SOP Writing: Playing by the rules
I have curated a 7-pointer checklist to help you write a well-structured SOP
Artwork by 'makyzz'
SOPs can be an intimidating affair if the writer is unaware of what the readers look for, how the SOP is assessed and the technical aspects that are deliberated upon. The more browser tabs we open, the more confused we are by the end of the search as to how one can progress with the writing.
After going through the SOP guidelines by Harvard, MIT, UCL, TU Delft and other top league table universities during my master's applications, I had created my SOP guidelines which helped me immensely in drafting a well-written SOP, few of the important ones I am sharing here:
1) Back to School
A well-done homework is the key to winning the heart of the reader, so start with homework that can help you score a 10/10! It is highly important to know beforehand, what the universities offer and what is expected out of you in the SOP. Your SOP should be targeted and designed for the course you are applying to and by the end of it, should explain a tangible linkage of your interest, aspiration, potential learnings at that course and how it helps your short term and long term goals.
Before starting the SOP, finding answers to the following will help you start your write-up with a clarity of what is expected:
Why do you wish to study masters?
What are your career aspirations? How can the university's course help you accomplish it?
What is the current ranking/speciality of the university that attracts you to study there?
Go through the programmes offered by the university.
Why do you want to undertake that particular programme or research?
What are the academic modules and extra-curricular activities that interest you?
Download the brochures/booklets/current works/programme overviews, module details, etc of the programme/course of your choice.
Visit the webpages where the students' current works are showcased, check the atelier/design module/ department/ design studio social media profiles
If applying for masters in a different country, what is it that courses in your country cannot offer but the potential university can?
Finding a rough idea of these things from the beginning will help you form a background of your write up. On a broader level, your SOP should reflect that you have thought of all these points and have attempted to address most of these at various points.
2) Don't just do your homework.. organise it!
It is very important to keep a track of all the webpages you visit, the information you save, the PDFs you download and the videos/podcasts/online events you stream. Staying organised can be a pain, but classifying and filtering all the information from the start saves the hustle of later times. Keywording is the trick to store information in the right place to access it easily later.
Online plugins and Reference Management Programs help you save information, categorise it and make folders as per your interests:
*Click on them to open respective links*
The primary use of these programs might be for managing research referencing and creating bibliographies easily, but believe me, they are a boon to webpage sorting especially when you are opening a 100 webpages a day thoroughly reading everything about the universities. It may take a while to grasp their interface and start using them proficiently, but it also helps on the long run as you'll end up using them for your academic research and dissertation in your masters.
3) Brainstorm!... then reflect!
When we eventually reach a stage where we're ready to start planning our masters/postgrad, we have almost forgotten a lot of our tiny achievements from our school/undergrad days. Hence, this pointer holds the top priority and consumes most of your time.
The first stage of writing an SOP starts with connecting the dots backwards, which means sitting down and travelling back in time and listing down the following things:
Academic subjects - that you studied and helped you grow, influenced your professional thinking
Thesis - the broad topic addressed, the micro/contextual issues addressed, thesis keywords and the background study that led to the decision of the final topic
Academic achievements - academic/design competitions, subject/class representation, participation/wins in academic events, research grants, etc.
Co-curricular activities - co-curricular events at university, annual magazine editing, exhibitions, quizzes, inter-college events, debates, logo/other allied design competitions, inter-class events, etc.
Extra-curricular activities - inter-class/inter-school/inter-college sports, marathons, trekking events, school/district/state/national level participation in any extra-curricular activity.
Workshops - any academic, allied fields, hands-on experience, theoretical, institute certificate awarded workshops or courses.
Academic experience/exams - user/professional exams of softwares or skillsets; licenses, credentials, registration IDs received from these exams.
Professional work experience - paid or unpaid internships, apprenticeships, fellowships, part-time or full-time jobs at various companies/organisations; if possible obtain a work certificate from them.
Volunteering -active volunteering at university events, NGOs, self-help organisations, or any other voluntary work outside of your professional field.
Hobbies and interests - your interests outside of your profession are equally important for the reader to understand who you are as a person outside your profession. Poetry, sketching, acting, direction, dance, photography, any art form, blogging, collecting items, reading, etc.
It is okay if you haven't done all of these things, you do not have to prove how you fit into every mould, but strategically portray how you are a valuable addition to a selective few. It is also completely okay if, in the end, you decide to scrap some items off the list. Not every experience and activity that you had is going to have the same importance. But, brainstorming everything in your notebook or preferably on a large piece of paper helps document all of these things in one place so that at a later stage when you have to look back on whether you have missed out on something, this list/piece of paper has all the answers.
There are platforms available online which can also help to virtually save all your text notes in one place so that you can easily copy-paste your notes into your draft SOP as and when required. Links to some of these platforms are attached here (in no specific order of importance):
*Click on them to open respective links*
4) Create an outline
Define a start and end to your storyline. Plan the broader aspects - from introductory to the closing paragraph. This helps keep track of your write-up and also establishes an outline of work.
First Paragraph: Use this paragraph to introduce yourself to the reader and how you were introduced to the broader professional field you are in now. Keep the introductory paragraph open, explain in short about the experiences and learnings that moved you to venture into your professional field and how it has detailed your long term career goals.
Middle Paragraphs: The next several paragraphs should support your decision to pursue this long-term career goal by describing the experiences and learnings that made you understand the importance of your field (a narrowed down the scope of your interests in the field) and forged your long-term career goal. You should also reach your milestones in history and elaborate on how you arrived at where you are now.
Link these paragraphs together to tell the story of how you learned and realized your goals.
Writing in chronological order (from past to the present) often works best.
Closing Paragraph: End your essay with a conclusion that refers back to the intro and restates your aspiration to study the programme at the university. This helps unify your essay as a whole, connecting your experiences back to the reason you are writing this essay in the first place—to detail your career goals and show your qualifications for your graduate program of choice.
5) Quantify and Interpret
To show how you are qualified and an ideal candidate for the programme, it is important to quantify and interpret your experiences and personal attributes. Think of it as providing meaning to your qualifications.
Everyone loves passionate, hardworking and intelligent people, but how do you quantify and interpret it?
An example of that is as follows:
Statement: "I'm hardworking and versatile"
This does not provide the reader with any solid evidence of your skills and fails to explain its authenticity
Quantification: "On top of my full semester course load, I committed to 10 hours per week of basketball practice, and helped my team win a Gold at the inter-college tournaments"
Perfect! We quantified your qualities of versatility and hard work. But the reader still has no clue why he should bother to take cognizance of this statement.
Interpretation: "I enjoyed those 10 hours as it gave me the mind and body wellbeing I needed, rejuvenated me, which in turn reflected positively on my academic work and increased my focus."
Quantification and interpretation add value to your SOP. It explains to the reader why you do what you do and helps the reader map the extent of your aptitude and aspirations.
Choosing to quantify and interpret a selective few experiences helps you stand out in the applicant's pool. For science and engineering-focused applications, intellectual experiences should take precedent. In those, you can broadly describe your scientific and career aspirations and link this to your previous research/professional/academic work opportunities and coursework learnings. For creative programmes, apart from academics, your allied experiences are something that can sometimes spark interest in the eyes of the reader. No matter what kind of programme you are applying for, choose your experiences wisely and highlight the ones which acted as turning points in your personal development.
Most of the times, it is a busy professor who is going to skim through hundreds of SOPs and only have 2-3 takeaway points from each. Therefore, it is important to choose your experiences wisely and detail them out in a memorable way by quantifying and interpreting it. Any experience written without quantification and interpretation could only end up being waste of word count.
6) Draft it!
With all the research done and keywords mapped, draft you first SOP with the help of these points (source: MIT, Statement of Purpose guidelines):
Always use positive language when referring to yourself.
Give detailed, but concise examples.
Use transition words, sentences and paragraphs. (The table below lists most of the transition words that you can use to detail out your experiences on the SOP)
Your statement must read smoothly.
Skip a line after each paragraph.
Refrain from starting neighbouring paragraphs the same way.
Avoid using vocabulary that you do not know.
Refrain from repeating yourself.
Have a strong, simple closing paragraph.
Keep a check on your word limit!
Thank the admissions committee for their time at the end of your SOP.
7) Revise, Edit, Finalise
Once you are done with the first draft, TAKE A BREAK - may be an hour or two! And return to the table with a fresh mind and then sit to edit your draft. It is important to convey your thoughts effectively, and grammatically well. The break helps declutter your thoughts and gives you a chance to see the same draft with a refreshed perspective. Once you are editing, take a note of these points:
Be crisp, clear, succinct, and narrow down your scope - it is not your autobiography!
Plan the next few revisions, each with a break of 1-2 days in between them
Ask for help! - the more critique you get, the better your SOP gets. Ask your close friends, family, tutors, and educators. Listen to all the crits but ONLY pick the ones that you believe can develop your SOP.
Proofread - again and again! Check for spelling, grammatical mistakes and punctuation errors. Use platforms like Grammarly or ProWriting Aid and Thesaurus to find synonyms for repetitive words in your SOP.
Do not exceed your character/word limit stated by the universities! Most applications are rejected as they do not meet the word count requirement. Sadly, not everyone ends up reading too lengthy SOPs, and most of the times they end up being rejected from the pool of applications.
To sum up, write your SOP with integrity! Do not run after SOPs of successful candidates. Be your genuine self and pen down your story with the help of all the pointers mentioned above. Surprisingly most of the times, your SOP holds equal weightage to your portfolio/research/thesis that you have submitted with your application. An SOP can help the reader determine if you have the potential of growth at their university and can end up giving you an upper hand than many other applicants.
References:
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