
A Statement of Purpose is a long essay that is typically 2 to 3 pages long and often asked by Graduate schools or universities. It reiterates your purpose and motivation behind your career goals.
Your statement of purpose should be effective enough to impress the admission committee as your statements can either break or make your application.
After hours of research and comparing notes, here are our top tips on writing an authoritative Statement of Purpose that will make you stand out among the rest of the applicants.
The Best Way to Write Statement of Purpose
Firstly, introduce yourself, your motivation and your interest in the specific field.
This part is very simple, you just have to tell about your specific interest and why you should go for a specific feed. The description should be simple and to the point. So, don’t waste your time on an autobiography.
Moreover, use an attention-grabbing hook that will help you to better convey your interest about why you choose that specific field?
Sketch out your experience about your career in the specific field.
If you gain or completed any research in specific expertise field then you may want to add it to your Statement of purpose but no one wants to hear about your high school class achievement. So, focus on the undergraduate experiences you gained.
So, list out the things that will relevant to the field. Check below for the examples.
Important thesis, research you conducted, senior project or other important research work you completed.
Add work experience, especially if you had managed any responsibility for testing, designing or interning in the same field you want to study in the graduate school.
Any publication you produced or any presentations, talks, and posters you have contributed in.
Be specific and discuss what you want to study
Here you can be straightforward to tell about your interest. Instead of stating I am interested in biology, describe special interest in related terms like public health, hospitals or clinics.
In this section, you can clarify why you choose a specific school and how it is a right place to study for a specific field.
Note: Do your research on the department you are applying. You can search WebPages of the department as well as professor and their research. If you found Professors research parallel to yours then indicate it.
Now end your statement with a positive attitude and describe your readiness and excitement for the challenges.
Think and Dream about your future plan.
It is good to speak about where you would like to go after completing graduate school. It indicates that you are interested to study in graduate school and also wants to become a researcher at a university and applies your knowledge efficiently.
Essential Tips:
- What admission committee focuses on the statement of purpose? : Self-motivation, competence, your potential as a graduate student.
- Write in active not passive voice and also start everything in a positive manner.
- Don’t say anything directly; just show it by demonstrating the examples.
- Say everything that affected your grades like illness, poverty, or any other situation state it in your personal statement.
- Make sure everything you state in your statement of purpose is connected and focused.
- The ideal essay should be clear and includes at least 500 to 1000 words. After all, it is good to use fewer words with more clarity rather than using more words with the lack of clarity and organization.
Things That Should Not Include in Your Statement of Purpose.
The SOP is referred as an easy approach to 1000 words that stands between you and your dream program. As you know what include in your SOP. You should know that what not to include in your statement of purpose.
You may found that any statement of purpose that are rejected by the universities even when you are not found any grammatical mistakes, or anything but still it is rejected because of over unnecessary information.
So, make sure that don’t add too much information like if you talk about your family doesn’t mean you go and go to talk about it.
This doesn’t mean candidate don’t know what to include but it means that they don’t know what not to include.
Check below for some factors that clearly includes what not to add to your SOP.
All Accomplishment you have got
Yeah, you may be the gold medalist or winning so many awards for your achievements and also you are lead vocalist in your college or school, etc. But the point is that your SOP is not the place where you can list your all the achievements, SOP is all about what made you the person you are.
Moreover, in your SOP choose and pick the accomplishment that is important to you and that makes the most sense of your candidacy.
All about your family
Do not write history about your family, the reviewer only interested in knowing about you. They don’t want to know more about your family. Don’t go and go further to talk about your family members that your brother is very sincere and all.
All you need to do is just write the small sentence about your family if necessary. Remember… Just one or two sentences!
All financial details
Many of the universities require your financial document and also some university requires a separate essay for financial status while deciding the scholarship.
So, don’t go for the detailed explanation, just list your financial status detail that shaped your personality. Avoid giving the lengthy details.
Details about your job/academic
While making your statement of purpose makes sure to include your academic project details, don’t include long details about your project like what you did.
Same you can include your job and work experience but don’t go into detail about it. Plus you can add reference and incidents and what you are learned from it.
So, focus on your key points and don’t give lengthy detailing about your statement of purpose.
Now, hope you understand the things that should not include in the SOP (Statement of purpose).
The Way to Write Statement of Purpose for MBA
Basic steps for writing a statement of purpose remains same but there are few things you need to add while writing the SOP for the MBA.
MBA courses are available across many universities in the world as well as students draw many categories in this field and so, students should pay most attention while writing the statement of purpose for MBA.
Make a separate list of personal and professional instances.
Writing statement of purpose for MBA or management is a creative and somewhat technical process. So, you have to start it by step by step.
While preparing SOP (statement of purpose) for the MBA you need to prepare the list in two parts: personal and professional.
Many of the universities require experience to get admission in MBA program so; you need to list work experience in your SOP (statement of purpose). So, the best way to organize the SOP is to list the instances, incidents or quality in two separate lists.
Highlight the characteristic you wish to add in your SOP
Many MBA universities require special characteristics in their students and so, before highlighting your skills in the SOP check high-quality universities and their requirements and among them choose the best characteristics you fit in.
The characteristics could be anything, leadership, hard working, positive attitude and even focused work or goal, anything you can highlight. But keep in mind that, highlight the character that the university you are applying is looking for.
Note: you can highlight more than one characteristic.
Wrap up all the lists
If you have your lists ready then ensure to compare them and eliminate the unnecessary parts. While writing the lists for your MBA SOP, it is important to shorten the list. In the end, make sure both professional and personal lists are placed in the same.
Research the club that is relevant to your interest
If you are applying for the MBA courses than Club/Student associations are more important in the learning process of the MBA SOP (statement of purpose).
So, if you were writing the SOP for MBA then it is important to list the clubs and activities that you were attended. The club should match with the characteristic you choose.
Write a first draft, edit, and re-write
When you are ready to write or SOP, first you have completed your first draft. Now, edit it with correcting the grammar mistakes, punctuation, and vocabulary. After completing your first draft, read it again after 3 to 4 days, this will give you fresher’s perspective.
Remember to rewrite the statement of purpose and also don’t forget to edit the documents. So, hopefully, now you able o write you’re SOP for MBA on your own.
How to Write Statement of Purpose for MS Courses
Each and every statement of purpose is different because one that works for you may not work for another individual.
The process of how to write a statement of purpose remains same, all you need to follow is basic 5 steps. Moreover, this process is further divided on the basis of general courses you would be interested in.
For example, steps for how to write SOP for MBA may be different from writing SOP for undergraduate courses.
So, writing SOP for master’s course includes 5 basic steps but the approach would be different.
Check below for the writing statement of purpose for MS courses.
Checklist your achievements
List down all your achievements in an objective manner and your list must be expansive, related to your graduation, school or seminars.
You can add your achievements like academic, co-scholastic or even personal achievements.
So, you can list the things that you want to add in your SOP of MS. So, think every possible way and list the points. You can write what comes into your mind.
Your goals should be clear
This step makes the biggest difference between SOP for MBA and MS.
Because in SOP for MBA you have to describe your professional or personal goals but in the case of MS SOP you do not need to talk about your employment/job. You just have to say what next step towards your goals is after studying.
So, basically at this stage you just have to decide what you want to do next and according decide your theme for SOP.
Compare, Classify and Crop
This one is also one important step while you are talking about your purpose in life especially when you describe it within word limits.
So, not exceeding the word limit is most important. So, classify the list at various points, compare the lists and then crop the lists.
In the end, you need to find out what you want to include in your statement of purpose for MS.
Explore and research about faculties and university projects you are applying for
Basically, many of the abroad universities are working on another research project. So, check whether you relate to the project of the university.
Best: if you have listed an ongoing project in your SOP then that would be great.
Write, Edit, and Rewrite your SOP
This last one is the principle step for all the statement of purpose.
So, first of all always write a rough draft. Secondly, edit it. After few days review an old draft and rewrite the new fresh draft. So writing your essay again is good because it would help you to eliminate unwanted elements.
Now, compare both drafts that would help you to improve your statement of purpose. Just keep in mind that you should know what to include and what not in your statement of purpose for master program.
Related Articles:
Steps to Write a Statement of Purpose for UG Courses
Writing the SOP for the undergraduate courses and getting the admission in abroad universities is a quite complicating process.
There are many things that students who are applying for the master program can include. MBA students can include SOP but while applying for the UG courses it is difficult for them to do because they don’t have any professional experience and not everyone has a long list of extra curriculum.
So, how to write SOP for the UG course becomes a complicated task.
There are many things that students can add in their SOP but what is the process? How you can add the information you want to add in your statement of purpose. Below are the five basic steps for writing the effective SOP for you.
List your achievement of school life
When preparing a list of UG courses you don’t have to list 5 years of your college life work experience. All you need to do is list 12 years of your growth.
Since your journey is longer, you may want to add many more things. So, just remember your best achievement and your favorite teachers and you can add it to your list. Think about your biggest achievement or smallest one you have 12 years of history and if you remember all that it is good to include it in your list.
Think about your life journey, forget about theme
In 5 basic steps of writing SOP for UG courses, this one step is different from other courses. In this step, you have to tell everything about your life story. So, don’t go searching for the theme or leadership or any specific characteristics.
So, be flexible in your SOP and tell what you have done and how you can do it. What you are exploring, deciding or learning. So, don’t look for any instances to add to your SOP.
Write down your first draft
At your UG stage, it is important for you to write a daily draft, write it when you get chance to think of it and make a list. So, make a draft on the early basis this will help to improve your overall experience about writing SOP for an undergraduate course.
Discuss your list and the first draft
Show all your lists and drafts your friends, cousins or teachers and find the best suggestions they give to you. Like what to include, what not to include and which one is the best approach to add to your SOP.
So, make your system of purpose for undergraduate courses questioned and improves it by applying your knowledge and skill because it may get you best suggestions that others fail to do so.
Touch up your essay and finalize
After reviewing the draft and list, now you can finalize your draft for adding in SOP. It is best if you write an essay and after that, if you write a statement of purpose again then it would be the best for you. So, clear about your goals and keep the list ready what you want to add in your statement of purpose.
There is no limit for writing the statement of purpose for your UG courses, infect it would be great if you write more drafts, that will help you to make the engaging SOP for you.
About the author