<p>I just started writing a SOP for grad school and I have a couple questions regarding it. </p>
<p>First question is I wanted to write my high school national exam ranking before coming to the US for undergrad. The only thing I can remember is I was ranked 15th nationally but I can't remember out of how many students (I want to say 50,000). Should I just go with this assumption because I don't know how to get these records almost 6 years later and will it cause any problems?</p>
<p>Next question is when I got admitted to undergrad, my college gave me a full ride but later (during my second year) when I decided to double major, I got a little bit more tution that the scholarship didn't cover. To make it look more impressive I was just going to write that I got a full ride but will this be lying?</p>
<p>My prospective grad school and previous college are almost right next to each other so I don't want them to verify these info and think I'm lying. Please give me any opinions on what I should do.</p>
<p>Don’t put any high school accomplishments in your statement of purpose. It doesn’t matter that you were ranked 15th out of however many - you should only include college and beyond in your statement for grad school.</p>
<p>Also, no, it’s not lying to say that you got a full ride - you did. However, I also don’t think you need to write this into your statement of purpose, either. I also had a full merit scholarship and didn’t mention it; again, this is an accomplishment based upon your high school achievements, and you want to write about your college experiences and achievements. You may note it in a line on your resume/CV - that’s where mine is, but that’s it.</p>
<p>Don’t put it in your statement. If I was the adcom id think you’re wasting my time by mentioning high school accomplishments. I may also be under the impression that you have a lack of accomplishments in college that you had to resort to stuff you did in HS. List it in your CV if you really care much about it.</p>
<p>I also don’t think you should put either in your SOP, unless it’s directly related to what you want to do in graduate school. I would read it as you being a good student 4-6 years ago, but grad schools don’t really care about what student you were like in high school. List it on your CV if you think they are accomplishments worth mentioning. Unless you have something specific to say about either accomplishment that is directly connected to your discussion what you would like to research in graduate school or why you are a good candidate for their program, I would leave them out.</p>
<p>But to answer you’re actual question, saying you were ranked 15th nationally is fine (they can get an idea of the population if you name the country), and saying you got a full ride is fine. If you’re concerned, you could also just call it by it’s actual name (whatever the award is listed by) and say it was a merit scholarship.</p>
<p>Frankly, when I look at graduate applications, I only care about the academic and research accomplishments of the candidate. It makes no difference what they did in high school or what kind of financial aid they got for college. The application readers have a lot of statements to read and spending extra space on irrelevant things might simply turn them off to the rest of the statement. Concentrate on what you have done to prepare yourself for their graduate program and why you are interested in their school.</p>
<p>don’t list either; grad schools won’t care about teenage accomplishments (unless they are world class, such as Olympic national team). Of course, any long-term research or publications should be added to your resume, regardless of the timing.</p>
<p>btw: a full ride is really, full, i.e., it is like a NCAA athletic scholarship: full tuition+room and board. What you may have been awarded is a partial/full tuition scholarship, but again, grad schools won’t care (because that is either need-based, or if it is merit money, it is based on high school accomplishments.)</p>
<p>I was reading a bunch of sample SOPs and they have all listed this info on them. But I see you guys’ point and am probably not going to include them anymore.</p>