Generic SOPs

[CP3]

Hi,

 

I've read that sending essentially the same SOP to multiple schools is frowned upon.

 

This makes sense to me, and logical, but I am curious as to how some of you have approached writing individualized SOPs for specific programs. 

 

It seems almost impossible to me to write completely different letters for each school. 

 

I have a few themes for an SOP sketched out, but I'm trying to figure out how to not make them sound generic.

 

Make sense???

[bsharpe269]

I am just starting to work on my SOPs now so I can share how mine are differing.

 

At one of the schools that I am applying to, one of the well known professors in my field just published an important, well known paper in a great journal on a really cool topic. This topic is something that I also plan on looking into from a different perspective next semester so I will probably include a paragraph in the paper about his research in this area and the connections to what I am doing. There are other great professors in my subfield there too so I will also talk about their reserach.

 

At another school, a professor is working on something really interesting that I have been following very closely. It has inspired some of my own ideas and I have a really cool project idea that I have been trying to talk my current PI into going with. I would have to complete the project mentioned above to do this though. I am sure that I will mention these ideas and the inspirations from that particular paper in that SOP.

 

I am tailoring my SOPs like that. I am talking about how the professors at those schools are doing interesting things and how my own research connects to that. There will definitely be some cut and paste paragraphs between all of the papers. For example, I will be including a standard paragraph about the model used in my current lab and how I have contributed to it and used it. I will also outline my basic research interests which will be the same across all schools. The difference will be in connecting these interests and my background to the specific professors at those schools though.

[themmases]

I don't think every line of your SOP needs to be unique and special for each school. However, readers can tell when you wrote the same thing to everyone and just changed the school name, or wrote 80% the same thing and confined your thoughts about the school to one fit paragraph. The whole SOP should explain your purpose and why you are likely to be successful, at the same time that it demonstrates fit. This means tailoring.

 

Ideally you should have several examples you could use of work you've done or goals you have that would make you a good candidate for training and a career in your field-- maybe even more than you can fit if you were going to fully explain them all. I'd recommend researching each program and choosing which aspects of your background to discuss based on what the school offers.

 

For example, for a school that offered a great opportunity to work with big data I talked about designing a study that sampled anonymized electronic medical records and how my department went on to reuse my method in future studies. For a school in my city, I talked more about my knowledge of the school's community engagement and my own experiences working directly with patients in this city. Specific work groups, studies, or resources you'd want to be involved in or that exemplify the school's appeal to you are good things to reference because they concisely describe your interests to the people familiar with them. They don't require you to rewrite your whole statement-- presumably you have broadly the same research interests no matter whom you're writing to-- but show more thought than just adding the school name or talking only about yourself.

[TakeruK]

For me, I think about 75% of each SOP was the same and 25% was different, except for the few schools that wanted a special format or other restrictions on their SOP (one school only allowed one page). I spent about 75% of the SOP explaining why I am a good fit for graduate research in the field (through describing my past experience and successes) so this part was basically the same for each school. I agree with themmases that this part can be customized as well but I did not think it was worth the extra time. Not counting the time I spent brainstorming, I spent around 6 hours writing and revising this part.

 

The remaining 25% was my description of how my goals (both research and career) fits in well with the school I'm applying for and how the school has the people, resources, facilities etc. that matches what I need to succeed. I rewrote this part (about 2 paragraphs) each time, however, there are some elements that remain the same. I felt that I had pretty clear goals so I only applied to schools that met a certain set of criteria. I spent about 30 to 60 minutes to write these two paragraphs for each school.

 

I've said this in other SOP posts, but part of the decision to limit the time I spent on the SOP was because I don't think the SOP makes a huge difference in my field and because I felt my time was better spent on other things (e.g. finishing my Masters). In my field, I would say that a bad SOP can really hurt you if you are not able to clearly and concisely describe how you are qualified and why you are a good fit. However, an average SOP that achieves these things is not much worse than a well crafted SOP that achieves these things and is also really well written. In addition, I don't think having an amazing SOP would "make up" for the other aspects that might make you not as competitive. So, my philosophy with SOP writing was to make it not suck and stopped working on it after reaching "diminishing returns". 

 

Therefore, in my opinion, generic SOPs are just fine if you are applying to a series of very similar programs. Oh also, professors write generic LORs all the time in my field (just change the school name), including the professors on the admission committees. So, it would be really hypocritical of them to expect students to write unique SOPs for every school yet write the same LOR for their own students

[Edge]

Aside from changing "University of Whatever would be a perfect fit for me" to the corresponding university, every SoP was exactly the same.  I got admitted to three of six schools.

 

I do know people that have applied to grad programs and have written individual SoPs for each school that focus on a particular professor or nuance of the program or facilities, and have done equally well.

[ShadowFairy]

I am also having a difficult time tailoring my SOP to each of the grad schools I'm applying for.

 

The majority of my SOP is spent describing my research aspirations and experience.

 

Then I dedicate a single paragraph for the school, why it interests me, how I can make a good fit, what professors I want to work with, etc. I try to connect it with my previous paragraphs too.

 

Followed by a conclusion of what I intend to do with a graduate degree (career aspirations).

 

Is this template design still too generic? I am hoping to spend a little bit more time customizing each after I write an SOP for all of them first, at least.