How specific about my goals?

[snowballed]

I am applying to Trinity College, Cardiff, East Anglia, and Exeter in the UK (I am from Canada). All of the programs surround sustainable or international development and are 1 year taught MSC's. I am putting the finishing touches on my applications and I have a question about my application. Obviously these are practical programs, and I am applying to them because I have been out of academia for a while and without a strong undergrad resume to support me.

According to many websites, I should use a SOP to tie my backgound with future goals, and how the grad program fits in. My question is:

How general or specific should I be with my immediate and future goals? Currently i have 4-5 placement and internship opportunities listed that I would like to pursue. After which, I say I would like to entertain a career with (and then I go on to list 4-6 NGOs and government departments). With this level of flexibility, am I hurting myself by not being specific? To be honest, I am flexible with my future career and see a number of paths. I have thoroughly researched a variety of post-MSC internships and placements, as well as future career destinations.

Will I be more successful if I am less honest and list one path that tightly corresponds to the degree?

Another thing: I literally scoured 40+ university websites searching for the four programs I am applying to. It took me 3 months to narrow down my selections from 50 programs down to four (with a series of matrices and much research). Should I talk about how rigourous I was and 'pump the tires' of the school I am applying to?

I have strong professional experience and my drive/work ethic is off the charts. I feel that my competitive advantage is how bad I want this and how hard I have been working to it (went back to school for two classes and got an A+B while working full time).

Thanks!

PS: One more thing. I have not mentioned my dissertation (other than a dissertation sized business plan I wrote once as proof that I can do it). For practical-orientated 1year dissertation schools, should I talk about what I would like to write about? I have not given it much thought yet.

Edited November 24, 2010 by snowballed

[eklavya]

being a student of another faculty, i do not have full knowledge regarding all the concerns you have. however, i don't think it's a good idea to go on and list names of all the places you want to work with. you can certainly say that you want to work in such and such areas with institutions like this company or that university, but enlisting all candidate places might represent you as a stiff character. other people in the forum might differ but imo you don't have to 'list one path that tightly corresponds to the degree'. if you think of it, one of the main reasons to why you are applying to graduate programs is to acquire certain skill sets (by focusing on a wide area or two) so that you can remain flexible and have the potential of jumping into other related ares, if required. and since you were away from school for a while and have learned a bit about your field of interest, the adcomm will be considerate and appreciate you being honest with your choice of multiple career options.

[snowballed]

Any further advice on this?

[Bkid-Sapps]

I have been mulling over the same questions as I work on my own SoP(s). Just my opinion but I would say don't go into too much detail about your future career plans. I think it's well understood by university staff that studying for a MA/MSc has the potentional to open up many possibilities for life after studies and/or provide many opportunities to expand one's professional network. I think it best to provide a brief example of where you could potentially see yourself following your studies. Pick one of the organizations you would be interested in working with and speak briefly about a potential program you can see yourself getting involved with. When you have limited word-count space in a SoP to get your point across, why waste your breath dropping names? They already know the key players in the field, what they aren't experts in is you. Devote more attention to shedding light on who you are as a person, professional, and student.

And as far as revealing how "rigourous" you were in defining where you wanted to study for your MSc, I would suggest you figure out how to do this subtly and creatively. Again, just my opinion, but just coming out and saying how exhaustive you've been in your research of schools sounds a bit desperate. Perhaps incorporate specific information about the programs you are applying to, drop the name of a professor or two and relevant research they've conducted, and tie this in with your personal narrative. Maybe speak about specific skills or knowledge you hope to gain from a prof. and how this will contribute to your career ambitions. Show them (rather than tell them) how relentless you've been in the research you've undertaken.