summer internship statement of purpose

[CalculusCrazed]

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I want to apply to a pre-medical summer internship. This summer internship asks for a "statement of purpose." What exactly is it looking for? Should it be long or more brief? I really am not sure. The website doesn't say anything about what a "statement of purpose" is.

Thanks,
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[Starlightembers]

Your statement of purpose is just as it sounds: a statement, sent to a program, telling them why you are applying to said program. Usually, this will include things as your career goals (in this case, it's fairly obvious - medicine), maybe a bit about your background with said goal (ex, you have shadowed, volunteered, etc to explore it further), what you hope to do and get out of the program (ex, if it offers research experience, you may want to say that you look forward to engaging in it in hopes of acquiring skills and experiences in the lab) and why said things will help you reach your end goal (medicine). Don't make it any longer than it needs to be; but more than a few sentences should be aimed for.

 

[CalculusCrazed]

Your statement of purpose is just as it sounds: a statement, sent to a program, telling them why you are applying to said program. Usually, this will include things as your career goals (in this case, it's fairly obvious - medicine), maybe a bit about your background with said goal (ex, you have shadowed, volunteered, etc to explore it further), what you hope to do and get out of the program (ex, if it offers research experience, you may want to say that you look forward to engaging in it in hopes of acquiring skills and experiences in the lab) and why said things will help you reach your end goal (medicine). Don't make it any longer than it needs to be; but more than a few sentences should be aimed for.

So it looks like I could gear it to around a page or a little less. Cool, thanks! 👍

 

[Starlightembers]

So it looks like I could gear it to around a page or a little less. Cool, thanks! 👍

For an internship type of thing, a page or less should, indeed, be fine.

And no problem.

 

[DAPI]

The NIH has a two decent examples. They call them cover letters, but they are basically the same thing in this case. They are at the bottom of the PDF, but Starlightembers outlined it pretty well too.

https://www.training.nih.gov/assets/Writing_Successful_Applications.pdf