First, he says, try to reframe the task at hand and get excited for the opportunity to write your statement of purpose. He explains:.
Here is your chance to truly speak directly to them. Each student arrives at this process with a unique story, including prior jobs, volunteer experience, or undergraduate studies. Think about what makes you you and start outlining. When writing your statement of purpose, he suggests asking yourself these key questions:.
Jot these responses down to get your initial thoughts on paper. An effective outline for your statement of purpose might look something like this:. An outline like the one above will give you a roadmap to follow so that your statement of purpose is well-organized and concise.
Your statement of purpose should communicate who you are and why you are interested in a particular program, but it also needs to be positioned in a way that differentiates you from other applicants.
Your statement of purpose can leave a lasting impression if done well, Pierce says. If nothing else, stay focused on what you uniquely bring to the classroom, the program, and the campus community. The first step is to generate ideas for what to include in your grad school statement of purpose. This should include many of the elements we addressed in the previous section.
But thinking of specific examples in advance will make writing the actual statement of purpose much easier! There are many brainstorming methods you could consider. Some people like making lists while others prefer to just free-write paragraphs. Some would rather draw a mind map or even make voice memos.
Just so long as it helps you record the information and get your brain going, any method is fine. Here are some things to consider in your brainstorming session, with brainstorming questions for each:.
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Did you need to work full-time and go to school full-time? Whatever you write, try to frame it in positive terms, to emphasize your ultimate success in the face of setbacks.
If you find yourself struggling to generate ideas for any of the above areas, there are a few things you could do. You could also speak to mentors and friends. They are likely to have a good idea what graduate programs and looking for and can help you generate and hone ideas.
Highlight the overall points you want to make and the examples that go with each of those points. Try to arrange your points in an order that flows logically.
The purpose of this draft is to get your initial thoughts on paper. Try to make sure that your writing flows logically and start to cut points that seem less relevant. They can read your statement of purpose and give you advice on the clarity and organization of your ideas. However, if multiple people give a similar piece of feedback, you should probably take that advice. Now you should try to really tighten things up and think about how the final product will be received by the admissions committee.
In addition to previous academic records, research interests, GPAs and work experience, statements of purpose serve as an important tool in helping graduate admissions panels get to know prospective students.
While these documents may seem straightforward initially, students can help themselves stand out from the pack by writing incisive, thoughtful statements that stay true to themselves but also demonstrate an understanding of the university and its mission. Use this guide to learn what academic departments look for, how to structure a winning statement, and what our expert has to say on the matter.
The statement of purpose can seem like a vague concept when students are first introduced to it, and many may question whether they are fulfilling the requirements fully and adequately. Because confusion continues to swirl around statements of purpose, we asked Melinda Maxwell, director of graduate admissions at the University of North Georgia, to share answers to some of the most common questions students pose about this process.
Before ever sitting down to write or outline a statement of purpose, students need to ensure they thoroughly read any and all instructions or guidance provided by the school. While schools like to see unique the unique skills, passions, talents and interests of prospective students, these learners must also be judicial in deciding which details may be interesting but ultimately unsuitable for the statement of purpose. That being said, personal statements should include characteristics about you as an individual — separate from what they ascertain about how you perform as a student from your transcripts and recommendations.
Schedule time to sit down with former professors, mentors or supervisors to help get a clearer sense of your strongest attributes. Once written, allow time for trusted friends or family to provide feedback on content, style and syntax.
As will be discussed thoroughly in this guide, one of the most important things students can do to write a winning statement of purpose is to stay focused on their story, interests and unique qualities. While this remains true, applicants must also consider how to structure and present their SOP in a way that appeals to the needs and values of the school to which they apply.
After filling out numerous applications, some students start paying less attention to specific instructions and instead move into autopilot mode.
Admission panels read thousands of applications each year, so students must find innovative ways to uniquely share their story to stand out from the pack. Instead of simply talking about the importance of sports or travel in your life, share your distinctive recollections or accomplishments.
Rather than saying you worked at a summer camp, be sure to include information such as how long, how many children, how you spent your days and any commendations you received. In the same way that colleges and universities want students to share matchless information about themselves, they also want to see that students recognize the unique qualities of the school. Discuss how any jobs, volunteer experiences or research contributed to your future.
Try to leave your reader with one last compelling thought or insight as you reflect upon what enrolling in the program would mean to you, both personally and professionally. You could speak about the current challenges faced by experts in your discipline, and your own eagerness to become more involved in contributing to the field.
For example:. Through my studies on the relationship between ethnicity and barriers to political participation, I hope to discover various new strategies that could help to address this enduring imbalance. Your conclusion might also be a good place to address your career plans, as it ends the statement by looking to the future.
A strong statement of purpose should include the following elements in the main body of the text:. Tell the committee why you have chosen this particular program and field, and mention a specific area or even research question that you would like to explore in greater depth, if given the chance to enrol in the program.
Make it clear to them that you really do have this specific school and program in mind for thoughtful, compelling reasons, and that you are invested in finding the best possible fit for you. A highly focused and motivated candidate is a very attractive candidate.
Be explicit in mentioning any relevant experiences or achievements that you have had. For example, you could mention a research project or major paper you completed that helped shape your current research interests. If a particular course was particularly valuable to you, mention it and explain what you learned in it that was so helpful or inspiring. You could also mention experiences outside of the classroom if one is relevant to your application: e.
The more specific you can be, the stronger the example! Be sure to emphasize any strategies you have developed for overcoming any weaknesses that you may have. Telling the committee about how you envision making the transition from school to the workforce shows them that you are choosing both your program and your career path with care. It also assures them that you are truly devoted to your discipline, and are committed to building a professional life for yourself related to your field of study.
We will now take a look at each of these four elements in greater depth below, with some useful examples. Your statement of purpose also allows you to share your focused interest in the field of your choosing. In thinking about your particular intellectual and research interests, consider including some of the following elements:. My interest in the Health Economics specialization option is a testament to my conviction that health is one of the most interesting and complex determinants of social welfare.
In my experiences as a traveler, researcher, and student, I understand health policy to be one of the most defining characteristics of a national identity as well as the locus of key clashes between equity and efficiency.
Health economic policy is the most interesting because it juxtaposes health care, in which universality and equality are perceived as dominant principles, against the rationality and efficiency considerations of an increasingly liberal global economic reality. Graduate studies in health economic policy is the ideal corollary to my academic, personal and social background.
I am most keen to explore the relationship between economic and psychological models of human behavior to hopefully advance a more holistic social sciences perspective on why people act against their own self-interest when it comes to their health.
Your academic and professional preparation can take many forms, and that is why it is important to think carefully about the ways in which your path has given you the tools needed to succeed in the program of your choice. But note that the statement of purpose is not meant to be a recitation of your CV. Instead, the statement of purpose should be a narrative about why you took the steps you did and how it brought you to graduate school. Some examples that might apply include:.
Levi and Traut, with whom I interrogated the classical and contemporary theories around human behavior and health. In my role as a research assistant, I conducted three literature reviews, one of which was used to support the work of a senior graduate student and will be published in an upcoming issue of Health Economics and the abstract was accepted for a poster presentation at the Annual Health Economics Conference in Denver CO.
We Can Help! Every applicant has strengths and weaknesses, and a statement of purpose is your chance to show the committee that you are self-aware enough to know what your own achievements and setbacks are. In discussing these, keep in mind the following:. A statement of purpose can showcase not only your past achievements and current plans, but also your goals for the future. You can use the part about career plans to address some of the following:.
It is the responsibility of economics researchers to offer sustainable and feasible alternatives and recommendations to experts in all other fields regarding their most pressing challenges such as climate change and regulation of illegal trade. Further, the intermediary between economics research and the implementation of its corresponding results is the policy process. Because analytical research and writing are my most well-developed academic strengths, as evidenced by my GPA, undergraduate thesis, reference letters, and writing samples, the MA Economic Policy Health Specialization program is an ideal launch point for a research career in academia with branch points into policy work in the social determinants of health.
Eventually, I want to complete a PhD. The skills I aim to acquire through this graduate training are crucial to the evolution of my practice. You need to make your statement as strong, clear, and compelling as possible.
To achieve this, you need to be prepared to write and re-write your statement as many times as necessary! Carefully review your statement after every draft to look for areas you could improve or elements you might need to add or replace. To get a fresh perspective, ask for feedback on your statement from people you trust. An academic mentor can be especially useful in offering feedback, especially one who is familiar with your academic history and your goals.
If you find that you are really struggling, consider seeking professional help through the writing center at your university or through sessions with academic consultants. Read and reread your work many times to make sure it is cleanly and professionally written.
Your statement needs to be your own. While seeking feedback from others is an excellent idea, expecting others to write your statement for you is not. Remember that your statement is meant to showcase who you are and what you can do.
Plagiarism is both a violation of academic integrity and a misrepresentation of what your own abilities are. For example, I discovered my interest in research questions around public health when I read a magazine article about the importance of play in combating childhood obesity. Do not try to show off to the committee by using words that are unnecessarily obscure or too specialty-specific. Not everyone on your committee might be familiar with your research field. Always aim for clarity above all else.
If you must use a specialty-specific term, be sure to define it to ensure that both you and your reader understand what you mean when you use that term. When you think your statement is as good as it can possibly be, take a moment to check over the following checklist before submitting:. When I was 12 years old, my sister suffered a traumatic car accident that left her with PTSD, depression, and severe anxiety. Our parents did not really understand the impact of what she was going through and as a family, we never talked about it much, though we all could witness her pain.
So, through my teen years, I watched as a beloved family member struggled with her mental health. Though I did my best to support her through the worst times and assist her in getting professional help, there were still many moments when I felt powerless and clueless in the face of her suffering.
This challenging experience set me on the path to pursuing clinical psychology as a career. I wanted to question, dissect, analyze, and hopefully, understand, this mysterious phenomenon that had dominated my life for so long.
From the age of 16 to 21, I worked as a volunteer at an after-school care program for children and teens from disadvantaged backgrounds. While there, I met numerous young people, who had faced starvation, neglect, abuse, and violence, from a very young age, and who needed help to cope with the long-term effects of those early experiences.
Working with these kids, helping them through events that might be unimaginable for most adults, further sharpened my interest in how trauma influences the development of generalized anxiety disorders and panic disorders, and in particular, the pre-existing conditions and underlying risk factors for suicide in adolescents with PTSD, anxiety, and depression.
Thanks to my personal and first-hand experiences with the effects of trauma, I think I can bring a unique perspective to the study of long-term PTSD in adolescents. Though my core interest in clinical psychology and the effects of trauma started as deeply personal, my scholarly curiosity and intellectual proficiency led me to academic explorations of this subject from a young age. While in high school, I took up Intro to Psychology classes from my local community college and completed a Peer Youth Counselling certificate course from the Ryerson Center for Mental Health.
This academic exploration confirmed my desire to study psychology in college, and my coursework through my undergrad years focused on building a broad portfolio of the key areas of psychology, including Clinical Psychology, Cognitive Psychology and Behavioral Science, Industrial Psychology, Abnormal Psychology, and more. I also took up courses in Biology, Physiology, and Neuroscience to better understand the physical pathologies of adolescent trauma.
I believe this thorough grounding in the biological aspects of developmental psychopathology will help me to address the sorely needed requirement for cross-disciplinary research into effective treatment programs for trauma survivors.
Throughout my undergraduate education, I gained research experience that helped me develop the skills and knowledge I need for my clinical psychology graduate studies. For my last two years of undergrad, I worked with Drs. As a research assistant, my responsibilities included conducting literature searches, data collection, data entry, supervision of study participants, preparation of research documents, and drafting of participant assessment packets. Thanks to this experience, I was able to develop my valuable observational and data analysis skills and learn more about critical aspects of clinical research such as programming computer tests, investigating study measures, forming hypotheses, supervising participants, and more.
I also enrolled in Dr. Moreover, your program offers the chance for students to complete two research projects in the world-class research facilities associated with the XYZ University, allowing me to develop and perfect my research skills in the most appropriate environment. I hope to complete these projects under the supervision of your faculty members, Dr.
Sally Hendrix and Dr. Mirian Forster, widely considered two of the most brilliant, forward-thinking minds in trauma research today. Their work on the endocrinological risks of anxiety development in adolescents and development of abnormal psychology in CSA survivors is particularly pertinent to my own research interests.
Through all the clinical experiences and academic knowledge I gained in the last few years, my interest in the questions of trauma, anxiety, and depression continue to be deeply personal. D in Clinical Psychology in the future. By seeking the answers to the questions of how trauma can warp an adolescent brain and what we can do to try and manage it, I hope to shed light on an under-represented area of psychology that sorely needs our attention. My undergraduate research was dedicated to understanding the ways and means of political participation for women in remote Northeast India.
I became curious about the role of women as informal politicians within their small collectives where survival literally hinges on connectivity. My time in observation of these women opened me to the idea that health and wellness can emerge from places facing serious food insecurity, poor shelter, corruption, and long distances from the center of national power.
The extent to which women could draw upon their collective power and roles as givers of care in order to lobby local governments and participate legitimately in the polity was the very definition of their empowerment. During my graduate work at [x] University, public health approaches to vulnerable populations were of particular interest to me. My research led to my questions about the role of social capital, defined in this case as a public good comprised of relationships and networks, in leading to better health outcomes amongst highly-marginalized urban women.
The mechanisms through which both groups of women, in Northeast India and downtown Vancouver, became able to rely on or reject peers, givers of aid or care, and the social and political systems in which they were enmeshed, are very similar.
I have witnessed how health outcomes can be a partial function of connectedness for women on the periphery. Public health has proven the best venue through which I can search for explicit, concrete evidence that individual and population welfare can be socially determined, by access to and power to make choices regarding housing, education, employment, income, political participation, nutrition, and transportation. I see the centrality of connectedness, to institutions and peers, to the processes that enable an individual to access, choose, and influence.
My current work as a policy analyst with the Public Health Agency within the Strategic Initiatives and Innovations Directorate is focused largely on reducing health inequalities by mobilizing action on particular social determinants of health.
These enablers, including social networks as a form of social capital, are sometimes lumped, and incorrectly so, with the more tangible determinants, such as housing and nutrition. I see these enablers as characteristics of favorable environments in which health can be positively affected: in families, neighborhoods, schools, communities, etc. My proposed dissertation research would fall into the broader goals of studying the social mechanisms by which parental social connections impact the eating behavior of their children as well as the way in which these mechanisms may vary across local neighborhoods.
My particular interest is the potentially causal nexus between maternal social networks, neighborhood environments, and the transmission of eating behaviors to children. In effect, my role would be to help operationalize maternal adversity and identify potential moderators on the effects of maternal adversity on obesity and eating behaviors of children. The application of network theory analytical techniques will be a new endeavor for me, but I am attracted to the study of populations that are not necessarily bound by their geography but by common circumstances, such as maternal adversity, and, potentially, common health effects related to obesity and food behaviors.
I want to understand the links between the nature and degree of ties between low-income women and how these ties affect norms related to obesity and food. The School of Kinesiology and Health Studies is an excellent institution that is well-equipped to support new graduate students interested in innovative ways to explore social challenges. It is here that Dr. Moore is developing an important critical mass surrounding this particular way of examining social networks as enablers of obesity and food behavior outcomes among marginalized women and their young children.
My prior individual research experiences were qualitative in nature, relying on grounded theory and warranted assertion analysis techniques common to sociological research. I have experience as a research assistant on a larger project studying large, linked quantitative databases of provincial health and corrections data in my home state. Also, I have a sufficient course work history in statistics and epidemiology to be able to make the leap to more advanced quantitative techniques, given access to graduate courses on the subject.
Social network analysis is a fascinating way of quantifying social capital and social networks and I am very enthusiastic about the opportunity to study these methods and methodologies under Dr.
My parents left everything behind in Bangladesh — their papers, property, lands, family, and friends. It was an erasure of not only their personal history but the history of generations who came before them. As I grew up, I became passionately interested in the history of my ancestors, perhaps as a way of making sense of my own experiences as a second-generation immigrant.
My mother started crying when I asked her for these details and photos; it was a traumatic reminder of all she had lost. I consider this genealogical tree my first history project, as I combed through the internet using the meagre information my mother gave me to supplement my bare project board with a few details.
But it fueled a passion in me for finding out all about where I had come from, and from there, I developed my interest in the social, cultural, military, and economic history of south-east Asia.
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