Effective Ways of Writing a Statement of Purpose

Are you confused about How to Write SOP for MBA? Check this out for SOP Writing Tips to Study Abroad Admission.

SOP or Statement of Purpose is a necessary document need to be submitted at the time of applying for any particular university for your higher education. While in some MBA universities they ask for MBA essays, others ask for a SOP. But what is a SOP? And how to write best SOP?

How to Write the Best SOP for MBA

Including all the documents submitted while applying for admission – exam scores, resume, recommendation letters, general info etc – none of these reflects upon the candidate’s life and personality – What is your goal in life? Why do you choose a particular university in a certain country? Who are you really and what is your purpose in life? All these questions are answered in the SOP that a candidate writes. It’s like an open letter to the university that the candidate going to apply for.

After establishing the importance of a SOP in the procedure of application for admission, we now shoot you the next question i.e. how to write an impressive SOP for international B-schools. However, the general approach in writing SOPs for most degrees remains the same, a unique approach is taken with regard to writing the SOP for MBA. Candidates also applying for other degrees such as MS or MA are usually freshers. MBA applicants of international B-schools may have work experience and thus a distinct maturity is expected from the universities in their SOP. Their SOP should to explain their technical and managerial roles. The candidates should describe their potentials which draw them to international MBA and make them worthy candidates for any given institute. The SOP should to clearly reflect the academic clarity and professional maturity of the candidate.

The answer to how to write the best SOP is not in any particular format. While some of the MBA universities are quite clear about what they would want to see in the SOP, others leave it open ended and would like to have the candidates to impress them.

SOP Writing Tips to Study Abroad Admission

Here are some important key points that one should keep in mind while writing an MBA SOP –

• SOP cannot be written in bullets. It needs to be written in a free-flowing manner, with key answers integrated in between smartly with well-balanced paragraphs. So, the language becomes the most important factor in writing a good SOP. It should not be too casual and nor should it be too formal. It should be able to stand between these two extremes.

• The length or word count of a SOP is usually not specified. However, one should try to stick to an average of 500 -700 words. And most importantly one should be tactful and subtle with the words, not making the SOP boring or arrogant while providing all the needful information and using creativity just enough to hold the readers interest. Some applicants try to get overly dramatic and lose the seriousness of the SOP. And others are either too impatient or lazy to bother to shape the body of the SOP properly. Such SOPs can also leave a negative impact on the candidate’s chances for admission.

• A very serious offense in this academic world is plagiarism, especially when you go for any international university. So never try to look up for any samples and copy the styles of others. Be unique and represent yourself as best you can. If you feel that you are clueless about how to write a good SOP, then it is okay to go through a few samples. But remember not to repeat the content you read. Always come up with your own thoughts and express them in your own language.

• In order to ensure that you have absolutely original matter for your SOP, write down some key points. Make a list of all your achievements –social, academic, sports, extracurricular – things that you are proud to have done. Then make a list of some common questions, start quizzing about yourself – What is your career choice and why? What do you want to do in life? How will this degree help you with your future goals? What are your long-term goals? What makes you worthy of this particular university? And of course, why have you chosen the university to which you are applying for?  These questions will help you to build the matter of your SOP. Once you’ve answered all of these, you need to arrange them in an essay format, divide them neatly into uniform paragraphs.

• Once your done with your final SOP, check for grammatical errors and ask help from people to read it and to give their feedback. However, keep it limited to a few people as too many opinions will confuse you. If you are not very confident about your writing skills, then do not hesitate to take help from a friend, colleague or professional SOP writer.

By following these above simple steps, one can come up with a best SOP for MBA. The answer to how to write best SOP is to keep it neat, friendly, simple, confident and well balanced, and that should be good to go!

And should you need any assistance, we are always here to help. Give us a call at +91 844 844 8780 or write to us on d@cvdesigner.in and we at CV Designer can have the perfect SOP drafted for you.