[MUSIC] Hi, in this module, I'm going to share some thoughts about what you should be thinking about when you write your personal statement. I spent a lot of time on missions committees over the years and I've read a lot of personal statements. So a lot of my thoughts, my insights are going to be based on that experience. Now when it comes to the personal statement, most programs, taught or research-based, are going to require some kind of personal statement as part of the application. The personal statement is a [INAUDIBLE] where you explain yourself and how the program that you're applying to fits into your larger goals, your career plans, and so forth. So this is your opportunity to demonstrate your fit to the program. It's important, in this case, to demonstrate maturity, understanding, and seriousness of purpose. So this is where you need to show that you've actually had some adequate backgrounds, some adequate training relevant to the goals of the program, and that you know something about the subject that the program is focused on. Now it may be, especially for a taught program you may be coming in from a very different major. Perhaps you're coming in from Physics to study Social Science. In that case you may want to talk about at least some experiences as an undergraduate that led your interest in social science. Or certain kinds of perhaps a minor that you took or courses that you took. One way or the other, you need to demonstrate it at some level you know what you're getting into. And that means not being excessively idealistic about what the possible outcomes of the program might be and so forth. So, I would emphasize this, especially for applying to a research program, Immaturity or a lack of understanding may be fatal. So if know your personal statement may claims about you think about how the program will do for you, then it may convince the committee that you actually don't quite know what you are getting into. So if you think or show that you think that by earning a PhD in Sociology you'll somehow learn tools that will let you engineer and make changes to society as if society was a giant machine that we could simply tinker with. That may betray a certain lack of understanding, a lack of maturity in terms of your understanding of what the program will do to you. So you need to show, especially for an application to research base programs, that you understand that what you're going to do is research. And another thing you need to do in the personal statement is account for unusual features in your record. So if you have a spat of bad grades in your transcript and there's some explanation for it, that's probably where you need to talk about in the personal statement or if there are gaps in your record. Or if you had some unusual transitions after you finished your undergraduate degree, that in terms of, again, gaps in your job, career, or gaps in study, etc, you have to probably allude to them, or explain them in your personal statement. Otherwise, there may be questions that make a committee wary of your application. So what are the key elements of a personal statement? You want to convince the committee that you're interested in the subject. You have a reason for your interest. So you need to explain why you're interested in making the transition involved in going to a postgraduate program. You want to identify the elements in your background that are relevant to the proposed program. Again if you're making a big jump, then of course you may be coming from something other than a directly relevant major, then you'll have to find the parts of your background that some of it will account for this transition. So specific courses that you took, perhaps meetings with a particular professors or other experiences that led you to this transition, and which helped prepare you for the program. And you also want to talk about how you see the program contributing to your intellectual and professional development. So you want to show that you actually have some realistic understanding of what the program can and cannot do. You'll want to show for an application to a research based program, that you understand that in fact it is to train you to do research, and it's not going to turn you into a, for example, social engineer, or somebody who's going to make revolution. That's something else, and other people can do that. You want to demonstrate that you've researched the program. So you should be careful that when you talk about, in your personal statement the program that you're applying to. Make sure that you're going to show that you've read their website their carefully, that you understand who's teaching, who's active and so forth and what the major topics of concerns of the program are. And you may also especially for research based program give some hint about who you think you would like to work with in the program. That helps signal that you've done research and you've thought carefully about selecting that particular program. That you're not applying blindly to a large number of programs. Now there's also some things to avoid when you're writing your personal statement. You generally want to avoid excessively or unrealistic or idealistic statements that maybe suggests that you have a naive understanding of what post graduate training is about. One of the most common things that I've seen when I was doing admissions at both my current institution and past institutions, is people that thought that a graduate training in social science or sociology somehow teach them secrets of social engineering that upon graduation they would be able to go out and transform society. Well, we don't have such secrets, we don't know how to conduct social engineering Best we can do is conduct research to understand society better, and that may suggest down the road some policies. But we tend not to think of social science like engineering, where you're learning tools that will let you go out and change things. I would also strongly discourage you from referring to your main motivation for pursuing post graduate training as fulfilling a dream. Over the years, I saw too many applications where students had no clear explanation or why they wanted to pursue the postgraduate degree, except that they said that from the time they were small earning a masters degree or a PhD was a dream. Well lots of us have dreams, maybe we want to be pop stars or we want to be famous photographers. But normally we need to be realistic and think carefully. And so when you're writing your personal statement, keep in mind that the people that are reading your statement are not there to help you fulfill your dream. They're looking for people that will help advance their own program, by going on to have successful careers. Again, avoid naive statements, as I talked about earlier that will suggest some misunderstanding of what you think the training will help you accomplish. And then avoid simplistic, sweeping or uninformed statements that reveal again a lack of appropriate background in the area of interest. So if you're applying to a social science program and perhaps you're interested in China, don't fill your personal statement is naive or silly statements about China or Chinese society that reflect a really poor understanding and lack of prior background. So again, there's a bunch of things to be careful about when you're writing your personal statement, in terms of the elements that I just told you need to emphasize. And also some things that you'll generally want to try to stay clear of when you're writing your personal statement.
