Fall 2014 Applicants

[dr. t]

I complete agree that is personal, unique, and like a fingerprint. However, I understand your concern because I had the same one. I needed to actually see a SOP in order to mentally understand what to write in mine. A grad student shared this resource with me. It is a SOP from someone admitted to Berkeley commented by a professor so that you understand why it is a good SOP (and, hence, how you can make yours equally successful). 

 

Hope it helps!

 

AP

 

That's a pretty fantastic resource. Now I just need to find a place that allows 1300 word SOPs.

[gsc]

Thank you so much everyone! I'm going to keep everyone's advice in mind and that example is definitely helpful - although 1300 words for an SOP is kind of, well, really long. 

[hdunlop]

Is it? Most of the schools I am applying to say 1-2 pages and I made the most of that space.

[dr. t]

Is it? Most of the schools I am applying to say 1-2 pages and I made the most of that space.

 

Please note the 1300 word example is well into 3 pages.

 

Most places that I applied last time around said under 1000 words. One said under 500.

Edited November 16, 2013 by telkanuru

[New England Nat]

It's now been several years since I applied but 800 was what most of mine required.

[ReallyNiceGuy]

1300 definitely seems quite long to me also.

I've only seen one "1-2 page" prompt that allowed for single space. 

There are a lot of schools out there though, so...

[hdunlop]

Hm. Well, we'll see if I screwed it up. Princeton is 1,000 words. Chicago says 2500 words. Stanford and Northwestern say two pages single spaced. UVA and Cornell say 1-2 pages but don't specify spacing.

Edited November 17, 2013 by hdunlop

[jamc8383]

Michigan, Ohio State and Wisconsin give 2-3 page limits (which shakes out to be a little less than 1000 words double-spaced). Yale, like Princeton, is 1000 words, which seems to be a good limit to stick to in order to accommodate most programs. Chicago's 2500 limit is definitely an outlier; I ended up doing about 1000 words for the SOP. Hoping the Chicago adcomm looks on this favorably; going for "concise but thorough." Crossing my fingers.

[turnings]

No one wants to read a 2500 word statement of purpose.

[hdunlop]

Yeah. I did about 1,200 except for Princeton. We'll see.

[dr. t]

No one wants to read a 2500 word statement of purpose.

[hdunlop]

[New England Nat]

The bit about who wants to read a 2500 word SOP is very true.  Tony Grafton once assured me the professors at Princeton read all 400-500 applications they get every year (though not all the writing samples).  It's a lot of work.

[New England Nat]

If you have to pretend to know their work you shouldn't be contacting that person.  Honestly I found a lot of your advise about the experience of contacting professors a little calculated itself.  This is about give and take.  Though perhaps if you started with that kind of template you went into this process thinking of it as more formal than it really is.

[TMP]

Honestly, professors would prefer to take on students whose interests matches their and/or project proposals that could potentially advance their own research. I've reflected on this a bit as I'm reading for my comps and and have noticed this kind of pattern.

You simply just cannot calculate every single bit. You just do your best and move on.

You're better off viewing these emails as first points of networking. Some of the professors who I contacted during admissions now work with me in various capacities. One of them who I wanted to be my adviser so badly is now a mentor to me. I count myself fortunate to stay in touch with some of these people so they can help me move my own career forward with different opportunities.

Also know that some people prefer not to be in contact with potential applicants and prefer to read the applications themselves as a way of emotionally distancing.

[New England Nat]

Not to mention many programs require an outside reader on your dissertation committee and there is a high likelihood that person will come from the pool you contact during admissions.

[franglais799]

Which do you think admissions committees care more about for history-- the verbal score or the writing score on the GRE? I took it twice and I got 2 points higher on the verbal section the second time (165 to 167) but 0.5 lower on the writing (4.5 to 4.0). Which score should I include? I also got 2 points higher on the math section the second time.

[New England Nat]

I'd use the higher writing score as the difference between your two verbal scores is marginal. 

[New England Nat]

BTW, since I've enjoyed being part of this community for a number of years now I'd just like to celebrate.

 

As of this morning when my dissertation prospectus was signed off... i'm officially ABD.  Yay.

[hdunlop]

Congratulations!

[Andean Pat]

Congrats!

[ReallyNiceGuy]

BTW, since I've enjoyed being part of this community for a number of years now I'd just like to celebrate.

 

As of this morning when my dissertation prospectus was signed off... i'm officially ABD.  Yay.

 

 

You're a really nice and helpful person. So- well done and congratulations.

[CageFree]

You're better off viewing these emails as first points of networking. Some of the professors who I contacted during admissions now work with me in various capacities. One of them who I wanted to be my adviser so badly is now a mentor to me. I count myself fortunate to stay in touch with some of these people so they can help me move my own career forward with different opportunities.

 

 

See, I felt very weird about contacting them after I was rejected (or after I declined an offer). There is one that I would love to have as a potential reader, and I feel very strange about contacting them, especially since none of my profs really known them.

[TMP]

Sure they might remember you. They'll be happy to know that you got in somewhere and are on your way. Move on and act as a potential colleague. You're going to run into them at conferences anyway.

[czesc]

I've had some very enthusiastic interactions with profs at schools where I was rejected. Of course that doesn't mean they all feel that way. The point is that the institution's decision in the end doesn't mean there aren't profs who went to bat for you - or vice versa. I'm sure there are even profs at my current institution who didn't want me here (or at least wanted someone else more) - which is always an awkward thing to think / worry / wonder about.