WHAT IS THE SOP
The Statement of Purpose, popularly known as the SOP, is an avenue for applicants to present a brief snapshot of their profile to the admission committee. It is an opportunity to
- Highlight one’s key achievements and accomplishments
- Talk about one’s specific interests in the domain
- Describe skills/knowledge that one has acquired by virtue of her/his past education, internships, and/or full-time work experience
- Address any weaknesses or drawbacks in the profile if any
- Discuss the applicant’s interest in that particular course at the university
In short, the objective of the SOP is to discuss your future career and/or research goals, and highlight the important educational and work experiences that you believe have prepared you for graduate studies; and your reasons for applying to that particular university.
Ideal length of the SOP: 700-800 words
NOTE: Some universities have word limits on the SOP. Many universities ask you to limit the SOP to 500 words or around 1 page. When a university gives a word limit for the SOP, up to 10% over the limit is fine. If a university has a 1-page limit for the SOP, please keep the SOP around 600 words (DO not increase margins, decrease fonts, and try to fit 1000+ words in a single page)
HOW TO STRUCTURE YOUR SOP
While most universities do not prescribe any predefined structure for the SOP, you may follow the following structure:
1: INTRODUCTION (about 100-150 words)
The first paragraph of your SOP can be a brief introduction. In the introduction you may discuss your career goals, future aspirations, and/or research interests. You may talk about how these interests developed, and what skills & knowledge do you intend to acquire during your Masters to achieve your goals.
NOTES:
NO Quotes Please – Avoid starting your SOP with random quotes or philosophical sayings (unless you can actually demonstrate how you have imbibed the philosophy in every aspect of your education/work)
NO Generic Statements – Most Students make the classic mistake of writing several generic statements in the SOP. For examples, most Computer Science applicants talk of the advancements in the field of Artificial Intelligence or Machine Learning over the past decade and the possibilities that it presents for the future. Environmental engineers write about the impact of the climate change and so on.
You need to understand that the SOP is not a magazine or newspaper article where you have a broad audience. The readers of your SOP are experts in the field. You don’t need to tell them about the wonders Artificial Intelligence or Machine Learning or Bioengineering can do. They know it, and far better than you do. Rather you should talk about what have been your experiences in the domain and what aspects of the domain would you like to further develop your knowledge in.
NO World Change please
Keep your career goals realistic. Don’t say that you want to pursue a Masters because your goal is to of save the world or bring about a global/national revolution by implementing advancement in a certain technology. Your career goals should be realistic. It could be as simple as detailing the kind of job/career opportunities you aspire for after completing your Masters. If possible, articulate your short term and long term career goals; short term being plans immediately after your Masters, and long term being about 5 years post Masters.
2. EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND (2-3 paras of 100-150 words each)
Briefly describe the KEY projects and Internships that you worked on during your academic term. Do not focus a lot on the description of the project (try to summarize the overall concept in a sentence or two). Rather try to highlight some of these aspects of your projects:
- What was the outcome of the project? Was it a success? What was the impact/success factor of the project? (If possible, quantify your impact)
- What was your specific contribution to it (in case of a group project)?
- What were the key challenges/hurdles you faced and how did you go about solving them?
- Did you do something innovative in the project?
- Did you adopt a novel approach?
- Did you go beyond the scope of the project to improve its efficiency?
- What was your learning by working on the project? What skills did you develop?
Be it a project or internship, try not just to write only about ‘What you did’, but rather try to highlight ‘How effective were you at doing it’.
NOTES
NO Subjects/Courses please – Do not list down courses/subjects that you have studied during your bachelors. Almost everybody who does a similar degree takes more or less the same courses, so no point in mentioning about them. Plus, your transcripts reflect the courses you have studied.
You can however, mention about a course you took, if you really went out of your way to take it, and do explain your rationale behind it.
Extracurricular involvements don’t matter in most cases – Extracurricular involvements, especially those that don’t directly relate to your field of study, don’t really matter. So don’t waste space writing about them. Your resume is a good place to mention them. If you however believe that your extracurricular activities are important and are relevant to the program that you are applying to, then you can write about them. But don’t just mention the activities. Also mention the skills and traits you developed by participating in them and how they would help you during your Master’s program.
Not every project, paper, activity etc needs a mention – Mention only relevant stuff in your SOP. Do not mention everything that you have done as a student.
3. WORK EXPERIENCE (1 -3 paras of 100-150 words each) – If applicable
If you have relevant work experience, then write a para or two about it. Again, do not mention a lot of what you do/did or get into details of your day-to-day activities at work. Also avoid using jargons and terms that someone outside of your company/industry may not understand. Instead, highlight on these aspects about your work
- What was/has been your contribution at work?
- What were the challenges/hurdles you faced and how did you overcome them?
- Did you do something innovative at work?
- How did your contribution add value to your organisation? Quantify it.
- Did you adopt a novel approach at solving a problem?
- Did you bring about any improvements in processes?
- Did you go beyond the scope of your assigned work and if yes what was the impact?
- What was your learning at work? What skills did you develop?
NOTES
If it’s not relevant, don’t talk about it- If your work experience is not relevant to the field you want to pursue your Masters in, then do not write a lot about it. A short para (or even 2-3 lines) describing your work experience and the skills that you developed, by virtue of your job, is good.
4. WHY MASTERS (and WHY NOW?) (1-2 paras of 100-150 words each)
Mention the reasons you wish to pursue the proposed Masters, what topics, courses would you like to study during your masters, what skills would you like to acquire, and how and why are they relevant to your future aspirations. If you are applying for a research-based program, you could also talk of the kind of research you wish to pursue during your Masters. For students who are applying after gaining some work experience, if possible, also highlight why you believe this this it the right time for you to pursue a Masters.
5: WHY THIS UNIVERSITY (1 paras of 100-150 words)
In this para write about your reasons for applying to that particular university. You could highlight some of the courses that interest you, some research labs/projects that you would like to be part of, some professors whose work you like, and so on. If you are applying for a professional/non-research programs, you could talk about the industry/capstone projects, internships, and other initiatives that the program offers.
PS: If you do not have a lot to write about ‘why this university’, you may club this para with the earlier para on WHY Masters.
OTHER POINTS TO CONSIDER
1: The SOP is NOT your life story
Remember that the SOP is not your life story. AVOID talking about your childhood, family background, or giving explanations on how and why you chose your undergraduate field of study. No one is interested in knowing it, and it doesn’t really matter. For instance, if you have completed your degree in Mechanical Engineering, it really doesn’t matter why you chose this field. What matters to the admissions committee is how good are you at it now, and what knowledge have you garnered over the years.
2: NOT every project, activity, work detail goes in the SOP
The SOP should ONLY focus ONLY on the relevant and important educational and work details that you believe have prepared you for graduate studies. Do not mention every project/experience that you have in the SOP. All those can be in your resume.
3: The SOP need not be in chronological order
The contents of the SOP may or may not be written in a chronological order. Based on your profile, you could write details in chronological order or you could mention events in your SOP in the order of importance – talking about your most important projects/assignments first and then going on to the lesser important but still relevant ones. The choice is yours.
Additional reading material on SOPs
Here are some links you may refer to
https://grad.berkeley.edu/admissions/apply/statement-purpose/
https://www.northeastern.edu/graduate/blog/how-to-write-a-statement-of-purpose/
https://ed.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/statement-of-purpose_revised_4.pdf
Co-Founder of Academy One