Statement of Purpose--how specific should it be?

[vnatch]

I am in the process of writing my SoP's and had a question regarding specificity and how it relates to my interests. From all of my classes and research experiences, I have learned that I have three pretty equal research interests: (1) post-fertilization development, (2) mitosis/the cell cycle,  and (3) apoptosis. Now I know for the SoP I should include specifically what I want to research, but my question is whether I should include all of these areas as specific areas of interest or if I should only pick one of them to write about (and maybe mention the other two briefly). Basically, I want to be able to show that my interests are variable and that I am open to learning about new research areas, but I also don't want to come off as vague or non-specific.

I have the same question when it comes to talking about faculty I want to work with. For one school for example, I have been in contact with professors who study each of these three things. I'm worried that if I single out any one of them and only talk about their area of research that the other two will be less inclined to take me for a rotation. However, I'm not sure if I want to waste space writing about all three of them. (Also, I know in most cases professors don't read the SoP. However, one of the people I contacted told me to let him know when I submit so he can find my app--I'm assuming this means he'll look it over).

Does anyone have any advice on whether I should mention multiple professors/research interests or just focus on one?

[biochemgirl67]

1) contrary to popular belief, professors are not thinking about taking you on for a rotation right now.  They are busy with their current students.  I would be a little wary of PI that wanted to lock you in right now because you're not even there yet.

2) I would use one or two labs and say they are examples of work you are interested in.

3) you seem to be interested in developmental biology and cell biology.  Say that and then explain 3 different topics briefly and how they fit together.  For example, if you're interested in developmental biology, talk about developmental patterning and signaling and it's role in structure formation coupled with apoptosis.  You could also talk about how you are interested in cell cycle arrest/control in developmental processes.

[biotechie]

I agree with biochemgirl. Unless I was told in the application essay prompt to mention specific PIs, I did not. I simply said what research areas I was interested in, careful to keep it from being too specific in case the PIs I was interested in now weren't taking students next year. I was totally prepared to have to pick new PIs for rotations. I also have something else to add:

Unless the prompt says specifically not to, I think it is also important to state somewhere WHY you want to do science and where you want to end up if you achieve a PhD (such as industry, a faculty position running a lab, public science outreach, etc)... what makes you tick and what motivates you to pursue the long journey of science? This was by far one of the biggest things I got asked about from my essays, and that was something we looked for when I was part of an adcom. Believe it or not, you can actually get a good guess at fit for the program from something like this because this is where people usually let their personality out a little!

Edited October 28, 2016 by biotechie