A SOP at 150-300 words max. How do you condense your writing when there's so much to say!?

[slarsen2]

I have been going over the requirements for my current top choice school and their personal statement is to be only 300 words max! I tried to write a quick draft as practice and I hit 300 so quickly.

From those who have been there, how did you work to condense and summarize your writing? What did you opt to emphasize or cut out?

Here were my bulletpoints:

-Briefly touch on my crappy grades as a freshman science major compared to my great grades now

-Why I chose SLP and specifically why I want to work with kids with Autism

-My experiences: internships, jobs, volunteer, research, etc.

-Why I am a good fit for the school.

 

ANY suggestions are welcome! 

[SopranoSLP]

I read a good blog post about this recently, courtesy of @mcamp. He suggested you start by just writing EVERYTHING. Say every little thing you want to say! Get it all on paper!... Then start distilling. So plow past the 300 word limit for now and go from there. :-)

[thespeechblog.com]

I definitely recommend getting it all out there first and then cutting back - 300 words is NOT at a lot. Try to be strategic and include in your SOP what cannot be found elsewhere. For example, if you know a LOR writer is going to mention your research experience, don´t waste space in the SOP. OR, I would say with less than 300 words try to be super brief about the grades - they will see that in your transcript. Focus on what makes you stand out from the crowd, your fit, and your personal story. 

[jmk]

Don't rehash your whole resume in your SOP. Just focus on one or two experiences that really defined what this field is for you. 

Also, could you ask a LOR writer to highlight your upward grade trend instead? 

[fuzzylogician]

In 300 words I'd concentrate on stating what you want to study and why, expanding on one previous experience that contributed to this decision, preferably chosen in a way that makes your path to this decision clear and jives with the school in a way that helps demonstrate fit, then conclude with a more explicit discussion of fit. For the grades, maybe a LOR writer can help, or maybe there is another place where you can upload a "supplemental essay" or find a place to write a short blurb in the application where it is relevant. 

[hkates]

 I think the best advice that I got on the SOP was to highlight why I would be successful as a graduate student in each particular program. This gave me a good central idea to work around, and a way to keep my essay fairly short since I only touched on my experiences which I thought would help support me as a student and help me be successful in the program. I also stuck to this theme when I talked about the specific program and why it was a good match for me, given my strengths and my interests. It's very important to departments to pick students who they feel confident will succeed in the grad program (I know this seems obvious, but keeping this solid idea in mind can be very helpful, I think) since their reputation as a program relies heavily on the success of their students/graduates and they can select so few candidates from the huge number of applications they receive. Many applicants have good grades, high GRE scores, and hours and hours of volunteer experience, and all this information will (hopefully) be outlined on other parts of your application. Use the SOP to express how those statistics and experiences, which are often not unique to you, will lead to your unique success in the program. 

Edited May 30, 2016 by hkates