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What is the statement of purpose?
College applications are generally very dry and impersonal representations of a person’s scholastic achievements and abilities. The personal statement is designed to breathe life into an otherwise lifeless and unoriginal college application.
Basically, the statement of purpose is a way for you to put a face on your application, give it personality and allow the admissions officials to better judge your application as a whole based on what kind of person you are, not just what kind of student you are.
How important is it?
College admissions departments typically say that it is extremely rare for a statement of purpose to be the sole reason an applicant is either admitted or denied admittance to their institution. Some estimates claim that fewer than five percent of all statements of purpose play a major role in the final admittance decision.
However, that does not mean the document is unimportant. Rather, a good statement of purpose can add to and enhance an already good application. Likewise, it can make an otherwise unremarkable application a bit more enticing. Poorly done, a statement of purpose can also make a decent application look not so good. It is important to think of this step as only part of the whole. Don’t stress too much about it. But don’t be cavalier about it, either.
What do colleges look for in a statement of purpose?
Most large universities receive thousands of applications every year. And each of these contains a statement of purpose. So think about it, yours will be only one of these thousands upon thousands of statements they will have to read. If you were one of these readers, what would you look for? My guess would be that you want one that is honest, original, concise, interesting and revealing. You want it to be different. You want it to make you laugh (or at least smile). You want it to make you think. You want it to accurately describe the applicant. We are all unique. So should our writing be.
This may be surprising, but most colleges do not look for statements of purpose that list achievement after achievement and show off how smart or academically accomplished the applicant is. This may not be logical. But think about the other applicants. That is what they will be writing about, how their test scores were so high, their teachers loved them so much, their classmates looked up to them as models of achievement. Yours should stand out from these. Do not be afraid to discuss your weaknesses or your shortcomings. Do not be afraid to talk about times you have failed or made mistakes. You are not perfect. If you were, you would not need to go to college. Be honest. You are human. Let your statement of purpose reveal that.
So how do I write it?
My best piece of advice is this: Write a story about yourself. Do not worry about the structure of academic writing. There are no such rules for this kind of text. Try to think of a time in your life that revealed your true personality. Perhaps it was a difficult time with your family, or a problem with a friend. Perhaps it was the time you did very poorly at school and you had to deal with shame from your family and teachers as you tried to become a better student. It can be any difficult situation you faced, and doesn’t even have to be one where you succeeded. Failure can reveal a person’s true character sometimes better than success. Because how we deal with failure is just as important as how we deal with success. Remember this.
When writing, remember that your reader will be evaluating your statement based on how it predicts your future success in and after completion of the program for which you are applying. You may not need to spell this out exactly, but what you write must reveal your personality in a way that proves you are the right candidate.
In addition, do not repeat yourself. Use simple sentences and short words. Be direct and straightforward with your language. English is a simple language, and when someone uses it to make overly complex writing with long and difficult words, it can sometimes come across as pretentious or arrogant.
Make sure you do your own writing! Do not ask a friend to write it. Do not borrow words from samples you find in books or on the Internet. If you do this, it will be obvious to the people reading your application. It is OK, however, for you to ask a friend to read your statement and make comments on it, or to ask a native speaker to check it for grammar and spelling mistakes. But it must be your own work.
If you are having trouble thinking of what to write, I suggest you sit by yourself in a quiet place and write about anything. Just pick up a pencil and begin writing. What you produce here will not be your statement of purpose, but it may help you to generate ideas. Try to write nonstop. Don’t make corrections. Don’t try to be neat. This is a kind of thinking with a pencil. And the results may surprise you. Very often, students of mine who are having trouble thinking of a topic for a writing assignment find that they get their best ideas when they do an exercise like this.
But most important: Relax! This is only one piece of the puzzle. And it’s not as monumental a piece as you think. If you are honest and you write something that is personal, it will be easier than you think. Good luck.