Many aspects of a graduate school application can feel a bit detached. Upload a CV here, type in your grades there, check some boxes to indicate demographic information. Not so is the personal statement. This essay is your chance to shine, to show off your voice, to indicate just why exactly you want to commit to a career in your chosen field.
Except, there’s one thing standing in your way: the word count.
Understandably, admissions committees have thousands of applications to sift through, and it’s simply untenable for them to allow applicants to write as much as they want. More importantly, the word count serves as a test. Can you get your ideas across succinctly? Can you work within set boundaries, whether in a lab or essay, and still produce excellence?.
First, read the prompt. Read it again. Especially in STEM fields, most applications are fairly straightforward in what they require in a personal statement, asking for some variation of career goals, prior experience, and reasons for working within the particular program. However, you should note the specific language used, as while prompts are usually broadly similar, there are variances throughout. One application may ask you to name specific faculty, for example, while another may ask you to speak about the program more generally. It’s okay to have a standard statement of purpose draft that you use as a skeleton, but make sure to add or subtract based on the guidelines of a given program.
While this isn’t a narrative-style essay, a proper introduction can pique the interest of a reader and contextualize your career experiences. It might be tempting to cut this to save on words, but a good introduction goes a long way in terms of reader investment. Don’t start with something dry, like “I have always been interested in…”, but also make sure to not run overly long and prosaic. Tried and true methods include relating an experience that got you interested in your field or drawing a personal connection to the problem you want to study. Get to the point quickly, humanize yourself in the eyes of your readers, and set the stage for the rest of the statement. This is your WHY: why do you want to work in this field?
Use the ending of your introduction to segue into your career goals. Be specific about your overall career trajectory, but not the nitty-gritty of the research itself. You don’t want to write yourself into a niche that the program doesn’t have. However, make sure you explicitly say what you want to do with the degree you will get from the program. Will you maintain a career in academia? Pursue a start-up idea? Work in policy surrounding your field? Be clear. This is your WHAT: what will you do with the degree you are applying for?
It's a fine line between properly hyping yourself up and coming across as arrogant. Generally, it’s better to let your experiences do the talking, with a sentence at the end to summarize what you’ve learned. You may not have space to talk about every single project or internship you’ve been a part of, and that’s okay. Don’t force things. Your reviewers will also see your resume/CV; this is your chance to bring a few of the entries on there to life. Squeezing six experiences into a statement, with little background given to each, is far less valuable than deeply describing three meaningful ones that truly impacted you. Your reviewers are looking for evidence of things like commitment, intellectual curiosity, and relevant skills and knowledge. Focus on your longer-term projects and those that generated meaningful results. If your CV shows skills learned, indicate where you learned them from and how you applied them. Ultimately, this will likely be the meat of your essay; make sure it complements the opening and closing by linking each experience to your overall goal. This is your HOW: how are you fit for this program, and how have you used your prior experiences to prepare you for it?
Having talked extensively about yourself, it’s always a good idea to add some thoughts about the program before concluding. Why this school specifically? The best way to answer this is by mentioning specific faculty whose work you’re interested in. It doesn’t have to be long, but mention a couple of labs and their recent research thrusts that interest you. This part might require some homework. Try emailing faculty who you will mention in your essay, briefly mentioning that you want to work in their lab and asking if they are currently taking students. You don’t want to say in your statement that you’re applying to this school just to work under a certain professor, only for that professor to not have any spots available. Mention a few names, keeping it flexible under the broader research interests you described earlier. Talk about the program as well. Is it highly interdisciplinary? Are there specific opportunities within your department you’re excited about? This is your WHO: who do you see yourself working with, and more broadly, what about this school makes it right for you?
With the requisite portions written, now it’s time to assemble them. If the prompt asks for anything more, write that as well. Many applications ask for a separate, shorter personal statement or enrichment essay where you can talk more about personal background. If an application doesn’t, it might be worth adding a paragraph to highlight unusual parts of your research journey or things you’re passionate about that intertwine with your degree. When editing, I always find that it’s better to write too much and cut it down, rather than write too little and have to artificially inflate. Keep repetition to a minimum. Parse through the essay sentence by sentence. For each one, consider it in the broader context of the message you’re getting across. What is its purpose? Does it help your case? Have a trusted reader help with cutting down, as well as scanning for grammatical errors.
Ultimately, while it may be a little restrictive, writing within the confines of a statement of purpose is great practice for your upcoming graduate career
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