School asking for both an SoP and Personal Statement

[Kitkat]

Has anybody here applied to or looking at a school that is asking for both? How did that go? It just seems like it is a bit much to me, in ways to stress yourself out. Although it also strikes me another way of trying to convince them that taking you is a good thing. Any thoughts from other people?

[Waw]

Yeah, I've encountered some universities that do that. It's usually a good idea to carefully check what the departments think about the seperation between those two. I realised at some point that one of the departments had very different ideas of what they want to see in each kind of document.

It's a bit more work, but I think it's worth it when you get the option, because as you said, having two such documents lets you show off academic merit as well as things like drive, future plans, and history, without having to abbreviate things for the sake of a shorter essay.

[newms]

Hey Kitkat, I had this very same question when I was applying: A couple schools that I applied to had a requirement for something like a personal statement in addition to the SoP. One school wanted something like a diversity statement, to show how your cultural and life experience led you to want to go to grad school. Where others wanted something like a background statement that described the process in your academic journey that led you to want to apply to grad school. What I did was just to answer what the prompt asked for in both cases. I've been successful at one of the schools that asked for a Personal Statement - so I'd like to think that I did something right in that case (or at least not disqualifying ). If you want I can PM you that one that I used so you can see an example.

Edited February 17, 2011 by newms

[Eigen]

Reminds me of the NSF Fellowship applications- 3 two page submissions. You do a Personal Statement, a Statement of Past Research, and a Research Proposal. The statement of purpose/personal statement is similar, with you focusing on your background/personal history in the latter, and your research goals/interests in the former.