Mistakes to Avoid in Your Statement of Purpose

By Julia Dunn on October 17, 2016

If you’re applying to graduate school, you’ll have to submit a statement of purpose (SOP) as part of the required files and documents. Some universities call it a “personal history,” an “intellectual autobiography” or some other synonymous title, but all of them are code for “tell us who you are, why you should be in this program, and what you’ll do with the degree.”

Crafting these personal statements can feel overwhelmingly daunting mainly because you know they carry a lot of weight in your graduate school applications. You may wonder how you’ll know if your statement is packed with enough details to convince a tough board of admissions officers that you’re what they need in their program.

Here are some key mistakes to avoid making in your statement of purpose that could cost you your admissions offer.

Trying to tell your entire life story

Your personal statement should be focused and purposeful. It should exactly answer the prompt you are given. Students may think that their statement of purpose is the place to dump their entire life story in chronological order, and that will be enough to introduce themselves to the admissions officers.

However, this is a huge misstep; while your personal statement should be personal and offer meaningful anecdotes, these anecdotes should be well-chosen. For one thing, attempting to cram a memoir of sorts into your statement of purpose does not exactly answer most prompts you’re going to get for graduate schools.

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Universities want to read statements that have been tailored to communicate why you are interested in the program and what background you have that will prepare you for graduate-level coursework and engagement.

Plus, it’s awfully hard to write your life story into the typical 750-1000 word limit. When writing your statement, be sure to really internalize all aspects of the prompt and ensure you have addressed the specific questions posed by that prompt before you hit “submit.”

Forgetting to tweak the SOPs just a bit for different schools

Of course, as a college student now trying to balance class work and jobs with preparing graduate school applications, you probably won’t write eight separate statements of purpose if you’re applying to eight programs. Maybe you’ll write three unique essays and the other five will be variations of the same baseline essay that contains your general goals and plans in your field.

One mistake students should avoid when applying to graduate school is forgetting to personalize each essay just a little bit for each program. While you don’t have to write a brand new essay from scratch every time (especially for similarly-structured master’s programs), you don’t want to submit identical essays to all of your schools.

The best way to mass-produce your graduate school essays is to create a general essay containing your universal objectives (or even a bullet-point list of details that apply to all of the prompts) and then use that almost as a template for each school’s essay. This allows you to mention details unique to specific programs in which you have interest, and encourages you to write a paper more tailored to the people reading it.

Including school-specific details about why you want to enter a certain program will strengthen your argument.

Forgetting to change the school names in each application

This ties into the previous point. Of course, it’s best if you can tweak most of your essays to suit the different programs you’re pursuing, but in the event that you use nearly the same essay for each school (again, not advised), make sure you double check which university names you write in each application.

An admissions officer from Mills College will likely toss your application to the side if they run across the line “my favorite aspect of San Jose State University’s English program is …”

Forgetting to change school names in each essay communicates a lack of attention to detail that can result in complete dismissal of your application.

So, how should you write the statement of purpose?

Write it like you have only three minutes to explain to someone on a bus why you want to go to the university. Include the most important details and experiences, and remove anything that doesn’t serve to amp you up. Edit and revise your papers to ensure you communicate ideas in the fewest number of words needed to get the point across, structure your essays with your audience in mind, and quadruple check that you really answered the prompt.

These ideas seem simple, but as you likely already know, the personal essay or statement of purpose is virtually the backbone of your application.

Make sure to articulate your thoughts in the best way you can and provide relevant information that will allow admissions officers to gather a comprehensive sense of who you are. The SOP should be a mix between personal narrative and argumentative essay that shows instead of tells universities what you care about and why.

If you nail your statement of purpose, your application to graduate school will drastically improve and likely end up in the “maybe” or “yes” pile. Happy writing!

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