Statement of Purpose Advice

Here are some thoughts and comments that will hopefully help you write a better statement of purpose. These are merely my own thoughts and should not be construed as official guidelines of any sort.

What the statement of purpose is not

• Many students (particularly foreign students) think that the statement of purpose is about character. While honesty, sincerety, conscientiousness, etc. are important attributes, I assume students with good academic records applying to graduate school have these traits.

• Many students think that the statement of purpose should be an autobiographical sketch. Believe me, the story of your first computer when you were 10 years old and how it inspired you to devote your life to Computer Science does not make particularly interesting reading, nor does it tell me the things I want to know.

Questions that your statement of purpose should answer

Don't structure your statement with these questions! (I can just see the applications pouring in now with my questions used as section headings.)

Your statement of purpose should be a cohesive piece of prose. (Some use of section headings is OK, but not with my questions.) It should present yourself to the reader. One way you can think of your statement is as an extended (and somewhat more formal) answer to the interview question, “Tell me about yourself...”

While some of my questions below can (and should) be answered directly, the rest should be addressed by relating relevant experiences and accomplishments.

• Why do you want to get a PhD (or MS)?

• What are your research interests?

  Be as specific as possible, but keep in mind who will be reading your application.

  In the Rensselaer CS department, research groups read applications — the one(s) you specify on your application. At other schools, a department committee may read all applications and decide upon admissions on behalf of the whole department.

  For the Rensselaer CS department, unless you are an exceptional student with a broad range of experience/accomplishments, you should target your application to just one research group — a student who specifies interest in robotics and networking, for example, may not be taken seriously by either group.

  Multiple faculty within a research group will read your application.

• Why are you interested in these research topics?

  Don't write an autobiography!

• Do you have the motivation/perseverence to complete a PhD?

• If you have an undergraduate degree in something other than Computer Science or Computer Engineering, then another question is: do you have the background to pass the PhD qualifiers?

The statement of purpose is also an opportunity to describe some of your accomplishments and their significance. The reader will not be familiar with the programs, competitions, examinations, etc. for all parts of the United States, not to mention other countries.

Other things to keep in mind

• Format: Single spaced (or maybe even "one and a half" spacing, but definitely not double spaced) with at least a 10 point font and reasonable margins (at least 1 inch on all sides, preferrably more on the left and right with a 10 point font).

• Length: Definitely not more than 2 pages! (Who has time to read more than that?)

  When I was applying to graduate schools, I was advised to keep my statement of purpose to a single page. I now think that this was not good advice — one page tends to be too short if you're covering everything you should.

  Don't try to "cram" more into your two pages using typographical tricks (line spacing, font size, margins, etc.) You're not fooling anyone. Inability to write a concise statement of purpose indicates a lack of critical thinking skills.

  I should duly note that most undergraduate Computer Science students confuse "concise" with "short". "Concise" means that you have given thought to the composition of your statement to make it a clear and cohesive piece of prose (with a natural/logical flow) that covers all the necessary points and doesn't cover unnecessary points. "Short" pieces of writing are usually too short because they omit important points, aren't cohesive, etc.

• Spell check it! Get someone else to proofread it!

Special note to Chinese (and some Indian) faculty...

I never really believe it anyway...

Links

• Applying to Ph.D. Programs in Computer Science by Mor Harchol-Balter

  This document has much more extensive exposition about what grad school is like, the application process, and so on. I think most of it is on the mark.