How to write statement of purpose?

WHAT IS AN SOP? A Statement of Purpose (abbreviated as SOP), in its most rudimentary sense, is a letter written to the admissions committee to propose your admission to a particular course. While your experiences, activities, and credentials are more or less rigid, the SOP is one medium through which you can provide a testimony of your learning, skills, and an explanation for the chosen track in your career. As a part of the competitive school, the admissions committee often has a tough time filtering the applicants for admission. At the level where most of the parts of the application are more or less similar, an SOP is what is considered to be the document that sets you apart. This also makes SOP one of the most important documents in your holistic application package. In fact, an SOP is capable of turning your chances of admission around – if you do not have enough experiences but your statement of intent along with your need for the program applied to is on point, it will prevail on the admissions committee to consider you among the most competitive pool of applicants. While different schools lay down different criteria for the length, an ideal SOP confines all your experiences along with the skills gained in a single page. It is easy to ramble on about your experiences but the challenge is to handpick only the most important highlights and add them to the document. You will have to go through several hours of brainstorming and innumerable edits to finally come up with a connected piece that is true to you. As already discussed, the purpose of an SOP is to provide a statement of your need for the particular program. You cannot possibly undo the past occurrences in your career path but you can definitely provide an explanation for them. Furthermore, an SOP also serves as a platform where you acquaint the admissions officers with your career goals: When connecting the dots and talking about how you worked for them through your personal, academic, and professional experiences; an SOP can speak on behalf of you. To conclude, your statement does not have to be your USP but what exactly conveys that the chosen program at the chosen university and the candidate are made for each other. This usually suffices to present your competency for the program. HOW TO WRITE AN SOP? Writing an SOP can be one hell of a ride. Considering the importance and the repercussions, you cannot expect to sail through the process. Writing an SOP involves recollecting all the experiences that frame you as a person. Then, this recollection is put to use when you frame it into coherent paragraphs. The challenging part remains to choose what experiences should go into it. Let’s consider an example situation as under: Maybe you have been a swimmer during your school days but with time, you grew out of it to pursue a career in finance. While swimming may seem out of the picture here and you would want to focus on your academic and professional pursuits, it is not always the case. You can use your experience in swimming to showcase how you developed coordination, sync, and challenge early-on in your life which, in turn, empowered you with the confidence to tackle problems head-on and make a proud stride out of them; then, go on to explain how you faced professional challenges further. The essence lies in how you explain your experiences and channelize them in the entirety to showcase your professional make-up. Also, notice that your drive, determination, and skills do not go without examples backing them up. After that, your career goals come into the picture. As a piece of advice, you should break them down into two parts – short-term goals and long-term goals. For your short-term goals, consider talking about the path you will take right after graduating from the program you are applying for. For the long-term goals, talk about how you envision your professional to be ten years down the line. Proceed by explaining how the program would help you venture into the target field, mentioning the courses and clubs you would want to be a part of. Also, mention the skills you will gain through your short-term goals and how they can be applied to achieve the long-term goal. For the conclusion, sign off with conviction (but not arrogance) that you believe the particular program at the particular university would be a right step in your career.