Statement of Purpose - advice please

[joops]

Hello everyone! I'm having some trouble with my statement of purpose. Normally, I have no trouble with writing, but for some reason this part of the application process has been very difficult for me. I would like to know:

1) Does anyone have any general advice?

2) How specific should I get when I'm talking about the research I want to do? At this point, all I really know is that I want to study soc of religion, and would especially like to study the role that religion plays in social movements. I don't know much beyond that. Any advice?

Thanks a bunch! Best of luck to all.

[jacib]

Hello everyone! I'm having some trouble with my statement of purpose. Normally, I have no trouble with writing, but for some reason this part of the application process has been very difficult for me. I would like to know:

1) Does anyone have any general advice?

2) How specific should I get when I'm talking about the research I want to do? At this point, all I really know is that I want to study soc of religion, and would especially like to study the role that religion plays in social movements. I don't know much beyond that. Any advice?

Thanks a bunch! Best of luck to all.

1. For general sociology applicationadvice, try

2. As for your statement, I'd lean towards making it much more specific than not. One thing that programs are looking for is "serious" sociology students (for that same reason, I was encouraged to hide the fact I was applying to other types of departmetns), and they want to see that you can design research and have a deep interest in a specific topic. After all, you're going to be working at that one topic for several years. While changing your topic, and even scrapping your topic entirely, is fine once you get there, you do need to propose a fairly specific to start with. I didn't say what methods I would be using (some people are clear about this in their proposal), but I was very clear what was the main thing I wanted to look at, as well as half a sentence "and possibly with x and y in comparative perspective." If you say, "I'm interested in the sociology of religion, particularly the role that religion plays in social movements" I think they'd also want you to say a specific social movement or two working on specific issue or two. such as "examining how Family Research Council and the Catholic League have conceptualized 'the war on Christmas'"or "how Christian base communities have affected the debate on housing in Central America" or "how the Muslim Brotherhood has become the most effective, though fickle, advocate for democracy in Egypt". My proposal was that level of specific, but you could phrase it a little more conditionally, if that made you feel more comfortable. "I'd like to look at how left wing religious groups have tried to enter the discourse on same-sex marriage in America, perhaps comparing the efforts of the Unitarian-Universalist church and United Church of Christ. While the the UU have done X, the UCC have instead decided to do Y. Why did blah blah blah. I'd like to understand how these groups have failed to create an alternative liberal model of religiousity." You don't have to say whether it would be historical or ethnographic or quantitative, but I do think you have to name names and give some details even if it is after a "perhaps".

[joops]

Thank you so much for your advice, it was very kind of you to help me. I now have a much clearer idea of what I'm going to write.

I wonder why the SOP is the hardest part of the application for so many people!

1. For general sociology applicationadvice, try

2. As for your statement, I'd lean towards making it much more specific than not. One thing that programs are looking for is "serious" sociology students (for that same reason, I was encouraged to hide the fact I was applying to other types of departmetns), and they want to see that you can design research and have a deep interest in a specific topic. After all, you're going to be working at that one topic for several years. While changing your topic, and even scrapping your topic entirely, is fine once you get there, you do need to propose a fairly specific to start with. I didn't say what methods I would be using (some people are clear about this in their proposal), but I was very clear what was the main thing I wanted to look at, as well as half a sentence "and possibly with x and y in comparative perspective." If you say, "I'm interested in the sociology of religion, particularly the role that religion plays in social movements" I think they'd also want you to say a specific social movement or two working on specific issue or two. such as "examining how Family Research Council and the Catholic League have conceptualized 'the war on Christmas'"or "how Christian base communities have affected the debate on housing in Central America" or "how the Muslim Brotherhood has become the most effective, though fickle, advocate for democracy in Egypt". My proposal was that level of specific, but you could phrase it a little more conditionally, if that made you feel more comfortable. "I'd like to look at how left wing religious groups have tried to enter the discourse on same-sex marriage in America, perhaps comparing the efforts of the Unitarian-Universalist church and United Church of Christ. While the the UU have done X, the UCC have instead decided to do Y. Why did blah blah blah. I'd like to understand how these groups have failed to create an alternative liberal model of religiousity." You don't have to say whether it would be historical or ethnographic or quantitative, but I do think you have to name names and give some details even if it is after a "perhaps".

[Roll Right]

Thank you so much for your advice, it was very kind of you to help me. I now have a much clearer idea of what I'm going to write.

I wonder why the SOP is the hardest part of the application for so many people!

Many of the schools you're applying to will want a narrative, so try to discuss how you found sociology and why you believe a PhD is the right path for you. Usually discussing a life event and how that event pushed you toward sociology is good. If you can't think of something like that, maybe discuss how you found sociology and why you chose to stick with it. Don't make a long list of things your CV will already tell them. Write about your life, how sociology fell into it, and then your future research interests. Sprinkle in your accomplishments between the lines. This will make for an interesting read while also highlighting your skills and goals.

[LJK]

Many of the schools you're applying to will want a narrative, so try to discuss how you found sociology and why you believe a PhD is the right path for you. Usually discussing a life event and how that event pushed you toward sociology is good. If you can't think of something like that, maybe discuss how you found sociology and why you chose to stick with it. Don't make a long list of things your CV will already tell them. Write about your life, how sociology fell into it, and then your future research interests. Sprinkle in your accomplishments between the lines. This will make for an interesting read while also highlighting your skills and goals.

Why do you say most schools want a narrative? The vast majority of advice on this forum and on other grad app websites seems to say: forget the narrative, show you are a professional-in-training.

See the pinned SOP mistakes thread under the SOP forum:

[barilicious]

Why do you say most schools want a narrative? The vast majority of advice on this forum and on other grad app websites seems to say: forget the narrative, show you are a professional-in-training.

See the pinned SOP mistakes thread under the SOP forum:

Every adcomm is dfferent, and every person on each adcomm is different. Personally, I would think after reading 100s of SOPs that sound very similar - a nice narrative may be refreshing and nice to read. Now, if someone takes the narrative approach it should be extremely relevant and strongly showcase your interest in the field, but I don't think a narrative should be entirely scrapped if you can pull it off well. Obviously, I haven't heard back from any schools yet, so I don't know how my SOP will be taken, but I believe mine is extremely strong, and I opened mine with a narrative. Also, though slightly different, my best friend from undergraduate did the narrative approach applying to law school (which is definitely different in the sense that you don't need to discuss your research interest), but still she got in to every ivy law school she applied to (and is now going to UPenn Law). Just my two cents

[Roll Right]

Every adcomm is dfferent, and every person on each adcomm is different. Personally, I would think after reading 100s of SOPs that sound very similar - a nice narrative may be refreshing and nice to read. Now, if someone takes the narrative approach it should be extremely relevant and strongly showcase your interest in the field, but I don't think a narrative should be entirely scrapped if you can pull it off well. Obviously, I haven't heard back from any schools yet, so I don't know how my SOP will be taken, but I believe mine is extremely strong, and I opened mine with a narrative. Also, though slightly different, my best friend from undergraduate did the narrative approach applying to law school (which is definitely different in the sense that you don't need to discuss your research interest), but still she got in to every ivy law school she applied to (and is now going to UPenn Law). Just my two cents

Yeah, every adcomm is different. The majority of schools I've spoken with have asked for a "clever narrative", something interesting that also shows your accomplishments and goals. I think a writing sample should show professionalism. You don't want to bore them with a business type goals statement, and then hit them with a scientific research paper. Let them get to know you.

[joops]

Yes, this is more or less what I did. I began with a very short story (one paragraph) about how I decided to become a sociology major. Then, I talked about how I got into sociology of religion. I did make it a narrative, but I think I did a good job of showing how my experiences incited my interest in obtaining a PhD.

I don't want to make it sound like a creative nonfiction piece, but I also don't want to bore anyone.

Thanks for your help!

Many of the schools you're applying to will want a narrative, so try to discuss how you found sociology and why you believe a PhD is the right path for you. Usually discussing a life event and how that event pushed you toward sociology is good. If you can't think of something like that, maybe discuss how you found sociology and why you chose to stick with it. Don't make a long list of things your CV will already tell them. Write about your life, how sociology fell into it, and then your future research interests. Sprinkle in your accomplishments between the lines. This will make for an interesting read while also highlighting your skills and goals.