Short SOP....

[ay761]

How bad do you think this is? At my first choice school, I saw that the graduate school required a 500-600 word SOP. I struggled for over a week to shorten it to this length. In the end I was still over the limit: it was 680 words (about a page and a quarter), but I decided to submit it anyway. Very stupidly, I just happened to be re-reading the FAQ section of the department I am applying to and noticed that for my department it says they "recommend a statement between 1-2 pages, but there is no specific limit." I imagine most candidates will maximize this space, turning it into 2 pages, if not more. Even though it still falls within the recommended length, do you think it looks bad that I didn't maximize all my space and expand upon my ideas in a more detailed way? I am very happy with the result of the statement but I definitely could have expanded more (I have a 1500 word version for another school).

[hargem]

I don't think that having a short SOP is a bad thing( in fact, it is my opinion that this is a good thing). My normal SOP is only 600-700 words. My philosophy is that the readers are reading so many SOPs, that brevity is appreciated. Essentially, I am trying to succinctly cram as much information in 2 pages double spaced. I want anybody looking at my SOP to get as much information as possible.

[ay761]

hm... that's a good way to look at it! makes me feel better... thanks