A Statement of Purpose (SOP), is a reflection of your personality that you portray in front of the admissions committee (AdCom) for getting enrolled in universities abroad. It is your chance of impressing the committee by presenting your profile strongly through an essay that describes your personality traits, which are not covered in your academic documents.
What is SOP?
An SOP is a long essay required by universities abroad and nowadays some of the Indian universities during the application process. As the full form of SOP reveals, a Statement of Purpose is an essay stating the purpose of applying to a particular course in a particular university. This essay consists of a gist of who you are, who you want to become, and how ready you are to pursue a certain course in an institution.
The document seeks to understand the candidate’s life, the motivations for the chosen career path and his/her goals. Hence, you should discuss the past incidents that have influenced your career path in a specific domain wherein you aspire to grow by joining a course/college.
Why is SOP important?
A well-written SOP is extremely critical to your admission. Needless to say, there are many aspects of a candidate’s application that are inspected before finalizing a decision. While the academic record and other exam scorecards / academic transcripts and backlog certificates are essentially objective in nature, an SOP is the only truly subjective aspect of your application.
It is the only document in your application that gives you the opportunity to prove that you have something unique that makes you stand out from the crowd. As such, it is the document of your application docket that can hugely determine your admission.
What is the General Statement of Purpose Format?
Most universities across the globe have a standard format/template that is acceptable. Every course (MBA, MS, UG, PhD) has a different way of writing its SOP application.
While there are a number of formats and samples available online for an SOP that aspirants can use for SOP writing, however, it is difficult to choose the right format. Also, you would not find the correct formatting details required for a particular draft or the ideal chronology to follow.
Each SOP should be unique and thus, Value Services has its own guidelines for an SOP to help the students decipher the parts of a statement of purpose so that it can be drafted easily. For more assistance you can call/WhatsApp: 9030026221
How long should a statement of purpose be?
Statement of Purpose should be 1-2 pages long, ideally wrapped in 800-1000 words. However, the length of this document may vary as per university-specific requirements. Some universities have a fixed length and pattern of SOPs required, which is fixed to 500 words only, even 200 words in some cases. Most of the universities accept generic length, which is 800-1000 words, which may go beyond 1000, but not exceed 1200 words, in some cases.
It is generally easy to write a story of your life explaining the importance of each incident in shaping or moulding your character. However, when it comes to defining your SOP within the communicated word limit by some universities, the challenge is to portray your best within limited words.
Steps to Write a Powerful and Convincing SOP
Whether applying for undergraduate, graduate, or post-graduate programmes, the strategy of writing a powerful statement of purpose would be to sound focused throughout. Starting from your academic and professional background to your career aspirations, you need to carefully connect all the dots between reaching your goals through your choice of school and course.
The essay should always go in a flow covering your past experience, present involvements, and future plans. An important point to remember while writing your SOP would be to divide it into paragraphs that cover all the pointers. Here is a look at how you may write the SOP presenting your profile strongly:
1st Paragraph :Introduction of SOP
This paragraph is often confused with self-introduction. It should not introduce you but should discuss what you are about to discuss in your SOP. There are multiple approaches you may adopt to go about this paragraph:
- Discuss your long-term goal and connect it with your idea of pursuing the course you are applying to
- Present your understanding of the chosen field and write how you want to contribute to that field
- Explain your background in 2-3 lines and connect it with your future goals
- Write about an anecdote that helped you realise your professional interest in the chosen field
Students often make this mistake of introducing themselves or their childhood in the first paragraph. In some cases, students tend to forget about the purpose behind writing an SOP
2nd and 3rd Paragraphs: Academic Background and Professional Experience
This comprises of your academic background: what you have done so far, what you are currently pursuing, your academic strengths and projects, industrial exposure you have attained, etc. If you have any professional experience it should be discussed in the upcoming paragraphs.
4th Paragraph: Why This Course?
In this paragraph, you should discuss why you want to join a course and what modules would you tap during this course. It should also cover the skills you would acquire in this duration along with the exposure that would help in developing the skills desired to realise your goals.
5th Paragraph: Career Goals
This is the most important paragraph, where you should discuss your short and long-term goals . Your immediate goal would be where you would want to work right after completing this course. You should be able to name some companies within India along with the designation you see yourself working at. This should explain the kind of job profile you would be working on.
Then comes your long-term goal, wherein you should mention where you see yourself from 10-12 or 15 years down the line. This may include your desire of working at the CEO/CFO/CTO level or maybe establish a firm that you own. It may also include your dream of expanding your existing family business overseas. You may also be interested in further studies like a PhD which can be included here.
More in this section may include your desire of becoming a professor or researcher. In any case, it is suggested that you discuss your business aim, principles, and core values or how you would influence the young aspirants of this industry. You should be able to portray ‘how you wish to make a difference in the industry keeping in mind the current industrial scenarios and emerging trends’.
6th Paragraph: Why This University?
This is a specific paragraph wherein you can convince a university as in how they are suitable for your profile and you are an ideal candidate for their university. You should discuss the course curriculum, research work, faculty names, as well as the university-specific activities that would help you in enhancing your profile.
Closing Paragraph
In this paragraph should conclude your desire and readiness towards joining the chosen course. Since this is the closing paragraph, you should sound focused and prepared for all the challenges that came your way. It should also show that you have the zest in you to succeed and with the help of the chosen course and university you will definitely make a difference in the industry on a global perspective.
Can SOPs help with Scholarships?
If you are eligible for any college-specific scholarships, then during the application process you will be required to write a separate essay/SOP. Either you will be given an essay prompt/question along with a word limit or they would simply ask for an SOP stating the reasons why you think you deserve this scholarship and/or what makes you unique from the rest of the candidates? Thus, a generic SOP is different from a scholarship SOP.
In a scholarship essay/SOP, you will be required to highlight your unique selling points, major accomplishments, any quality/skill that makes you different from other candidates, and so on.
For SOP Assistance Call/WhatsApp: 9030026221