SoP vs personal statement. Also MA vs PhD

[Cjachter]

Can someone please explain the difference between a Statement of Purpose and Personal Statement?

 

The school I am really hoping to get into requires a Statement of Purpose for the master program. I have read a couple of forums here on SoPs and they seem to be in reference to PhD applications. Is there a difference in writing for an MA vs a PhD? 

 

I apologize if these seem trivial, but I am the first person to attend a Masters program in my family and I am limited at the moment to learn the difference. 

[fuzzylogician]

The statement of purpose and the personal statement are most likely the same thing. If an application is only asking for one of these documents, then regardless of its name, this document will be about your academic interests, how your background will allow you to pursue them in graduate school, and your thoughts on why this particular schools is the right one for you ("fit"). If there are explicit questions that the prompt for the document asks you to address, of course you should do that, too. We usually call this document the Statement of Purpose (SOP) on this site, but some schools give it other names, like the Personal Statement (PS). Occasionally schools ask for an additional essay beyond the SOP. This may be a "personal history statement" (or similar names) that focuses more on your past and how you've develop to be the person you are today, and/or a diversity statement. Those will have more of a focus on you and less on your research (unlike the primary essay---the SOP).

The main difference between a SOP for a PhD and for a MA will be in the level of detail that you give. You can generally be vaguer about your plans when you're applying for an MA; for a PhD, schools will usually want to see that you've really thought the decision through and that you understand what you're getting into, and also that you are able to formulate some kind of research question or coherent set of interests. Additionally, in some fields you might have non-academic career goals that guide your interest in the MA program, and that will change how you talk about your interests and plans for what you'll do while in school and after. That said, programs will likely still want you to be able to articulate why you want to study there and not at other places, and that requires you to describe your interests, broader goals, and background, just like you would for a PhD program. 

See more in the FAQ.