Tips on How to Write a Statement of Purpose for Graduate School

1. Follow Directions
Read the instructions carefully. Follow the Institution’s instructions on how they want the Statement of Purpose
(SOP) to be written.
1. Word Count
2. Number of Pages
3. Format (spacing, margins, font size, etc.)

2. Consider Your Audience

Remember that admissions committee will read many statements of purpose, and they can easily
identify insincere and formulaic writing. So:
1. Be genuine. Be yourself.
2. Make sure your statement of purpose is complementary to whatever you submit next to it:
A SOP duplicating the information which is already available on other application materials
might give negative impression.
3. Show not tell: Demonstrate everything by example: instead of saying directly you are
persistent, show it. Remember that the admissions committee will read your self-motivation,
competence, potential as a graduate student between the lines.
4. Demonstrate your knowledge of the field: Make appropriate references to leading scholars,
major writers, and current debates or concerns, employing appropriate technical
terminology.

3. Write a strong opening

Your SOP should help you stand out from the multitude of other applicants. An opening that
successfully grabs the reader’s attention will help you to that end. Follow the link to read more
about this in: How to Write a Great Statement of Purpose

4. Demonstrate Interest in the School

Your SOP needs to show “Why do you want to study in this program at this school?” and “Why are
you a good match for this program?”
1. Do not send exactly the same statement to every school you are applying to. Draft a
general statement and modify it for each individual application.
2. Do research on each institution you are applying to. Make sure you refer to the program
you are applying to and to the faculty you would like to work with.
3. Demonstrate your skills and interest specifically in that particular program.

6. Be Clear and Concise

Stick to the word limit. Remember that the admissions committee will be reading many
applications alongside with yours, under time constraints. They will hardly be tolerant of verbosity.
If you can, for example, say the same thing in six words instead of ten, go for it. Remember that
you’re writing a letter to a stranger and your main purpose is to communicate a message,
efficiently and effectively. So be specific. Keep it concise.

5. Write a Draft
Do not leave it to the last minute. Give yourself time to draft, revise and proofread. Once you have
written your first draft, make an appointment, see a writing center tutor to get feedback on its
content. To be on the safe side, you can also ask a professor from your field to read it for its
content. Make the necessary changes according to the feedback and start working on your final
draft. Make sure your final draft is proofread. Excessive typos and mechanical errors (spelling,
punctuation) will not leave good impression.
Things to Avoid When Writing a Statement of Purpose
Errors, misspellings, poor English
Submit a handwritten essay (unless requested)
“Talk down” to your audience. Your audience does not need to have basic terminology defined for
them. Be mindful that they are already experts in the program that you are applying for.
Be too personal in your essay. Do not focus on deep personal problems or excuses for past
performances or experiences.
Be repetitive or too general in your statements.
Criticize other school programs
Use uncommon words that look like they came from a thesaurus.
Write an autobiography. You want to give the committee a sense of who you are but they do not
want to hear about your entire life story. Be specific and mindful of your personal details.
Submit untruthful or irrelevant information in your essay.
Plagiarism. You do not want to copy and submit another student’s letter of intent.
Be overly informal.

Essential Tips
1. What the admissions committee will read between the lines: self-motivation, competence, potential as a
graduate student.
2. Emphasize everything from a positive perspective and write in an active, not a passive voice.
3. Demonstrate everything by example; don’t say directly that you’re a persistent person, show it.
4. If there is something important that happened to you that affected your grades, such as poverty, illness,
or excessive work, state it. Write it affirmatively, showing your perseverance despite obstacles. You can
elaborate more in your personal statement.
5. Make sure everything is linked with continuity and focus.
6. Unless the specific program says otherwise, be concise; an ideal essay should say everything it needs to
with brevity. Approximately 500 to 1000 well-selected words (1-2 single space pages in 12 point font) is
better than more words with less clarity and poor organization.

Your statement of purpose should portray you as someone who:

(1) Passionately interested in the field: the hook will do that
(2) Intelligent: Intelligence will be conveyed by the overall writing, organization, expression, etc. of your
statement.
(3) Well-prepared academically and personally: can be demonstrated by using the lingo of the field
(theory, craft, etc.), describing the specific kinds of coursework and other accomplishments you have in the
field.
(4) Able to take on the challenges of grad school: can be shown by describing the rigor of the work you
have done.
(5) Able to have rapport with professors and fellow grad students — in other words, collegial:
"Collegiality" is not particularly important but is nevertheless a factor — if you can show yourself as a
generally nice and cooperative person, that will do — just be true to your own style.
(6) Able to finish the graduate degree in a timely fashion: can be conveyed implicitly by your success
thus far and more explicitly if you can tell some (brief) story about adverse obstacles you have overcome.

(7) A potentially outstanding representative of that grad school in your future career: can be implied
by your being an outstanding representative of your undergraduate school — for example, don't "bad-
mouth" your current college or professors.

If you are applying to ten grad schools, it's a mismanagement of time to write ten separate, tailored
statements of purpose. Items 1 through 6 above can be exactly the same for all the statements. Then when
you get to item 7, put in a different paragraph for each school. Remember this means the ten statements will
all be as long, in terms of word count, as the shortest required length among the ten schools. If the shortest
length is 300 words, probably that length will be okay for the 500-word school (in fact the admissions
committee at the 500-word place may see you as savvy for not going on and on). But those 300 words will
clearly not work for the 1200-word school, so you'll need to expand that one. Don't pad. Find other engaging
material in your background.
 Organization:
Here's an organization I would recommend:

[ A "hook" that demonstrates your passion for the field

]
[ Segué to your background in the field
]
[ Description of your academic background in the field
]
[ ] Specific classes you have taken, given by name Do not give a complete
list of courses you have taken
[ ] Specific professors you have had, especially if well-known in that field

[ Extracurricular activities in the field

]
[ Publications or other professional accomplishments in the field (perhaps conference
] presentations or public readings)

[ Explanations about problems in background (if needed)

]
[ Explanation of why you have chosen the specific grad school
]
[ ] Mention one or two professors in that school and what you know of and
appreciate about their work
[ ] Specific features of the grad program which attract you

Writing the Statement of Purpose

The statement of purpose should convince readers– the faculty on the selection committee– that you have solid
achievements behind you that show promise for your success in graduate study. Think of the statement of purpose as
a composition with four different parts.
Part 1: Introduce yourself, your interests and motivations
Tell them what you’re interested in, and perhaps, what sparked your desire for graduate study. This should be short
and to the point; don’t spend a great deal of time on autobiography.
Part 2: Summarize your undergraduate and previous graduate career
a) Research you conducted. Indicate with whom, the title of the project, what your responsibilities were, and the
outcome. Write technically, or in the style of your discipline. Professors are the people who read these statements.
b) Important paper or thesis project you completed, as well as anything scholarly beyond your curricular
requirements.
c) Work experience, especially if you had any kind of responsibility for testing, designing, researching or interning in
an area similar to what you wish to study in graduate school.
Part 3: Discuss the relevance of your recent and current activities
If you graduated and worked prior to returning to grad school, indicate what you’ve been doing: company or non-profit,
your work/design team, responsibilities, what you learned. You can also indicate here how this helped you focus your
graduate studies.
Part 4: Elaborate on your academic interests
Here you indicate what you would like to study in graduate school in enough detail to convince the faculty that you
understand the scope of research in their discipline, and are engaged with current research themes.
a) Indicate the area of your interests. Ideally, pose a question, define a problem, or indicate a theme that you would
like to address, and questions that arise from contemporary research. This should be an ample paragraph!
b) Look on the web for information about departments you’re interested in, including professors and their
research. Are there professors whose research interests parallel yours? If so, indicate this. Check the specific
program; many may require you to name a professor or professors with whom you might work.
c) End your statement in a positive manner, indicating your excitement and readiness for the challenges ahead of
you.