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Posted

Hi all, 

I've been talking with some alums and current students at some of the programs I'm applying to and wanted to know if it's a good idea to incorporate what they told me about the program and if so, how I'd do that. This would be stuff that's not explicitly posted on the website. 

For example, for school X, apparently the school is very generous in their support for graduate students and I'd like to write something along the lines of

"I am confident that the program's generous support for its students will help further my academic goals" 

I've been told quite a few things about how research is conducted, the overall atmosphere, how closely students work with faculty, focus on research vs. teaching. 

I don't want to seem like I'm throwing out unfounded information, but I haven't been able to come up with a concise and eloquent way of saying "I heard from alums and current students that your program is awesome and I really want to attend because xyz"

A friend told me that she incorporated stuff like this successfully in tailoring her SOPs but.. I'm not sure how.. :(

Posted

I think you should keep this brief if you want to include it. Don't include actual details because like you said, it's not necessarily reliable. Instead, a sentence like the one you quoted could work, if you phrase it differently. I personally wouldn't include this, but I don't think it will significantly hurt or help your application.

Posted

If you are sure that your information is correct, you might write about those properties the school has as something you look for in a program that would best fit your interests and personality just as things you want, and let them say "oh, that's exactly what we are about, that's a good fit!", but it may also backfire if they don't see themselves that way (even if the student you talk to does). I don't think saying something like "I heard from alums that your program is awesome" is too useful; but you could say something like "something I look for in a program is [blah], and from talking to current students/alums [in X context], I understand that this is something that Program emphasizes. This is another reason why I think it would be a good fit for my goals". Either way, I don't think having or not having this one sentence will make a huge difference. 

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