Personal Statements

Graduate School
1

<p>Hey everyone...just want to vent a little steam about having to write multiple statements of purpose...</p>

<p>I feel it's getting annoying creating multiple essays for different schools about why I want to pursue my PhD. degree and what I would like to study under a particular professor. Granted, I'm spending more time on the essays for schools I'd much rather attend and want to do the absolute best I can...but it gets annoying having to mend my essays to fit the exact wording of the questions for each school...</p>

<p>For example: </p>

<p>Minnesota's Personal Statement Instructions (4000 char max.)</p>

<p>Please use the space provided for your statement explaining your immediate and long-range occupational objectives in relation to your major field, being specific about your particular areas of interest. If there is a particular faculty member with whom you wish to study, please give that person's name and explain why you want to study with that person. Also, if known, indicate your proposed minor field. </p>

<p>vs.</p>

<p>Wisconsin Personal Statement Instructions (2 1/2 pages single space max.)</p>

<p>What are your Reasons for Graduate Study? Please describe your current degree goals and your reasons for selecting a field of study. You should prepare this separately and paste your text into the text box below.</p>

<p>There are major differences in my responses to both schools and this is only 2 of 5 schools I'm applying to and each have more than one essay to complete!</p>

<p>I want to give my sincere condolenses to those who are applying as an undergraduate to these programs as well as those applying to many, many research-based programs! It is taking a lot of my time and I'm already in grad school!</p>

<p>Anyone else running into the same problems? Or am I just picky?</p>

2

<p>ive been "lucky" i guess. my 11 applications all ask for similar essays, so 3/4 of the essay is the same for each school. 1000 words each.</p>

3

<p>I don't really consider it that difficult - I'm just doing a little adding and subtracting here and there, while the bulk of the essay remains the same. </p>

<p>It seems like the two prompts you included are largely the same, too. The first sentence of Minnesota's and the first two sentences of Wisconsin's are asking you to describe your career goals and how this degree will help you accomplish them. The same essay could easily serve for each, with two optional additions suggested for Minnesota's: name a minor field, optional (one sentence or less) and name any faculty member you would like to work with and what work you would like to do with him/her, also optional (could be accomplished in as little as a sentence, depending on how much you want to say).</p>

<p>Most statement of purpose prompts cover more or less the same material; if you're finding yourself completely re-writing the essay each time, check again to see whether that's really necessary. Essays should be personalized somewhat (it's a good idea to name professors you'd like to work under in every essay, whether the prompt asks for this or not), but they really just want a statement of: what you want to do during grad school; what you want to do after grad school (career); and what you've done before grad school that has prepared you for this undertaking (skills, experience, research, other academic, etc.).</p>