Statement of Purpose

[QtrLifeCrisis]

I see some of you all applied at 20+ schools. Did you write a completely different statement of purpose for each school or did you keep it similar and just change some details? I know some schools want statement of purpose's of different lengths and formats. Any thoughts? Again, thanks you guys!

[figuringout]

I had the same query - but I was also wondering if some of the veterans here would be willing to review and comment on some of our SOPs? I, for example, would love some feedback from grad students in tech/entrepreneurship/strategy areas.

[possible_phd]

I used roughly the same statement of purpose for my applications, but I tailored it for each school.

[acup313]

I used the same Statemet of Purpose for every school except I changed the last paragraph which was used to explain how I fit in to each program. Also, if the school wanted a shorter statement of purpose I had paragraphs selected that I would delete.

[phdhope]

In general, SOPs should be school specific. That doesn't mean some things won't be common throughout each essay. That is why, along with student-program fit, I would not recommend applying to that many programs. It is simply unlikely a person has interests and skills that match perfectly (or even reasonably well for that matter) 20+ schools.

[taxPhD]

I applied to 12 schools and my SOPs were pretty school specific. I had common themes in pretty much all of them, but I rewrote it for each school.

Some schools just ask for a statement of purpose, but some schools ask for specific things to be addressed in your statement of purpose. Also some schools have limits on # of words and such.

[dusklife]

I've got a relevant question regarding the statement of purpose that I suppose will fit here.

As far as formality goes, should the statement of purpose be kept as professional as possible? For example, if I were to get creative with certain parts and use a lot of personality, would this be a bad idea?

I know it's probably going to be dependent on the specific reader(s), but I'm trying to figure out if there's any general rule for this sort of thing.

[possible_phd]

I had the same question, and I took the advice I was given: better safe than sorry, so don't get too feisty. I got creative and interjected my personality, but I didn't want to come across as not taking things seriously enough. All but one of the interviews tended to be laid-back, so I used that time to joke around and let them get a better sense of my personality. It worked well for me.