SOP

[plume]

My personal statement is killing me! I can't get it to where I would like it to be. Has anyone else experienced this? How long are your SOPs for schools that do not provide a maximum length (mine is at 900 words.... that seems too long!)? Are you trying to include all experiences that led you to pursue speech pathology? 

I have read quite a few SOP examples and visited some websites with advice on this. I consider myself a decent writer, but I am really struggling with this. Any advice or tips are appreciated.

[Elska]

Mine's currently 811 words, but I'm still tweaking the future goals and final paragraph. I've asked one of my CD professors about which style (essay or story; academics or experience) would be better for my letter, and he said that he personally would rather see a story about what you've experienced, because it gives a better indication of why you want to go into the field, why you care about people, and is overall a better window into who you are as a person. However, I've also heard from peers that another CD professor said to cut the stories and focus more on the academics...so perhaps try and find a balance between the two if you're stuck on that. As far as length goes, from what I've read, most school cut off length at about two pages, so maybe keep that in mind for the schools that don't explicitly state a limit. For me, one school has a limit, the other doesn't, so I'm basing length off of the limit I was given. 

My letter is very experience-based and story-like, including how an SLP inspired me in the first place, and specific strong examples from my job, research, and classes to show how they all intertwined to strongly prepare me for grad school. CSUF has a small set of SOPs from SLP students that they have accepted that I've already read, and honestly, the only thing they've helped me with is determine how I DIDN'T want my letter to read like, since they all were all written in the same, boring essay format. Also, I've been told to limit the SOPs that you read, because you don't want your letter to end up sounding like letters they've already received. I started to figure out how to write my letter after reading this sentence from a SLP blog regarding what a letter of intent is: In my opinion, it’s like a first date with a total stranger. Only you are trying to convince them to marry you, blindfolded, based on a test score, GPA, and resume. With that, I chose to write my letter as if it were a first date on paper. While it's good to tailor each letter to each school, I think that you might have a better chance of standing out if you let your personality flavor your letter. Sounds like a no-brainer, but based on my peers' letters that I've read for this year's cycle, it's not always something that is automatically thought of and included. If you aren't feeling 100% about your letter in general, craft a second one using a different perspective or style, and if necessary, combine the best parts of both to create a third one. No matter what approach you end up taking, remember that your ultimate goal is ensuring that your letter sticks out in the grad committee's mind and is the one they remember out of the seas of letters they'll read. 

If you haven't already, I'd strongly recommend that you take your letter to your school's writing center or have a professor take a look at it. I've taken my letter to my school's writing center and had a English grad student look at it (I wish a CD grad student was available, but hey I'll take it), and the biggest thing she mentioned was condensing experiences and deleting details that don't immediately relate to the point of your story and your letter as a whole. Also, reorganizing your letter may naturally shorten it as well. Then, after you've gone through it with someone, give it to someone else to read. The more opportunities you allow for constructive criticism, the better your letter will become. 

 

Good luck! 

Edited December 5, 2016 by Elska

[JcSLP]

3 hours ago, plume said:

My personal statement is killing me! I can't get it to where I would like it to be. Has anyone else experienced this? How long are your SOPs for schools that do not provide a maximum length (mine is at 900 words.... that seems too long!)? Are you trying to include all experiences that led you to pursue speech pathology? 

I have read quite a few SOP examples and visited some websites with advice on this. I consider myself a decent writer, but I am really struggling with this. Any advice or tips are appreciated.

I feel the same way! My personal statement is definitely the thing holding me back from submitting my apps. I keep pushing working on it on the back-burner, because I'm struggling with it as well. I have a slightly different version for each school, and for the ones that don't specify length they're about 830-930 words.

[Elska]

3 hours ago, Elska said:

Mine's currently 811 words

Not anymore haha! It's now sitting at 892 words, but I haven't broken two pages or my 5,500 character limit 

Edited December 5, 2016 by Elska

[plume]

Thank you guys!!! I feel much better knowing that my word count for schools without limit specifications is hovering at around the same place. I feel like I got my SOP to a presentable place last night. My supervising neuropsychologist, who is an excellent writer, edited my very first draft and did not have much to say - so either it's amazing (, not!) or she had a lot going on and did not have time to edit it thoroughly.

@Elska Thank you for the excellent advice! I have been out of school for a while, but am taking one class this semester and did not think to use the campus writing center! And I am going to look back at it using the advice your writing center gave you.

I focused my SOP on my current job, since it is directly related to SLP and grad school. I know we are not supposed to have our SOP read like a resume but part of my essay is going more in-depth on what my job entails. I deleted my paragraph about how my interests before and in college shaped my path to SLP (I am an out-of-fielder) because I felt it was not as strong as my current experiences. If anyone thinks any of this is stupid please tell me! Thanks

[Elska]

2 hours ago, plume said:

Thank you guys!!! I feel much better knowing that my word count for schools without limit specifications is hovering at around the same place. I feel like I got my SOP to a presentable place last night. My supervising neuropsychologist, who is an excellent writer, edited my very first draft and did not have much to say - so either it's amazing (, not!) or she had a lot going on and did not have time to edit it thoroughly.

@Elska Thank you for the excellent advice! I have been out of school for a while, but am taking one class this semester and did not think to use the campus writing center! And I am going to look back at it using the advice your writing center gave you.

I focused my SOP on my current job, since it is directly related to SLP and grad school. I know we are not supposed to have our SOP read like a resume but part of my essay is going more in-depth on what my job entails. I deleted my paragraph about how my interests before and in college shaped my path to SLP (I am an out-of-fielder) because I felt it was not as strong as my current experiences. If anyone thinks any of this is stupid please tell me! Thanks

I think it depends on what kind of message you want your letter to send. Perhaps as an out-of-fielder, it might be good to give some indication as to where you got the inspiration to do SLP and how you used that inspiration to push yourself to get more experience in the field. It might make a good intro paragraph and also segues right into the meat of your letter, your job experiences. 

[Sandmaster]

Mine was right around 550 words, which seems somewhat short to give everything, but it really wasn't. I made sure to use succinct language that displayed a dynamic range of vocabulary. It was tough, but honestly it worked out well. I got accepted and they told me my SOP was very well written.

[Puffer Fish]

On 12/5/2016 at 1:04 AM, Elska said:

CSUF has a small set of SOPs from SLP students that they have accepted that I've already read, and honestly, the only thing they've helped me with is determine how I DIDN'T want my letter to read like, since they all were all written in the same, boring essay format.

Are you allowed to share those at all? I'm very interested but can't figure out how to find them on the CSUF website...

Edited December 6, 2016 by Puffer Fish
got the acronym wrong

[Elska]

27 minutes ago, Puffer Fish said:

Are you allowed to share those at all? I'm very interested but can't figure out how to find them on the CSUF website...

Unfortunately they are in a binder at our Communicative Disorders Peer Mentor Center and not available online. The majority of the ones I read focused on a single experience or person (especially multicultural experience) and then included information regarding academic strengths. Like I said, They were all in a very traditional, essay-like format and weren't particularly interesting or outstanding to me...but they did get acceptances to either CSUF or other nearby universities. 

[Puffer Fish]

2 hours ago, Elska said:

Unfortunately they are in a binder at our Communicative Disorders Peer Mentor Center and not available online. The majority of the ones I read focused on a single experience or person (especially multicultural experience) and then included information regarding academic strengths. Like I said, They were all in a very traditional, essay-like format and weren't particularly interesting or outstanding to me...but they did get acceptances to either CSUF or other nearby universities. 

Ah, I see. Thank you for giving the info you could! Any little bit helps since deadlines are approaching far too quickly, lol.

[Elska]

3 minutes ago, Puffer Fish said:

Ah, I see. Thank you for giving the info you could! Any little bit helps since deadlines are approaching far too quickly, lol.

You're welcome! I totally understand where you're coming from! I wish their collection had a little more variety as far as essays go, but it's always good to have some kind of example to guide you.

[ElKel87]

I'm okay on word count for most, but one of my schools has a strict 500 word limit and it's killing me (still 250 words over). At the open house they were adamant about keeping things short and also said to make it unique, ie: don't talk about a family member with a communication disorder. I'm a career changer, so I talk a bit about my career and how my professional skills will translate. I also tie that into some "unrelated" volunteer experience/community involvement I've been doing for the past year.

This winter I will be interning with a nonprofit group working with children who stutter and I do have a sentence or two mentioning that in this SOP.  However I eventually want to work with adults with language disorders, not children/people with fluency disorders, and since working with kids who stutter is pretty common I figured it would be better to focus on a more unique volunteer experience that ties into my professional skills and involves working with the elderly.

What do you guys think? Am I crazy to focus on "unrelated" over related volunteer work in the hopes it will make me stand out? Worth the risk?

[JcSLP]

2 hours ago, ElKel87 said:

I'm okay on word count for most, but one of my schools has a strict 500 word limit and it's killing me (still 250 words over). At the open house they were adamant about keeping things short and also said to make it unique, ie: don't talk about a family member with a communication disorder. I'm a career changer, so I talk a bit about my career and how my professional skills will translate. I also tie that into some "unrelated" volunteer experience/community involvement I've been doing for the past year.

This winter I will be interning with a nonprofit group working with children who stutter and I do have a sentence or two mentioning that in this SOP.  However I eventually want to work with adults with language disorders, not children/people with fluency disorders, and since working with kids who stutter is pretty common I figured it would be better to focus on a more unique volunteer experience that ties into my professional skills and involves working with the elderly.

What do you guys think? Am I crazy to focus on "unrelated" over related volunteer work in the hopes it will make me stand out? Worth the risk?

Wow, 500 words is so short! I just wrote a 650 word one for a school though and I actually ended up liking it better than my other ones. Regarding the "unrelated" volunteer experience, I think it depends on what the experience is and how well you write about it and relate it to your skills/how it will help you in this profession. I did some unconventional things in my essay but I wanted it to be unique, and everyone I asked said that since I wrote it well, it worked. If you can write about it cohesively and it's clear in your essay why you're focusing on it, I think it's worth the risk!

[Elska]

6 hours ago, ElKel87 said:

I'm okay on word count for most, but one of my schools has a strict 500 word limit and it's killing me (still 250 words over). At the open house they were adamant about keeping things short and also said to make it unique, ie: don't talk about a family member with a communication disorder. I'm a career changer, so I talk a bit about my career and how my professional skills will translate. I also tie that into some "unrelated" volunteer experience/community involvement I've been doing for the past year.

This winter I will be interning with a nonprofit group working with children who stutter and I do have a sentence or two mentioning that in this SOP.  However I eventually want to work with adults with language disorders, not children/people with fluency disorders, and since working with kids who stutter is pretty common I figured it would be better to focus on a more unique volunteer experience that ties into my professional skills and involves working with the elderly.

What do you guys think? Am I crazy to focus on "unrelated" over related volunteer work in the hopes it will make me stand out? Worth the risk?

I just finished that process! Condensing my original letter to 500 words was definitely painful, but I'm really happy that I managed to condense everything without cutting too much. Like what JcSLP said, what the experience is and how you can relate it to your skills and SLP goals for sure plays a role in how effective it will ultimately be. I think it could work as long as you explain at some point why this experience is important and helpful as a future SLP. 

[ElKel87]

@Elska @JcSLP Thank you both so much for your input! You've succeeded in reassuring me  I tie the volunteer experience in to both my future career as an SLP and to my professional career and I discuss skills that I use/will use in all three areas. So I think the essay as a whole flows well. I was feeling pretty confident about it but I had a random panic last night reading SOP prompts about "relevant experience." I think you're right though, if you can sufficiently (and succinctly!) explain it, all experiences can be relevant their own way.