JUST 1 page? Really? Help?

[DeanDough74]

Hello everyone! I've been lurking around the boards preparing for my GRE but I have an issue that I really need some opinions on. I'm applying for a Masters/PhD program. It's technically a PhD program and you achieve your Masters along the way. The program has about a 50% acceptance rate or a little higher, so I really feel the need to show what I have to offer. I've been reading suggestions about personal statements, being creative, standing out, etc. So I started writing!

I received my bachelors degree almost 20 years ago and I've been working in the industry in various ways since then. I was initially told I needed to write a personal statement to includee my work history, accomplishments etc. But NO resume. OK fine. I was perusing their website this evening and saw something that said the personal essay should be 1 page? I'm basically at 2 1/2 pages already! Even my resume alone isn't one page?! 1 page to describe my work experience and accomplishments will literally not leave much room for anything else?! What do I do? I want to show my writing skills and I also want to show all that I've done through my career?!!!! Any suggestions??? I plan on calling to discuss this with them next week but in the meantime, I'm just sitting here stewing!

Thank you so much!

[kaister]

Highlight only the experiences that you believe most valuable towards your grad school goals. I know that might seem like it leaves out a lot but everything else you can list on your resume or ask your letter writers to talk about. Succinctly describing your goals and competency is an important part of the whole grad school application process. If you want to show writing skills, you can probably submit a writing sample of some sort.

[DeanDough74]

So should I include my resume even though it says no resume needed? Does that mean DON'T include a resume or just that it's not required?

Thank you for your help!

[kaister]

I don't see how they wouldn't accept a resume if you wanted to include one. I would send one in. If you're worried about it, you can always ask the grad assistant/secretary if you can include a resume.

[fuzzylogician]

Resume or no resume, you should not be discussing your entire background and history in your SOP. Think of the SOP as a forward-looking document. It should be about your current interests right now and how you would like to develop them in the future. Another main point to address is why the school you are applying to is a good fit for your goals - what resources, scholars, courses, etc. it offers that attract you there. You also need to devote some space to explaining how your past education and experience have provided you with the skills you'll need to pursue your goals, but that should not be the main focus of your essay.

Find out if you are allowed to submit a resume for schools that did not require one. In particular, verify that they'll accept one if the app specifically mentions anything like "no unsolicited documents." In your case they might make an exception, but you don't want your app tossed for not playing by the same rules as everybody else.

[TeaGirl]

An SOP should not list everything you ever did in your professional background. The point is to highlight important works or accomplishments.

I had a similar problem. If I'd wanted to expand on everything I'd done I would have easily ended up with 2 plus pages. Then one university asked for one and only one page when I had almost 2 pages, and I'd already thought that I had to skip a lot of things. I started ruthlessly cutting things out, and trying to find sentence structures that would say what I want without taking up a ton of space to say it. You have to get rid of all repetitions and winding phrases that don't get to the point. I probably rewrote my SOP 3 times to get there.

Just as an example, I had touched on my Master's thesis in one paragraph and then revisited the topic later in more detail. I ended up cutting everything out and kept exactly 2 really good sentences about it: one sentence summarizing the topic and what I did, and one discussing the publications that resulted and presenting the work in a conference. I phrased them as impressively as I could, and placed them in the opening paragraph to highlight their importance.

I had only one paragraph about personal stuff to prevent the statement from being dry. It really forces you to boil it down to the important things, and I actually preferred the end result so much I ended up using the same 1 page format for all my applications.

[DeanDough74]

Thanks to everyone for the comments. I actually went back this morning and took a lot of things out and re-worked some other sections. It's now 1 page (and I didn't even use a 6 point font! )

I guess I was ultimately afraid that by not knowing about my work experience, the reader would not see what I have to offer. I'll double check with their office on Monday to see if I can include a resume or not. I know it's not required, but I don't want to upset someone by sending it in if they don't want to see it at all!

Thanks again! Now off to study for the GRE.........