Advice from Graduate Faculty
Given that your statement of purpose and entire application will be reviewed by the faculty in the graduate program to which you are applying, it might be useful to consider what these faculty look for in SoPs. Below are a collection of perspectives from graduate faculty across disciplines; even if these faculty are not in your field of study, you might notice that they are mostly looking for an understanding of your relevant experiences, your motivation for graduate study, and your fit to the graduate program.
“A personal statement needs to convey clearly and in detail why and how the applicant wants to be part of a specific graduate program or lab. That means that they need to demonstrate an understanding of what kind of research is being conducted there (i.e. the types of questions being asked, the methods being used, and the subjects being studied). They should present their experiences, interests, and skills in a narrative format that explains why they are interested in contributing to that body of research and how that specific program/lab is the best fit for them. Ideally, then, they would also describe how being accepted would benefit their long-term career goals.”
– Professor member in Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology
“I look for graduate students who 1) demonstrate a genuine interest in environmental engineering and water chemistry, 2) are strong communicators, critical thinkers, hard workers, and committed to developing technology that solves environmental problems, and 3) have some degree of laboratory experience. Of course a student’s background need not be perfect to be admitted to my research group; graduate school is the place to strengthen your skills, and we all have more to learn. Nonetheless, I will largely evaluate an SoP based on these three criteria to determine a prospective student’s fit for our group.
- Genuine Interest: Many applicants are “fishing” from assistantship offers outside of their expertise, and it’s achingly transparent when this is the case. If nothing about your background or articulated interests makes clear that you care about environmental engineering and water chemistry more than as a vehicle to get me to pay for your graduate education, I will quickly lose interest. If your background reflects one of these interests, great: Explain to me why you need an advanced degree to manifest your dreams in that field. If you come from a different background, that’s fine: Explain to me your motivations for switching fields of study/practice.
- Commitment and Drive: Graduate school is very different from undergraduate education. I don’t look too closely at grades or tests scores. In my experience, the most successful graduate students are the ones who are persistent and creative (often because of their personal motivations around the subject of their research). Demonstrate to me with clear examples in your SoP that you’re willing to put in the hard work to make the world a better place through your research.
- Lab Experience: As an experimentalist, the largest investment of my time training students is teaching practical lab skills. I don’t need you to be able to run our instruments before you step foot on campus, but it saves us both time if you can demonstrate in your SoP that I don’t have to worry about you melting your face in acid or setting your bench on fire. Bonus points if you know how to use a pipettor and a calibrate balance. Gold stars if you can show me analytical data that you generated yourself.”
– Faculty member in Environmental Engineering
– Faculty member in Human Development and Family Studies
