misterpat Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 For those of you who applied to UC campuses: Did anyone else hate the second section of the SOP? It was like a mandatory diversity statement. I didn't notice it until the final day (the department only lists that they require an SOP) and threw together an extremely mediocre and brief essay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UnlikelyGrad Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 You mean the essay topic that made me want to barf? Yeah, I know what you mean. What evil person thinks up these things? Oh, and there was a similar (but not quite the same) essay on the fellowship application for Davis. Bleah. Having to do one was bad enough... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auzzfest Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 Yeah it seemed to be just splitting a typical statement of purpose in half, so I just took out diversity, awards, and accomplishments and put them into a separate small two paragraph essay. With the actual statement, I kept interests, previous research, who I want to work with in the department, etc. But that was only for UCSB, UCSD only required a regular SOP. Honestly a couple of the applications I did were very tedious with three or four documents that had to be created separately that could have been placed online or made into a single document. Being that I live in Colombia and had to organize all kinds of material from over here, I really appreciated the schools which have put the great majority of their applications online. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misterpat Posted January 19, 2009 Author Share Posted January 19, 2009 Yeah, I applied to UCSB; figured it was the same for all campuses (I noticed some Berkeley Econ applicants griping about it or something very similar). Michigan had something similar. A "Personal Statement" in addition to the Statement of Purpose, but it was less explicitly about being from an underprivileged school/area/ethnic group. My statement of purpose didn't have a lot of personal background in it for most of my schools; I was kind of all business about academics and my interests. I had more in early drafts but cut it out since it all sounded so cliche to me. So, the second essay was extra painful for me to write. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limeinthecoconut Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 Oh gosh, don't even remind me of it. These are one of those essays that I will keep in my hard drive, but will never ever re-read. I cringe just at the very thought of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misterpat Posted January 20, 2009 Author Share Posted January 20, 2009 It is a relief to know many people had a similar experience. 8) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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