Anisha has done MBA in Marketing from NMIMS And Executive Management(PMNO) from Harvard Business School. She has been instrumental in growing CATKing Digital with her experience with Marico and Henkel in the past.
There are no ‘perfect’ SOP’s. There are really great ones. Your Statement of Purpose is perhaps the most critical element of your application. Here are a few pointers that should form the crux of a ‘good’ Statement of Purpose.
1. Follow Directions Be careful to take a note of the important instructions that has been specified in the information portal. Take care that you don’t miss any instructions while preparing your statement of purpose.
2. Consider Your Audience As admission cell deals with thousands of articles and SOP, they can smell formulaic writing and insincerity from miles away. But the positive thing about the same is that they will also get genuinely excited when they read something truly unique. So, put on your thinking caps and generate original and interesting content
3. Portray a "hook" that demonstrates your passion for the field If you’re applying to multiple schools, odds are that you’ll draft a general statement of purpose and then modify it for each individual application. You must dedicate exceptional care and time to customizing the sop according to the institute by religiously doing your homework on every institution you apply to.
4. Formulate Draft The best writing almost always comes from a lengthy process, rather than a moment of inspiration. Begin brainstorming ideas for your statement of purpose weeks before the application deadline and write various versions of the rough draft. Don’t worry if the writing feels raw while you’re working out what you want to say. The first draft must be of exploratory fashion. On the subsequent drafts, you can dedicate time to polish, perfect, and proofread the same.
5. Make your statement of purpose unique Your goal in writing a statement of purpose is to present your path through life as a story. While it's important to be focused, there's no need to be boring. To distinguish your essay, add unique yet relevant) information in an interesting fashion.
6. Be Clear and Concise Through your SOP, your focus should be in trying to communicate your message, efficiently and effectively to the audience. There is no necessity in dragging the content or making it elaborate unnecessarily.
7. Pay Attention to the tone of SOP The tone of your writing gives an admission committee member, a lot of insight into your attitude, personality & value system. The best way to prepare SOP is to adopt the dual approach – Be formal yet conversational.
8. Revise The next step after drafting is revising. Ideally it is a process of more deeply understanding your own writing—maybe even more deeply understanding your past, or your goals for the future. It helps to allow a week or two between drafts, so that you really have time to get some distance from your statement.
9. Proofread Once you’ve written an exploratory draft and made the changes that meaningful revision calls for, it’s time to turn your attention to the details. Spelling mistakes and grammar mistakes will be a serious turn off for evaluators and these can be taken care during proofreading.
10. Review your SOP Once you feel like you’ve written the best statement of yours, be sure to show your statement of purpose to someone you respect, preferably the professors who are writing your recommendations, and get some feedback on the content before you send it in An objective set of eyes can often alert you to details you might miss on your own. Even if your reviewer doesn’t recommend any changes, his or her vote of confidence will help you feel better about the application process while you wait to hear back from schools. All the best !!
