asphalt Posted October 8, 2005 Share Posted October 8, 2005 If a school says they want approximately 500 words, what does it mean? How can you fit a statement into 500 words and not leave out the best things? I mean, even the worse of SOPs are around 600-700 words, and they don't really go into any specifics - just hovering on generalities. Help appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MsDemeanor Posted October 10, 2005 Share Posted October 10, 2005 Remember that the adcoms have to read these SOPs, and while they are interested, they also want to know that you can express yourself consisely and get to the point. 500 words is about 2 pages. It should be enough. What you are probably doing is adding in stuff that is already somewhere else in your application. Lots of people feel they need to highlight again their grades or their scholarships, or some other experiences. They already know about your honors/awards, grades from your transcripts and resume. In the SOP- they want to "get to know you" a little- find out what motivates you to persue your field... Believe it or not, some of the places I applied to had a 250 word limit. After being the student rep on an adcom, I can attest that both the professors and student reps feel that there is nothing more boring than someone droning on about awards, or the 5 million people that influenced their life from infancy on. The best ones I read were extremely focused and economical in word usage. Usually the applicant chose one topic and fleshed out just that topic, rather than trying to mention every little thing. It can be very difficult to get the words down to an acceptable limit, but if you start with a 4 page SOP and look for repetitive stuff, as well as overly flowerly adjective descriptors you can usually cut it down to a shorter limit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asphalt Posted October 10, 2005 Author Share Posted October 10, 2005 Thanks for your feedback! I was beginning to think about bumping this thing back up. Here's the problem. As much as I would like to, I don't have awards to drone about. What I did drone about was: a) my motivation for the chosen field b) why i'm cut out for grad school c) why i'm choosing that school d) what i intend to do. I don't know how I ended up with 800++ words but I've gone over it twice and I can't seem to cut anything out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermione Posted October 10, 2005 Share Posted October 10, 2005 You should probably ask someone, say your friend or professor to read your SoP and get their feedback. you might have unnecessarily elaborated some point or mentioned something that does not add value to your SoP. you will not be able to find out your own mistakes. so get feedback and then see... it might help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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