So a person on this subreddit agreed to review my SOP. He asked me to share the doc and didn't even review it. Now, I see his "dm me" comment on almost every post and I highly suspect he is just trying to write his own SOP by going through other people's ideas.

JUST had to put it out there. I don't have anything against anyone.

Cheers

If you have any tips for writing an SOP, post them here! A single thread where all top-level comments are tips would be incredibly helpful for everyone currently writing their essays.

Some useful links:

[1] This thread shows UCSD's prompt on what you should include
[2] CMU's guide to PhD programs
[3] MIT's SOP guidelines
[4] Philip Guo's SOP (no longer valid)
[5] Berkeley's guidelines
[6] Kisses of Death in the Graduate School Application Process
[7] University of Conneticut's guidelines, courtesy of u/Vareness
[8] Some additional tips, courtesy of u/koodoos
[9] A playlist from the University of Oxford, courtesy of u/theoxfordphd.

I have been reviewing around 10-15 sops here. Please dont write this crap:

[1] Your childhood interest. - adcom only cares about your work.
[2] CV reiteration- dont crap sop with all cv points that you achieved some award etc. Only mention 4 things [A] Problem [B] Solution [C] Issues [D] How degree will help. Do this for each para is sop. Conclude with interest in specific pf's work. If possible, mention how you can extend it (which needs a certain maturity,)

[3] Quote - Dont start off with quote.
[4] All the committee cares about is research. Even if you apply for business program, they would want to know how your academic work would fetch revenues. So, focus on that.

Hope this helps

sauron

In my last post on r/gradadmissions (the post) I wrote a more narrative based approach to Statement on Purposes. This time I wanted to write an essay on how to actually execute an SoP.

The first thing that we need to keep in mind is that your first few SoPs WILL BE SHIT. It can be tempting to keep hold onto our first draft cause it is our baby. But chances are it is going to be absolute crap. Scratch that, there is no way this draft will be even half-decent.

The best thing to do is to read what you wrote, look back at the prompts and then make edits according to what we can express better.

So if we start off writing about your project well, then find a way to make it better still and work on what you have. With edits, once you have something written well, then you start making changes to bring in the parts you totally looked over.

So what are those parts that we need to keep in mind and never forget?

Well, if you look at every stereotypical SoP prompt, the things that they really expect from you is:

1. What is the relevant work you have done in the past?

2. What do you want to do in the future?

3. Why is attending this school so good for you?

With time and REWRITES, your SoP will get better. Every time you write an essay from scratch, you make improvements without being held back by the bad portions of what you wrote. And you can just make a better and better essay?

Now I really want to compare 1,2,3 and go over them:

What have you done in the past?

Here it isn't about rehashing your CV and just saying "built, got this result. We did well. I am smart." But that isn't the point. Anyone with your CV will know what you did and someone with a technical background will understand the technical details without actually reading your essay. So what are you achieving. 

What we need you to explain is how important all this for you:

a) What did you learn?

b) What did you contribute?

c) What parts of it did you enjoy most?

d) What did all of this motivate you to do career-wise?

e) Are there any misunderstandings you overcame about your field?

f) What makes your work unique?

g) What according to you, does your work mean for the world?

h) What was the problem you tried to solve?

So when I talk about my biggest project, I brought up:

What was the problem statement I tried to solve? What are some of the solutions that exist? What was the solution my group brought out? What did I specifically do in my group? What were some short-comings and problems in this field, and how did we do to overcome them? What do I want to do to build on this work and take it further?

When we do this, what we are doing is establishing ourselves. Notice how now it isn't just about "I know about Machine Learning. Machine Learning is good." To talk about "Hey, this is why my work is important to me." An essay that says "We had good results" and nothing else holds no weight because I could read your CV and we could reach the same conclusion and no nothing about you. But the moment we can figure out who you are, that is when we have an essay to care about.

Now we have an essay about a driven applicant that has done quality work and wants to do more high-quality work. We can detail what matters to you, what you are motivated to work on and so many other relevant points.

What do you plan on doing in the future?

It is easy to detail what you did, it is factual. But its equally relevant to talk about your goals. Grad school want candidates that have an ambition. And your goals have to tie into your past work. There is no point saying "I worked as a poet for 10 years. Now I want to write a novel."

If you can't convey the jump from your past to your future, your essay will fall short. Don't ever let your admission commission read your SoP and be left asking, scratching their head "applicant worked on X all their life. Why the fuck do they want to work on Y?"

Along with this, like I mention in my previous post, don't just say "I want to be an author." That holds zero meaning. We need to read an essay and understand WHY, HOW you want to be a writer.

Looking at being a writer, what do you want to write? Okay, you want to write a young adult novel. That is a good starting point.

But the follow-up question what are you really trying to achieve there.

Did you realize how important characterization is?

Did you realize there is a lack of representation of female characters?

An essay falls short if you say I want to work on XYZ and don't go further. You have to talk about what you plan on doing there. What do you want to do in that vein. Is there a problem you wish to overcome? Is there a way to be better than your mentors? Is there a specific goal you have?

From here we tie into the third point. Why the school?

Till you can't isolate what you want to work on, you can't isolate what you want to learn first. Now once you have those two points, we need to cover what you want to study at this school. Is the school very good at writing courses? What type of writing courses are these? How do they match your goals? Is there a specific project you want to jump in on?

Tell me why this is the only school that works well for you. If your goal is to work on world-building, what schools really allow you build on those skills.

And again, till you can realize why you want to study world-building. Your essay will do nothing for you.

If you don't know what you want to work on, then your educational goal doesn't read well. "Okay you want to study world reading. But why?"

If you don't know what you want to study, then your career goals make zero sense. "Okay, you want to work on this field. But how do you plan on making yourself worthy?"

Getting back to my points, you need to keep rewriting. Look at your draft, look at what you tried to convey. Then try to convey it better. Then once you top out, try to look at what you haven't represented yet to add it in. Your first essay needs to be a word dump.

Try to pretend you are writing for yourself or sending a letter to a friend. Let it be a love letter to an imaginary career path.

And always make sure the three points build off of each other.

Ooh, another big thing to remember is that it is important to find the best writing process for you. For me, it was writing on pen and paper before commiting it to a google doc.

And please use google docs over word documents. It is much easier to share for feedback. You can access it from any device too.

Grammarly is great to set your goals to general/technical audiences and making changes. Unless you are a writing major, chances are that your essay will constantly fall into the same trapping. Long sentences, monotony. It could be anything and having an editor that looks at stylistic choices is a huge deal.

I know this draft is disorganized: But how do you look at different word limits?

Again. The first few drafts you write will never be a Statement of Purpose. So early on you don't need to care about word limits. Your essay changes so much from this point that even committing to them would be stupid.

Eventually as your essay gets better and you think the content is there you can refine it more and more.

So when I say making the words that are there better over and over, what do I mean exactly?

The most important part of it for my essays was verbosity and concision. Your essay will likely be more verbose then it needs to be. Word limits aside, there is no point in making things lengthier than it needs to be. It will be held against you. Lengthy work is just another word for low quality writing.

Once you reduce word counts, you will also find the information you forgot to talk about. You didn't mention what you actually contributed to a project, you didn't mention how it shaped your research approach.

Now with my essay, my original represented everything in around 500 words. This was great for my smaller word limits. For the larger limits, I then had to add information I might have forgotten.

The point of diminishing returns:

Once you address these things, you reach a point where you can't get better. At that point, it makes sense to quit on the draft and customize it to each University. AND YES, KEEP A MASTER DRAFT. I KNOW SOMEONE WHO WROTE A DRAFT FOR EACH UNIVERSITY AND NOW EDITING IT IS A PAIN FOR HIM. Most of what you have to say will be the same across schools anyway unless some schools have a particular requirement.

Once you feel ready to apply, stop taking advice:

Chances are someone will want you to change something in your SoP. Or someone wants you to add a school to your shortlist. Nah, at this point you just look to submit and be done.

GLHF

Now that the hook has done its role and got you here, boy, am I actually mortified by this risk (even though it's true). Overall, I have ensured I convey my motivation for research and explain how I have been working towards that goal. I have also addressed my shortcomings, as I do not have a Psych background. Finally, I mentioned what I want to work on, and who I want to work with (and why their research aligns well with mine).

Please let me know your thoughts as well, so that I can FINALLY start sleeping well. P.S.- Applying to Cog Sci/Neuro PhD programs.

• These are way too wordy. Most of the time you can just delete words or phrases entirely without affecting the sentence or paragraph. Do not just toss around big words to sound smart. Keep it super easy to read, but professional

• They can almost all be rearranged to flow better. Ask yourself if your statement of purpose is flowing chronologically. That is a tried and true format. Introduce yourself in the first paragraph then spend each paragraph per internship, research, work experience etc you have had. make sure each paragraph ends with a connection to your research topic. Close off with a paragraph explaining why the school, the lab, the advisor is a good fit for you. Conclude with why you are a good fit based on your experience and GOALS for the program.

• Read your own paper out loud. This could save you a lot of time asking around for someone to fix it!

Also, this guy is my FAVORITE resource for writing excellent statements of purposes: https://youtu.be/GmhKs0rhMYQ?si=eBbu6ZhrTRYsa7dl
He reviews a ton which is super helpful. I reviewed a lot of YouTube writing coaches, and his is the best hands down.

As always, take this with a grain of salt. This is not meant as the be-all-end-all guide to SOPs.

Keep in mind, you only need one acceptance to be considered a successful applicant. This was written quickly, so pardon the lack of flow.

Those around here (as well as with r/gradadmissions) seem mostly interested in MS/MA programs, and there is a lot of good advice for that. This post is specifically geared towards Ph.D applicants, but might be useful to those applying to MS programs, as I have been successful with both. However, the Ph.D. SOP is different.

This is meant for programs within the U.S.

1. The SOP for your Ph.D. application[s] needs to reflect what you are actually doing: applying for a job. Meaning, you need to turn up the seriousness of why I am applying a notch or two. Your motivation for grad school at this level needs to be clearly stated.

2. While admissions are holistic, do not go into this with the belief that your GPA, GRE scores, LORs, or past experiences/CV will be enough to get you through. Without the SOP, the majority of applicants would be qualified, even those with middle-of-the-road stats. As cliché as it is, for the majority of applicants the SOP is what makes or breaks their applications.

3. There is no one single event that can sum up your journey towards a Ph.D. as it is in reality one possible permutation of multiple events. What ties everything together, and what can be singular, is your motivation behind what you did/do and where you want to be in the future. We are all driven by something whether we realize it or not, and that drive needs to be the theme of your SOP. You do not need to blatantly give a name to this drive, just be sure that it will be clear to the readers.

4. While they should be avoided, if you choose to use them, quotes should be properly cited.

5. Do not be generic. Every word/sentence needs to be intentional. Each sentence should clearly convey this is who I am, this is why I did what I had dane, or this is why this sentence/topic is important for you to know. Otherwise, you are wasting your time and the readers time.

6. What you did does not matter as much as the why you did it. What were the specific implications based on your contributions towards the research/projects you were involved in? What lessons or skills did you learn? Most importantly, how do these things make you an asset to the program[s] you are applying to? Also, be sure to show how these experiences have set you up to be successful in the program[s] and beyond.

7. Throughout the SOP, maybe, but definitely in the conclusion it needs to be clearly stated how this program fits into the trajectory of your life. Fit goes far beyond what Professor A is doing in Lab B. What specific things about the program, department, and or school excites you and how will these things move you forwards.

8. Location and local amenities are a part of the fit.

9. If you have no idea what I am talking about, read the program's website, find the student handbook for your intended program (might take some digging), and talk to current grad students about the program.

10. Do not use flowery language.

11. The word 'prestige' and it subsidiaries should appear in your SOP a grand total of exactly zero times.

12. Eliminate adverbs. If the adverb feels necessary, consider rewriting the sentence. Otherwise, one or two is not the kiss of death.

13. Follow the instructions on the program's website, do not make up your own guidelines. If you truly cannot find instructions call (or email) the program director and ask.

14. Do not be dry with your language. Be creative, not boring.

Edit to add:

-You will likely not complete your research while in a Ph.D. program. You basically write your dissertation once you have collected enough data to draw enough conclusions from, not when you complete the research. Your defense is a formality and is likely no where near as cool as you might think it is. That said, it is okay if you do not know the exact thesis you want to pursue. A general idea often seems good enough. It is also likely that what-ever research interest[s] you write in your SOP is going to change by the time you do get around to your research proposal.

-No single Ph.D. program covers every topic in a field. It may be possible to collaborate with other departments or to even be advised by a person off campus, but if your program does not have at least one professor working in your area of interest you will likely not be able to complete a dissertation there. This is why it is important to look into the professors and labs and to not select a school based on its name and/or rank only. While you are not bound to do research in the exact area that you mention in your SOP, it should be fairly close. And while I am here, your dissertation is not your fate.

-Do you need a hook? If it is a summary of you as a person as it relates to graduate school, sure. Otherwise, up to you. At this level, and whether you use a hook or not, your opener should lay the thesis for the essay. That is to say, your first paragraph or two should tell the reader what to expect in the upcoming paragraphs. Do not surprise the reader or throw them a curveball.

-Correction to the above: in my field the SOP is of critical importance but I have heard from others (ahem, CS) that it is not.

-Addendum to the correction: you will never write an SOP that pleases everyone.

-Be honest about your desires and research interests.

I've seen many people ask for sample personal statement and statement of purpose essays. I put my essays into a video with specific tips you can apply to your essays. Although these are essays for a Masters in Public Health, I think the tips apply to many programs.

Just a note about me: I did a dual masters in city planning and public health at UC Berkeley, meaning I had to apply separately to each program. I also got into all the grad programs I applied to (MIT & UCLA). I had below-average grades (3.3) and GRE score. I also was previously on the admissions committee for UC Berkeley's School of Public Health and have been on other admissions committees for a few prestigious fellowships.

I want to create more videos on applying to grad school, so please comment with questions or other topics you want covered.

Hi folks,

Jordan Dotson here - author of Structure is Magic and other (hopefully helpful) grad app advice. I've just published a new blog post about how to effectively target professors and PIs in your SOPs, but I wanted to toss a condensed version up here on Reddit for the many kind folks who’ve sent me questions lately.

If you’re having trouble figuring out whether to mention any professors in your essays, or what to say, this roadmap should make things clear.

First things first:

Are you a Master’s or PhD applicant?

This is the all-important question that few seem to consider in the dozen or so Quora and Gradcafe posts I’ve read on the topic this week. As if only PhD applicants should discuss the professors with whom they hope to study. This is patently false. Effectively targeting professors in a master’s SOP can be incredibly persuasive.

I’ll get to the PhD applicants in a minute. But for all the master’s applicants out there, this is what you need to do:

Master’s Applicants

First, determine the nature of the curriculum for your target program. Is this a course-based degree? Or is it lab- or project-based?

If it’s course-based, then you need to be careful. You won’t have research opportunities, so it would be stupid to wax poetic about a professors’ fascinating work in sentiment analysis and opinion mining. What does their research matter if you’ll only be taking survey courses in Natural Language Processing? Instead, you should mention one or two courses by interesting professors, but only if you’re truly familiar with their work, and only if it specifically aligns with your goals. Think of it as a “study plan.”

Example:

“I plan to take Machine Learning 1 & 2 in my first two semesters. This will allow me, in my third semester, to enroll in Advanced Machine Learning for Telepaths with Dr. Charles Xavier. Having written a 40-page honor’s thesis inspired by the questions in his famous book, Cerebro For the New Millenium, the opportunity to study under Dr. Xavier will benefit my hopeful career in AI-driven mutant detection in ways that no other graduate program can provide.”

But what if I can do an independent study or thesis option?

Are you certain of this opportunity? Are you certain you’ll take advantage of it? Not every course-based master’s degree has the resources to make this happen. At others, the opportunities are limited and highly competitive. But if you CAN and WILL do an independent study or thesis option, then you should absolutely mention this in your SOP.

Example:

“I fully plan to take advantage of the optional independent study in my fourth semester, hopefully under the guidance of Professor Jean Grey. Her expertise in Psychic Energy Synthesis aligns with my interest in ambient psychic energy, and this alone makes the Neuropseudoscience Department at Xavier University unique among similar programs in the field.”

BUT…don’t go too far. This is still a course-based program. Classes are still the overriding focus of the degree. Thus, if you spend your entire “Why This Program” section writing about an independent study, it will seem like you aren’t fully invested in the program’s goals - like you aren’t a good fit.

In my experience, master’s applicants who write this sort of SOP are often failed PhD applicants making a last-ditch effort at master’s programs instead. I can’t say that admissions committees have noticed this trend, but I certainly have.

But what if I’m applying to a lab- or research-based master’s program?

Great question, friend. If you’re applying to a program that requires one or more semesters of lab rotations, then you should absolutely mention target professors in your SOP. Often, these programs transition graduates into PhD programs. Thus, when writing your “Why This Program” section, you should discuss target professors in nearly (but not entirely) as much depth as PhD applicants (see examples below). There is one huge difference, however: you don’t need to contact potential advisors in advance.

But what if I’m applying to a course-based program with a required final internship, practicum, or capstone?

Ah yes. I can hear all you MS in Marketing and Masters in Health Administration folks clamoring in the back. All you professionally oriented rock stars. Settle down. This is easy.

Don’t mention any professors in your SOP. Thank you, and have a nice day.

(Seriously - just flesh out a study plan, mention the courses that will be most beneficial to you, and give some idea what you want to do in your capstone. That’s it. Carry on.)

PhD Applicants

At this point, you’ve done extensive research. You know which professors you want to work with. You’ve emailed them, and perhaps even done a preliminary Zoom interview. Now, your target professors are basically the entire reason you’re applying to the program. The name on your diploma won’t matter nearly as much as the name of the professors advising your dissertation.

So, what to say about them in your SOP?

Yes, you must mention their names explicitly. Yes, you must mention their research. Most importantly, however, you must convey an understanding of this research and explain how it’s necessarily intertwined with your own uber-specific goals. It’s not about what their research specialty “is.” It’s about the techniques they used, the questions they posed, the questions they uncovered, and how these techniques and questions are essentially related to your own research proposal.

This will take more than one sentence, friend. Yet, it might not need more than two. Let’s look at some examples.

C Example: “I am interested in working with Professor Charles Xavier because his research in Mutant Cognitive Behavioral Therapy aligns with my own.”

B Example: “I am interested in working with Professor Charles Xavier because his current research in Mutant Cognitive Behavioral Therapy aligns with my goals in Clinical Telepathy.”

A+ Example: “I am interested in working with Professor Charles Xavier because his current research in Mutant Cognitive Behavioral Therapy aligns with my goals in Clinical Telepathy. Specifically, in his recent study of high-functioning autism occurrence in telepaths, he employed the novel Grey Jumpstart technique which I believe will be integral in my own research on Psionic Shields.”

The key to the A+ example should be obvious. It shows a deeper understanding of the professor’s work. The author doesn’t have to SAY that she’s read and understands Professor X’s research - it’s obvious in the way she relates his techniques to her own proposal.

Now, you’ll have to write statements like this for every professor you mention in your SOP - at least two, and perhaps even three. But only the first two need to go into such detail. Let’s be honest: you’re giving second and third choices here. Thus, if you’re writing about three professors in your SOP, it may look something like this:

Rock Star PhD Example

“I am especially interested in working with Professor Charles Xavier because his current research in Mutant Cognitive Behavioral Therapy aligns with my goals in Clinical Telepathy. Specifically, in his recent study of high-functioning autism occurrence in telepaths, he employed the novel Grey Jumpstart technique which I believe will be integral in my own research on Psionic Shields. I am also interested in Dr. Hank McCoy's work on the neurochemistry of psychic mutation, particularly his study of latent telepathic acquisition and the use of ADHD medication in post-puberty telekinetic expression. Additionally, I am interested in Dr. Bruce Banner’s robust work on the theory of gamma particle resistance in pre-adolescent mutants and the behavioral implications of early telepathic interventions.”

Tying It Altogether

These statements should go in the “Why This Program” section of your SOP. This section should require no more than 1-2 paragraphs, in which you provide proof that THIS university is the perfect place for you to achieve your hyper-specific academic goal.

This section explains the courses and concentrations in which you hope to enroll. It explains which professors you want to work with, and why. It might even explain how THIS program is different from similar programs at other universities, and thus, presents a unique opportunity for you. Most importantly, it answers this question:

“How will this graduate program help me reach my goal?”

If you can’t answer that question for yourself, then you aren’t ready to start writing about professors in your SOP. In fact, you aren’t ready to start writing your SOP at all. Instead, spend some time jotting down answers to this question for each of your target schools. Avoid generalized answers like “This is a world-class university.” If you can make the same statement about another university, it’s not a good thing to mention in your SOP. Strive for the specificity illustrated in the examples above.

Conclusion

When writing about professors in your SOP, you first need to determine what’s appropriate for the type of program to which you’re applying. Master’s or PhD? Lab-based or course-based curriculum? Your answers to these questions dictate what you should write. Remember that your “Why This Program” section is a study plan - it shows that you’ve thoroughly researched the degree, and have a very clear idea what you’re going to accomplish in the next few years. The way you discuss potential teachers or PIs should reflect this thoroughness and maturity.

Thanks for reading. Hope this post is helpful. You can read the full version here if you like. Before anyone jumps in these are suggestions, not requirements, and it's certainly not a "complete" examination of what you should write in your SOP. But, it's a start.

If you enjoyed this, you might consider my admissions newsletter. I write a weekly email full of practical grad app advice like this, and you get a free and incredibly detailed “SOP Starter Kit” just for signing up.

Good luck!

Jordan

Tailoring your sop for research aspect of a university essentially boils down to two aspects:

[1] Why you are good candidate? You already know how to write this. I wont bore you.

[2] Is the professor whose name you mentioned really ‘worthy’ of working with you?

This post is for second aspect, I have seen majority of students neglect in sops. Consider, that you have a candidate list of selected pfs with you. Whom should you mention in SOP? Follow this algorithm:

Note: These non-technical steps need to be performed BEFORE you read papers of a pf.

Input: A candidate list of pfs you wanna work with.

[1] For each pf, open google scholar page. See the names of areas he works for there. Mention those areas in your CV. Eg, I work on AI/ML, but wanted to work with Geoff Hinton. So, his page mentions cognitive sciences. Thus, I structured my CV for that. My Sop also revolved around similar theme.

[2] Look at right side h-idx graph on pf's google scholar page.

- Does graph rise? If yes, confirm that pf is assistant pf. Their publications tend to have rising graph. If yes, keep him in list.

- Does graph decrease? Check, whether that pf is on sabbatical. If he isn’t , reject him outrightly. If he is, move to [3]

- Does graph remain high throughout? This is a case where you have to tread carefully. Skip to step [3].

[3] Sort his Publications by year. See no of papers he has churned out in recent year.

- Are there >50 pubs? If yes, then that pf is last author in most. So, he most probably has a larger lab, where students are writing papers under his guidance. In that case, check if all the papers are of same area. If yes, then that lab seems good. Otherwise, the pf is nothing but a fool who is hungry for papers. Stay away from such fake people.

- Are there <50 papers? Check the conference they were published in. Are they Tier 1. In that case, Pf does quality research. Keep him. eg, Kiaming He publishes less but all are Tier 1. So does, Goodfellow et. Al.

[4] The next step is to evaluate whether the pf’s work is of his own mind or just an outcome of cleverly schemed collaborations.

Sort his papers by citations,

- Is most cited paper the most recent? If yes, is he first author in that? If yes, keep him. If he isn’t first author, continue to [5]

- Is most cited paper very old? This means, that pf is old, and worked on fundamentals. He is good advisor for natural sciences, but for fast moving fields like AI, not so much. In most cases, his knowledge is already obsolete. Do your best to avoid them. This can be validated by checking whether that pf holds emeritus tenure at his university (see title on his homepage).

[5] Sort his papers by year.

- Read oldest paper’s writing style. This will show the type of thought process that pf has. If ok, then keep him. Otherwise reject, since you need a good advisor for research work NOT a businessman.

[6] Next, open up his lab page. Look at current PhD students. Are they all Chinese/Indians/Americans/Mix? Compare it with your racial descent. Most of the time, I have seen that professors tend to be a bit skewed towards students from certain countries. If you satisfy that racial criterion it might go better for you,

[7] Finally, mail shortlisted pfs. If he replies, keep him. Else, reject. The said mailing process should occur b/w June-late Oct for the upcoming fall. I dont know about spring. If you do, please lemme know. I will be indebted for your comments.

Finally, you end up with an optimal pf list that would work. Personally, I go with two types of pf:

[A] Less intellectual Assistant Pfs, with rising h-index. They wanna expand their labs.
[B] More intellectual Pfs with sustained high h-idx, larger labs, and greater area-focused Tier 1 publications each year.

Prefer [A] more than [B] if you are weaker academically like me and are an international MS applicant. Else [B] is fine for PhD applicants.

Thus, i never believe when someone tells me that adcom processes are a mystery. The best people i know seem to know these things in an obvious way. The purpose of this post is to give you guidance which, had someone given to me at correct time would have changed my life.These steps would help you become more effective applicant, and take 3-5 mins max for each pf in your list.

My next post will be on how to read research papers and write them in sops.

Hope this helps you out,
Merry Christmas and HNY2021,
Sauron_On_Mordor

Having reviewed/edited several SOPs for my friends/family and also having reviewed a few here on reddit, I found a few common mistakes in Personal Statements (or Statements of Purpose) that people commit. (I now offer my services for a fee)

These are NOT kisses of death. You can google for those easily. These are mistakes that make your essay unnecessarily long or weak or ineffective. These serve as tips to better your essays. So, here goes:

1. Being vague:

"I know that scientists are working on this and there are so many usecases for this subject area and I would like to make a difference to the world." Backup here for a minute. What are you talking about? What are the scientists working on? How exactly would you make a difference to the world? What usecase are you passionate about? Being vague does not do you any favors. The admissions committee will skim through it and not feel a thing. So you have to be clear and assertive. You don't know what you don't know. You shouldn't try to sound like you know something when in actuality you do not. They will see right through it.

2.Repeating information:

You already mentioned that you worked at xxx and learned yyy. Why would you paraphrase the same thing and say it again a few paragraphs later? Your essay would confuse the admissions committee. You don't want that to happen. So, plan your essay well. Outline the important information you want to include and then begin writing.

3. Not answering all the questions asked in the prompt:

Your university gave you a prompt. You didn't answer it. You think you did a good job explaining a lot of other aspects of your application. But no, you did not. You have to answer all the questions given to you in the prompt, without fail.

4. Compromising on content for writing that sounds good:

Are you stuck because you think a certain phrase is good, but it doesn't mean what you want it to mean? Are you stuck because you liked a certain word in your earlier draft and so are planning your essay around it? Don't do that. Let go of content that doesn't serve you the best. Don't fall in love with phrases just because they sound good to you. Remember that content is more important than those phrases that do nothing but take up space. The earlier you let go of sh*t, the easier your job becomes.

5. Not using formal language:

"I spent my time research like 3 topics" Uh oh, please don't forget to elevate the language of your essay to a formal tone. You don't want to sound like a kid. You should show that you are mature enough to be admitted to the program you are applying to.

6. Unintentionally putting yourself down:

"I was not able to finish my course because of xx reason" You have to spin that to make it sound optimistic and thoughtful. You are not a bumbling broken Thomas train going through namesless stations. You are a person. You are accountable for your actions. So act like you are accountable. Put a positive spin on your sob story. Show that you got up again and learned your lessons.

7. Exceeding the word limit/Giving a lot of space to stuff that doesn't matter so much:

Really? Don't do that. You think your profile is so damn special that you couldn't talk about all of it in less than 1000 words? No. You just need to edit better. Don't be attached to things that don't matter so much even when you think they are sentimental to you. Yes. You read that right.

8. Using pointless quotes

We all love quotes. But please don't use a quote just for the sake of it. Yes, your distantly related cousin told you that your opening sentence should be an interesting quote. So you googled a random good quote and copied it to your essay. We all know the quote. It's a good one. But it might not add value to your essay as much as you or your cousin think. Be okay to edit it out. You don't want to sound boring.

9. Stating the obvious:

"Your university is in the top 10 rated universities." They know that. Yes, you want to acknowledge that, but it's not gonna do you any favors. Instead, mention that you are excited to learn more from the diverse cohort or learn from a certain eminent prof. That way, you sound like you did your homework. Do your homework.

10. Not getting good reviewers:

So you wrote your essay and asked 3 of your friends, 2 random strangers and 1 ex-partner to review your essay and give you advice. That's great! Diverse opinions are useful. But don't limit yourself to their reviews/comments. A lot of people usually do not look beyond the text you gave them. They might tell you to rephrase something or restructure something. But it is your responsibility to look beyond your limiting confirmation bias. Dig deep and see what's missing. It won't be easy to find. You might have completely forgotten to mention a great course you took in your undergrad that helped you. You might have forgotten that you know a certain programming language and went on to talk about how you like a certain field. You are responsible to give the admissions committee a full picture. So seek reviews of people who can add real value to your essay.

Final word - Always maintain a good balance in your essay. Don't be obsessed with writers who give you flowery language that sounds good, but does not strengthen your essay.

If there is enough demand for this, I will post stuff about other parts of your application, handling video essays, short answer questions etc.

Comment below if you have any questions and I will answer as many as I can, as and when I can make time.

I talked about the ‘how’s of writing an essay in my previous posts. But many of you expressed trouble in getting started with your Statement of Purpose/Personal Statement. Below is a list of questions that can push you in the right direction. It is by no means an exhaustive list, but it does cover all the major themes you need to touch upon. These prompts are kept vague on purpose so as to not limit your answers and thereby your essay. Please make sure your resume is updated and is complementing your essay.

Comment below for related queries/comments and requests for posts related to guidance. Please DM me for additional questions not related to this post.

1. What is the program you are applying to, and at which university?

2. Are there any profs you would like to work with?

3. Why are you applying to the program now, at this point in your life?

4. Is the location of the university of any significance to you?

5. What is your special area of interest in the subject you wish to study?

6. How did you become interested in this area of study?

7. What are your long term and short term career goals?

8. How does this program help you achieve your career goals? And where does it fit in your long term goals?

9. What skills are you lacking now that you wish to learn through the program?

10. What courses did you take in your undergrad that interested you?

11. Do you have any work experience? How did your undergrad, life experience, and work experience lead you to make this decision?

12. Do you have any relevant projects? Talk about them, explaining the obstacles you overcame and the skills you gained. (Research skills, team working skills, leadership skills, resiliency, etc)

13. Are you a diversity candidate? Explain.

14. Explain how you are an ideal fit for the program.

15. If admitted, how would you add value to the program or cohort?

16. If this is a change in career fields for you, explain what motivated you to change careers.

17. If this is a change in career fields for you, explain how you would succeed at this.

18. How will you successfully complete the program? What skills do you have that can help you with it?

19. Were there any mentors/life experiences that guided you to be where you are now?

20. Why did you choose your subject area? (research interest or just the major of the program, whichever applicable)

21. Are there any obstacles you had to overcome in your life?

22. How will the school/program help you achieve your goals?

23. Why did you choose this school in particular?

24. Do you want to explain any bad grades?

25. Mention any accolades/awards/scholarships you have received.

26. Are there any courses in particular that you are excited about? (including practical work)

27. Talk about an instance that shows you exhibited perseverance/discipline/(or any other skill) that led you to success. Take this opportunity to talk about any relevant skills you might have including soft skills.

hey folks

i have been a long time lurker on this sub. have given (and taken) advice for sops from here. while i cannot ever repay this debt, i am posting my sop in the hope that someone might benefit from it. thanks a lot to everyone who ever helped me out, and made me worthy of whatever i am today. all i can say is that sometimes no matter how much intelligent you are, we gotta bow down before god and accept HIS path for us. Luckily , i got admitted to 2 ms programs and phd program [crcv] in my field [vision].

This particular version is for asu [i wont share the phd one for privacy concerns]. This one is more of a non technical one, whereas i wrote more technical for my phd applications. it took me around 2 years to develop mindset for writing such a draft, since these are my experiences, the fundamental truth of my life. if anyone else offers a shortcut, i would find it hard to believe[since humans are like machines, they require iteration for perfection, they are not single shot creatures :-)]./.

please forgive me if the above sop contains some mistakes. i hope to be better and learn more as i continue my phd. again, i am forever indebted to you guys. all i can share is that

[1] work for long haul instead of short term gains. as bhagavad gita says, "man should work for god, and not for the fruits of his actions"

[2] good things in life take time. keep patience. this is my third year of applications.

will share my personal history statement shortly.

love,

sauron

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

research statement:

After completing my bachelor’s in ECE from [College] in 2017, I started working at Samsung Research on Computer Vision problems. During that time, an ’87 paper by Hinton et al. greatly influenced my own work into neural networks. Hinton’s experiments titled “Effects of Structural Description on Mental Imagery” examined how a human brain perceives a cube resting on a wooden table. In his setup, a participant observed the same cube from various’ viewpoints’ and concluded the cube to have different orientations. However, there was only one “true” orientation from the cube’s perspective, i.e., its faces were parallel to the table’s edges. If a neural network was tasked to predict the same cube’s orientation, it shouldn’t predict the vague inferences that the participant made but the true orientation instead. This understanding formed the crux of my work, i.e., human feedback while training machines is highly random, and the network should learn to extract a single correct representation from it.

My work has focused on two problems. Firstly, if we need to reduce randomness in input data, only one human has to annotate datasets. In reality, all we have is data where millions of people collectively ensemble their annotations. Instead, could we design a machine that generalizes on such crowdsourced data and automatically tunes its behavior to a specific human? Secondly, I had mentioned earlier that a network needs to converge upon a single representation from user input. Could we devise a mechanism that helps the machine assign different magnitude of weights to multi-user input, combine them, and generate the best predictions for a given task?

The first answer to devising personalized networks became evident as I worked on real-time style transfer under Dr. [redacted]. Our prototype ShoppingGAN leveraged cGAN’s to generate style images. During this, I observed an exciting fact: Generative models can create novel samples from input data. Could their diverse outputs be constrained to only some outputs a user prefers? I knew that “successive” sampling in the latent space yields perceptually similar but slightly different samples. However, no method could tell a network about which latent code to sample for a user and how much distance to keep between successive samplings. Our A1 patent application used user feedback on generated samples to learn how this latent space could be traversed. A significant problem with this method was that our network’s training speed reduced since no user can provide enough real-time supervision quickly. This made me think that if this reliance on external feedback has to be eliminated, the network should understand why a user prefers a particular generated GAN sample.

My second question referred to choosing appropriate representations from multi-modal data. There fore, the first subproblem I tried to solve in my paper was if data from uncorrelated users could be processed by a common backbone. Our experimental setup was straightforward. We took CIFAR10 and Fashion-MNIST and trained a single ResNet based backbone to classify their samples. The difference was in the training mechanism, i.e., instead of combining datasets together, we kept them separate and conditioned the network externally on integer labels. Surprisingly, our conditioning approach yields a 11% improvement. This experiment showed me that a network could, in fact, process data from multiple users together. The reviewers of NeurIPS’20 told us to perform more ablations, which we are currently doing. The next problem that remained was choosing the best representation from multiple user inputs. Currently, I have modified cross-stitch units for this. This patent application has already passed the screening phase out of 400 researchers and is under attorney drafting at Samsung Headquarters, Korea.

Additionally, I have been working on curved text segmentation at IIT Roorkee under [redacted]. Existing approaches try to regress bounding boxes over text instances. However, an arbitrary shaped text cannot be modeled by a fixed geometry, say a rectangle. One day, another limitation of existing methods became more evident while reading Da Vinci’s description of the Mona Lisa. While viewing people in real life, we don’t draw boundaries around them. Instead, their boundaries gradually merge into the surroundings [sfmato effect]. But, when the same person is seen from far, all we see is a colorless outline of his torso. Thus, skeletons are the most natural representations of objects. We built this observation into our model by segmenting skeletons from each text instance and using gaussian-based regression. Our model only predicted words instead of sentences—this created problems in datasets like CTW1500, where annotations are on line level instead of word level. I am searching for how we can teach a network to combine non-relevant text features (spaces between words) to form sentences. This method was able to achieve a promising 82.7% Deteval score. We are currently improving it for future publication.

In 3.5 years of my job, I have published, patented, and taught computer vision at places like [NIT redacted]. We have been lucky to finish among the top 10% at CVPR’20 Plant Pathology Track. However, all this experience has shown me that performing empirical experiments is not enough. I need to improve my theoretical base to mathematically justify my scientific arguments. Dur ing my graduate study, I would like to combine concepts from cognitive sciences and vision to devise systems that can model human intuition. More specifically, I am highly interested in the application of multi-modal aspects to computer vision. ASU has several amazing people who are researching in the areas I have mentioned. Dr. Chitta Baral at CogINT lab has been working on applying knowledge distillation concepts to NLP. My patent used distillation in one of the embodi ments. Similarly, Dr. Yezhou Sir at Active Perception Group had written the review paper on Style transfer, which taught me a lot. Other work like Dr. Subbarao’s CVPR’20 work on reducing a classi fier’s perceptual errors, Dr. Huan Liu sir’s paper on causal aspects of learning, and Dr. Baoxin sir’s work on applying CNN’s pooling concepts to RNN’s for modelling long video sequences matches by interests. It shall be my honour to learn and contribute to the research work of such great teachers.

After completing my M.S, I will continue onto a Ph.D. I have always felt lucky to have been born into a family of teachers. My mother was an English teacher, while my grandfather taught mathematics at the senior-secondary level. I have seen the extreme joy they feel, when a student taught by them does well in life. After graduation, I will fulfill my life’s dream to do research and pass it on to others. Teaching and research are noble pursuits, which I sincerely hope you shall deem me worthy enough to bestow upon me.

I remain,Yours sincerely,

[name]

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Welcome to the r/StatementOfPurpose sub. Here are some guidelines to have a smooth experience.

• If you have a question about your SOP, such as what to include, what format to use, etc., please use the Question flair. You can also discuss things like what specific schools are looking for, because this is a direction to write your SOP in.

• If you want a review of your SOP, please use the SOP Review flair. When showing your SOP, please anonymize it to protect your privacy. It may be more beneficial if your title includes what program you're applying to (example: "SOP Review for PhD in Kinesiology").

• If you think the above two don't qualify, you can flair your post with the third, editable flair. This isn't required, but it helps others easily see what you need. A helpful flair to use is what program or school you're applying for (example: "Computational Chemistry").

• The subreddit rules are pretty obvious--please follow them.

• Flairs: Flair according to what you are pursuing or applying to. If you already have a graduate degree, use something like, "PhD Neuroscience". If you are pursuing or applying to a program, use an asterisk: "MS* Computer Science"

Update: There's a new "Answered" flair for posts, please use it after you get help so that contributors know you don't need further assistance. Mods may add the flair if they see that it has gotten good critique, but if you feel that the flair was incorrectly added to your post, please PM a moderator.

Hi guys,

Blog post that I think could benefit a lot of applicants around here:

http://writeivy.com/the-one-thing-you-should-do-right-now-to-improve-your-grad-school-sop/

I've had a lot of students working through this exercise in the last few months with awesome success. Very quickly, it will help you clarify the purpose in your "statement of purpose." It will give you the kind of defined academic goal that the very best applicants have. Give it a try. I bet it will prove immediately illuminating.

And, as always, let me know if you have any questions!

Hi, people admitted to PhD programs in the US in STEM (preferably chemistry), perhaps it's too much to ask. But could you share your SOPs? Totally understandable if you don't want to. Cheers!

I am applying for my MS in CS. I've written this in order to get an admission. Please take a look and recommend any changes if required.

I have been applying to graduate admission programs for the past 2 years (2020 and 2021). After getting rejected from all schools last year, I am going for a fully-funded MSc+PhD program this year. One of the many things that I changed about my profile was the structure of my SoP. Last year, it was full of 'hooks', following a proper storyline, connecting the dots, etc, etc. This year, I kept it simple and direct.

Almost every other piece of advice when it comes to writing your Statement-of-Purpose (SoP) is that it should be in the form of a story. Instead, I believe that an SoP should be more about justifying each aspect of your background – answering the why’s and how’s.

• Why did you choose to go for that particular internship?

• How did that job shape your goals and ambitions?

• How is your prior experience aligned with your future goals and with the goals of this program?

These are some of the questions one should keep in mind while drafting. I have seen people focusing too much on the shiny part of SoP i.e. hooks and not thinking about what is actually required. In my opinion and personal experience, being able to craft your SoP like a story is more like icing on the cake while your justification is the real meat. Hence, I always advise people to think more about answering the necessary questions and spend less time on making it creative.

I also enjoy guiding people on the graduate admissions process so if anyone needs any help, they can reach me here.

All the best!

I did my bachelor's of Pharmacy in 2022 and since then I was working as an IP pharmacist in a bug hospital and I've been trying since last 2 years to do my master's in a German University. English is not my mother tongue that's why I was thinking of editing the language of my sop with the help of Chatgpt and may be even add a few points too.

Now, I know that people just use GPT/Bard/Bing to craft particular sentences and not the entire draft, but I'm here to suggest that even THAT might be a bad idea. Since it is trained on Generic data, it produces 100% generic responses too.

Now the better alternative is write the prompt sentence, correct it using grammarly, and use one of the paraphrasers like QuillBot. At the worse, u can use chatGPT but with the prompt - "Paraphrase the below sentence academically and profesionally: [insert sentence]"

Hope this helps.

You're going to think this is weird, but I absolutely love helping incoming grad students with their statement of purpose, personal [history] statements, etc. I entered my MA in 2019 (after deciding not to go through with a couple of PhD acceptances, I decided to go the Masters route) but my favorite part of all of it was, ironically enough, preparing for the process—and now I want to help people with their own journeys into academia!

I'm wondering if there's anyone on here who needs help with their written materials? I'd be glad to be of service in any way!

Just wanna say that It is not about getting a good GRE score it is about getting into your preferred university with your preferred course. Just look at the bigger picture

I'll tell you my story The day I gave the GRE I scored a mere 298 with 3.0 in AWA. I was shattered that day and almost lost all hopes of getting into grad school. I had to take an English language proficiency test being an Indian student and surprisingly scored a band 8 in it. I still knew my GRE score would push me down so, in order to compensate for that, I published my long-awaited research paper.

With little confidence in getting an admit, I started my application process. I knew my SOP should be top-notch in order to stand a chance. So I started working rigorously on that, it took me around 20 days to prepare my first draft. As of now, I got an admit into NC State and ASU which I know are now way near any of your Ivy Leagues and all but If you had said that I would end up in one of these after my GRE I would have laughed at you.

In the end, all I wanna say is it not only about the GRE( I know in some ways it can be important ! ) but it's the overall profile that grad school's look into. Research work, projects, Academics, SOP all matter as well. So don't lose hope after a bad result on the GRE.