Or to be more precise, from one of my professors, I got by and was able to write a (hopefully convincing enough) letter of purpose. The letter of purpose is the first and probably most important application document that people, usually the coordinator, will look at. Like I mentioned in my last post, you give your reasons for choosing that specific university and explain your academic goals. But that’s not everything. Selling yourself is equally important, even though you should always try to relate this back to the university, your academic goals, etc.
Now, what should you have done up to the point where you start writing your letter of purpose (for the sake of space, I'll just refer to it as LoP in the future.) You should have chosen one (or preferably more) universities you are interested in, established contact with the coordinator (and had a meeting), and consequently come up with a mental list of reasons (or literally written down) for your choice of university. Before you get started with this, let me share some of my wisdom. Having your CV in front of you (more on that in one of my next posts), can be very helpful. In your LoP, you should manage to combine your sparkling personality traits with your life achievements and relate them to your chosen university, courses that the university offers, your general academic goals, and why this particular university would actually benefit from having you there. Don’t forget to mention why you would like to study abroad at that particular time in your academic career, either. You might even want to mention something about it having a link to your dissertation (even if that won’t happen for another couple of semesters). In the end, your LoP should clearly show that you are a very (hopefully even the) most desirable candidate for your chosen university. As I’ve mentioned above, I had a little (or a lot) of help from one of my professors. Since not everyone out there will have that possibility, I’ll try to share as much of what I’ve learned during that time to make it easier for my fellow sufferers.
So far it seems simple enough. The first problem you’ll come across before starting to write is the question: how and where do I start? The introduction of the LoP is definitely the hardest part. So in order not to completely freak out after half an hour and maybe one written sentence, do what I did: do not start with the introduction. After a slight obsession with my two picks, I knew exactly why I wanted to go to these particular universities. So it wasn’t too hard to start there. Some of the points I mentioned in my LoP were the reputation of the universities, their locations (e.g. close to the ocean), special science labs, to name but a few. Not to lose sight of the big picture here: this was only one paragraph of my LoP. In the end I had about 1,000 words, just so you know. And from what I can see now while writing this blog post, it’ll probably end up being about the same length.
Well, now how do you continue? To guide you through all the things you have to consider, I’ll state a few questions that my professor asked me at the beginning of this (sometimes torturous) writing procedure:
· Why did you choose XYZ university in academic terms? Which courses do you intend to take? What reputation does XYZ have? What are their specialist research areas? Link this to your own research/interests.
· Social aspect: Consider what you find appealing about campus life, societies (e.g. international societies), etc.
· What can you offer them? Mention your traveling experience, independence, maturity, problem solving skills, previous job experience, etc.
My LoP was more or less arranged in these three sections. After a more general introduction where I referred to my traveling experience and why I am studying English (apart from my second major in a natural science), the second paragraph was about the particular university, how I came to know about it, what I do know about it (e.g. about its societies, special courses and science labs), and what fascinates me about it (campus, libraries, location, reputation). Then I moved on to my academic goals. I wrote (and here I quote from my first draft, i.e. still unrevised) “[m]y academic goals include the complete mastery of the English language”. There were worries after this statement that I actually wanted to conquer the world or something like that, so I decided to revise it. Just to make it clear: I do not want to conquer the world... yet.
In the last part of my LoP, I concentrated on “selling” myself. That means I referred to my work (hence the advice with the CV) and travel experience. By pointing out the most important lessons I’ve learned from these experiences, I could show how they helped me become an independent and mature person who is adept at solving problems (and who one day will “take over the world”). In this section you could also mention some of your extra-curricular activities, e.g. if you play in a brass band (FYI, I don’t do that), volunteer for the Red Cross, or if you are a tutor. This would answer the last questions I mentioned above, about what you can offer the university.
After answering the questions, you’ll still have to come up with a good conclusion (and of course introduction). In the conclusion you should just emphasize again why you would benefit from a particular university and how that university could also benefit from you – it’s always a give and take, isn’t it? And definitely give it to someone else (e.g. a friend or colleague) to read before you submit it. This person will hopefully think it's coherent and logical. Don’t forget to proof-read it, either. Remember that Word can check spelling and grammar; and even though you shouldn’t completely rely on this feature, it can be very helpful.)
That’s it for now after, as I predicted, about 1,000 words.
Yours truly,
Lemon
