Statement of Purpose Specificity

[doggums]

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[Marissa4usa]

But on the other hand, it seems silly to tell schools things they already know about themselves?

I see why you think it's silly, and I obviously don't recommend saying things you like about the program just to say them. But I would put effort into describing how their approach to graduate education fits well with what you're looking for, e.g., you may like that students are required to become instructors of record, because you're hoping to become an effective educator in the future...or the fact that they regularly offer colloquiums by well known researchers, etc. This also indicates that you've read their website and their handbook (obviously don't read the whole thing but browse through it and pick up a few important things)

Same goes for individual fit. Why do you want to work with that specific professor - how does it relate to your research interest and previous research experience? Maybe you have worked on a project and you've begun to wonder about [insert any research question here], and you see that Dr. XYZ has similar interests, and so you would be interested in further exploring a, b, and c topics (however, don't be too specific as you don't want professor to think that you're stuck on a certain topic, especially if their current project wouldn't allow you to pursue a specific research question).

Obviously, this is considerably more effort than just having a couple more sentences but I've been told by profs that it shows that a student is really invested.

Also, as far as talking about my future goals go... I say I want to teach and conduct research aaaand that's pretty much it. It seems presumptuous to say anything more-- like I want to change the world/field, invent new assessments, etc. Is this the kind of thing they're looking for though? Does coming across as wanting to be a fairly standard professor seem unmotivated?

I think that's fine. I would say that you plan on getting a post-doc position to improve your skills and that you ultimately want to work at an R1 institutions (only of course, if that's what you want to do🙂).

 

[clinicalstudent]

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