How to write a Statement of Purpose

How to Write a Statement of Purpose

If you've decided to apply for graduate studies, almost all universities will require you to write a Statement of Purpose (SoP). This letter, usually 2-3 pages in length, can make or break your application. Regardless of your grade point average, work experience, test scores, or undergraduate mastery of your potential future area of study, your Statement of Purpose is very influential at most institutions when determining your candidacy for admission. Please note that these instructions are more specific to admission into a PhD program.

Steps

1. Start early. Give yourself at least a month to gather the information described below and produce a final version of your Statement of Purpose.
2. Investigate the current research trends of the university to which you are applying. Read faculty publications, current interests, and all the admission requirements (specifically those of your Statement of Purpose).
3. Talk out the details of your life with a friend or trusted acquaintance. Recall small details, anecdotes from childhood, service you might have given at earlier times, the rich palpable details of your life. You will recall items you have forgotten or deemed minor, one of which may add energy and meaning to your Statement of Purpose.
4. Think carefully about what you want to research as a graduate student. Note that this may change during the course of your studies, but you will want to enter grad school with a solid idea of what you want to do and what you can provide to the university.
5. Create a strong opening paragraph of five sentences or less. Briefly explain who you are, where you're from, why you have chosen the particular field to which you're applying, and why the university is among your first choices. Be specific. Don't tell the faculty how wonderful their university is or that you want to study there because it's the best in the state/nation/world. The faculty already knows this and you're just wasting their time.
6. Mention faculty members with whom you could conduct research by name along with their areas of expertise. For example, "I am interested in working with Dr. Margaret Jones on sociolinguistic comparison because..." or "I have seen Dr. Allara's publications on the use of genetic markers in biochemical reactions and would like to investigate..."
7. Tell the university why they should choose you over someone else. Explain what you can contribute to that particular field or specialty. Keep in mind that college faculty will accept you if they believe you can further their reputation. Plan how you will accomplish that task and include it in your Statement.
8. Fill the rest of your essay with more detailed information about your undergraduate education, work experience, and potential research topics.
9. List all the enclosures you will include in your application and give a very brief description of your portfolio.
10. Thank the admissions committee for their time. Chances are they are reviewing hundreds of applications along with yours.
11. Provide your contact information.
12. Go back and revise, edit, revamp, etc. Have someone else edit it. You'll probably cut out a lot of stuff. Then edit some more. Remember to include everything above while aiming for 2-3 pages maximum. This is where being very concise and to the point is important. After the letter is perfect, edit some more.
13. Print your letter, sign it, and include it as the first item of your application portfolio (although be aware that some schools will want you to send it electronically).


Tips

* Remember that your first paragraph should be no longer than four or five sentences, but it should give a summary of the entire Statement of Purpose. Many graduate committees will read your first paragraph to decide if the rest of your application is worth reading as well.
* Keep it clear and concise, yet detailed and specific when it comes to faculty and areas of potential research.
* Don't tell the admissions committee how amazing you are. Avoid empty phrases like "I'm talented", "I'm very intelligent," "I'm a great writer/engineer/artist" or "I had the highest GPA in my department as an undergrad." Show them through your professional Statement of Purpose and application portfolio and let them decide if you are amazing enough to attend their institution.
* Should you attempt to explain how "amazing" you are, make sure that you justify it. Yet, you must remain humble. For example: "I believe that I have the confidence in myself to strive for the furthest goal."
* Use short anecdotes to highlight your strengths. After committee members have read a few dozen statements, they all start looking alike; some specific and interesting details can help a candidate to stick out. Of course, it helps if these anecdotes are related to the broad point you're making in your statement.
* Focus on your previous and future research experiences. Many students make the mistake of summarizing their CVs. Committees that bother to read your application know already that you're a good student; they now want to see whether you'll make the transition to a more unstructured and self-directed form of learning in graduate school. They look for evidence of this by seeing how you describe your past research experiences and your future plans. The key is not particularly the topic you propose--the committee will expect this to change after you get some more experience. Instead, they will look to see whether you have a realistic and well-informed sense of what a graduate student would expect to do in a degree.
* Remember that a Statement of Purpose is only one, albeit extremely important, part of your graduate school admission portfolio. Carefully examine all the requirements on the university's admissions webpage before you submit an application.
* Apply to as many schools as you can afford to pay their application fees. Four distinct Statements of Purposes for four different universities should be your minimum.

Warnings

* Avoid sending the exact same Statement of Purpose to all the universities to which you're applying. The admissions committee will easily spot a cookie-cutter essay and more than likely reject you. Admissions committees also notice whether or not you include specific references to people, labs, etc., within their departments.
* Don't be overly specific about your research goals if you are actually somewhat flexible. If there are no faculty in a particular department working in your described area who are taking students in a given year, you might be rejected even though you are considered "above bar". At the same time, there's no point pretending to be interested in a broader range of topics than you are.
* Don't be too technical, i.e., using words or jargon-style expressions that are unfamiliar to you. If you use them incorrectly, chances are you'll end up sounding like an idiot.
* Don't use superfluous descriptions or poetic phrases unless you're applying to study arts like creative writing.
* Be prepared for rejection. Graduate school is a competitive world and even the best undergrad students get rejected from somewhere.

Statement of Purpose (Got me through all 7 universities i applied to)

Human communities throughout the world, specially the environmentalists are facing many water related problems such as presence of contaminants in water, loss of surface water, rapid depletion of the groundwater resources and increased soil erosion due to water runoff. Globally, the potable water sources are deteriorating rapidly. At this rate many parts of the world would be facing a severe scarcity of clean and contaminant free water. This situation has influenced my career objectives considerably. I want to work in the field of water quality engineering and I aim to develop engineering solutions which are simple yet economical and practical for the population at large specially the farmers.

Technology has always fascinated me, and this coupled with my propensity towards the agricultural sciences led me to pursue agricultural engineering as a major in my undergraduate degree program. I was fortunate to be admitted in the College of Technology at GBPUAT, India’s first and premier Agriculture and Technology University, where my curiosity and awareness were both augmented by the excellent facilities in the university campus

Selected to undergo my first internship at the Central Farm Machinery Training and Testing Institute, Budni, one of Asia’s premier farm machinery certification institutes; I was exposed to cutting edge research and development for the first time, albeit in the field of farm machinery. Participating in “build from scratch” experiments, I was truly fascinated by the precise methodology and innovative ideas needed to come out with best design of novel farm machineries and equipments. Working for a better design of a “rotary tiller” to increase the operational life of its blades, though tedious and involving, seemed stimulating to me, or maybe it was the delight of working on a real design problem after two years of pedagogy.

In the beginning of my junior year I was offered a research project by Dr. Chhedi Lal, Professor, Dept. of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering. It was entitled Automated Irrigation Scheduling using Wireless Data Transmission Techniques. The aim of the project was to develop a completely automated system which would send a short message (SMS) to the farmer indicating the amount of water to be applied in the field, utilizing data from soil moisture sensors. This has resulted in optimal water usage, regularized water scheduling and minimal runoff losses. The project involved an extensive use of experimental software such as Lab VIEW 7.0, which was used to create a Virtual Instrument to calculate the water requirements based on soil moisture, type and crop conditions.

My decision to pursue my graduate studies in the water quality improvement and contaminant transport analysis was actuated by my interest in the areas of watershed hydrology, drainage systems, and runoff water management etc. to which I was exposed to in courses like Watershed Hydrology, Soil and Water Conservation Engineering, and Irrigation and Drainage Engineering and through my own readings on the various research developments taking place throughout the world. My passion for the subject can be gauged by the fact that I was among the toppers for all the courses of respective departments.

Better water quality and reduced contaminant discharge in runoff water can create a huge impact on the environmental systems worldwide and their universal practical applicability makes them an area of tremendous future potential. Technology development for better water quality provides great research opportunities and I believe land and water resource engineers and conservationists would have an increasing crucial role to play not only in major corporations and public /non govt. initiatives but even in various government departments as well. A good grounding in the agricultural field practices and my strength in analytical and computational related tasks would stand me in good stead in my chosen area of research.

My second internship, at Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), a Government of India enterprise, dealt with the regional interpretation of Water Quality monitoring data in the State of Uttarakhand. This training has given me an excellent research experience along with a deep insight on the water quality analysis and management practices.

In my 7^th semester, I was selected to be a part of a research team for working on a project entitled

An Innovative System for Bioremediation of Agricultural Chemicals for Environmental Sustainability. This project has been developed by University of Illinois –Urbana Champaign (UIUC). Under the research collaboration of our University with UIUC we are investigating the potential use of bio materials (wooden chips) as filters for the chemical bioremediation of agricultural water. My active interaction and involvement in this project has given me a chance to be a part of high-end research, valuable international exposure, and a working familiarity with DRAINMOD 6.0.

My final year dissertation is Design and Installation of Gravity head Micro-irrigation Systems for Vegetable crops. This project has given me great designing experience as it required a comprehensive design for a gravity head micro-irrigation system for summer squash plants. Also the field experience gained from the complete in field installation of the micro-irrigation system right from water tanks, main lines, laterals, emitters, fertigation unit, filters to the complete polyhouse has been truly enriching.

I actively pursued my sporting interests in my degree program. I’ve been a part of the University Squash team for the last three years and have represented the university in All India University Men’s Squash Racquet Championships twice. Our team also finished a creditable third in the state championships. The game brought in endless hours of hard work and strategizing. It helped inculcate values such as perseverance, patience and also a spirit of teamwork. Squash is a game that’s very demanding both physically and mentally and it really tests your limits. It has been instrumental in my progress as a stronger individual in both mind and body.

I have served the student body of the college in various capacities over the past three years. I am one of the founding members of the Alumni Cell of the college and presently am the Coordinator. Due to the untiring efforts of our team under my supervision, we have expanded rapidly from mere hundred alumni contacts to a family of more than six thousand at the moment. I am also the Vice chairman of the student body of the college i.e. the Engineering Society. This experience in actuality simulated the real life conditions faced in the professional world and thereby has enriched my leadership qualities and organizational skills. Organizing the national level technical festivals has given me great insights into the latest technological developments and has been a wonderful platform to interact and compete successfully with the best students in the country.

My active interest in the National services Schemes for three years brought in greater sense of belongingness and social responsibility towards all sections of the society. Our team adopted a village for about a month and worked with disadvantaged families, discussing their lives, helping them and teaching them English in the evening classes. This taught me societal management and how to make things happen with minimal resources. My association with the National Services Scheme has been a great learning curve for me and a very enjoyable experience in interfacing with people from all backgrounds and walks of life.

In a nutshell, I feel very privileged to be a part of such a wide array of activities outside of the academic domain. These have been a major influence to my overall development as an individual in my learning years. I consider discipline, handling group dynamics, and innovative thinking as the main positives from these activities. I feel that I have gained immensely from the opportunities presented to me and my experiences with them and I am much more confident to face the sterner professional tests in the future.

Now on the threshold of completing four years of enlightening undergraduate study, I am convinced that a graduate degree would be an ideal platform for me to take up new challenges, study new concepts and interact with great scholars and learn from them. My past experiences and work have taught me that determination, hard work and perseverance are the most essential qualities required for professional success and I am confident of putting them into practice and achieve my goals. I enjoy research in its every facet - problem solving, identifying issues, presentation, modeling, and criticism. Given an opportunity to pursue a graduate degree from revered institution like UIUC would help me reach the zenith of my potential both intellectually and academically. I am interested in the works of Dr.P. Kalita, & Dr. R.A. Cooke in the fields of water quality, contaminant discharge and subsurface drainage and it would be a great honor to work under their guidance. I sincerely hope that my application would receive a positive response from the Selection Committee.