personal statement

[vigneshs]

I'm applying to some of the universities for the Fall of 2012 for my graduate studies. I have a question regarding personal statement. I need to know what's the difference between a SOP and a personal statement. SOme of the universities want SOP, while some ask for PS. What are the points to be excluded in a PS? Isn't the aim of both is to convey why one wants to study in the chosen field?

[fuzzylogician]

Look at the prompt for the essay. What are you being asked to do? As far as I know, every grad program will want you to write an essay that explains your research interests and your fit with the school. This is meant to be a professional document that's forward-looking: it should explain what your interests are and a bit about how you acquired them, but it should mostly be about what you're doing now, what you plan to do in the future, and why school X is the place for you to be at. Normally this document is referred to as the SOP, but sometimes programs name it differently - 'statement of intent' or 'personal statement', for example. In addition to that essay, some (not all) schools require an essay that's more about the applicant's personal background and history -- this is the place to talk about your personal development and expand about your past, leading up to your present interests.

[vigneshs]

Thanks for your post. So, it would be wise to prepare one draft and change it according to the needs of the school, right?

[fuzzylogician]

There's been some discussion of this issue that you may be able to find if you search the forum.

The general consensus is that it depends on your situation - if you're applying to just one kind of program (one theory preferred, one favorite methodology, the same view of the field, or whatever else is relevant to your work) then one essay that can be tweaked for each school is probably enough. You need to have different 'fit' paragraph(s) for each school and you may want to gear each essay specifically towards whatever it is that each program appears to be most proud of (as emerges from its website) but otherwise you don't need to change the description of your interests and background. If you're applying to more than one kind of program (different subfields, different ways of doing things - theory-wise, method-wise, etc) then it may be better to start out with different essays for each kind of program. Lastly, some people write different essays for each program. That's the most time-consuming but also probably the best in terms for nailing fit. Then again, a lot of people (most, probably) get accepted to places without writing new SOPs for each program, so I would start with writing one essay and seeing how easy/difficult it is to use it as a basis for the next one, and go from there.