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Personal Statements and grad school appilcations | 1 comment (1 topical, 0 hidden)

[new] Personal Statements (5.00 / 2) (#1)
by Anonymous Hero on Wed Mar 03, 2004 at 07:41:16 PM PDT

Having read a lot of these statements, and having helped my advisees to write them, here is my general advice on the subject. When I'm deciding whether to admit a student or not, the personal statement is helpful in understanding the motivation. If it comes across that the student is applying to mathematics graduate school only because he couldn't find a job in industry, then I'm not going to be interested in admitting that student. This happens quite often. Another common mistake is the completely over the top statement in which the applicant expresses his incredible devotion to the faculty in our outstanding mathematics department and promises to work 200 hours per week for the next ten years so as to complete a prize winning dissertation. Actually, any statement that makes me think that the student is telling me something that the student doesn't believe is likely to result in my no vote. On the other hand, if the statement shows that the student is serious about graduate school and has realistic expectations, then I'm much more likely to vote to admit that student. So, my advice is: Tell the truth about why you want to graduate school and what you expect to learn and do as a graduate student. If you haven't thought carefully about this before then you should do so now before you take the big step of starting graduate school.

Personal Statements and grad school appilcations | 1 comment (1 topical, 0 hidden)

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