From: clin@eng.umd.edu (Charles Lin)
Subject: Re: Public forum for SOP's
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 92 08:22:27 GMT
Organization: College of Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park
Originator: clin@erlang.src.umd.edu


In article <1992Oct15.065129.15462@eng.umd.edu>, clin@eng.umd.edu (Charles Lin) writes:
>                           A Fake SOP
>                           ----------
>    My name is Foo Bar, and I wish to apply to the Ph.D. program at
>So-and-so University.   I feel that while my undergraduate education
>was excellent, that I wish to do more.  I want to be in the forefront
>of new research in the area of computer science, and So-and-so's excellent
>faculty and facilities will make this possible.
>
>    As an undergraduate, I felt there was something lacking in the education.
>We are trained to think about doing problems that have been done a 
>hundred times before, and while I felt that was important as a sound
>basis for my education, I now feel the need to do work in areas that
>are new.    As an undergraduate, the professors seemed distant, and
>the interaction was little, but as a graduate, I can work one-on-one
>with some of the best minds in the field, and this prospect is thirlling.
>
>    I have done well as an undergraduate and feel that I would want to do work
>in compilers for dataflow machines, and the work in database design, and
>software engineering, which the faculty at So-and-so have many such
>profs. in the area.   I see that Prof. Algol has recently published 
>in the Journal of Algorithms and this only speaks well of the university's
>high caliber work.
>
>    I hope to provide a contribution to this field and eventually go
>into teaching.
>

     I purposely kept this short.   I won't correct my own grammar
since I'm lousy at that, and almost rely on how it sounds.  One of
these days, I need to pick up a good grammar book.

     The first paragraph I intentionally went to rather glib
generalities.   I think it would be surprising to see how many
people say that "they just want to learn more".  It may truthful,
but it isn't all that original.   In addition, there's quite a
lot of complimenting going on in the first paragraph of the
desired school.  I don't know how effective that is.

     The second paragraph again appeals to the school, but it is a little
on the naive side as well.   The reality is that most students don't
work that closely with the advisor.  You are expected to meet maybe
an hour a week with the advisor tops.  More if the advisor is nice
or if you are an experimentalist, and your advisor gets down to the
labs to do work, too.   It's a little general.  A lot of people
feel the same way as this first paragraph.  It's hard to make things
noticeable when SOP's sound alike.

     The third is a bit of a free-for-all.  Basically, it mentions
three different areas in computer science which can be quite
different.  It is more of a listing of what the department is
good at.  It's as if someone took a catalog and looked
at research was being done, and copied that down.  There's
also no justification for why some topic is interesting, only
that it is.   The Prof. Algol bit seems again to compliment the
faculty, but it would be nicer to show understanding of the paper.
On the positive side, it does show that the person did do research
on the school.

     The last sentence seems a bit cliched.

     So here are the problems I deliberately put in.  I gave
some generalities and gave lots of compliments about the department
but didn't show a specific focus.   It's a Catch-22 of sorts.
If you haven't done research, then how do you sound knowledgeable,
and how do you even know you like the subject area that much?
If you have done research, then you look trapped by that research
even if you want to try something new.

     I didn't mention much of an undergraduate record.  That should
be mentioned, if only to say that you liked certain courses and
wanted to more.

     I don't think I wrote too horrid an essay despite the canned
responses because when one hasn't done research and has taken
courses, how can one say they want to do research is a particular
area.   While it seems a little cheating to say so, I would say
choose one area and focus on it.  It will make it seem that
you have at least selected one topic.  No one forces you to
stay to it once you get in.

     I also didn't mention the kind of qualifications that
would make this person stand out.  OK, fine, this fake
person is interested in going grad school, and the reader
may even find out why (if lucky), but what is special
about this person, what makes this person better than
another candidate.  Better grades?  Research experience?
Hard working?  

     One problem that I haven't resolved is how one says they
want to go to grad school to learn to be researchers.   It's true
that this is almost always the case, but if you read 100 such
essays, then it's not so original, is it?

     The sad thing is that research experience or some sort
of thesis project almost always helps.  You can then outline
what you did in the research, who you worked with, and
if any papers were published.  It gets away from having
to come up with nice generalities about how good the faculty
is.  You may still want to do that because it makes no
sense to say you did research in AI if the school has no
AI group in the dept., unless you can justify why you
want to switch into an area that they are good at.

    Any other opinions?

--
Charles Lin
clin@eng.umd.edu
Newsgroups: soc.college.gradinfo