Graduate School Essay Topic

College Essays
1

(You can skip to the last paragraph if you don’t want to read the fluff and filler)

The graduate school statement of purpose is trying to get you to answer questions such as…

  1. Why do you want to go to grad school?
  2. Why would you be a good fit for our school?
  3. What is unique and special about you?
  4. What can you contribute to our department/school (in terms of research)?

From what I have read the focus of graduate school seems to be about research. They want you to express your passion for curing cancer or inventing the next renewable energy source and talk about how much you can contribute not only to the school itself but society.

My question is, what if I do not care at all about research? I have a B.S. in Applied Physics and i’m trying to go to grad school for Engineering (I work in computer manufacturing/programming now).

Long story short, is there any nice way of saying, “Hey Admissions, I do not have any applicable research experience to contribute nor do I care to pursue any. I just want my masters (course work track, not thesis/research track) so I can get a better job, make more money, have a decently better quality of life, and hopefully retire one day.” Also how would a response like this come off like to an admissions rep. reading this as part of my application.

2

hi, this forum is devoted to undergrad things excepting a couple of areas and one is the grad school forum. Probably you should repost there.

Grad school essay is not quite like you are saying where you express fluffy hopes and dreams. Rather you would discuss more immediate and long term interests in the area.

I think to express your disdain for research would be a serious mistake, since grad schools are research institutes. And I would also not try to couch your lack of research as if it is a feature and not a flaw. I think you have to leave a bit of wiggle room for your being ignorant of research, not having done any, and the outside chance that you would be interested if exposed. But if you are getting a professional or course only MS then I do not think you are expected to talk about the type of research you want to do. Rather the type of work you would like to do.