English SOP, plus word count question

[CrisCain]

Hi all,

I know this is awfully redundant, but I would much appreciate it if someone (anyone!) could PM me and read my SOP for my English PhD applications. This one is for Princeton, but obviously, the others will be tailored to other schools.

Also - Princeton's word count it 1,000. My SOP is 1,167 words, but is still less than 2 pages. How strict is the word count enforced? Should I keep cutting?

Thanks a million!

Cristen

[BlueSwedeShoes]

I can't say anything about that program specifically, but in my opinion; yes. Keep cutting.

In academia, word counts matter. Just like when you write a paper or journal article; if they say you abstract is max 250 words, it won't do with 252. Now, are they going to enforce it just as strict? No idea. Are you willing to take the chance? What does the fact that you cannot follow a simple direction -max 1,000 words- say about you as a graduate student?

Also I know some online applications cut the statement after X words/characters, so unless you're sending it in on paper you're risking to lose those last 167 words anyway.

I can read through it, but...I'm a foreign student, English is my second language, and I'm writing my own SoPs for the first time this year. But hey, if you don't like what I say, you don't have to listen

[circumfession]

Hi all,

I know this is awfully redundant, but I would much appreciate it if someone (anyone!) could PM me and read my SOP for my English PhD applications. This one is for Princeton, but obviously, the others will be tailored to other schools.

Also - Princeton's word count it 1,000. My SOP is 1,167 words, but is still less than 2 pages. How strict is the word count enforced? Should I keep cutting?

Thanks a million!

Cristen

pm me, and I'd be happy to take a look.

For English applications, I suspect that the word count is flexible. I was accepted into several (English Ph.D) programs that required 500 words...despite submitting an 800 word SoP. In fact, except for programs that forced me to enter the SoP into a box (and cut off at 1000 words), my SoP was over the word count by at least 100 words at each program. I did well enough.

English is one of those disciplines where bending the rules isn't unacceptable, especially if you have good reason to do so. Come to think of it, unlike other disciplines, the general ethos in ours encourages us to break rules--but only if we know what we're doing. So as long as you're sure that the statement won't benefit from an additional trimming, leave the 167 words in.

[captiv8ed]

OOh, I will be working on my Princeton SOP over the weekend, but for sociology. I would suggest emailing the department about word count.

I don't feel like I have a good enough handle on the SOPs to be very helpful in critiquing. Sorry!

[hinesaj]

When I first started applying I had a close friend of mine who applied to Grad programs right out of undergrad send me his SoP so I could get an idea of the genre. (He got into almost all of the top programs that he applied to, so I figured it would be a good resource.) His was very long, almost 3 pages single spaced and it exceeded the word count for the program of the example that he sent me--to be more clear he sent me a statement for X university, and say x university has a 500 word limit, his statement was 1000). He got into that program. I guess what I'm trying to say, in a very convoluted way, is use discretion. I doubt that a school is going to physically count every word in your statement, but they know what a thousand words look like, so if you write 1500 they'll know. If you're +/- 100 words I wouldn't fret too much--though, I'm sure you can find places to cut if necessary.

I know UChicago makes you put your statement in a dialogue box on the online application that refuses to accept it if its over 1000 words. So it may be a good idea to have a shorter version around for any other schools that have a similar system.