Project Success

Another way to show your fit to a graduate program is to propose how you will be successful when attending their program. In using this strategy you can indicate how you will be successful in the program and demonstrate confidence in your ability to be successful as a graduate student in their program. You might do this through identifying programmatic engagement or anticipating specific ways that you will be successful.

This strategy is not required and should be used minimally; if you do decide to include these explicit statements, be thoughtful about how you’re providing evidence for the claims that you make.

In some cases, you might need to address irregularities in your application (such as a low GPA or GRE score) and address any concerns that you anticipate the reader might have. Here, it is important not to make excuses for a situation or put the blame on someone else; instead, you can account for the situation and provide any necessary context. This should not take up a large portion of your SoP because this is not core to your motivation; however, providing this context could be helpful in communicating your motivation and ability to be successful as a graduate student. The example below shows one way a writer has accounted for challenges they experienced.