The statement of purpose is perhaps the most important, and most challenging, element of your application process. This document needs to reflect who the student is and why he/she would be an asset to the program he/she is applying to. It needs to make him/her stand out from the hundreds of other applicants and yet stay within the genre-based expectations for a statement of purpose. This resource provides information on writing statements of purpose specifically for graduate school applications.

But whether his/her SOP is subtle or to the point, it must be well written to be successful. The SOP is the students opportunity to talk directly to the admissions committee. To make him/her stand out from among a multitude of similarly qualified candidates. To convince the committee that he/she has the spark, the thirst for knowledge that could add value to his/her class.