Statement of Purpose
Steps to Success: Writing a Winning
Statement of Purpose
For students in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields.
Steps to Success
Personal Statement (PS) vs. Statement of Purpose (SP)
Steps to Success
Personal Statement (PS)
One way to think about PS is that, in general, undergraduate programs are interested in you as a person and what you may offer to enrich their overall university community.
Steps to Success
Statement of Purpose (SP)
SP describes your “brain,” the scientist you have become and will grow to be. You are now the scientist and any personal information should be related to your scientific approach and how you will enrich the scientific world.
Steps to Success
Becoming a Scientist
Your Research Is Your Purpose
Avoid Childhood Kindergarten-High School
“The big questions — how to control a cell’s function, how to interfere with a cell becoming a cancer, how to stop heart disease — are still out there to be answered. The key is bringing fresh ideas along with new tools and technologies to the same old problems.” —Mike Teitell, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Steps to Success
Who Reads Your Application?
Each department has its own review process. Science Faculty: Your future community.
“When you recognize your interdependence and changing nature, you no longer see yourself as separate from another person, and this is the foundation for building stronger communities.” —Susan Smalley, Neuropsychiatric Institute
Steps to Success
Who Should Proofread Your Application?
• Advisors and Professors • Faculty letter writers • People from different disciplines • Each other:
The stronger they are, the stronger you are.
Steps to Success
"Nanotechnology is in our watches, cars, hospitals and it shuffles information around. But it's also about therapies and new ideas — the next big thing that's going to change the world in 20 years." —Jim Gimzewski, Chemistry and Biochemistry
WRITING
Statement of Purpose
For students in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields.
Steps to Success
Personal Statement (PS) vs. Statement of Purpose (SP)
Steps to Success
Personal Statement (PS)
One way to think about PS is that, in general, undergraduate programs are interested in you as a person and what you may offer to enrich their overall university community.
Steps to Success
Statement of Purpose (SP)
SP describes your “brain,” the scientist you have become and will grow to be. You are now the scientist and any personal information should be related to your scientific approach and how you will enrich the scientific world.
Steps to Success
Becoming a Scientist
Your Research Is Your Purpose
Avoid Childhood Kindergarten-High School
“The big questions — how to control a cell’s function, how to interfere with a cell becoming a cancer, how to stop heart disease — are still out there to be answered. The key is bringing fresh ideas along with new tools and technologies to the same old problems.” —Mike Teitell, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Steps to Success
Who Reads Your Application?
Each department has its own review process. Science Faculty: Your future community.
“When you recognize your interdependence and changing nature, you no longer see yourself as separate from another person, and this is the foundation for building stronger communities.” —Susan Smalley, Neuropsychiatric Institute
Steps to Success
Who Should Proofread Your Application?
• Advisors and Professors • Faculty letter writers • People from different disciplines • Each other:
The stronger they are, the stronger you are.
Steps to Success
"Nanotechnology is in our watches, cars, hospitals and it shuffles information around. But it's also about therapies and new ideas — the next big thing that's going to change the world in 20 years." —Jim Gimzewski, Chemistry and Biochemistry
WRITING