school, I have always kept my eyes turned north, Short Personal Statement by a Paleontology Student From an early age I was fascinated with fossils. Fossiliferous rock samples were acquired from the field, cut at proper orientations, polished, and A Guide to PhD Personal Statements [With Examples] Education Personal Statement Example. Throughout life, my aspiration in terms of prospective careers has been shared by both education and business. The allure of an education degree to me is the prospect of some day stimulating the minds of young individuals and becoming an influential figure in their lives
Personal Statement - PhD - Ulearn Education
For the full series, phd personal statement example education, see here. These things are hard to write, so give yourself plenty of time and seek the feedback of at least two of your letter writers.
Plan to rewrite from scratch at least once. Your plan is to go to graduate school, get a Ph. Are phd personal statement example education supposed to try to convince the phd personal statement example education that you want to become a professor more than the next guy? That philosophy is written in your genes? That you have some profound vision for the transformation of philosophy or philosophy education?
Avoid purple prose. Ignore all advice from friends and acquaintances in the business world. You may still optionally! mention a few of your accomplishments, in a dry, factual way, but to be overly enthusiastic about accomplishments that are rather small in the overall scheme of academia is somewhat less professional than you ideally want to seem.
Trust your letter writers. Let them do the pitch. Do you already know that you will be a more eminent professor than the people on your admissions committee?
You want to seem modest, humble, phd personal statement example education, straightforward. If necessary, consult David Hume or Benjamin Franklin for inspiration on the advantages of false humility.
They want you to come to their program with an open mind. Saying "I would like to defend Davidson's view that genuine belief is limited to language-speaking creatures" comes across a bit too strong, phd personal statement example education. Similarly, "I showed in my honors thesis that Davidson's view If only, in philosophy, honors theses ever really showed anything! Better: "My central interests are philosophy of mind and philosophy of language.
I am particularly interested in the intersection of the two, for example in Davidson's argument that only language-speaking creatures can have beliefs in the full and proper sense of 'belief'.
What to Write So how do you fill up that awful, blank-looking page? In April, I solicited sample statements of purpose from successful recent PhD applicants. About a dozen readers kindly sent in their statements and from among these I chose three that I thought were good and also diverse enough to illustrate the range of possibilities. Follow the links below to view the statements, phd personal statement example education. Statement A was written by Allison Glasscock, phd personal statement example education, who was admitted to Chicago, Cornell, Penn, Stanford, Toronto, and Yale.
Statement B was written by a student who prefers to remain anonymous, who was admitted to Berkeley, Missouri, UMass Amherst, Virginia, Wash U. in St, phd personal statement example education. Louis, phd personal statement example education Wisconsin.
Statement C was written by another student who prefers to remain anonymous, who was admitted to Connecticut and Indiana. This helps the admissions committee assess the student's likely fit with the teaching strengths of the department, phd personal statement example education. This helps to convey philosophical maturity and preparedness for graduate school. However, I would not recommend going too far with the technicalities or trying too hard to be cutting edge, lest it become phony desperation or a fog of jargon.
These sample statements get the balance about right. Each of the statements also adds something else, in addition to a description of areas of interest, but it is not really necessary to add anything else.
Statement B starts with pretty much the perfect philosophy application joke. Any of these approaches is fine, though the topical structure is more common and raises fewer challenges about finding the right tone. Statement A concludes with a paragraph specifically tailored for Yale. Thus we come to the question of Tailoring Statements to Particular Programs It's not necessary, but you can adjust your statement for individual schools.
If there is some particular reason you find a school attractive, there's no harm in mentioning that. You can help the committee on this issue if you like, though normally it will be obvious from your description of your areas of interest. For example, phd personal statement example education, if you wish, you can mention professors whose work especially interests you. But there are risks here, so be careful.
Mentioning particular professors can backfire if you mischaracterize the professors, or if they don't match your areas of stated interest, or if you omit the professor in the department whose interests seem to the committee to be the closest match to your own. Similarly, you can mention general strengths of the school. But, again, if you do this, be sure to get it right! No one here works on AI. I'm not sure I'd recommend changing your stated areas of interest to suit the schools, though I phd personal statement example education how that might be strategic.
There are two risks in changing your stated areas of interest: One is that if you change them too much, there might be some discord between your statement of purpose and what your letter writers say about you.
Another phd personal statement example education that large changes might raise questions about your choice of letter writers. If you say your central passion is ancient philosophy, and your only ancient philosophy class was with Prof. Platophile written one of your letters? Some people mention personal reasons for wanting to be in a particular geographical area near family, etc. Although this can be good because it can make it seem more likely that you would accept an offer of admission, I'd avoid it since graduating Ph.
Explaining Weaknesses in Your File Although hopefully this won't be necessary, phd personal statement example education, a statement of purpose can also be an opportunity to explain weaknesses or oddities in your file -- though letter writers can also do this, often more credibly.
For example, if one quarter you did badly because your health was poor, you can mention that fact. If you changed undergraduate institutions not necessarily a weakness if the second school is the more prestigiousyou can briefly explain why.
If you don't have a letter from your thesis advisor because he died, you can point that out. The higher-level U. system administration encourages such statements, I believe, because although state law prohibits the University of California from favoring applicants on the basis of ethnicity or gender, state law does allow admissions committees to take into account any hardships that applicants have overcome — which can include hardships due to poverty, disability, or other obstacles, including hardships deriving from ethnicity or gender.
Different committee members react rather differently to such statements, I suspect. I find them unhelpful for the most part. And yet I also think that some people do, because of their backgrounds, deserve special consideration.
Unless you have a sure hand with tone, though, I would encourage a dry, minimal approach to this part of the application. I see how such corniness is tempting if the only alternative seems to be to leave an important part of the application blank. As a committee member, I usually just skim and forget the statements of personal history, unless something was particularly striking.
For more general thoughts on the influence of ethnicity and gender on committee decisions, see Part VI of this series. and U. statements of purpose. See here for comments on the version of this post. You might want to skim through those comments before posting a comment below. Posted by Eric Schwitzgebel at PM. Eric, you recommend against taking a strong philosophical stance when applying to programs involving coursework. That certainly makes sense if applying from straight out of undergraduate studies, but surely if someone like me and many other non-US students has attained a research masters degree then the opposite should be true, should it not?
If an applicant shows off some details of what he or she has been intensely studying for the past few years, that'll make it easier for the application reviewers to see why this student has picked this particular institution - what makes the applicant a good fit. Jordan, this issue doesn't arise as strongly in that case, but I still think it's best not to take a firm stand. To display one's knowledge of your MA material, you can talk about what you "have argued".
I'm debating whether an initial interest in Heidegger should be left unmentioned as irrelevant to my current focus on contemporary Phil. of Language might render the latter interest more distinctive. These were phd personal statement example education fact the source of both the Heidegger and the Phil. of Language interest Thanks for your really useful blog posts! Anon May Yes, I could see 1 and 2 working in an autobiographically structured statement, with a light touch.
Switzgebel, Do you think it would be better to mention in your statement you're interested in fields you have extensive work within, or would it be fine to say you're interested in a field that you have little formal training with? How would that be viewed if you cannot say you attended X, took courses, W,Y and Z, etc. but still are very interested in a field?
Hello Professor, What do you phd personal statement example education a student do if their area of interest that they want known in their personal statement is a field they have no formal experience in? Is it worth conceding you're perhaps lacking truly in-depth knowledge of a field in the interest of full disclosure, or should a student pick a tertiary interest they have more familiarity with to put in the statement I love philosophy of science and am familiar with the field, but if I had to pick I'd put priority on philosophy of religion?
First, thanks for your series of posts on applying to grad school. They are super helpful. Now, you suggest that a statement of purpose isn't supposed to include things like "my purpose is to become a philosophy professor," and I would have thought that was obviously correct. But then some programs say things like this: "Please upload a one page Statement of Purpose. What are your goals and objectives for pursuing this graduate degree?
What are your qualifications and indicators of success in this endeavor? Please include career objectives that obtaining this degree will provide. Or do you think the paragraph I quote is included in the application for every department at the school in question rather than something the philosophy department in particular cares about?
I've encountered similar prompts at a few schools, and I'd very much appreciate hearing your thoughts about them. Many thanks in advance!
HOW TO WRITE A PERSONAL STATEMENT FOR GRAD SCHOOL - Statement of Purpose Example - The African PhD
, time: 9:06Sample Graduate Application Essay Unedited - Educational Leadership
Wingate Example Personal Statement Obtaining a PhD in clinical psychology will not only provide me with more specific knowledge and research opportunities at the graduate level, but it will serve as a foundation for a career in the field of psychology. An academic career would allow me to continue life longFile Size: 1MB school, I have always kept my eyes turned north, Short Personal Statement by a Paleontology Student From an early age I was fascinated with fossils. Fossiliferous rock samples were acquired from the field, cut at proper orientations, polished, and Sample Graduate Application Essay Unedited - Educational Leadership. Note: This essay appears unedited for instructional purposes. Essays edited by experienced graduate application essay editors are dramatically improved. My purpose for seeking a Doctorate Degree in Educational Leadership is to expand my knowledge of theory and research methods
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