Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Wish List: How to write a statement

Those who can do, just do it and change the world. Others write about it. Yet others, like in this case, write about the need to do it.

Many of us review application packages from students abroad for graduate schools. Besides the scores and transcripts, students submit a Statement (of Purpose, of Research). These are typically very poorly written with flowery sentences, emotional claims about ones' obsession with computers, mathematics and the academic world, and definitive view of what was destined. Notwithstanding the material on the web with general guidelines and paid help, will someone write a short note on how (not) to write a statement for graduate school in CS? I like short sentences in active voice, north american style.

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2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

There's been a pretty long discussion of this on FemaleScienceProfessor recently.

4:27 AM  
Blogger Sasho said...

I found this very useful when i was applying last year: http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/%7Eharchol/gradschooltalk.pdf.

There is advice on writing a personal statement, too - it's short, but gives a very good idea about what is needed. Besides that, students should really give their essays to professors to check and comment - the more, the better.

9:09 AM  

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