PhD admissions (pt 7): statement of purpose tips 

Just defended my MSc thesis, immediately starting the application process for a PhD. I'll just put "I love school, that's why you should have me." Thanks for the video, very helpful.

This is perfect timing! I'm terrified to write my SOPs and PSs. I'm just down the street from HMS at EC and working with BI! So cool that you started this channel.

Thank you so much, it was really helpful as always. And Trey's website really helped me too. hope to see you there next year:X

Thank you so much guys! Before I even finished watching your video I already started writing my motivational letter and the biggest part is already done. Before I watched your video I was stuck and did not know how to continue. Thank you very much for telling us your experiences.

Thank you! I am applying to doctoral programs right now! I am going towards an educational psychology field. And I am currently a mental health clinician, and have a masters in school counseling. So thankful for this!

Thank you so much! Super helpful as a current applicant.

thank you so much for this video. i really like the way you guys are talking about statement of purpose. it is not just a document but also a chance to help us think through our career plan and purpose for this application. Thx! Good luck for everyone

Excellent vid and channel

Extremely helpful video!! thank you so much!!!

This is super helpful!! Thanks!

I've been preparing to apply to some esteemed Universities, and your inputs really really gave me a lot of insight into where exactly I should focus. Thankyou so much!!

This was super helpful. Thanks a lot. ❤️

this is awesome!

Thank you! This is helpful.

Thanks for the video. it's very helpful and informative

This was even better the 5th time around

thank you - very informative I appreciate it

Great🌺

This is so helpful, thank you!

Thanks a lot for this video. All I want to ask is the length of your SOP. Did you follow the 5 - 6 paragraph format and order? Did you elaborate the projects u had done in the field of metabolism? I have 4 different research project experiences. Do you think mentioning all 4 in detail would be a mess in my SOP?

I know you do not get many likes, but please continue making the videos. I am new to your channel and I am in love with it, great job! Know that the work that you put into the videos is important and of value to many. As a marketing specialist, use more common tags to get your videos to a wider audience.

why am i watching this i just graduated high school

Very helpful series! If I've done an undergraduate thesis how detailed should I get in explaining my experience?

That was SO enlightening! Thanks. I have two questions though. First- if I start my sop with my story (how I got interested in a particular study- in my case regenerative med) will that send a wrong message? Second- should I write about the questions that I encountered when I was working on a project and how I addressed them. Or should I directly tell them what I learnt from research experience. It's kinda tricky to me!! :)

Hello, Lillian! Thank you for your helpful content! I would like to know if you added references in your SOP in order to support your research interest.

Nice video! I have a question... i am also applying to Harvard psych PhD. However, Harvard only asks for an SOP and NOT a personal statement... how and where should I include a paragraph about my background since i will be contributing to the diversity missions. If i do not mention it then they won't ever know. Is the SOP a good place to include such paragraph if the school doesn't accept a PS? The limit is about 2 pages... is it important to focus on what i did to prepare?

You guys should start a podcast on graduate life and the science community!! As an undergrad researcher from Puerto Rico we dont really get much exposure on these areas and this would be of GREAT help to many minority communities!

How would you go about with writing an sop if they have a word limit of something like 500? What would you concentrate on? Your research experiences, your goals or why that program?

Hi Lilian! Love your videos! Thank you so much. Is there a way to reach out to you to discuss in detail my profile and application to the PhD program at Harvard?

Thanks for ur support and how did you mention a particular Prof Name in your SOP? Did you read any paper of his? Look forward to your reply Thanking you

I think if we have to motivate a professor for acceptance we should have thoughts to bring changes or develop some more sophisticated methods in the professor's work. like in a lay man's language if he is working on cherry how we can make cherry of the size of an apple.

I have written SOP and personal statement. I am still confused about what to omit and to include. Would you mind going through it and suggest to me? I will be highly obliged.

Hi Lillian, thanks for all your videos on this. Very helpful! I actually have a very specific question. I am planning to apply for bioinformatics/Comp Bio Phd programs this year. I am more from biological background and have rich research experience on bioinformatics, like analyzing NGS lab or public data and luckily have my name as fourth author on some published papers, but I am very afraid I cannot compete with the applicants from CS or Machine learning background, which I think is valued more and more of the program admission. Because of my fail on applications last year, I am a little losing my confidence on my skillsets and experience. So my question is, do you know how I can stand out from the applicants or do you think I should apply to a more biological programs than bioinformatics program?

Hallo Lillian can you please help me for correcting my sop

Do you think if I mention I don't plan to pursue an academic career but I want to go into industry after PhD it will be a disadvantage?

What advice would you give to someone who *hypothetically* wink wink is struggling to find a school that does exactly what you would like to do? E.g. psychology of music with a focus on cognition seems impossible to find a lab for that doesn't require music education

Hello guys! This is actually very useful but I have one question. What we should NOT include in a SOP? Are there any specific things that we should mention when writing it ?

Hi, Good work !. would like to know how and which universities i can apply for Phd in Economics/Management under scholarship.

Hello Lilian & Trey, thank you so much for the content on PHD applications. As someone currently in the PHD application process, I've found this resource to extremely beneficial. I've a question which is unrelated to this video, so please bear with me if this is not the right forum for it. My question is on the length of Resume/CV for PHD application - What is the appropriate length for the resume on a PHD application? Is two pages too long?

I left a comment on your previous general admissions tutorial. This was suggested. Not sure why I'm here, because I got a PhD and have become a professor (but I think helping my niece with her admissions materials has got the algorithm thinking I am a target audience). Anyway, I wouldn't add professor names. I like the idea of tailoring your application to address the thrust of a program's over-all concern. But it's a gamble with naming names. Three reasons: 1) Professors choose you, not the other way around 2) Professors leave all the time and so you may name drop somebody and somebody on the committee may know that they've been poached by another institution, and you've basically 'self-owned.' 3) Professors often have grudges, enmities and rivalries, so whoever's on the committee that year might feel 'some kind of way' about a named professor. Finally, nobody really expects that you are going to know definitively whom you may work with. Anyway, that's my two cents! I like your channel! And good luck with your studies!

Hey Lillian! Thanks a tonne for sharing these insightful videos! I'm passionate about a problem that requires a rigorous amount of research as done in Ph.D.. I have also found a few professors working in that field. However, the research experience that I have currently is very different from what I want to pursue in PhD. What are the odds that a professor would accept my candidature for this new problem where I haven't worked? Also, how can I go about convincing the professor about me being a right fit?

Thankyou very much... It was indeed a good video. I am in my final year of bachelor's and thinking of applying abroad for my postgrad but i am really scared. I hope we could connect by any means and you could guide me for the same. Looking forward for your reply.

Thank you for the vid. This is really helpful! I am a PhD aspirant (chemical engineering) myself, had a silly doubt: I have relevant research work and a couple of publications in my bachelor's and am very much motivated to pursue research long term, but have a pretty low GPA. Do you think applying to PhD is a wise decision?

This video series is very helpful! Thank you very much! Do you think it is a good idea to contact interested faculties in the program before application or it is unnecessary to do so?

Thank you, guys. Your videos are very helpful. I wonder if you could help review my SoP. I’d be very glad if you could help me. Thanks. All the best to you guys.

Hey Lilian! Is it okay to have 1600-word SOP with 2 pages if it fits the story? I am at the point right now wherein for my story to work, I need to include that many words. Also, how many words did YOU have in YOUR SOP? Thanks.

It was really helpful, can you please review of my statement of purpose?

Watching this one day before applying for my PhD. Still with many questions 😔.

I love that pikachu

Hope you are liking Harvard ❤️

Can I write such points in motivation letter?

This was an amazing video! I am a sophomore undergraduate right now. And I am thinking of taking up a Ph.D. right after my Bachelor's. I have a couple of publications by my name and my GPA is 3.90/4. What else do you think is required to create a strong profile for a Ph.D. application?

Do every graduate program need research experience or requires it ??

Hello Ma'am, first of all thank you so much as you provide us a lot of important informations and techniques for being sound advanced. Ma'am, I'm a student of Biological Science persuing Undergraduation and I've dreamt to get admission at Harvard University BBS PhD program after taking GRE and TOEFL obviously after my M.Sc. here. But, I'm quite disappointed after coming to know about very low acceptance rate of that program at Harvard! So,if you provide me with some proper advices like what the unique and basic criteria are essentially required to get admission at Harvard BBS program, I'll be highly obliged. Thank you.

The video is too important.yet I need the template as a example

Do you have an instagram or email where I could reach out to you? I would live to talk more about this application process as I am applying to Ph.D Clinical Psych program this December. Hope you can help!

Hello lilian how are you

🐋

U realllly talk alooooooooooopoot , go to the point annnnd let yr guest talk

Hello there with due respect , here is my sop for phd admission My Statement of purpose (SOP) I want to get admission in this institute because I am doing my research focusing on science specially in physics to find more on renewable energy . I will work on that field with consistency and continuity with the past for the new idea invented and implemented remaining in the mainstream of research within the security framework and green technology relaying on that in space research.My contribution will be on writing good research paper ,designing simulation to find experiment for practical implementation and also to find the efficient way and reduce errors in system where it will be more appropriate.I will try to make estimate on cost to get fund my marketing the idea while it will in on the way to finalize the research outcome. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Also here is my video on the concept I like to do research theses and the abstract. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Tr2EDPhlrlk.html Transparent thin film solar cell epitaxial growth induced by using laser beam holographic patterning and monitoring using reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) Abstract: Transparent thin film solar cell can be defined as the solar cell mechanism which will be grown using thin film epitaxial growth on any transparent substrate like glass or tranperent polymer optical fiber and become transparent to transmit solar energy while storing solar photon energy as photo electron like any photo electric cell and which can be used to generate power supply in the portable electronic device such as plds and other peripheral satellite instrument . We will use laser beam holographic patterning for generating three dimensional solar cell photoelectric effect cell using any metal electrode like Na, Li, K, etc and also we will use AgNW for that using solution based thin film epitaxial growth so we can achieve required opto-electro-mechanical properties to operate in various extreme in the weather like high and low temperature and humidity. Introduction: Solar cell can be made from semiconductor hetero junction nano particles from semiconductor material such as silicon or any other extrinsic material that is known as quantum dots can be used in making solar cell . -- -- anwar masum😊😮😊😢😮

Thanks this is really helpful!