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Statement of
Purpose, which is also referred by expressions such as SOP,
Application Essay, or Personal Statement, is the most important part of your application.
For preparing a perfect Statement of Purpose it is vital to know why SOP is
important, Information that an suitable Statement of Purpose may contain,
Statement of Purpose Layout, and polishing techniques. Through this
text we have tried to take the intimidation out of the SOP-writing process
by explaining all these issues and providing step-by-step Statement of
Purpose Writing Guideline.
Statement of Purpose Importance
To reiterate, the Statement of Purpose is the most important thing in
your application. It's hard for students to understand the importance of
this essay but it is even more important than the transcript. SOP is in fact an
essay that you as an applicant write to the admission committee to explain
"why" based on your background and research interests you would like to join
their school/department. You cannot say that you want to go to graduate
school because your friend did the same, or it looks trendy or fashionable.
You need to provide a logical argument.
Statement of Purpose is the only part of your application
packet over which you have full control. It is a chance to make you
exceptional among hundreds of qualified applicants. A high-quality SOP will
certainly improve your chances of gaining admission, and may compensate for
weaker portions of your application.
Professional review of
your SOP will maximize your chance of getting admitted.
Information That A Statement of Purpose
May Contain
Assume that you are an admission committee member. From among hundreds of
candidates, you have to admit students. What are the most important factors
for you? Academic achievements and good test scores are important. But in an
era where the majority of candidates have outstanding academic backgrounds,
it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish between individual
applicants and decide who gets the offer of admission. Reasonable objective
for studying anticipated major is an important factor which only can be
shown in your SOP.
The
Statement of Purpose can uncover your uniqueness.
Your
SOP should demonstrate your creativity, curiosity, enthusiasm for learning,
teamwork ability, and other good attributes. You should "show" these factors
in your essay not "talk about" them.
Your
Statement of Purpose and application should reflect anything you mention in your essay. For
instance, if you talk about your deep desire to follow "X" in your graduate
study, your application should show that you have done something about this
desire before.
Guidelines For Writing Statement of
Purpose
Writing your SOP is a long and serious process -
several drafts over a two-month period are fairly common. It is necessary to
put in this hard work to come up with an essay that is uniquely yourself,
and a compelling read which convinces the admissions committee that you are
right for their school.
Here
is a very brief format of the Statement of Purpose:
Part 1) what would
like to study
Part 2) State your accomplishments, honors, and awards.
Part 3) State that you are very excited about the possibility of joining
the related program.
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Perfecting Your Statement of Purpose
So
now you have your SOP completed. After correcting it grammatically,
you should read it and revise it several times to make it a coherent and
unique essay that will award you an offer of admission.
Put your essay away for a while. Then, put yourself in an
admissions committee's place and read it in about 30 seconds. Be aware that
you are going through a few hundred applications and classifying them into
‘accepted,’ ‘maybe’ and ‘not accepted’ groups. Think of how you would look
at SOPs and try to read yours through a stranger’s eyes.
Use this check-list to be sure that you have mentioned all critical
information in your SOP in an honest and interesting manner. Your Statement
of Purpose should
contain information that demonstrates:
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An attention
grabbing introduction
-
Areas in which you are interested
-
The reasons of your interest to those areas
-
How these interests relate to your anticipated future career
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How you think further studies will help you
-
Additional experiences that may help
Your essay should flow smoothly. You should go
through paragraphs coherently. The Statement of Purpose should be grammatically correct and
end well to leave the officer with a sense of completion.
These
self-check will yield a few ideas for improvement. www.applyadvice.com
recommends you to use it at least 3-4 times during this last stage of making
your essay more perfect.
After
these checks you may ask some people to review your statement of purpose. Experienced and
professional people may help you a lot. For the last time check your essay
for spelling and grammar errors. Try to type your SOP and use appropriate
margins, font, and size. Avoid underlining, boldface and italics. Do not use
special letterhead. Finally, print your SOP on a good quality white paper.
Statement of Purpose is what actually
gets you an admission. Through "The complete version of
Statement of Purpose Guideline", we show you that how above attributes translate into
concrete steps. We show you how you can showing your advantages instead of
telling them. And we provide you with a perfect, complete, and ideal format
of Statement of Purpose. At last but not least, use the complete check-list in complete
version helps you to be sure that you have mentioned all critical
information in your SOP in an honest and interesting manner.
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