Statement of Intent for Physical Anthro - how specific do you have to be?

[Arky]

Hi everyone,

I'm starting to write my Statements of Purpose for multiple universities, as well as composing e-mails to professors to express interest in their work. But I'm unsure of how specific I have to be ABOUT my research interests. I know it's not enough to say, for instance, that I'm interested in paleopathology within anthropology (*random topic chosen for anonymity) . But I also don't want to limit myself by becoming too specific in my interests, to the point where I'm not flexible enough to work with universities. And, of course, my interests from an undergraduate perspective are quite varied within paleopathology*, as I only had limited courses to pique my interests, and I hope to learn more in graduate school. 

So...how specific should I be? How far down the hole do you go, in your statement? For instance, can you say you're very interested in paleopathology* and then list the things about it you specifically enjoy and would like to work in (lab work, trauma, examining age-sex estimations, etc)? Is it enough to say that your general interests align with a certain Professor, and you would like to explore these interests under their supervision? Can you be open to site possibilities, or must you be more specific and say that you want to work in a certain site or geographical area - and if so, how narrow do you become (The US, the west coast, Washington state, a specific archaeology site)? Or is acceptance into a Masters contingent on creating a general thesis in your SoP: that should you be accepted into the program, you plan to continue the work of Author A by investigating A, B C, but how x, y contributes to these factors?

I just don't want to be too specific, or pretend I'm already an expert at something I have interest in, but I also don't want to sound flaky. Any help would be great!

Edited November 16, 2015 by Arky

[Bschaefer]

Hi @Arky,

I found this challenging as well because you don't want to seem so specific where the topic may be sparsely studied etc. When I was applying, I knew that I wanted to continue research in palaeopath in the Andes with the cross-sections of violence and warfare. That alone was broad but specific enough to describe both a topic and region. For instance, if you want to just keep it broad within the field of Palaeopath, then I would suggest looking at the bigger picture of the disease(s) that interest you and explain why. Most professors have a region that they study within the intended field of anthropology. If you are not sold on a region, I would include how the region of the professor or an area you may be interested in studying will be of interest to you because of x,y,z. 

I know that UK schools tend to not have an regional association besides Europe, while the US' depts. vary in region. 

What schools are you looking at? 

[bioarch_fan]

I've been working on mine as well.  In my SOP I've mostly just stated the broad field being bioarchaeology and my specific areas including paleopathology, violence, migration, and diet.  That's enough for them to know my specific interests and why I'd fit into their programs perfectly, but open enough to be flexible.  I also noted my specific era being classical antiquity and the Middle Ages, but I didn't specific a specific location.

If you have any questions or want to swap SOPs I'll be more than happy to send you mine to read and I could possibly give you ideas for yours.  I've had one of my professors in my current dept. read over mine and she has given me a lot of feedback thus far.  My first application is due in 13 days, so I need to get her last feedback so I can finalize it and submit it.  Thankfully my letter writers already have my latest copy of my SOP to work with and I'm not planning on changing much in it...just small things here and there.