Section 4: Identifying and Writing About Your Program Fit
4.1. Identifying and Writing About Your Program Fit
Up to this point we’ve talked about the first two goals of the SoP framework: experiences and motivation. You might think of these goals as having a cause-and-effect relationship – that is, how your past experiences have influenced your current research interests, career objectives, and your overarching motivation to pursue a graduate degree. The next step is to identify your fit to a specific graduate program. This is one of the most important components of the SoP that is often overlooked by writers.
In this section, we explore how you establish this fit to program. As mentioned earlier in the resource, this guidance does not apply to applicants to professional programs, such a medical and law school. This is a crucial difference between statements of purpose for master’s and doctoral applications and personal statements for professional graduate programs.
- Goal 1. Experiences: The relevant experiences you’ve had which have informed and prepared you to pursue a graduate degree.
- Goal 2. Motivation: Your purpose for wanting to pursue a graduate degree which is often related to specific research interests and/or career objectives.
- Goal 3. Fit to Program: A discussion of why a particular graduate program is right for you given your motivation (and especially your research interests and objectives).
Specifically this section will explore specific strategies you can use to discuss your fit to program including, expressing interest in the graduate program, projecting success, and concluding the application. The following pages include two opportunities for brainstorming and an example SoP to see this goal and accompanying strategies in context.
