Submitting the same SOP for different applications

[gurumaster8899]

the SOP will have the same exact content for all my applications except for one paragraph which changes for every school....

any advice?

[MaximKat]

worked for me

[Joel418]

me too. In fact, at the schools where I did change earlier paragraphs to suit each school, I did not get in, so who knows...

[cardnav]

I had the same SOP, the only thing I changed was the school's name and the couple of sentences specific to the program.

[sankd]

Yeah, I had a paragraph on school specifics that changed for each one.

[fuzzylogician]

I had the same basic SOP, with 1-2 paragraphs tailored specifically for each program. Worked fine for me.

[natofone]

I took this approach and struck out at 13 schools. Next time I'm crafting each one specifically for said school, but with a common structure and common points raised.

[rising_star]

Mine all had the same ideas and research interests but read differently for each school I applied to, in addition to having a customized "fit" paragraph (sometimes two) for each program. The introduction would change, the description of my thesis was more or less detailed depending on the program, and I made sure to point out the other resources on campus that would benefit me, in addition to mentioning specific faculty (all of whom I'd been in contact with prior to applying). That approach worked really well for me as I got in with funding everywhere I applied.

[Stories]

I had a full paragraph outlined for each school. I named potential faculty I wanted to work with and what research was on-going that I would liked to have be a part of. I mentioned resources that would be useful to me and my research. The beginnings and endings had a little blurb about attending that specific school.

The research I wanted to do was general, but specific, and I made sure that all those specifics were a right fit for the school.

[sankd]

Since I rewrote my SOP completely this cycle, I actually tried to write a SOP for each school.. and then found it all redundant. So I still rewrote my SOP, I just stuck with the philosophy of having one meaningful paragraph about the school.

[frankdux]

i did the same thing. i had one paragraph tailored for each school.

what's even more interesting is the one school that gave me a fully funded offer was the one school that required an SOP that was 500 words or less. this was about half of the length of the SOP i submitted everywhere else, and so i had to strip away the details and stick to the absolute basics. i guess less really is more, or maybe my SOP sucked in its original form.