1. Introduction
This CommKit provides general advice on writing your graduate school personal statement. To help you put your best foot forward, it details potential topics to include and provides context for this application requirement. As a note, not everything detailed here needs to be in a personal statement, but there are some relevant things to consider. The primary focus of graduate school is research and becoming a skilled researcher. Over the course of several years, you will be involved in several research projects that you will have to tackle piece by piece. If you think diving deep into a niche field to solve complex problems is something you enjoy, then pursuing a graduate school degree may be a good option for your next step in your academic career. In that case, you may be wondering how to leverage your past experiences to build a competitive application. While it is true that you do not need to be an expert in any particular field to be accepted, you do want to communicate how good you would be as a student researcher. Graduate school applications are not just about what you have done – they are about how well you can communicate who you are, what you bring to the table, and where you are headed. Unlike college applications, graduate applications do not ask for a comprehensive story of your life. Instead, they are treated more like a job application, where you are trying to convince the reader (a potential advisor) that you would be a great addition to their lab.
2. Criteria for Success
After reading this CommKit you should be able to:
- Understand what should be included in a graduate statement of purpose (SOP) based on the audience.
- Successfully format your SOP in a way that answers why you want to pursue graduate school and communicates your qualifications for graduate study.
- Connect your experiences into a narrative that highlights your skills, accomplishments, and goals.
3. Analyze Your Audience
Remember your audience. At least at MIT, the review process starts with non-expert readers who do a first pass to assess whether your application meets the minimum requirements. The applications are then sent to different faculty for review, who will have the final say on who joins their labs. This means that not everyone reading your application will have expertise in your specific field of interest. Instead, think of applying to graduate school as more of a job application. You are essentially applying to work as a research student in a faculty member’s lab. When describing your research, avoid excessive technical jargon, as not everyone reading your application does research in your field. Instead, when describing your research, you want to focus more on the impact you made and the skills you showcased and/or developed. You need to show that you can learn or do what you need to be successful.
4. Best Practices
4.1. What to Include
A graduate school statement of purpose is much more direct than a college application. However, you do not want your statement of purpose to read like a list or a resume. For one, you will be able to submit a resume and/or personal website/portfolio along with your application. Graduate school applications are already so concise; you do not want to waste precious real estate by reciting what can already be found in your resume. Instead, use your personal statement to elaborate on what is in your resume and highlight the significance of your achievements and contributions. Requirements for what should be included in a statement can vary significantly from school to school, so make sure to refer to the instructions for each particular application. However, at a high level, here is a brief rundown of what to include in your statement:
4.1.1. A brief section explaining your motivation for the research topic you want to pursue
This is where you give some brief background on how you got here and outline the key research experiences and professional skills you want to highlight that would make you a successful student researcher in that field. You want to give some brief context on what motivated you to choose this field. This should not be an elaborate story, but make your curiosity concrete. Go beyond “I love learning” to what intrigues and motivates you. While you do not need to go down a long rabbit hole explaining why you have always wanted to pursue a specific career, you can discuss any “aha” moments in research or past projects that drive your desire for research. Remember that you will be the one spending long hours on a research project. However, this is worth your while if you are motivated enough. What motivates you? You want to communicate this through your application. Professors are more excited to take on and invest in students eager to contribute to the research in their labs than in those who are more fickle about what they want to do. Frame your curiosity as forward-looking. This means you have a clear enough direction for what you want to pursue, but are also open to new discoveries and research directions. Remember that when it comes to elaborating on the research field you are interested in studying, you do not need to know all of the specific questions you want to answer. In fact, these are usually determined once you start participating in research within a lab. However, you should be able to explain why the department you are applying to is a good fit for the specific field you are interested in studying.
4.1.2. A few short paragraphs explaining your research experience and background
You should be thinking of your application as a whole and be cognizant of the story it tells. Your statement of purpose/objective, resume/CV, and letters of recommendation are different angles to the same story. In your SOP, when detailing your research experiences, provide more context and detail than is already listed on your resume/CV. When discussing what you accomplished, explain why that is significant. Explain why the skill you developed through this experience is a crucial skill to have as a graduate student. You do not need to list and describe these in chronological order; instead, focus on highlighting the more significant projects you have worked on.
Additionally, when describing your preparedness for graduate school, it is essential to demonstrate research readiness rather than just interest. It is one thing to say you are interested in research – it is another to show you are ready for it. Even if you do not have publications, focus on highlighting how you approach problems and what you have learned. You also want to make sure you frame your current knowledge level honestly while showing that you are ready to grow and learn quickly. You will be entering a new, niche field, but do not worry if you do not know everything. Remember that a lot of graduate school is applying the learning skills you developed in undergrad. Mention the techniques or areas you are eager to learn and why. Include how you have proactively taken steps in your undergraduate career to build a foundation for the research topic you want to pursue in graduate school. For example, the courses you have taken, the side projects you have explored, the papers you have read, etc. There is also no need to worry about your past projects and research not aligning directly with the field you want to pursue in graduate school. Those experiences also provided opportunities to develop foundational research skills that will be useful for further work that you can then highlight in your SOP.
Finally, many applicants raise concerns about the lack of a direct, linear path to their desired research field. This is not abnormal! In fact, it is equally as productive to participate in several research projects and learn first-hand what you did and did not appreciate. At the end of the day, these cumulative experiences still prepare you for conducting research down the line, whether that be through learning how to pose questions or learning how to present your work better, both of which are crucial skills a graduate student needs. A research experience is still a learning experience. If anything, position your unique background as a strength and show how your perspective can add diversity of thought to the program.
4.1.3. Highlight soft skills
When describing your experiences and how they have prepared you for graduate school, also emphasize your soft skills, such as collaboration and growth. Do you sound like a curious, self-directed learner who is excited to grow? Especially when joining a new lab, you want to demonstrate that you can contribute to a positive lab environment. Research projects often involve collaboration and are not always individual, so you want to show that you are a thoughtful team player, open to mentorship, and excited to grow within a research community. You can do this by sharing examples of team research/projects, co-authored papers, or TA/group leadership. Mention your communication style, the mentorship you have received/given, or how you have handled conflict in the past.
4.1.4. A brief conclusion as to why attending grad school is a key step in your academic and professional career
In this part of the application, you want to communicate why graduate school will take you one step further towards your professional and/or academic goals. It is important to emphasize how you intend to apply what you have learned throughout your PhD after you graduate. Oftentimes, people write about how prestigious the school is, but these programs already know this. Instead, be sure to clarify why this particular program is the right fit for you. You can show this by listing a few professors you would like to work with or current projects you find interesting. Regardless, you want to tie your plans to the department’s strengths (faculty, labs, community). How will you be taking advantage of the opportunities presented to you? You do not need to have your entire career trajectory planned out, and you are allowed to change your mind down the line, but it is good to have some general idea of why you are going the graduate school route.
And finally, when it comes to citing faculty, make sure you’ve done your research! Do not just name-drop professors; make sure to mention their recent work and why it excited you. Make it clear that your research interests are adjacent to, not just overlapping with, theirs. In fact, it is totally possible to email them (probably around the summer before applications are due) to ask about their current research. Some of the papers and projects posted on their websites may be outdated or already completed.
4.2. More Pieces of General Advice
As another piece of general advice, read the prompts and application requirements carefully. The intro provides general best practices for communicating, but all grad schools may have different requirements, so read those carefully before you start writing. Here are some questions to ask yourself to help your application tell a cohesive, compelling story:
- Does your research statement tell a clear story about your goals and how grad school fits in?
- Have you described your research experiences with context, clarity, and reflection?
- Have you made it easy for a reviewer to understand what drives you and why you want to attend this program?