Personal statement question

[hopefullyslp1]

Hi all! I'm an out of field (Spanish and Education) student applying for Fall 2015. As I'm preparing my personal statement, I have run in to a couple of problems. My ulitmate goal is to work as a(n?) SLP in a medical setting, dream job would be NICU, or as a bilingual SLP with Spansih-speaking clients. Is it wise for me to talk about my specific goals in my personal statement, or would that make me seem closed-minded?

[Dedi]

I don't know much about your field, but I don't see why having goals makes you closed-minded. It isn't like you're bound in blood by those goals. People's interests and goals change over the course of grad school.

No one is going to be 100% open-minded, like no one is 100% impartial. I'd say go for it and add it. It might make you appear more ambitious and focused. Most schools want you to have a reason to attend grad school anyways.

 

Hope that helps!

[hopefullyslp1]

That's a really good point. Thank you!

[GandalfTheGrey]

I'm an SLP grad student and I fully agree with Dedi. Stating specific goals shows that you know enough about the field to know what specific opportunities there are in addition to showing that you are motivated and dedicated. The way I structured my personal statement was starting general (Why SLP?) then moving to more specific (why I was interested in AAC and speech sound disorders) and then to school-specific (why my interests and background are a good fit for that school).

[Chandru1]

I was at an info session for University of the Pacific. They do NOT like students who come in with a specific focus. The way they see it, undergrads have not taken the courses and externships to know what they want to do, especially for out of fielders like us.

I am finding the personal statement hard, since I have a specific focus in mind.

[GandalfTheGrey]

I was at an info session for University of the Pacific. They do NOT like students who come in with a specific focus. The way they see it, undergrads have not taken the courses and externships to know what they want to do, especially for out of fielders like us.

I am finding the personal statement hard, since I have a specific focus in mind.

 

I find this very odd (I'm not questioning you, Chandru1, I'm just wondering how common this preference is). It seems to me that having a focus shows you know what you want to do with yourself, and have a more focused reason for going to grad school other than "I want to help people and SLPs get paid well". I'm wondering if Pacific is okay with students having interests, as long as they don't come off as having to narrow of a focus? For example, maybe a personal statement devoted to why you want to work with preschoolers with autism is not what they want, but if your strong interest/experience working with preschoolers with autism led you to be interested in the field of SLP so you can learn more about human communication and how to diagnose and manage its disorders, that would be okay? That way you are highlighting your interests/skills without making your SOP about a specific focus you intend to maintain in grad school.

 

I also applied to schools that requested we include areas of interests in the SOP, and for schools that offer specialty tracks, I would imagine the school would want to know if you plan to complete a specialty track. This might be a question that, like so many others, comes down to what individual schools want.

[Chandru1]

My best guess for this is that UoP offers classes in all aspects of SLP, and does not focus. Therefore, they want students with a broad range of interests.

[kumapanda]

Are personal statement prompts the same every year for schools?  If applying for a CSDCAS program, do all the CSDCAS schools have the same prompt? 

[Chandru1]

^ Similar to undergraduate schools and the Common App, some schools apparently have a Supplemental Application to the CDSCAS.

[BiancaNicole21]

I would recommend looking at the websites of the programs you'd like to apply!

If you see that a program has courses and research geared towards your interest, it would be advantageous to mention that in your letter!

These admissions councils recieve hundreds of applications and anything you can do to set yourself apart would be in your favor!

I wrote a blog post about the LoI/SoP! biancaslp.wordpress.com or search Bianca's SLP Odyssey  
GOOD LUCK!