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Most universities require a statement of purpose as part of
the application process. This is an important way for a student
to put a personal touch to his or her application compared
to impersonal factors like test scores and grades. If you
are applying to a top university you will compete with other
students with great scores and marks and the SOP may be a
way of distinguishing yourself.
The main purpose of the SOP is to link your past, present
and future in the context of your academic goals. It should
discuss your past achievements and the challenges you have
overcome. That should fit in with your immediate goals and
the courses you are applying for. You should also talk about
your long-term plans and what you hope to do with your education.
Finally your statement should provide some insight into the
kind of person you are.
Here are 8 tips on writing a good SOP:
1. Carefully read what is required
This is obvious but needs to be mentioned first. Different
applications forms will have different instructions on the
SOP. Read them carefully and write your statement accordingly.
If there is a word limit, stick closely to it. If the application
has a question-and-answer format, stick to answering the questions
instead of going off on a tangent.
2. Adapt your statement for each university
Don’t send the same SOP to each university. Do a little
research about the institution and the department where you
will be studying and try to think of concrete ways in which
you would be a good fit. Most colleges and universities will
have extensive websites and it’s easy to learn about
their history, the research interests of the faculty and so
on.
3. Plan your statement carefully
Before writing your statement you should decide what your
main theme is and structure your essay around that. The individual
paragraphs should support that theme and flow logically from
one to another. You statement should be more than a bunch
of random sentences about your accomplishments and goals.
4. Be specific
Avoid clichés and vague generalizations. If you are
talking about your strengths provide examples of achievements
where you have demonstrated such strengths. At the same time
don’t just a reel off a string of accomplishments. It’s
better to focus on a couple of successes which you think are
really important and write about them in detail, explaining
how you overcame challenges and what you learnt from the experience.
5. Get advice from different people
Pass around your statement to your friends and professors for
advice and tips. Listen carefully to their advice but at the
end of the day you are the person who understands best what
it is you are trying to communicate. You should trust your own
judgement.
6. Revise your statement several times
Like any piece of serious writing, the first draft is only
the beginning of the process. You need to constantly examine
your draft, sentence by sentence, looking to improve it and
incorporate some of the suggestions you have received. It
helps to read your work out loud to see how it flows.
7. Check your grammar and spelling
A spelling mistake or grammatical error can undo much of the
good impression of the rest of your statement. Don’t
rely on your word processor’s spelling and grammar checks.
If necessary ask someone whose language skills you trust to
examine your statement.
8. Be honest
Remember the people who read your statement are experienced
faculty and staff who have read thousands of statements. If
you make false or exaggerated statements they will likely
smell something fishy and nothing could hurt your application
more.
To sum up, the statement of purpose is important and deserves
a serious amount of time and work. Other parts of your application
like your test scores and academic results take months or
years of effort; you shouldn’t dash off an SOP in a few
hours. Spend a few weeks going through all the main steps:
planning, writing, getting advice and revising your SOP. That
is the kind of effort needed to write something that is genuinely
distinctive and impressive.
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