一步步教你怎么写PS（三）

AdelineShenUID: 2630498

Graduate statement themes:
你必须搞清楚的几个问题：
• Why have I chosen to attend graduate school in this specific field, and why did I choose to apply to this particular school's program?
• What are my qualifications for admission?
• What is special, unique, or impressive about my life story?

The future over the past
admission officer想要从PS看三点：你来自哪里?你想从我们的program中得到什么？你未来的打算是什么？
你的PS应该重在未来的职业规划，而不是重复过去的荣耀。如果你过去的经历确实很出彩，一定要多一些分析，不要罗列你的成绩

Why Graduate School?
Early exposure to your field: 避免用一些陈词滥调，比如“I have always wanted to..."
Do not rely solely on your initial reason and forget to justify your choice with more recent experiences.
讲一些你小时候的事情可能可以吸引读者，一些小时候的兴趣爱好如何发展成为学术喜好的呢？
Goals 明确自己未来的职业发展目标。很多人可能会说自己会进入学术界，那么为了使你的goals显得与众不同一些，你必须突出自己特殊的research interest; 对于想要到学术之外的领域发展的人，必须identify a specific issue and explain the origin and evolution of your interest.
Research interests 有些学校会让你写个statement of purpose来表明你的研究兴趣，你可以认为你的读者是一个faculty，但是一个不是专家的人应该也能津津有味地看下去
Addressing the school（在我们写每一个学校的PS的时候，都要做大量的搜索工作！）
You should do this research for your own sake, of course, but discussing your discoveries in your personal statement can help convince the admissions committee that you are a good fit. Avoid mistakes like discussing the school's rank or prestige, or simply offering generic praise. Instead, mention faculty members by name and indicate some knowledge of their work. Discuss your interest in becoming involved in a particular student organization or activity. Consider contacting faculty members first and discussing their current research projects and your interest in studying under them. Then refer to these contacts in your essay.(套磁的作用就出来了哦！） You may also want to discuss your interest in becoming involved in a particular student organization or activity.
mentioning several professors is not as effective as describing one in further depth

Why qualified?

Details about the process are paramount. What we mean by the "process" is the path to achievement. The rest of the application has already summarized your accomplishments and activities. Show the reader what you did in concrete terms, and most importantly, highlight your active roles.
research experience
Remember to keep the discussion personal. Do not become bogged down in minute details and jargon. Ultimately, the focus of the story should remain on you and your growth or success.
field experience
unrelated work experience
Extracurricular Activities

Why Unique

这里给大家举几个unique的例子：

This applicant starts by noting the diversity of his ethnic and religious background. When mentioning such points, you should not assume that such diversity is an end in itself. Rather, you should show how your background and culture have shaped your perspective and given you something unique to offer. This applicant does a good job of noting how Zoroastrianism has given him guiding principles, but he never follows through to discuss concrete examples. This essay would have benefited from more details to show his diversity in more tangible terms.

This applicant's story is fascinating, at times harrowing, and ultimately triumphant. From committed social activism to drug and alcohol addiction to a reengagement with the world, the author pulls no punches in telling his unique tale. While he does not whitewash his experience with drugs and alcohol, notice how he situates it in a larger context, showing both how it made him oblivious to the things he really cared about (Third World injustices) and how his reintroduction to those things helped him pull himself out of his downward spiral. In doing so, he demonstrates both a strong social conscience and a dedication to his beliefs. Additionally, his story makes him very hard for an admissions committee to forget. Just be careful that any discussion of past mistakes or difficulties leads to an indubitably positive conclusion.

This applicant shows that you do not need to be a true one-of-a-kind to demonstrate uniqueness in the admissions process. In fact, what sets him apart is a rather typical job in the computer industry. What makes his application unique, however, is that he is applying to a geological sciences program. His interest in mathematical modeling gives him a novel area of specialization to offer to the intellectual diversity of the program.

（原来跨专业申请也算unique）

Finally, this applicant shows that a personal, revealing story can be enough to set someone apart. By recounting a particular episode that sparked her epiphany as a writer, she gives us an in-depth look at her unique approach to her craft. Again, this essay does not discuss exotic experiences, but instead succeeds by painting a detailed, deeply personal portrait that no one else could have written.

Explain Blemishes

Staying up late the night before the GRE is not a legitimate reason for a bad performance, while documented sickness could be. A particularly bad semester could be explained by a death or illness in the family. If you lack research experience, you might point out the number of hours you had to work to make college more affordable for you and your family.

Your best approach might be to try to transform such blemishes into something positive by pointing out particular courses in which you performed well, especially those that were more advanced, more relevant to your intended career path, or more recent.

make sure that you do not take a contentious tone. Don't accuse your teachers of unfair grading standards or complain about lack of extracurricular opportunities at your school. Be clear that you're not trying to excuse yourself of responsibility, but emphasize that you simply want the schools to have the complete picture.

foressayUID: 2764337

我来坐沙发，呵呵
支持LZ的PS教程

骑兵UID: 2920974

顶

zinc05UID: 2629768

"你的PS应该重在未来的职业规划，而不是重复过去的荣耀。"
我在一份Purdue University Online Writing Lab根据Richard Stelzer's 《How to Write a Winning Personal Statement for Graduate and Professional School (Princeton, NJ: Peterson's Guides, 1989). $9.95》做的ppt（http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/642/03/）里看到下面的说法：
Advice from Admissions Representatives

Beth O'Neil
Director of Admissions and Financial Aid
University of California at Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall)
We're trying to gauge the potential for a student's success in law school, and we determine that, principally, on the basis of what the student has done in the past. The personal statement carries the responsibility of presenting the student's life experiences.
Applicants make a mistake by doing a lot of speculation about what they're going to do in the future rather than telling us about what they've done in the past. It is our job to speculate, and we are experienced at that.

不过，许多学校的sop（对很多学校，ps和sop差不多吧？）要求写plan，这个plan要写的很详细吗？

附：
UC Berkeley的CEE：
Statement of Purpose
Please describe your aptitude and motivation for graduate study in your area of specialization, including your preparation for this field of study, your academic plans or research interests in your chosen area of study, and your future career goals. Please be specific about why UC Berkeley would be a good intellectual fit for you.

Personal History Statement
Required of all applicants. Please note that the Personal History Statement should not duplicate the Statement of Purpose.
Please describe how your personal background informs your decision to pursue a graduate degree. Please include information on how you have overcome barriers to access higher education, evidence of how you have come to understand the barriers faced by others, evidence of your academic service to advance equitable access to higher education for women, racial minorities, and individuals from other groups that have been historically underrepresented in higher education, evidence of your research focusing on underserved populations or related issues of inequality, or evidence of your leadership among such groups.

Duke Graduate School
Statement of Purpose and Educational Objectives：
Write a statement (1-2 pages, single-spaced, in a 12 point font) indicating your purposes and objectives in undertaking graduate study, your special interests and plans, and your strengths and weaknesses in your chosen field. Briefly describe any research projects or any independent research in which you have actively participated and indicate how this has influenced your career choice and desire to pursue graduate studies.
If you have particular reasons for applying to Duke, please indicate these.
If you have communicated with a department or any member of the faculty about your graduate study, please name the department or person.
Also, if you have attended more than two colleges for your undergraduate degree or you have earned a master's degree from a different school than the one from which you earned your undergraduate degree, give the reason for your change.

Harvard Graduate School of Arts & Sciences (GSAS)：
Statement of Purpose
Describe your reasons and motivations for pursuing a graduate degree in your chosen program of study at Harvard. What experiences led you to your research ambitions? Concisely state your past work in your intended field of study and in related fields. Briefly indicate your career objectives. Your statement should not exceed 1,000 words.
Applicants to Chemical Physics and Chemistry and Chemical Biology should follow these instructions: For the Statement of Purpose, please provide a brief statement, not exceeding 300 words, of your scientific and professional interests and objectives. For Research Accomplishments, please provide a statement, not exceeding 500 words, of your research accomplishments or current projects. In the event that undergraduate research opportunities have not been available to you, please discuss other science projects, reading projects, etc., that you have undertaken.
Applicants to BBS within the Division of Medical Sciences: As part of your Statement of Purpose, please include a description of your research accomplishments or current projects. In the event that undergraduate research opportunities have not been available to you, describe other science projects, reading projects, etc., that you have undertaken.

永远爱koma62UID: 3152444

好@

poplar87630UID: 2407804

正好要写PS呢 就看到楼主的帖子 雪中送炭啊

jessamine_ysqUID: 2767264

看了很受用，但还是觉得压力好大！

sobeit07UID: 2800237

这个一定要顶

FFFFTTTTUID: 3158464

想问一下，这个文章是LZ的原创吗，还是从网上四处搜集整理而得的？