The quality of the Statement of Purpose (SOP) can make or break your chances of getting into your favourite University. No matter what level of study you are applying for, the statement of purpose is an important part of your university application. This blog is specifically curated to give insight into the statement of purpose for undergraduates. Nevertheless, it will serve as a definite guide in understanding a statement of purpose, what universities look for in an sop, and statement of purpose formats. It will also give you accurate sop samples for undergraduates that will get you selected. Continue reading.
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Table of Contents
What is a Statement of Purpose?
A statement of purpose is a self introduction to the university you are applying to in your own words. The statement of purpose tells universities what they can’t find about you with just the copies of all your academic documents. In context, the statement of purpose will contain an elaborate description of the writer of SOP as a student, including their personal goals and interests. It is a very important document for students applying for universities, especially for international students. This is because within the personal descriptions that the SOP presents, it pronounces why the student is interested in joining the particular program and university. Thus, the statement of purpose plays an important role in the university’s decision-making process of admitting students.
To put things into perspective, an SOP consists of the following content;
- Introduction of yourself (student).
- Academic qualification and previous professional experience.
- Your extent and reason for your interest in the program.
- Achievement in both academic and professional realms is to be highlighted.
- Conclusion
What do Universities look for in SOP?
Most colleges/universities/educational institutions demand students to submit a Statement of Purpose (SOP) along with their other documents during the application process. Sometimes the SOP preferred by the university can be course specific. SOP can sometimes act as material through which the university can understand and provide guidance for the applicant to choose the best suitable course the university offers.
The university demands the SOP from an applicant to check and look for the following things:
- To check your (applicant) writing capability and know whether they are up to the university standards.
- To check whether you have the X factor that makes you stand out from other applicants.
- Look for the choice of words, thoughts, and ideas that are expressed and explained in your SOP. This will help the university to assess you as an individual.
- Look for your unique personality, which ought to be expressed in your writing.
- Look for your talent, previous educational and professional experience, goals, and interests.
- To understand what and how you, as a student, can contribute to the department of the college/university.
- To check whether your motivation to study the specific course obvious from what you are saying and if that pitch is justified.
- To check your reason for choosing the university as the educational institution to apply for the course that you wanted.
- To look into your extracurricular achievements and recognitions.
- Finally, check for originality and clarity of the SOP from beginning to end.
Following are course-specific SOPs that some universities prefer:
- SOP for Internship
- SOP for PhD
- SOP for Business Analytics
- SOP for Data Science
- SOP for Project Management
- SOP for Engineering Management
- SOP for Business Management
- SOP for Construction Management
- SOP for Logistics and Supply Chain Management
- SOP for Civil Engineering
- SOP for Mechanical Engineering
- SOP for Hospitality Management
- SOP for MIS with Work Experience
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Statement of Purpose format
Irrespective of what level of study you are writing the SOP for, the strategy or the model for writing the statement of purpose stays the same with just a few changes. Like all writing, SOP also must have a three-part structure starting with a beginning, a middle, and an end. In the SOPs case, the beginning is the past experience, which can be your introduction to the point of discussion of your SOP. The middle of an SOP is your academic and professional experience. And the end of an SOP is your future plans and career goals.
Introduction of SOP for undergraduate programs
The introduction of your SOP should set the context for what you are going to say in the rest of your SOP. On the contrary, the introduction shouldn’t be about mindless chatter yourself unrelenting to the topic at hand. The following can be some of the approaches you can take while writing your introduction.
- Describe yourself in 2-3 lines and connect that with your future goals that are relevant to the course that you have applied for.
- Explain your knowledge of your selected field and go into detail on how you can contribute to that field.
- Start with an anecdote that provoked your professional interest in the selected field.
Academic and Professional Experience
This is the simplest part of the whole SOP document. This is where you write all of your academic and professional accomplishments. The academic achievements preferred for your undergraduate course application would include your schooling and other classes you had taken up. At the same time, the professional achievements section would cover the work experience you have in the related field of the course that you are applying for. The work experience requirement changes based on the university choice.
Future Goals and Career Plans
Your future goals and career plan are like the climax of the SOP, making it the most important section compared to everything else. This section should be written with a lot of care. Career plans or goals come in two folds (generally), namely short-term and long-term goals.
The short-term goal for your career is where expect to work right after your graduation from the selected course. It is imperative that you be very specific about the companies that you want to work for after the successful completion of the course. Name the companies and tell the reader why you prefer each company. You should also, in this section, dictate the job profiles inside the field that you would like to take up.
When the short-term goals tell the university where you want to work right after graduation, the long-term goals tell them when is your road map in 10 to 15 years. This section is open to involving all your business aims, core values, and principles. Moreover, here is where you explain what you like to contribute to the field.
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SOP samples for undergraduate
Here is a sample statement of purpose undergraduates:"We shape our buildings, thereafter they shape us" - These were the words of Winston Churchill that were placed on my father's home office walls. He is a history teacher, and he believed that these words have some appeal to history in a nutshell. However, for me, this meant something very different that has been shaping me up till now. For me, it meant the marvel of brilliant architecture that, in the end, defines countries and civilisation. All the beach trips during my childhood were filled with building mud structures, which to my dismay, tumbled soon enough by the sea. Then I decided that when I grew up, I would build buildings with more than mud. I would build them in steel, concrete, and stones so that they won't fall off like my sand castles.
Havin my goals of set toward civil engineering, I consumed everything that involved or related to that topic from my father's library. Even in school, I was more interested in geometry, physics, and chemistry, in which I scored my highest marks. After finishing school with such high marks in these subjects, I had a clear idea of what I had to do. For me, the dream was closer than ever before. Although, this was when things took an unexpected turn. My family had fallen into a huge debt that my father alone could not pay back. This forced a detour from my civil engineering ambitions. During these years, I worked for daily wages in a local construction company called "Ace & Hammer Builders". During my tenure with Ace & Hammer Builders, I performed works such as formulating construction equipment to fill holes or erect structures. Leveling the surface and new cement placement was another one of my duties. I also used to clean out construction sites of hazardous materials, debris, and other discarded materials on the day out each day.
Fortunately, with just a year and a half of hard work on the construction sites, the debt was paid in full. I then immediately started preparing for various entrance exams to get into the top universities in my home country and abroad to pursue my dream of becoming a civil engineer. This was the same time my cousin was returning home after his education at the University of California. The details of his experience at UC Berkeley made me very interested in the institution. I jumped on the university website, and within a few days, I knew everything there was to know about UC Berkeley. I was specifically impressed with the university's civil engineering department. Everything from awards and recognition to student testimonials made me very interested in the university. So, I wasted no time and decided to opt for the civil engineering course at the university.
Unlike my sand castle, my dream of building a big building is not made of mere wet mud but with years of perseverance and hard work. Like Churchill's words in my father's office, I wanted to build buildings that would shape us as a community. If I had the privilege of studying bachelor's of civil engineering at UC Berkeley, I would also pursue my master's there. And when I finish my postgraduate studies, I will try my luck to work in my dream American construction companies like AECOM, Arcadis, Mott McDonald, etc. As far as my long-term ambitions in this field are concerned, I want to end up working for government projects that will ensure a roof over every citizen's head. I stop here now with good faith that I have put forth a compelling case on why I belong in the upcoming civil engineering class at UC Berkeley.
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