✋ The wrong way of writing grad school SOPs

The biggest mistake graduate school applicants make when writing their Statement of Purpose is to treat it like an undergraduate admissions essay. Your SoP needs to be much more than a generic description of your motivation for attending graduate school. It should talk about the "purpose" of your PhD research. What is the question that you want to answer with your research? Why is this question worth answering? What does your background tell us about your ability to answer this question? A good SoP will answer all these questions convincingly.

🧪 Your First Paragraph

Your first paragraph should be about your PhD topic. Explain an open research problem that you want to study in your PhD. It should not be too broad, as to give the feeling that you have no idea what you’re talking about, and not too narrow that it can be covered by one study.

👩‍🔬Your Second Paragraph

Your second paragraph should explain all the relevant research that you know about this topic. Mention other research works, and what are some of the approaches taken by other researchers to study the same problem. If the professor you’re apply to has some relevant research in this area, mention that to emphasize the point that this problem is worth studying and other people, including the professor you’re applying to, are working on the same problem. Mention any gaps in the literature that open the scope for a full PhD on the topic.

✅ Your Third Paragraph

This paragraph should outline your proposed solution and the approach you will take towards your PhD. Have you divided the topic into any sub-problems that you will study in the first, second, third phases of your PhD? Do you multiple approaches that you would like to try to explore the problem? Do you have any tentative timeline in mind? Do you foresee any challenges?

🏆 Your Fourth and Fifth Paragraph

These two paragraphs should be about the supporting evidence to show what makes you capable of conducting the research you just proposed, and why is it important to you. Here you have room for mentioning the most relevant internships, work experience, previous research, trainings, and anything where you demonstrated relevant research skills and that would be a valuable asset to you in working towards this PhD. Choose one topic per paragraph e.g., previous research, and internships.

🤝 Your Concluding Paragraph

Your concluding paragraph should not be a summary of everything you said before. Instead, it should aim for an impactful way that would make you memorable. This is the last thing the professor is reading before moving on to the next SOP so make this your chance to be memorable. Make this what separates you from all the other candidates. This is supposed to be personal. The girl who built a washing machine for her doll house out of the parts she used from her remote cars as a kid, and now wants to do a PhD in robotics is memorable. The boy whose brother died of a rare lung disease that the adult you now wants to research is memorable.

Hope this helps!

Sadia ✌️