PhD/PsyD Reiterating things in SOP that are in app?

[foremma]

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Hi everyone,

For schools that have word limits of 400-500, I have had a hard time fitting in all relevant experiences, career objectives, and reasons for going to X school. I noticed that most of the schools with these limits also require supplemental apps that ask me to explain all of my research & extracurricular experiences.

It seems logical that if I provide this info on these apps, it is a waste of space on my SOP/PS to reiterate my roles, what I learned, etc. However, these statement prompts ask that we talk about relevant experience, and how it will prepare us.

Does anyone have any tips/guidance on what to do here? I don't want to eliminate all of my experience from my SOP as it provides a really cohesive storyline, but as a result, I've had to sacrifice going into more than 6-7 lines of why I want to go to X school and why I want a Ph.D. Something has to give!

 

[CheetahGirl]

Foremma, you're going to have to incorporate your writing skills into this exercise because you will do this type of thing often in graduate school. For one internship application, we were asked to take a complete treatment summary (the entire report from intake to termination) and turn it into 500-words....oh, and also say why this particular case was meaningful to us. My original report was 6 pages.

I suggest using prepositional phrases to orient your reader, like "As a neurobiological research assistant, I yada yada yada..." And go on to actually discuss the content of the position that was meaningful to you, thus eliminating the need to orient your readers further and freeing up valuable space to describe why you want to go to X school...which appreciably demonstrates your 'fit' with a program. This way if they want to look up where you were a researcher, for how long, or whose lab, etc. they can go straight to your CV.

Best advice I've heard is to tell a story about yourself and see if you can incorporate a "common thread" into all your 'arguments' so it shows some sort of evolution or progression. For example, "As a young child, I was interested in facial expressions and constantly drew faces in all my artwork. As I entered college, I learned that facial expressions are an implicit form of communication. Working as undergraduate research assistant, I learned to code facial expressions and correlate those expressions to corresponding emotions. My interest in Dr. X's lab at X University relates to the idea that implicit communication is one factor that may motivate one's future behaviors. I am impressed with how Dr. X's research seems ubiquitous in topics such as emotional regulation and behavioral analysis."

This somewhat complete picture is 95 words...405 left to go! My example is a bit sophomoric, but you get my point (the common thread shows the evolution of a reserch interest in emotions).

Good luck!