Political Theory- Writing an SOP for History of Political Thought

[ghstx22]

Hello everybody,

 

My interest is mostly in enlightenment political thought, particularly Smith, Hume, and Rousseau, and I have lately found myself mostly doing research on themes such as liberty, religion, and happiness as they relate to people in society. I am in the early stages of thinking about my SOP, and my question is, how general/specific is ideal? Would it be best to focus on one aspect of my research interests, or should I try to give a comprehensive view of my research interests? I am afraid of coming off as too unfocused given that most of the programs to which I am applying want a fairly short SOP.

 

Thanks!

[peternewman89]

I just went through this, focusing generally the same era, and came away with one funded offer out of 13 applications, so I'm not how successful you can say I was, but my goal in my personal statement was to show that I had passion for the field and show what I had done already.   My work and the points of interest that I brought up demonstrated what I was interested in and what era I would focus on. I was concerned more with showing my competence through past work and my passion for the field, my drive that would be what keeps me going through uncertain times and difficult placement struggles.  

 

I talked all this over with my undergrad advisor, and his advice was to do just that, to come in with out too defined a focus, as they want a student who can be molded and is open to some change rather than someone dead set on studying one particular thing.  To study political theory means that you have to be open and have an encyclopedic knowledge of the field.  You'll have to do your own research of course, but if you have any major work that you've done (a thesis, publication, etc.), you'll show you know how to do that.  I named a few ideas for papers I had and some other things to show that theory really does dominate my mind and constantly run through my head.  That's what you have to show I feel; the passion and the mindset. The rest can change but that is what remains.

[ghstx22]

Thanks for responding! I was kind of worried, but I am writing a thesis and am doing a good bit of directed research alongside two of my professors (2 semi-, but not directly, related projects), so I'll try to incorporate that into my SOP.