Quick SOP Question

[bri8548]

If I am talking about working for a professor as a research assistant in my SOP, should I name the professor or just refer to him as 'my professor'?

[LLajax]

I'd go ahead and name him (only adds two words to the totally if you're tight against the word limit).

[NoMoreABD]

Yea, it is usually recommended to name people you're writing about. It sounds more concrete. And, who knows, the reader might know or at least have heard of this person.

[bri8548]

Thanks guys, I will go ahead and put his name in there. One more question... is it recommended that I name specific faculty members of the program that I am applying for when I am talking about my research interests? For my program I don't need to designate a faculty member that I want to study under, I just need to talk about areas of research that I am interested in.

[ts10vsg]

Thanks guys, I will go ahead and put his name in there. One more question... is it recommended that I name specific faculty members of the program that I am applying for when I am talking about my research interests? For my program I don't need to designate a faculty member that I want to study under, I just need to talk about areas of research that I am interested in.

It is always advisable that you provide name of the faculty whose work is directly related to your interest. I would also advise you to not only just mention the name but also mention papers, current research (if any) that you find particularly interesting and feel that the arguments might be useful for your own research. In this way, the committee knows that you are not just another cookie-cutter but genuine applicant. Hope this helps

[Astarabadi]

Another point is to be professional and respectable without brown-nosing. So something like "I'd like to work with Dr XX, who has done work on blah-blah for x-y-z number of years". Wherever possible, I tried to at least speak to or meet the main faculty member. That gave me the opportunity of writing "After having met" or "After having spoken to" Dr XX, 'I realized that his/her interests lie ....". So you don't always have to mention all the work they have done in detail.

[finknottle]

To be a bit safe, you should introduce the Laboratory or a Group that the Professor is a part of first. The risk in mentioning just one Professor in isolation is that that Professor might not be taking new students, or for some reason, he/she might not be particularly keen on taking you. To hedge your risks, unless you are only interested in working with one Professor, you should write your SOP in such a way that it has a wider appeal, and anyone from the Group/Lab is able to relate to your SOP.