Studying Business — The Academic Route: Stating Your Purpose
As the application approaches, the statement of purpose and personal statement is one of the last parts of the application that can be changed. Grades, letters, GRE scores, etc., are solidified a few months before the application. This piece is one of the only chances for PhD programs to hear from the applicant directly. It is important, but not nearly as important as most other parts of the application. But as economists, optimizing everything is the goal and these parts are no exception.
To begin with, not every school will be the same. Some will say statement of purpose, others personal statement, and require both or just one. For the purposes of this article, I will talk about SOPs as a statement of plans and qualifications and reserve the term personal statement for prompts on extenuating circumstances or diversity. Do note, however, that some schools may ask other questions in addition or in replacement of these longer statements. The word limit for each statement varies widely by school. Even if the word limit is higher, being concise is often a strength. A good starting point is about 1000 words for the statement of purpose and 500 for the personal statement.
A statement of purpose is designed to convey your qualifications and intent as a researcher. Do not be cliché. Do not start with an epiphany — how, walking down the sidewalk one day, a squirrel dropped an acorn on your head, and you knew you were destined to be an economist. Especially if it involves a child from a poor country. It is overused, will not help you stand out, misses the purpose of the statement, and can often cause the other statements made to be viewed with skepticism.
Instead, try to center your narrative around your research interests, qualifications, and plans. While highlighting important information in other parts of your application can be helpful, remember that the average statement is viewed for about 20 to 60 seconds. Make it as information-dense as possible while avoiding unnecessary or unhelpful fluff. Examples of such fluff include but are not limited to things like platitudes about wanting to get a PhD, flattering and overly general statements about the program, faculty, or university, routine information, or filler statements like “attached you will find.”
It is beneficial to front-load your information and as such a chronological organization is unlikely to be efficient. Start with a few broad interests in the field, like industrial organization or econometrics. Then give a few examples of broader topics or questions within those areas.
At this point, it is also helpful to identify a few professors you would be interested in working with. Do your research. Make sure they are tenure or tenure-track, are actually in the department you are applying to, have recent work similar to your interests, and are actually there and take students. It might be helpful to look at their faculty page and read a few recent papers. In general, you should look for full professors or associate professors. Assistant professors may just be starting to do their own research and are often not advising students yet. Adjuncts, instructors, professors emeritus, etc. are normally also not good choices. Identify a few professors, and talk in a sentence or two about why you are interested. Going into more detail is preferred; it is the difference between someone who just googled a name and someone who read a paper. Most applications will ask for a few professors anyway, but this gives an opportunity to express why and show genuine interest.
Next, it is helpful to develop a few ideas for research in depth. It will almost certainly not be your dissertation and likely will not be held against you. No applicant knows what their research will be three or more years down the line. Show that you know how to develop an interesting question and have some idea of how to solve it. This is hard because you do not yet have a PhD and may not know where the forefront of the field is yet, but reading working papers from recent conferences can help.
Doing this well is a good signal of your potential as a researcher. I spent around half of my statement on this portion discussing a single idea, but I would think two different ones would be good. It is important to ground this idea in the literature without writing a whole literature review; citing a few articles would be sufficient. It could also give an opportunity to talk about past projects if they were in the same area as this idea. It is also helpful to identify a potential source of interesting data and potential empirical strategies. Do not overdo it, as showing economic thinking is important, but it can be a good signal if done well.
The next portion is the personal statement. If necessary, this is a good place to talk about apparent weaknesses in your profile. For example, explaining shifts in your goals (say you majored in physics but now want to do economics) or a bad GPA in a semester. When doing so, summarize the reason concisely but focus on what has changed since then and what you have done to try and address this weakness. It might be your only place to also help clarify any confusion such as differences in course names (a common one is what the Real Analysis course is called at your university).
Keep in mind that requirements for statements vary by institution. So, while it may be helpful to have a master copy as some parts are the same, be prepared to adjust most of it for each institution. Some programs may even ask additional questions. The goal is the same, be clear and concise while providing details that cannot be found in the rest of the application packet.
Finally, it is highly recommended to have as many people read it as possible to give you feedback. Having one of your letter writers read it can be especially helpful in addition to friends, family, and career coaches. However, it is advisable to refrain from posting your statement of purpose online until applications are over. The potential to have someone copy your statement and apply to the same school could be an academic integrity nightmare that you do not need.
While these statements may be of lower importance than most of the application packet they are nonetheless important. This is often the only chance for PhD programs to hear from the applicant directly. The goal of these statements should be to clearly and concisely make the case for being a good candidate by providing additional information not found in other parts of the application while briefly highlighting important points.
