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. 

Hometown Touristing

Sometimes I wonder if my use of the word "hometown" to describe Ann Arbor is a misnomer. I was born here but didn't grow up here; I attended college here but moved back into my parents' house directly following graduation. I suppose this is really an issue of not quite knowing where I live anymore. Is my home where I'm living at the moment? The "permanent address" I list on official forms? The place I'm moving to in about two months? Honestly, I think the answer is none of these - not entirely anyway. This is the summer of self-imposed rootlessness. You see, I could have a place that I fully consider my home, but I'm choosing not to, mainly for fear of becoming too attached to something I have to leave. 

This is getting too sad. 

Regardless, I'm back in Ann Arbor for a few days, and I'm just now realizing how much I missed this place. I missed being surrounded by people my own age; I missed the abundance of coffee shops, the student-oriented restaurants, the campus buildings - practically all of which I can point to and say, "I had a class in there once." The benefit of being back here without any real purpose is that I can finally do all the things I was too busy for while still a student. It's going to be Tourist Day, Part 2. What is Tourist Day? Well, allow me to explain.

A Brief History of the Original Tourist Day: this is a holiday that my friend and I celebrated when we had officially completed all of our college classes. Basically it consisted of walking around, taking pictures of everything even slightly meaningful, eating in a restaurant we both love but never really go to, and trying a new coffee shop. The logic behind it is kind of obvious: we wanted to do the fun things in this town before leaving it forever. Not that we didn't have any fun during four years of college...

As the shirt above may have informed you, Ann Arbor is not entirely real. This doesn't mean that it's a cardboard city they disassemble every night (although I'm convinced that those exist - some towns are just too perfect), it just means that Ann Arbor doesn't have things like bad neighborhoods - at least not that I've seen - and the city's general population tends to be fairly young and well-educated. It's something of an anomaly. And, yes, sometimes I do feel like I spent my college years living in a fantasy world. Not that I'm complaining. 

I must say that a fantasy world appears more fantastical when you are free of all responsibility, and during those first few minutes of Tourist Day sightseeing, Ann Arbor looked ridiculously beautiful.

This is Nickels Arcade. I once heard that there aren't many of these left in the world, although I can't seem to find confirmation on the internet. Oh, internet, why do you fail me just when I need you most? Kidding, kidding. 

Most of Tourist Day consisted of wandering around, since there turned out to be very little actual sightseeing to be done in a city where I had lived for four years. Still, we did hit some tourist sites: the Arcade, the Cube (see below), the graffiti alley (likewise). 

The Cube. It spins. 

The Graffiti Alley

For me, though, the highlight of Tourist Day was, of course, the food. We went to Fritas Batidos, which is one of my favorite Ann Arbor restaurants. My roommates and I call it "The Cuban Place," although it apparently isn't a Cuban restaurant - just Cuban-inspired - and I sometimes call it "That White Place" because it's very white inside. Have a look:

In the interest of full disclosure, I should say that I have only ever ordered one thing here: the black bean frita with muenster cheese. I don't need to try anything else on the menu because this meal is perfect. It's basically a black bean burger served on a brioche roll with fries on the inside. Yes, the fries are part of the sandwich. And I know that this sounds like a fairly ordinary meal, but just trust me, there's something about it. Something addictive. Something that will keep you awake the night before a trip to Fritas Batidos thinking about it. Sadly, during this trip to Ann Arbor, I don't expect to make a return trip there. I can't afford such luxuries as restaurant food. I guess these are the trials of recent graduate/future grad student life. 

Don't pay too much attention to me. I'm just being melodramatic.