draft took several days to complete. The opening paragraph and the conclusion took agonizingly long to get right, I must have had at least 5 different versions that I sent out for comments. I think an estimate of 10-20 hours for the whole thing is unrealistic.

Edited November 9, 2010 by fuzzylogician

[db2290]

I agree with fuzzylogician - it has taken me over 6 months of working and reworking to get it to the finished stage it is now. Admittedly this is with lots of gaps.

Sometimes you lose objectivity on the damned thing after a while and need to take a break from it!

[Medievalmaniac]

I agree with both of your responders. While the statement of purpose I wrote, edited once, and sent out last season was good enough to get me a single, unfunded offer, when I read it now I cringe. I sound so unfocused as to what I'm trying to do, and at the same time so adorably pompous, that I imagine adcomm members laughing over certain of my statements before easily tossing me to the rejections pile. This year, I am actually on probably the fifth complete version of my statement of purpose, and that only includes completed versions, not partially-begun versions, and doesn't account for all of the editing and shifting of phrases and so forth. I have spent more time working on this than I did working on any of my writing samples. But at present, I have three very enthusiastic endorsements of the current version from two professors and a current PhD student, all of whom are now stating they can't imagine I would not get an offer based on this statement (Which NONE of them said about any of the other versions).. And for the first time in the entire process, I actually agree with them and think this one is really, really good. And I thought all of them were really good. So - yeah. I'm looking currently at about 20-30 hours on this single document - but I definitely do not consider them wasted hours.

[waddle]

Thanks all for the advice. I figured 10-20 hours was unrealistic, but that might be the time frame with which I have to work (at least, to meet the earlier deadlines). I had actually planned on weaving the "fit" ideas into the entire document, rather than just writing a "fit" paragraph and inserting that into the SOP--i.e. writing a different SOP from scratch for each institution--but judging from this forum, this doesn't seem to be a good way to approach the SOP.

[fuzzylogician]

Thanks all for the advice. I figured 10-20 hours was unrealistic, but that might be the time frame with which I have to work (at least, to meet the earlier deadlines). I had actually planned on weaving the "fit" ideas into the entire document, rather than just writing a "fit" paragraph and inserting that into the SOP--i.e. writing a different SOP from scratch for each institution--but judging from this forum, this doesn't seem to be a good way to approach the SOP.

In that case, START WRITING NOW! Take as long as you can to revise your SOP, the writing process is crucial here.

Any part of the SOP that discusses your current and future interests is part of establishing fit, because presumably your readers at all the programs you'll apply to will be interested in what you do. However, it's usually a good idea to additionally spell out who you think you'll be interested in working with, and why. There are other school-specific elements you may want to mention - labs, classes, special programs, collaborations, libraries, other resources - so ideally you'll have 1-2 paragraphs that you tweak for each university separately. I'd suggest starting with the main part of the essay and doing school-specific research as breaks between drafts. You'll learn a lot about how to address "fit" with a certain department from carefully reading its website and noticing what it is particularly proud of.

[TheDude]

I wrote until it didn't suck. Thirteen people looked at it and 12 love it and 1 did not, so I think I am getting there.

It didn't take too many drafts to write something that all my professors thought was killing, but everyone is different and goes through different processes. I think for days, pace like a crazy person, then the entire paper kind of is there and I need to write as quick as possible to get it out. After that most my tweaking is on the micro and not macro level.

Only you know your process....roll with it and don't freak. This is the best part of applying...this is YOU and you get to show it.

Edited November 10, 2010 by musicforfun