Writing Your Graduate School Statement

Information compiled by the GradSchools.com team

As you gather application materials for graduate school, you will be required to include a written statement as part of the process. These written statements are often called “letters of intent,” “personal narratives,” “personal statements,” or “statements of purpose.” While the essays are personal in nature, the school is not looking for your life story. Your statement should focus on your specific interests and goals as they pertain to academics. 

 

Many people dread writing an essay of any kind, especially when it is part of an application process. However, you have no need to be concerned as long as you know how to construct the statement and what must be included. Your statement may be in response to questions posed by the graduate program in your application documents, or you might simply be responding to a brief directive to write about the area of study you intend to focus on and why.

Your statement will likely be between 250 and 750 words, depending upon the school and its requirements. You will need to determine: your purpose in writing your statement, what it will contain, and the style you will use to write it. Before you begin, be sure to research the school and the program to which you are applying. Conducting that research will help you decide how to approach writing your statement.

 The Purpose

The statement you write gives you the opportunity to sell yourself to the graduate program of your choice. Your goal and purpose is to persuade the school that you will be a positive addition to its student body. The relevant experiences you have gained through your undergraduate work, as well as through field and employment experiences, are precisely what you want to highlight.

Your purpose should be clear and concise, and you should ensure that you keep your audience in mind as you write your statement. Explain your academic goals, how you developed them and how being a part of that graduate program will help you reach those goals. The tone of your statement should be very direct and you should answer any and all questions posed by the application.

Do your best to express how the graduate program matches your educational goals. Be sure to discuss both short- and long-term goals. While you are introducing yourself to the graduate program, your statement should be as objective as possible. Be as specific as you can and refrain from using too many big “academic” words.

Content

As for content, you will want to include any academic achievements that distinguish you as a student. For instance, if you have had work published, have completed an internship or studied abroad, you should mention those experiences as they relate to your graduate education goals. The area of study that you wish to focus on should be clear, as should your plans to use your education to enrich your future.

If any inconsistencies exist in your records, this is your chance to explain them in a positive way. If, for example, you had to drop out of school for a year to earn money to finance your education, talk about that, briefly.

If you worked full-time during your undergraduate education, you would certainly want to mention that in order to put your achievements in perspective.

The school may ask you to write about why you have chosen their particular program, which will be much easier to answer if you have done your research.

Do not forget to include any special skills you have developed that will make you a better candidate for acceptance into the program. These skills may include computer, laboratory and foreign language skills. If you have research skills, it is important to highlight them as well.

Style

The style of your statement is individual to you as a person. Just be sure that your statement is clear, organized and specific. Try to use good transitions between your paragraphs to enhance the flow of the statement. The use of an active voice is important, so avoid the use of passive verbs. For example, rather than saying that your goal “was achieved,” say “I achieved my goal.” (Don’t shy away from using the “I” first-person pronoun.)

No matter what, be accurate. The last thing you want to do is include anything in your statement that is unsubstantiated or untrue. When you do your final editing, which should be extensive and detailed, check your facts.

When you reach the conclusion of the statement, treat it like the concluding paragraph of a persuasive essay. Your final paragraph should tie everything together and make that last stab at selling yourself to the graduate program. The most important message to get across in your statement is that you will excel in your study and research at the particular graduate program you have chosen.

One last bit of advice

When you’ve finished your statement: get others to read it and help you revise. Don’t hesitate to go to your favorite professor, and ask him or her to read the statement and help you improve it.

Rumi” Whispers of the Beloved “

I cannot sleep in your prescence.

In your absence, tears prevent me.
You watch me My Beloved
On each sleepless night and
Only You see the difference

Looking at my life
I see that only Love
Has been my soul’s companion
From deep inside
My soul cries out:
Do not wait, surrender
For the sake of Love.

If you can’t smell the fragrance
Don’t come into the garden of Love.
If you’re unwilling to undress
Don’t enter into the stream of Truth.
Stay where you are.
Don’t come our way.

All year round the lover is mad,
Unkempt, lovesick and in disgrace.
Without love there is nothing but grief.
In love… what else matters?

Love is our Mother and
The way of our Prophet.
Yet it is in our nature
To fight with Love.
We can’t see you, mother,
Hidden behind dark veils
Woven by ourselves.

Do you want to enter paradise?
To walk the path of Truth
You need the grace of God.
We all face death in the end.
But on the way, be careful
Never to hurt a human heart!

Do you know what the music is saying?
“Come follow me and you will find the way.
Your mistakes can also lead you to the Truth.
When you ask, the answer will be given.”

The Master who’s full of sweetness
Is so drunk with love, he’s oblivious.
“Will you give me
some of your sweetness?”
“I have none,” he says,
unaware of his richness.

You know what love is?
It is all kindness, generosity.
Disharmony prevails when
You confuse lust with love, while
The distance between the two
Is endless.

This Love is a King
But his banner is hidden.
The Koran speaks the Truth
But its miracle is concealed.
Love has pierced with its arrow
The heart of every lover.
Blood flows but the wound is invisible.

What Does Development Mean?

And thus I decided to work for others, because humanity means working for others not for our selves, many of things going on around us before us and after us, what the policy makers are doing behind the scenes, I don’t know. What does development means?  It is sustainable improvement in the standard of living of the people, so a developing country must include consistent growth in of all the other sectors along with the health, and education which most important for economic development.

Every day when I stepped out of my home, I see hundred and thousands of the people begging, children picking garbage, poor seeking help, and orphans seeking foods. The unequal distribution of the resources and the power is one of the main reason for being a third world country, which obviously gives birth to the vicious circle of poverty, and with the passage of time the poor becomes poorer and rich become richer, which widens the gap of the different classes in the economy and it is a bad omen for the development. The practice of having temporary shelter is common in Pakistan, people do rely on the temporary shelters for their residence, any destruction caused by the natural flood or the natural disaster force them to move around the other side, and thus this indicates many people lack shelter along with the food and education. Lack of infrastructure and the transportation is another issue for a common man.

Do policy makers and those in authority feel this dilemma, actually not, because they have been not gone through these pains, a common man who has to walk down in the boiling weather down to the office and to avail the breathtaking public transport is an another issue, those who have never faced such a dilemma cannot understand the pains of the common man. What they do who are meant to make economy better, do they play the role they should do, will they realize the things they should do, and are many question which remain unanswered but I do not find solution other than questioning my own, and incase I get a chance to be in authority, I will do my best in order to mobilize all the resources towards the common development.

It needs several stages for a country to get developed, but once it start the journey it, it runs consistently and the available resources pool into the progress steadily, and thus after the several years or may be decades it reaches to its final stage of development, where you need not to take major steps, it flows at a certain rate on its own. After it has been set on a path it works as an automated process. And the natural forces in the economy sustain it throughout until an un avoidable situation comes into play.

Though the public welfare is not private goods and neither it is responsibility of an individual to provide it, and it is out of the access of an individual to overcome such issues, until the central authorities do something, therefore the whole responsibility is over the shoulders of the central authorities. How to raise the income level and how to raise the standard of the people, it is obviously publicly provided goods, which has to be taken over by the government, shelter must be provided, infrastructure and transport system must be refined.

Every  day when I use to be back to home from work, I feel sorry for such people and wonder if I can do something to these people, for I will have to convey the message to those of the people who just wait and watch for the development, I am confident enough to say that once I will be one of economist of my country, and will play an important role to save the human capital so that my home land could also be on the path of prosperity and development, I always hope and wish for it, I am much imaginative enough and expect that my dreams will come true. And thus I decided to dedicate myself for the development.

 

My Eyes can not see!

You are nothing

But every thing

You made possible

To walk around,

To stay among,

To believe,

To hope,

To run,

To cry,

To remain awake,

You know why

Because

You have been the sole source of,

Guidance,

Courage,

Hope,

Success,

Wisdom,

Aspiration,

They get together

To seek you

Not to be separated,

To fulfill the promise,

Made

When

Eyes were open,

When the body was blessed 

With a

Bliss full soul,

The angels cried

In happiness

Because,

The soul was being

Being provided for the another soul,

Sure for that

They are going to be the same,

Cause,

You are everything

but my eyes can see you!

Writing Statement of Purpose

Statement of purpose is one of the main thing on the basis of which you will be selected for any scholarship. Here are some of the main points you need to keep in mind while writing a statement of purpose.

1. Passion: do not show that you are bored of your daily life because of which you are applying for the scholarship rather you show your passion that you want to work and you want change.
2. Intelligence:  showing intelligence does not mean that you use the strong vocabulary rather use the simplest words and convince the reader what you say in the best possible way.
3. Prepared: be prepared academically, mentally. Show some back ground of the subject you are applying for, for example you have the work experience of the subject you are applying for, show some interest using pragmatic approach.
4. Include Challenges you Face: jot down all the challenges you face, keep in mind that you do not personalize it because showing sympathy is not the purpose of this statement,  do not mention you belong to a family having weak financial back ground or you are an orphan etc. rather point down all the challenges you face while doing some community work etc.
5. Future Rep of that School: how would you be representing the school you will attend when you come back from the other country. Include all those aim which you will be doing when you will be graduated from the high school/ university.

Along with the do not forget to include the following points

Why you

Why USA

What’s in it for Pakistan/ USA?

And specifically you gonna do when you come back.

A single child out of school really matters

Many things go around us unnoticed, but at the end when we have to face to result it really hurts, same are the things going around us in our daily lives, from dawn to dusk, but many few bother to take notice of such thing, is it so? Here goes a perfect example.

An educated child leads to the bright future of the family, the uneducated child results in an undefined future of the child, there are many examples around us where we see many of the children picking up garbage and begging others, wiping  the vehicles when the signals at the road side are stopped, these are few of the many examples which create  a very despair feeling, it’s really hectic to see, those who must be in school have only heard the word, those who must be busy with the books are busy with collecting rappers and garbage, wiping the vehicles, whole day and in the evening sitting on road side and fill their appetites with the remains of the restaurants and hotels unknown of the next day whether they get something in the morning to eat or not.

Such a child is becoming the alarming factor for the whole society and his life would be obviously insecure from all aspects, food insecurity, health insecurity, and in fact future of the whole family would be totally insecure. Seeing such kids round and around really gives me pain knowing that their future would be that of beggar and a garbage piker.

Anybody who have ever thought of the future of such a kid? it really gives me pain, can I do something nothing else than expressing the pain of the such innocent children in words, due to resource constraint it’s impossible to do so and no other individual can do anything, except for a collective effort, the question arises here is that, how this effort can be gathered, the obviously answer is that the central authority is the regulatory authority of the such issues, what if this is most inefficient body, here comes the role  of the common man who can do anything through consultation with the people around him.

Thus we can only save the future of the nation and the country through collective efforts so as to have the bright ahead. And together we can make difference.

 

 

یہ دنیا جس کو کہتے ھیں

یہ دنیا جس کو کہتے ھیں

یہاں  ہر رنگ ہوتے ھیں

کبھی تم خود کو پاؤ گے

کہ تم وہ فرد واحد ہو

وہ  جس کا ظرف اعلی  ہے

کھبی تم خود کو  پاؤ گے

کہ تم تو اک نعمت ہو

نہ جانے پھر یہ سب کیا ہے

یہ  آنکھوں میں نمی جو ہے

یہ رستے اجنبی جو ھیںر

کہیں منزل نہیں دکھتی

وہ جو کل تک  تھی اک امید

دکھائی پھر نھیں دیتی

بس اک پھر ہمسفر پایا

وہی جو صبرو تحمل ہے

جو اپنے ساتھ رہتا ہے

ازل سے ہے ابد تک وہ

یھی بس اک سہارا ہے

جسے ہم ساتھ رکھتے ھیں

جسے ھم روز گنتے ھیں

یہ دنیا جس کو کہتے ھیں

یہاں ہر رنگ ہوتے ھیں