Academic and/or Professional Objectives
In addition to discussing research interests, writers also need to share their short- and long-terms objectives. This does not mean that you need to provide a 5- or 10-year plan of exactly what you intend to accomplish; instead, you want to identify your objectives that will help you decide the trajectory of your professional career. You can do this by identifying objectives both during and after graduate study, such as teaching, mentoring, research, outreach/extension, and service. You could also discuss your plans for applying the knowledge in practice and your hope for the future of the discipline and or the broader community. Some writers prefer to connect their objectives with their research interests which is perfectly acceptable. Whether linked to research interests or separate, discussing academic and/or professional objectives is a required component of the SoP.
Here are some examples of how writers have communicated their objectives in their SoPs. In some of the examples the writer is specific about their career path, and in others, the writer has a more general idea of what they hope to accomplish. Note that the last example combines two strategies – Research Interest and Academic and/or Professional Objectives.
Following the completion of a Ph.D., my long-term goal is to start a business to develop assistive devices and technology to help not only my sister but children of all abilities to create a better more inclusive world for them.
I want my research to be used not only to understand how our oceans are changing, but also to understand what we can do to combat that change and preserve one of our most precious resources. In the future, I would like to work as a marine policy analyst or science advisor for a governmental agency. I want to collaborate with multiple stakeholders to evaluate the effectiveness of current marine conservation strategies and develop dynamic management practices that benefit everyone involved.
By continuing to explore various areas in microbiology and in research in general, I have found that I am most interested in the gut microbiome. I have the specific goal of trying to improve the health of people by manipulating the gut microbiome weather that be through diet, probiotics, or even fecal transplants.
After obtaining my Ph.D. I would like to either work for a university or a private laboratory where I can mentor other first-generation and underrepresented students. Since we are living in an increasingly digitized world where different narratives are being pushed onto women regarding their own health, I hope to help others make informed decisions and further understand the power of their own bodies. By empowering women, I hope to inspire other young women who question themselves in a STEM field to push boundaries and their own beliefs to show that they can stay true to themselves.
