Rate your Students SOP

[rogue]

I've spend over a decade as a professional writer, writing everything from advertisements to magazine articles to software manuals. Every time I wrote something in a new genre, I studied other examples for ideas of what worked and what didn't. I approached my SOPs in the same way.

*spent*

Sigh. You would think as a professional writer I would proofread everything. This is what happens when I multitask.

[George]

*spent*

Sigh. You would think as a professional writer I would proofread everything. This is what happens when I multitask.

Not to worry. We all make mistakes, but the quality of English on this forum is much higher than your average YouTube comment. =)

[socialpsych]

To contribute to the discussion about templates and bromides: I did base the structure of my SOP -- at least the first few drafts -- on other successful SOPs in my field. You might even say I used them as templates. I don't see anything wrong with that. There are certain elements that need to be in an SOP in a given field, e.g. the "fit paragraph," a bit on your research experiences, a description of your research interests. The thing that made my SOP stand out (assuming it did...I got some good feedback on it and was a successful applicant) was the content I put into each element, not the elements themselves. I think this is one way in which grad school SOPs can be very different from college (undergraduate) essays.

Starting with those "templates" helped me get started, but that's how I roll. If you find it inhibiting, use a different writing process. But however the actual writing goes for you, there are certain things that are supposed to be in an SOP, and whether you start with those or work them in later, you are better off including them at some point.

Edited January 15, 2010 by socialpsych

[Enzian]

Late to the game, unsurprisingly, but I just wanted to say thanks to the OP. Great little article. When you really think about what you, as a future professor and academic, would want to find hidden among a great number of applications from people who are all passionate the field, this advice goes down nice and smooth. It suddenly seems very obvious - how many bildungsroman introductions can one human really ingest? The emphasis they put on recommendations is kind of disheartening, though - just give me the secret code, the magic words! (Kidding, of course.)

Also...

Any application letter that tells my department that it is the top leader in the field worldwide will make us suspect you are trying to escape from a former Soviet republic.

I AM.

[isitFriday?]

I still have to read the whole article, but I did start with "Since I was a little..." in basically all my SOPs, and I got two acceptances so far. I guess it's what I wrote in the next sentences/paragraphs that mattered to them. But I must say in my last interviews (by phone, although no word yet from this school), my interviewers looked at the parts in my SOPs that were more interesting to their field.

[socialpsychg]

I actually did the opposite of the "I always knew what I wanted to do" intro. My intro began with a disclaimer of sorts, proclaiming that my enthusiasm for social research was not produced by any single cause. It then went on to introduce how my interests were gained from the accumulation of research and coursework I've done over the years.

Judging from my success so far, I don't think that's the worst way to go about it. However, my credentials/LORs may have offset this intro if it was actually a bad way.

Also, reading that post just seemed horribly depressing, for ways I can't particularly articulate. Perhaps it's the sense of lowliness us budding researchers really are in the grand scale of things.

[Babbling Dweeb]

Based on the comments...I think I'll save reading the article until after I hear a decision. I don't need to obsess over how poor my SOP was -I've already been second guessing what I wrote and if I should have said more/less about some items.

I figure there is always next year