SAMPLE STATEMENT OF PURPOSE LETTERS
SOP1
I hope to pursue an M.S. degree, followed
by a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the
I have always had a penchant for all sorts
of puzzles and problems in mathematics, especially offbeat ones. Right from
class IX, I have been actively participating in and getting good ranks in several
mathematical Olympiads. I also attended coaching camps and lecture programs
conducted by the A.M.T.I. (Association of Math Teachers of India) to coach the
winners for the next level. In Class X, I was the adjudged first among 5000
students in MATHAWIZ, an interschool math contest. All through my schooling, I
have performed consistently well in academics and was the school topper in the
Class X Board examinations. Based on my performance in the board examinations,
I was admitted to
My keen interest in mathematics and
the sciences prompted me to choose engineering as my undergraduate objective. I
achieved a rank in the top 1 % (i.e. top 2000) of 0.2 million students in the
Joint Entrance examination which is a highly competitive nation wide
examination for admission to the I.I.T's and IT-BHU. I chose the Electrical
Engineering program in I.T.-BHU. In my freshman year, I discovered that
Engineering is all about creative problem solving.
Since then, my experiences, from my
textbooks, in the classroom, and in the laboratory, have reinforced my
enthusiasm for mathematics, especially its applications in every kind of
engineering. I love to apply my mind to practical and abstract problems and my
sustained interest in electrical and computer engineering stems from this
desire. During my course of study, I gained a thorough understanding of
engineering fundamentals and applications. I performed excellently in the
various courses I credited in my field of specialization. The average grade point in the UG Major courses is 9.24 on a
scale of 10.00 and the overall GPA is 8.93. I am ranked 2 in the graduating
class of 37.
I lost no opportunity to enhance
and complement my knowledge by engaging in projects and research endeavors
during all three summers of my undergraduate years. At the end of my freshman
year, I was among the 30 students selected from across the nation for the
O-Level camp conducted by M.T.T.S. (Mathematical Training and Talent Search)
and was the only B.Tech student among pure science and Math undergrad majors. I
worked in IIT- Delhi during my sophomore year and at the end of my third year,
I was awarded the coveted "Summer Research Fellowship" by the
My work on encryption at the Indian
Institute of Science, has given me a keener understanding of practical research
problems. I was also able to use the opportunity to hone my skills in the areas
of programming and software (C, C++, Matlab) and gain a better understanding of
computer networks and operating environments (Unix, Windows). I saw how
mathematics and computer science go hand in hand to provide solutions to
practical research problems. I would hence like to work on the theoretical
aspects of computer science. I would like to work on encryption, cryptography
and security related issues in networks, mobile and wireless systems. I am also
interested in wireless and mobile communication systems. My other areas of
interest include optimization, graph theory and its application in the analysis
and synthesis of networks. I am exploring the possible applications of
encryption for authentication purposes in mobile handoffs as part of my B.Tech
project in I.T-BHU. I am willing to work in any related field where I can
possibly exploit my logical and reasoning prowess.
Interaction with eminent scientists combined with an intellectual
atmosphere, excellent academic resources and research facilities in and out of
my institute has broadened my horizon and made me all the more motivated for a
career in research. Based on these experiences, I am confident that I can make
a positive contribution to the ongoing research work in your university and
thus contribute substantially to scientific and technological advancement that
benefit mankind. The research project in IISc and the associated reading I have
done, have significantly contributed to my future potential as a scholar.
I believe that the MS/PhD program at
UMich fits my academic needs and professional goals. I have gone through the
web pages and publications originating from the department and have found
several areas of interest to me. The Theory in Computer Science (THINCS) group
at
I consider it a wonderful chance
to work with the excellent research group at UMich and I believe that I have the
necessary background to make this a marriage of interests. As I come from a
middle class family, I am solely dependent on financial assistance. I shall not
be able to pursue graduate studies without financial aid. I hope to be
considered worthy of admission with financial assistance and I am looking for
the opportunity to strengthen my ability for research, develop original ideas
and be part of a creative process. I hope to find opportunities that will
enhance my abilities and help tap my full potential. I look forward to
discovering my own mind at UMich and applying to the pursuit of contemporary
research challenges throughout my career.
SOP2
I hope to
pursue an M.S. degree, followed by a PhD in Computer Science at the
I have always
had a penchant for all sorts of puzzles and problems in mathematics, especially
offbeat ones. Right from class IX, I have been actively participating in and
getting good ranks in several mathematical Olympiads. I also attended coaching
camps and lecture programs conducted by the A.M.T.I. (Association of Math
Teachers of India) to coach the winners for the next level. In Class X, I was
the adjudged first among 5000 students in MATHAWIZ, an interschool math
contest. All through my schooling, I have performed consistently well in
academics and was the school topper in the Class X Board examinations. Based on
my performance in the board examinations, I was admitted to
My keen
interest in mathematics and the sciences prompted me to choose engineering as
my undergraduate objective. I achieved a rank in the top 1 % (i.e. top 2000) of
0.2 million students in the Joint Entrance examination which is a highly
competitive nation wide examination for admission to the I.I.T’s and IT-BHU. I
chose the Electrical Engineering program in I.T.-BHU. In my freshman year, I
discovered that Engineering is all about creative problem solving.
Since then,
my experiences, from my textbooks, in the classroom, and in the laboratory have
reinforced my enthusiasm for mathematics, especially its applications in every
kind of engineering. I love to apply my mind to practical and abstract problems
and my sustained interest in computer science and engineering stems from this
desire. During my course of study, I gained a thorough understanding of
engineering fundamentals and applications. I performed excellently in the
various courses I credited in my field of specialization. The average grade point in the UG Major courses is 9.24 on
a scale of 10.00 and the overall GPA is 8.93. I stand at the top of the graduating class of 37.
I lost no
opportunity to enhance and complement my knowledge by engaging in projects and
research endeavors during all three summers of my undergraduate years. At the
end of my freshman year, I was among the 30 students selected from across the
nation for the O-Level camp conducted by M.T.T.S. (Mathematical Training and
Talent Search) and was the only B.Tech student among pure science and Math
undergrad majors. I worked in IIT- Delhi during my sophomore year and at the
end of my third year, I was awarded the coveted "Summer Research
Fellowship" by the
My work on
encryption at the Indian Institute of Science, has given me a keener
understanding of practical research problems. I was also able to use the
opportunity to hone my skills in the areas of programming and software (C, C++,
Matlab) and gain a better understanding of computer networks and operating
environments (Unix, Windows). I saw how mathematics and engineering concepts go
hand in hand to provide solutions to practical research problems. I would hence
like to work on the theoretical aspects of computer science. I am interested in
working on encryption and cryptography and security related issues in networks
and mobile and wireless systems. I am also interested in wireless and mobile
communication systems. I am exploring the possible applications of encryption
for authentication purposes in mobile handoffs as part of my B.Tech project in
I.T-BHU. I am willing to work in any related field where I can possibly exploit
my logical and reasoning prowess.
Interaction
with eminent scientists combined with an intellectual atmosphere, excellent
academic resources and research facilities in and out of my institute has
broadened my horizon and made me all the more motivated for a career in
research. Based on these experiences, I am confident that I can make a positive
contribution to the ongoing research work in your university and thus
contribute substantially to scientific and technological advancement that
benefit mankind. The research project in IISc and the associated reading I have
done, have significantly contributed to my future potential as a scholar.
I believe
that the MS/PhD program at CS department of
I consider it a wonderful chance to
work with the excellent research group at
SOP3
I plan to pursue an M.S.E. degree in Environmental
Engineering with an emphasis in water quality control engineering. Ever since I
was 16 years old, I knew I wanted to be an environmental engineer. When I
obtain my B.S. degree in May, that dream will be fulfilled. However, I still
feel I have so much more to learn about the field of water quality engineering.
The pursuit of an M.S.E. itself will garner more knowledge. But equally
important is the flexibility and mobility such a degree allows me in the
workplace. Companies allow higher educated employees more opportunities to
explore and expand the breadth of their expertise. I want to be able to
continue learning throughout my career.
My learning experience at the
I have had an opportunity to assist in research to improve
wastewater quality. I am an undergraduate laboratory assistant for a doctoral
student, Christian Greenfield, who is researching the chemical modification of
activated carbon. The work I'm performing involves the systematic variation of
the chemistry on activated carbon by exposing granular, powdered, or fibrous
carbon samples to a series of reagents and temperatures in order to vary the
acidity, basicity, or nitrogen content of those samples. While performing the
usual duties of buffer preparation, glassware cleaning, errands, etc., I have
also performed activation runs, surface area and pore size distribution
analyses, and adsorption analyses. This project has broadened my understanding
of water chemistry, carbon's physical and chemical properties, the
experimentation process, and the life of post-secondary students! I am fully
aware of the hard work and time necessary to make a project successful.
I am ready to begin the life of a graduate student. I hope
to become a research assistant to improve my knowledge of water quality beyond
course work. I believe the University of
SOP4
I wish to enter the Environmental Engineering and Science
program at the University of Richmond (UR) and obtain a Master of Science
degree in Environmental Engineering. I am specifically interested in
bioremediation of hazardous waste, and in all aspects of applied microbiology.
As an undergraduate in the same program, I have had the opportunity to
participate in several research projects at
Since the first semester of my freshman year in college, I
have wanted to be a professor of environmental engineering. I was introduced to
research the summer after I graduated from high school. The mechanical
engineering department at
I chose to enter the environmental engineering program in
the civil engineering department because I enjoyed chemistry and biology. I
knew that I wanted to pursue a career in academic research, but I found living
biological systems much more interesting than the mechanical systems I studied
with Dr. Cable. Bioremediation using microorganisms seemed to be the perfect
thing for me to study. The summer after my freshman year, I worked as an
undergraduate research assistant in the Environmental Engineering and Science
program at the
During the school years, I have paid for roughly one third
of my education by working part time at various jobs. Most recently, I worked
for professor D. Houseman in the civil engineering department at
From all of this research experience I have learned that I
would not be happy working outside an academic research environment. Since I
was small, I wanted to be a professor. I grew up in
SOP5
My purpose is to obtain a Master of Science degree in
Environmental Engineering with an emphasis in water resource management and remedial
activities. My undergraduate background in these areas has given me the
experience, the knowledge, and the desire to continue my formal education.
Earning my Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering
with a specialization in Environmental Quality at the
It is this background that has helped me in my summer
internship and to contribute to a research project being conducted by Professor
Jerome Marshall. Under Professor Marshall's guidance, I conducted basic
chemical analyses for alkalinity on the sludge of an anaerobic digester. Also,
in industry I managed a ground water sampling program for over 300 private home
water wells.
I would like to concentrate on the study of the
physiochemical and biological processes under the Environmental Systems
Analysis option. By expanding my present theory and technical knowledge, I hope
to obtain an environmental engineering position in a consulting agency. The
desired areas I hope to work in include water resource management, remedial
treatment activities, and wetlands conservation.
In conclusion, I feel that I have the theoretical as well as
the technical experience that will help me in my desired area of graduate
study. I believe that my undergraduate training and past industry experience
has provided me with the necessary dedication, persistence, and discipline to
be a successful graduate student.
SOP6
I could continue to "climb the ladder" at the
Mart, become even more successful and make a lot of money in marketing.
However, making myself or my company richer will not necessarily enrich my own
life or the lives of those around me. Becoming an attorney will help me to
fulfill my goals by giving me the opportunity to succeed for myself and to make
a meaningful contribution to society.
Several recent situations affecting close friends and family
have inspired me to pursue a legal career. One friend is a single parent.
Despite ongoing problems in collecting child support, her lawyer continues to
tell her, "Just be happy you get anything at all. You're luckier than most
people in your situation." Tell that to her child who needs clothing,
food, an education and day care so his mother can earn a decent living to
support him. Her frustration with the legal process continues.
When another friend's grandmother and uncle were tragically
murdered five months ago, the victims' rights issue hit close to home. After the
murderers were caught and pleaded guilty, I helped my friend write her victim
impact letter prior to sentencing. It was gratifying for her to see that many
aspects of her letter were incorporated into the sentences. While the entire
situation was traumatic, she felt the judicial system was working because the
public defender representing one of the defendants did everything possible on
his behalf before entering a guilty plea. In her opinion, the rights of the
defendants - and of the victims - were fairly represented.
My grandfather, still working at 9l, came to this country
from
Becoming a lawyer will allow me to work with people in a
productive, rewarding environment. I have always been a "people"
person, perhaps because I was raised in a family of ten. I consider myself a
well-rounded person. As an ardent football fan, I made my own first tackle (my
older brother Joe) at age seven. I enjoy reading, volunteering at homeless
shelters and participating in charitable activities. I often served as a
translator at the Grand Hyatt
A native of
SOP7
I wish to continue my academic career at the
I will present a brief history of my academic and professional
backgrounds as they relate to my application to the program. My Bachelor of
Science degree in English at the
With this research, I realized that much emphasis had been
placed on graphics in advertising, but what of the written word? I questioned,
"How do advertising copy in general and certain types of words or phrases
affect the consumer's perceptions, cognitions, emotions, and
understanding?" My master's thesis investigated the effectiveness of synesthetic
metaphors in print advertising headlines. Synesthetic metaphors are "words
or phrases describing experiences proper to one sense modality, which transfer
or compare their meanings to another modality." Although advertising
practitioners are using synesthetic metaphors such as, "Can't You Just
Hear This Color," for a printing company and "Juicy, Mouth-Watering
Color" for a lipstick, there are no published studies about synesthesia in
consumer literature. While the results of my exploratory experiment showed that
subjects exposed to synesthetic metaphors evaluated brands and advertisements
more unfavorably those exposed to literal headlines, a number of considerations
and future research questions remain for this novel area of advertising
communication.
Last summer I presented this synesthetic metaphor research
at the Annual Convention of the American Psychology Association (Consumer
Psychology Division) in
At this time, however, I would like to return to the
challenge and intellectual stimulation of academia and work toward contributing
to the field of communications through research in innovative areas and
teaching. For m academic area of concentration, I would like to continue my
master's research on synesthetic metaphor and delve further into the processes
of human communication, particularly in the area of advertising.
SOP8
So you may understand my current goals better, I would like
to explain my educational experience to this point. I grew up in
Upon graduating Pleasant Meadows I was accepted to
So, it is not surprising that, in reaction to my
unsatisfactory engineering experience, I spent the next year and a half in the
humanities, completing a B.A. degree in history, which I was awarded in the
spring of 1987. I excelled during my studies in the history department, but I
decided that I did not want to pursue graduate study in the field. While
considering career options, I took the LSAT, which strongly tests analytical
ability, placing in the 95th percentile. However, I really wanted to pursue a
career in the sciences.
I knew that I wanted to continue my education, but I was out
of money. So, I got a job working for University Development at Carillon Cross
as a PC programmer. My job duties were to develop a database reporting system
to track potential donors to the university. I was very successful and was
quickly promoted (within 4 months) to manager of the donor accounting
department, but, more importantly, I discovered that I truly enjoyed working
with computers. I liked the creative possibilities in programming; even more, I
was intrigued with the process of modeling problems and then implementing
different solutions through programming. I realized then that I wanted to learn
more about computing. So, I decided to use my tuition waiver benefit to begin
to explore the computer engineering/science field. I started to take classes
towards a B.S. in computer engineering, but later switched to computer science
because I wanted to work more with ideas and less with implementation. I was
able to take one course (sometimes two) per semester, which will enable me to
receive my B.S. this spring (1993).
As you can see from my transcript, in all of the courses
that I have taken while employed, I have received only letter grades of A or B
(3.5 GPA). Meanwhile, I received two more job promotions and currently hold the
title of Senior Manager in Advancement Services. My job is equivalent to a
programmer/analyst II, but requires extensive knowledge of University
Advancement and has managerial responsibilities as well. I spend much of my time
programming on an IBM ES9000 mainframe system as well as working with many PC
applications.
I feel that I have grown tremendously as a person through my
employment at Carillon Cross. I have learned a lot about myself; for instance,
I find teaching others to be very rewarding (something I would like to pursue
further along academic lines). Although my employment of five years with the
university has taught me many valuable skills, I find the work to be
unchallenging and devoid of ideas. It pains me to leave the security of a good
job and many close friends to go back to school, but, I am very committed to my
career goals.
My sincerest desire is to become a computer scientist.
Specifically, I am interested in exploring how problems can be modeled and solved
using artificial intelligence. I also want to learn about human cognition and
machine intelligence. I have been studying the debate over whether machines
will ever become "intelligent" given the current course of research
and reading about such issues as whether a machine can acquire "common
sense" (as discussed in Hubert Dreyfus's book What Computers Still
Can't Do). I have been exploring many different areas within the domain of
artificial intelligence (such as neural networks, genetic algorithms, and
natural language processing). The bottom line is that I want to be a part of
this exciting field. To that end I would like to come to
I am looking forward to attending
SOP9
When I began thinking about how to write this statement, one
that I expect will help me to chart my course for at least the next several
years, I thought it might be a good idea to pull out a certain manila folder
containing the original "Statement of Purpose" I wrote when first
applying to programs for graduate study. It might be interesting, thought I, to
see how closely I had followed the trajectory set for myself all those years
ago (well, all three years ago, anyway).
This blast from my past was - need it be said? -
Embarrassing. To make a "statement," I suppose, I had strung together
a list of interests that were hopelessly, if optimistically, broad. They ranged
from Chaucer to the 18th century novel to canon formation to jazz writing to Harold
Ross's New Yorker humorists. My interests still range rather widely. But in the
two years of research, writing, and listening I have done here, I have been
able, at least, to narrow my focus to a particular literary concern: the vexed,
rich relations between Anglophone writing and African-derived music. In part
this focus has stemmed (if I may wax catachrestic) from my growing investment
in jazz - after all, I did buy a cornet last summer. In addition, I find myself
more and more struck by the music's remarkable textuality: jazz has its
canonical texts, auteur, and characteristic tropes; its metaphoric
substitutions, metonymic elaborations, synecdoche quotations, and ironic
revisions; its hybrid utterances, dialogic interplay, and signifying (g)
rhetorical posturing. And so the writing that currently has the strongest hold
on me is that which recognizes African-derived music as a full partner, whether
for sparring or for building formal alliances. The writers I have been reading
for whom this music becomes a structuring voice include Olaudah Equiano,
Frederick Douglass, Langston Hughes, Vachel Lindsay, William Carlos Williams,
Zora Neale Hurston, and Sterling Brown.
While my focus has narrowed from that first (over)Statement,
my Purpose remains much the same. My "prime concern," as I put it
then, was to develop "an approach that met the challenges race, gender,
and power relations bring to understanding the dialogue between a text and its
historical situation." Within that framework, I especially want to explore
particular historical moments when Anglophone literature has deployed African
derived musical practices (jazz, but also blues, calypso, soul, gospel) as a
way to articulate the ideological category of race - race as a marker of
difference (biological or cultural); race as history, and particularly as a
political unconscious underwriting the West's historical narratives (including
the narrative of its literary history); race as the subject's interpellation
into what DuBois called "double-consciousness"; or even race as
non-existent.
By necessity, given my somewhat extra-literary focus, I have
had to add to my stockpile the critical tools used by several other fields of
cultural studies, most notably historiography, ethnography, and musicology. Yet
I remain convinced that any adequate ideological critique has to be grounded in
the kind of close formal analysis that best comes out of solid training in
literary criticism. I have tried to use the training of my two years spent
working towards an M.A. at the
So where do I go from here? While there is nothing especially
new about entertaining a connection between race, music, and literature (it
goes back at least to Zora Neale Hurston's "Characteristics of Negro
Expression"), I hope to work through this connection specifically as a way
toward opening up what Houston A. Baker, Jr. has called "Harlem
Renaissance, Ltd": that is, a Renaissance that traditionally has been
limited-temporally, geographically, and aesthetically-to 1920s Harlem under
white patronage. As an example of what I mean by "opening up," I have
in mind a project in which I look at the calypsos (or "kaisos") that
became a popular forum for debating Trinidadian national independence in the
1930s and 40s. My intent with such a project would be to add to the larger
picture of what Paul Gilroy has called the "black
SOP10
After a year and a half of graduate study in English, I am
certain that I want to continue studying toward a Ph.D. in English and
eventually teach literature at the college level. I have decided to continue
studying and researching within the discipline of literary criticism because I
consider it an especially fruitful one in which to work, allowing as it does
for supplemental study in any number of other disciplines like anthropology,
film, history, linguistics, and psychology, to name a few. I plan to specialize
in American fiction written since World War II, because the
"postmodern" period and its historical context interest me the most and
because I find the epistemological, ethical, and critical questions raised by
the more experimental fictions of this period especially worthy of critical
analysis. I would also like to focus on critical theory, because I believe that
a thorough knowledge of contemporary critical debate and its pedagogical
implications is indispensable to anyone who intends to teach literature,
particularly contemporary literature.
At this point, my background consists of three years of
undergraduate study and a year and a half of graduate study of the major
historical periods and figures of English and American literature, from Old
English to modernism. Although I have not yet formally studied contemporary
American fiction, I have read much or all of the work of such novelists as Don
DeLillo, William Gaddis, Joseph Heller, Vladimir Nabokov, and Thomas Pynchon,
as well as much of the secondary criticism on DeLillo and Gaddis. In addition,
I have an introductory knowledge of most of the major critical movements of the
twentieth century, from Russian formalism to postcolonial theory. Finally, I
have studied Latin, German, French, and, less extensively, Italian, and would
be prepared to fulfill the departmental foreign language requirements within
the first year of admission to the program.
In regard to occupational experience, for the last year and
a half have taught freshman composition at the
In conclusion, I would like to pursue graduate study at the
University of Springfield because of the reputation of the Department of
English and because I believe the size of both the University and the
Department of English would be ideal for the kind of interdisciplinary work
with which I would like to supplement my study of literature (perhaps through
the Program for Cultural Studies). I am particularly attracted to the
Department of English at the