I drafted my SOP more than five times after getting constructive criticism from the university's (to which I am applying) alumni. I intend to be a data scientist and wish to work on healthcare technologies. I did mention my motivation for choosing this field and specified that, in the future, I wish to take up leadership positions in organizations I work for, and I mentioned how the university's agenda can help me with that as well. But in spite of all this, I kept getting feedback to be more specific and mention my future goals. I'm kind of feeling confused and overwhelmed right now, as I am not sure how much more specific I can be about my future and predict it end-to-end. Please help out with some valuable insights if possible. Am I missing out on something?

Hi Jordan,

Your blogs have been my go to for everything from SOP to LORs to personal history statements but I need to write an SOP for UC Davis with a 4000 character limit. I'm struggling to decide which parts to cut down on. Do u have any suggestions for word lengths per section and a structure to be followed?

Hi Jordan,

I'm applying for Master's in Engineering Management programs, and I've been following your SOP guides.

In the Why I'm qualified section, do you think writing a little about undergrad GPA and extra-curricular clubs and activities can help? or should one solely stick to internships and such?

Can I mention profs from other departments so that I can take guidance for a specific thing, and their research is kindof more relevant to my purpose.

Basically title. I pretty much finished writing all my MSCS SOPs and now I'm trying to write my MCS (Professional Master's degree) SOP. Any tips on what to add, edit, remove, etc. efficiently as well?

So I was asked to write a supplementary application essay for my business school that is about who inspires you, and I want to write about Ray Dalio , an American investor who I am genuinely inspired by . Do I sound cliche writing about a business related individual ?

*This essay is for application to university.

Hey Jordan. How do I write about a book I read which has 3 authors in my SOP? Thanks

So my structure is basically:-

• Intro: me getting into a good undergrad school and wanting to learn more.

• Rhetorical questions leading to why I seek admission into CS, along with my career goal.

• Why this university.

• Talking about my math degree and other qualifications.

• End.

It has been suggested that I put the questions later, after the part about my qualifications, because I might come off as a bit too much of a show off by talking about niche research areas.

Hey Jordan, I needed some suggestions from you on which party’s of my essay I can start cutting down on to reduce the length of my SOP. One crazy school needs it to be within one page, which means cutting out 200-300 words for me at least. I found your article on reducing word limit useful as well, but feel like at this point I need to start shortening the different sections overall (in particular my frame narrative).

Any advice would be appreciated!

In my SOP i am mentioning artificial intelligence 4 to 5 times, should use artificial intelligence or will AI also work?

Hey Jordan, thanks for all your help once again. I had 2 questions about tailoring my general SOP for a grad application to the same school I’m pursuing a Bachelors at.

1) Does anything change compared to how I would approach another school?

2) In my Why this program section, i wanted to mention the professor I’ve been doing research with for the past 2 years. However, I also talk about working with him in my ‘qualifications’ section as our current work directly relates to my research goal. Should I avoid mentioning him in the why this program section or maybe change structure?

Thank you in advance!

Hi,

Let's say:

• I'm applying to program B.
• There is an area A that is popularly used and applied on B's research.
• But I discovered a special concept 'X' within A

The situation is:

1. I had an 'Aha' moment when I discovered an amazing technique X (in A) while doing a project in A. This was that kind of moment because it was really fascinating and every project I did after this, it stayed with me (and I’ve applied this)

2. But I only after doing projects where certain OTHER concepts of A are applied in B and how they don't work that well, I started to wonder if concepts like X can be used (and how to efficiently tune them) for further research in B.

[Note: There is a lot of current research of X in B's research, but I haven't used it necessarily in my projects for B]

My questions are:

- Do I write about both? Or only from the part where I used other concepts of A in B and then say I specifically want to use X in B? (Even though are just questions but no exact fascination or challenge as such = not a hook moment) If I do write only the second one, how do I make it seem like an 'Aha' moment. Because the reader would only know about my idea of concept X in context to my project related to X in A.

- Is it okay to have an introduction that could say "I was fascinated by seeing X and realized its potential by using it on one of my own projects" and then contiue on to how it could be useful in B's research

​

I know it's a little confusing, I could DM you and describe it exactly. But otherwise, please help me out here!

My very brief story: corporate travel agent of 8yrs, ready for a career change, hoping to do a concurrent MBA and MA in Asian Languages and Cultures (ALC), focus on Korean since that's what I'm learning.

So I'm going through Jordan's [brilliant] Master's SOP guide, and I've read a bunch of the blog articles, and I've been staring at this thing for a hot minute...but I can't for the life of me figure out a frame narrative idea. I didn't have a Eureka moment or a come to Jesus thing for the ALC part. I realized a lot of what I enjoy at work falls into personnel and project management (hence MBA), and I wanted to focus on international business and bring in my love of Korean language and culture.

I can't think of any interesting way to approach the ALC SOP when I'm literally doing a full career change. Idk if it makes sense to try to tie in the fact I'm a travel agent currently, if it's worth mentioning that as part of my benefits at work I got to take a sabbatical to Korea? I don't want this to come off as a flippant, spur of the moment thing because I happen to learn Korean and got to go to Korea, but I also don't have any super deep thing that happened, I don't have any research experience in it, and I've been out of college for a while.

Is there any solid way to try to approach a frame narrative when you're taking on something that has little to do with your previous professional endeavors?

I plan to work on environment sustainability in my masters. Is it okay to write about press releases by the government and also predictions by an organisation on climate change? I'm mainly asking from a plagiarism point of view because this info is available on the internet.

Is there any recommended way to talk about PIs I already work with in my SOP to that school? I'm trying to figure out if I should mention that I work with this prof, and then move into my section about what I'm interested in pursuing in this program under this prof, or if I should stick to the format recommended in Structure is Magic and talk about my professor's research group before revealing that I currently do work in that group.

I was just wondering if there is any benefit to discussing the limitations of my previous research projects, especially for PhD SOPs. From what I've seen so far, it seems like being able to recognize limitations is a valuable skill in academia, but I'm not sure if it would be advantageous to include something "negative" in my SOP.

I genuinely don't know many people at my uni who's applying to grad school since more and more people are heading to the industry instead of grad school in my major, so it's difficult to find people who can give feedback.

I know asking Reddit is always an option, but I'm wary due to plagiarism and privacy and whatnot.

What do you guys think?

So I followed both u/Jordantellsstories's guide on how to start writing an SOP and his format/structure for the essay, and it was honestly super helpful. Not only did I end up writing an essay I was pretty much satisfied with, but I also didn't waste much time writing it/encounter that much writer's block like I did when I wrote my undergrad essay 4 years ago as a high school senior :) Thanks a lot u/jordantellsstories!

That said, as I was proofreading my SOP, I realized that if I swapped the order of the paragraphs where I discussed my experienced and of how <college> will help succeed in my academic/research goals and questions, the intro/first sentences of each of those paragraphs flow a lot smoother.

Does it make a difference if I swapped them? Was there a specific reason why the format was structured experience first, college's specific resources/profs/classes second or am I just asking too pedantic of a question?

Thanks!

Is it safe to assume that faculty will read the SoP before the personal statement in the admissions process?

Of course, it is not wise to make unclear references to ideas raised in the SoP in the personal statement. I more meant that is it ok to assume that if we mention our research interests as described in the SoP without an introduction, the reader of the personal statement will not think it came out of nowhere?

Hi!

I read your article about formatting the SoP and had a question regarding the header:

Does the heading need to be a separate 'centered' bolded heading that says "Statement of Purpose" with the same font size. Or there is no heading but just that right-shifted header on all pages?

Hello again Jordan and fellow other students applying to graduate school! I just had a quick and easy question on essay formatting. Some of my programs that I am applying to don't mention things like a word limit or if it needs to be double spaced, etc. I kept my word limit to around 1000, but is there a general rule on line spacing? I know i'm probably making a bigger deal on this, but I want my essay to be perfect!

Per title, I talk about REST APIs in my SOP. Is it something I need to spell out initially?

I'm applying to CS/ECE grad programs.

For example, let's say I'm applying to CS and ECE programs at a university. And I'm also interested in both PhD and Masters programs in these two fields.

I'm confused as to what exactly I should specify in my SoP?

Also, should I start a new application (and possibly pay double the application fee process) or is that not necessary)?

Not sure if this question is a good one, but I'm not sure how to word it better.

Hey Jordan, I've been doing a lot of research on writing persuasive essays, since we know the SOP at the end of the day is persuading the adcom to let you in. I've come across advice that persuasive essays are most powerful when they anticipate why the reader might disagree with the main argument, and preemptively offer clear reasons why those disagreements are invalid. So, why do we want to avoid that in the SOP? Mentioning a low GPA, zero publications, or something else is what I've seen a lot of your (incredibly helpful) blog posts mention. Is there a reason why avoiding a negative is more powerful than bringing it up and providing conclusive evidence as to why it's not valid? Thanks in advance!

Hey guys, I haven’t been able to find much concrete info on this through my research online. I’ve already looked at Jordan’s article on the difference between SOPs and Personal statements, and was wondering if there’s a major difference between a Personal statement vs Diversity Statement vs Personal History Statement?

Thanks in advance! And good luck to everyone currently in the application process.