Opinions on SOP for different departments (same uni)

[sacklunch]

Greetings! I'm applying to doctoral programs this fall in religion/ancient Near East. In several instances I am applying to different departments at the same university. I am just curious how my SOP's will look to the different departments, if for instance there is some crossover with the faculty. I'm assuming it would be foolish to apply to two different departments with the same SOP, correct? But should it be COMPLETELY different? Should I make a fresh SOP in case some of the faculty sees both? I'm just a bit confused on how to proceed!

 

best

[bellefast]

I would say that you should treat those two departments like you would two different schools. What I mean by that some things can stay the same but you would change your research interest slightly. Since they are two different programs, they are not exactly the same and you need to treat it that way. I did this when I applied for two to different programs in the same college of education. But since there is a chance for the same faculty can see it, I think they wouldn't be upset to see some overlap, but not all of it. I hope that helps.

[zapster]

As bellefast said, there needs to be some difference, but at the same time there should definitely be some overlap to show that your underlying interests are consistent. I expect you would be possibly looking at 2 different departments covering similar topics but perhaps from different perspectives? If there are common faculty, it is important that they get the feeling that you are genuinely interested in the "core" theme, and are open to approaching it from these different perspectives.