Statement of purpose
Encyclopedia
A statement of purpose, or personal statement, is a brief and focused essay
about one's career or research goals, and is frequently required for applicants to universities
, graduate school
s, and professional
schools. It is a required document when applying for admission to most professional programs in the United States. Often, a Statement of Purpose (SoP) is used as a yardstick to assess the capabilities of a prospective student in terms of critical thinking, analytical abilities, interests, aims and aspirations. It is a good way for an applicant to communicate with the admissions committee. Most admissions committees look for a short, crisp and clearly-written SoP.
It is also known as a Graduate School Essay. Other universities sometimes call it a "Letter of Intent", "Letter of Intention", "Statement of Intent", "Statement of Intention", "Statement of Interest", "Goals Statement", "Personal Narrative" or "Application Essay". The content and length of the essay is usually determined by guidelines set by each academic institution.
In the UK all universities operate by the system UCAS in which a personal statement must be submitted which can only contain 4000 word characters or 47 lines
Essay
An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...
about one's career or research goals, and is frequently required for applicants to universities
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
, graduate school
Graduate school
A graduate school is a school that awards advanced academic degrees with the general requirement that students must have earned a previous undergraduate degree...
s, and professional
Profession
A profession is a vocation founded upon specialized educational training, the purpose of which is to supply disinterested counsel and service to others, for a direct and definite compensation, wholly apart from expectation of other business gain....
schools. It is a required document when applying for admission to most professional programs in the United States. Often, a Statement of Purpose (SoP) is used as a yardstick to assess the capabilities of a prospective student in terms of critical thinking, analytical abilities, interests, aims and aspirations. It is a good way for an applicant to communicate with the admissions committee. Most admissions committees look for a short, crisp and clearly-written SoP.
It is also known as a Graduate School Essay. Other universities sometimes call it a "Letter of Intent", "Letter of Intention", "Statement of Intent", "Statement of Intention", "Statement of Interest", "Goals Statement", "Personal Narrative" or "Application Essay". The content and length of the essay is usually determined by guidelines set by each academic institution.
In the UK all universities operate by the system UCAS in which a personal statement must be submitted which can only contain 4000 word characters or 47 lines