Comments on: Drafted.

By: Emily

Emily — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 04:31:39 +0000

God bless all of you, but especially neophyte for this glorious sharing session! A friend of mine sent me this link and I burst out laughing (and crying – simultaneously).

I’m an MA student applying to PhD programs, one of which I got into at the MA level and rejected citing monetary issues, after which I promptly launched into weeks of Soul Searching and My Academic Career Defines Me What Have I Done? And now I get to recreate the entire experience with the added bonus of explaining Why I Did Not Choose Your School and Am Now Here to Grovel. Good times.

I’m wondering whether I shouldn’t simply submit my most promising muffin recipe and resume of my baking skills along with the writing sample. At least it would be useful.

Sigh, instead I will continue filling in your lovely template and hope the committee is either drunk or high. I’m pretty sure anything will be better than my MA SoP, which opened with references to Bruce Springsteen and my obsession with “crossing boundaries.” :o)

By: zach

zach — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 00:38:57 +0000

mouse, you crack me up. I have great faith in you and your ability to write this thing (or maybe you’ve made progress on it already, since I just found your post and you wrote it two weeks ago). I, on the other hand, am relieved to have put off this process for another year or so. Best of luck!
ps. can you jsut recycle some of the SOP you wrote to get your MA? i have no idea if it works that way, but I recycle client letters all of the time.

By: Horace

Horace — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 19:45:04 +0000

Oh, this is totally going into the grad compendium, which I have just remembered must be updated very soon!

By: neophyte

neophyte — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 12:05:03 +0000

All y’all are too sweet.

Sis — yes, I think I should be spending more time dressing up my writing sample (oyyy such repetition! and such grammar! oy!), but that’s too scary an endeavor even to think about until… well, just a couple of hours from now, actually. There it is on my schedule (which I’ve finally started using). It must be done.

Bardiac — Actually. I just got back from my morning hike on the Channel. Chilly out there, today.

Porpentine, New Kid — Welcome! And thanks — I don’t believe any of you who go on about how poorly you represented your magnificent selves in your Ss.o.P., but it sure takes some of the pressure off.

SEK — Your presence honors me, and I blush.

Maria — Welcome to you, too. Frightening, I mean really frightening, how closely your story resembles one that I am too embarrassed to tell. I’m in early modern (English/European) studies, teetering over the disciplinary windowsill with my tiptoes in a literary garden but my face in a freshly baked historical pie.

By: Maria

Maria — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 11:48:02 +0000

I LOVE it! I am currently in the SoP editing boat as well and sometimes I feel like they are just going to laugh at me and chuck my whole application out the window.

You should also include (dunno if this applies but it does for me) “And then I spent a year abroad at this really famous university in my field, and your former advisee was my adviser at the school? Remember me? We actually met in another country, different from the one that I study abroad-ed in, yep I have lived in three different countries, doesn’t THAT make me feel special! I totally acted like an ass but that was because I was too nervous and mentioned that silly little connection we have!”

(Believe it or not, that is a true story)

Good luck! May I ask what field you are in? I am in Japanese history, myself.

By: SEK

SEK — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 02:13:49 +0000

DON’T FORGET — PUT PARAGRAPH ON UNDERGRADUATE THESIS HERE! BUT FIRST REMEMBER TO FIGURE OUT WHAT YOUR UNDERGRADUATE THESIS WAS ABOUT, IF IT WAS IN FACT ABOUT ANYTHING

Truer words have never been written.

By: squadratomagico

squadratomagico — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 01:04:48 +0000

Loverly! I like the part about name-dropping the nemesis!

By: Hannah

Hannah — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 23:27:40 +0000

Hee! And also, oh God I really need to get going on where the hell I want to apply for PhDs, and making sure all my tutors know who the hell I really am, and what I want to write about and argh.

Also, Leeds? You still up for meeting? If not, no worries.

By: New Kid on the Hallway

New Kid on the Hallway — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 23:13:18 +0000

Hee, excellent! This is way better a SoP than mine was (I talked about wanting to write biography. What the hell was I thinking? Medieval biography?) – you have MUCH more of a clue how the system works already!

By: Sisyphus

Sisyphus — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 22:09:47 +0000

Yeah, well, there may be something in that —- I didn’t get in anywhere where I used my boilerplate Commitment to Deep and Serious Research statement, and I got in here, where I wrote a totally random one saying “How cool is it that you have someone who teaches classes on Star Trek? I love cultural studies. I am interdisciplinary.”

All this makes me think that the writing sample is way more important then the SoP.