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Section 3: Identifying and Writing About Your Relevant Experiences

3.4. Educational Experience

When discussing relevant experience in the SoP, many writers will include some Educational Experience.

In this strategy, writers demonstrate that they have relevant learning experiences, and they highlight the value of that experience. Examples of this might include an anecdote or story related to an educational/classroom experience; a discussion of coursework or course projects; a reference to influential literature, courses, and/or professors in the field of study; study abroad experience; or a realization from an educational experience. If applicable, you might even address challenges which you experienced during your undergraduate degree program and what you learned from the experience or how you overcame a challenge.

The two examples below demonstrate how writers can reference what they learned in their coursework and how it has impacted how they think about a given topic. Notice, however, that writers do not simply list the courses they took – this would be unnecessary given that you will need to upload a transcript as part of your application. Instead, this strategy might be useful if you want to identify the “so what?” of an educational experience.

 

Example
It wasn’t until I was in college that I began to understand the extent to which the Gulf Coast’s water quality had been compromised beyond the oil spill. In my classes we learned how poor agricultural practices led to the Gulf Coast’s “dead zone”.
Example
During my undergraduate career, my coursework and readings have exposed me to the cultural and biological diversity present within our species. The combination with my lingering desire to learn more about the human diet led me to my current interest in the anthropology of women’s health as it is understood within cross-cultural and evolutionary perspectives.

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A Guide to Writing the Statement of Purpose for Graduate School Applications Copyright © 2025 by Erin Todey is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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