Writing your statement of purpose
Prepare for many, many, many drafts.
Your statement of purpose is a critical piece of your application.
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The essay writing process should be ongoing starting in August and ending when you submit the application. Find a faculty member, graduate student, and peers to edit your essays for you. These are all completely different perspectives that are essential to developing the best essay you can write. Check out our essay tips below.
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TIPS:
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Answer the prompt given to you. Most schools have the same general requirements for the statement of purpose: explain previous research, why you're applying to their school, and your reason for wanting to attend graduate school. However, each school may have unique aspects they want you to touch upon in their prompt, so keep an eye out for those.
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With this in mind, you will have a similar base for each essay that you can keep mostly the same, and a couple parts that may need to change.
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Start early! Outline points you want like to hit and then get to writing. Once you write your draft, send it off to be edited by your trusted editors. Don't stress about your first drafts; you will be picking apart this essay for a while.
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Have a compelling introduction. People usually write their essays in chronological order, so spice it up and start your essay on why you're applying to graduate school/why you're studying what you want to study. Also, try to avoid clichés. If you're an engineer, we know you used to play with legos. We all did.
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Ask your potential PI's for a quick read-through. If you feel comfortable, ask faculty members that you've connected with at potential graduate schools to take a quick look (once your essay is in its final stages). After all, they know what they're looking for.
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Stick to the space limits! Pay attention to word length restrictions. Most schools require you to stay within a certain word count or page length. Not adhering to these shows that you can't follow directions or pay attention to detail. It could even lead to the admissions committee refusing to review your application.
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Re-read the essay right before you submit it in your application. You never know what you'll find.
Helpful links
Kat's Take
To quote Shakespeare, "To thine own self be true". I think that it is immensely helpful to have many individuals looks at your statement of purpose. I heard such an array of opinions during my writing process that I often heard contrasting opinions--talk about confusing. But by the end of my editing process, I wanted to ensure that my statement of purpose reflected who I truly am. I wanted to be proud of the statement that I submitted and I wanted to make sure that my voice was clear.
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In other words, listen to the advice of your editors, but at the end of the day, remember that your voice is what matters most.
Kiara's Take
My biggest advice is to use your network!! Ask as many trusted people as you can to edit your essays (but stick with a couple of consistent people so the advice doesn't get out of hand). I had my mentor from a previous REU, a current PhD student at Pitt, my peers that were also applying to graduate school (all different engineering majors) at the time, my co-op advisor, other PhD students at other universities that I had known from Pitt, and potential PI's to schools I was applying to look at mine. I did not send my initial essays to all of these people, but started out with 3 people and then once I had a solid draft, I expanded to others. You might not agree with everyone's changes, but it was still nice to hear everyone's opinions.