"thank you for your time and consideration" - good?

[db2290]

I have seen some statements with "thank you for your time and consideration" at the end, or something along those lines. What do people make of this? A nice touch? Redundant?

[Strangefox]

I have seen some statements with "thank you for your time and consideration" at the end, or something along those lines. What do people make of this? A nice touch? Redundant?

If you have space left for that you can include it. I don't think it is a bad idea. But with all those SOP size limitations I believe it must be difficult for many appicants to finish their statements this way. I know, it's only like seven words, but anyway. You'd have to write it in a separate paragraph... I spent so much time trying to squeeze my ideas in a SOP that I really do not think such ending can work for me

[anonacademic]

I'm going to vote that this is a bad idea! It belongs in a cover letter, not a statement of purpose! I'm coming from English, however, where a premium is placed on the writing (in form as well as content perhaps even more than other fields), so your mileage may vary.

[A. sesquipedale]

I really don't think it will affect your chances of acceptance one way or the other. At least in research psychology, the committee is going to be interested in whether you can perform research both during your stay in their department and after. If you are a stellar applicant they will pick you up regardless of whether you say thanks at the end. Likewise, saying thanks won't help you get in if they don't think you can succeed in their program. There may be one or two cases in the history of admissions where two applicants, identical in all but the last sentence of their essays, faced off in a late afternoon committee meeting and only one of them ended with thank you. And, it might have been the tipping point, but I seriously doubt it.