Writing a Statement of Purpose

Quite a few months have passed since I wrote my statement of purpose for my grad school applications, and for basically the entire time, I've been meaning to tell the internet what I learned. 

Writing a statement of purpose takes a lot of motivation. I like to take my motivation in the form of coffee and tea - sometimes at the same time. 

As I was writing my statement of purpose, I devised a formula of sorts, and I was extremely pleased with the result. Here it is: 

1. Talk about an experience that is in some way related to your graduate study. I chose the time I helped to tutor children of Turkish immigrants in Berlin, and how this got me interested in European social issues. This makes your statement of purpose more personal.  

2. Relate the previously described experience to your university studies. If you have an unconventional major, explain it here. 

3. Talk about specific college courses or experiences that sparked an interest in the course of study you're now pursuing. This is where you specify your academic interests. For example, I like to focus on the experiences of disadvantaged populations, and I explained the roots of this interest here. 

4. Propose a topic you would like to focus on in grad school. Of course you can change your mind after applying, but I think admissions people like to see some specific 

5. Explain why you selected the school and program you're applying to. You can mention courses you might want to take, the city you would be living in, and so on - really, whatever appeals to you. 

6. I call this the miscellaneous section. This is where I talked about other, non-academic experiences that are relevant to my graduate program, specifically my social research job. 

General Tip: Although you will mention things you did in the past, remember to consistently relate these experiences to what you want to do in the future. 

General Tip #2: Write a lot of drafts of your statement. I think I wrote a new one every week for about five weeks. Were there time when I wanted to give up on all the editing and just submit the thing already? Oh yeah. Am I glad I took the time to get my statement to a point where I was really happy with it? Absolutely. 

I hope this information is helpful, and I will soon be posting an example of my statement of purpose! How exciting.