写SOP写的心塞吗？来自Quora上UCSB的CS教授带给大家的正能量！

话先放在这里，我一点也不觉得SOP不重要，这也只是这个老师的一家之言，毕竟在这个时间点能让我们进行背景提升的事情已经很少了，像楼主这种弱鸡完全就把希望寄托在自己能写出一份惊世骇俗的SOP上了【想太多】！

原文发自Quora
问题：What should be the flow of thoughts in a statement of purpose  (SOP) for graduate admissions?

答案来自Ben Y. Zhao, Professor at UC Santa Barbara

. 1point3acres.com Uh folks...
I'm sorry, but these answers (except for Jay's) are flat out wrong.

As a faculty member who's been working on admissions for nearly a decade, and my other colleagues from other schools will confirm this, the SOP is the LEAST useful and impactful part of your application.

I'm particularly worried that readers here will get the wrong idea, especially since the existing 2 answers seem so strong in their opinion.  It is fine to spend time on your SOP (as well as you should), but you should not be under the impression that it will have any significant impact on your overall application outcome.  There are ways to write a better SOP that stands out, but for the most part, they have little to do with writing/presentation style and more about distinguishing content.

I'm going to repeat my other answer What are the points to be covered in a statement of purpose for applying for graduate school?
The short version: 99% of SOPs sound identical. Either avoid wasting time on it, or make it original by doing something different.  But know that in all likelihood, it will have very little impact on your admission chances:

--- copied answer below:  (NOTE: I wrote this answer nearly 2 years ago) ---
Interesting answers.

Let me add a different point of view.  I've been a professor for 8 years, and have looked through hundreds of SOPs every year as part of grad admissions for our CS department.  

OK, this is going to be slightly disappointing to some of you, but at least my personal view is that, with the exception of a couple of points which I'll mention below, in general, the SOP just doesn't matter.  You have to realize we admissions committees look through hundreds of these. So everyone will have some version of "I found my first PC when I was 4 years old and fell in love..." story.  It's cool, and it means a lot to many of the applicants, but it doesn't do much to help their case for why THEY should be admitted over the other hundreds of students in the pool.  So yes, do NOT make grammatical errors, do not say inane things that reflect *negatively*.  But beyond that, most SOPs will do little to hurt or help your application.

Now let me get to the exceptions. Yes, there are ways to stand out amongst the piles and piles of applications and make a faculty member remember you. How?  Simple: talk research.  The best way to convince the admissions committee you're ready for a phd is to talk research. Tell us your ideas, what's your vision for your area, what big inevitable trends do you see in the future, and how do you capitalize on them? What are hard problems you've already tried to tackle, and how did you succeed/fail?  This is where an applicant can show that they have the clarity of thought to think hard about a real problem, and show the reasoning skills (and intuition for identifying tricky or interesting problems).

I'm always excited by the rare applicant who clearly has thought through a research area, and has some ideas and real thoughts about problems he/she wants to tackle. It's fine if the ideas are not likely to succeed, or if the thoughts are not realistic for current research. What matters is that the student showed their logical reasoning skills, and their passion for research at the same time.

除了吐了下槽，还说了下PHD申请者怎样才能让他们眼前一亮，也算有干货了~
原文链接在此
http://www.quora.com/What-should ... graduate-admissions

我的感觉是，MS的申请随着人数增多已经越来越变得唯GPA论了，毕竟教授们都是日理万机，SOP里的技巧可能越来越没意义了，很久以前的那种惊世骇俗PS让教授爱上你的事情恐怕会越来越来越少

楼主越来越怕失学了=。=

谢谢楼主的分享。帖子很好！

这两位讲得挺真实的，不过有的观点是不是有些过时啊。
比如：
So everyone will have some version of "I found my first PC when I was 4 years old and fell in love..." story.  It's cool, and it means a lot to many of the applicants, but it doesn't do much to help their case for why THEY should be admitted over the other hundreds of students in the pool.
Simple: talk research.  The best way to convince the admissions committee you're ready for a phd is to talk research. Tell us your ideas, what's your vision for your area, what big inevitable trends do you see in the future, and how do you capitalize on them? What are hard problems you've already tried to tackle, and how did you succeed/fail?

现在的SOP质量感觉普遍高了，特别是在研究生申请当中。类似于I found my first PC when I was 4 years old and fell in love...的cliche已不多见了吧？SOP的主要内容也基本都围绕research展开，无论是精心雕琢的DIY还是千篇一律的中介文。但是即便如此，能stand out还是需要有特别之处的。如何在这样的背景下提高SOP质量是需要关注的问题。

顶楼主
另外best answer里面我摘出来一句重要的
The biggest of thing you can demonstrate is that you know what you want to study and why you're studying it.  I'm not talking about a detailed plan of attack on a research project, but demonstrating fluency in the vernacular of the field (and I do not mean lacing it with jargon).   You should have really learn a lot about the bigger picture in the field you want to study by reading academic papers and going to seminars and colloquia and attending advanced courses and having discussions with professors, postdocs and graduate students.

唉……总之做好现在的申请工作吧，SOP也要好好写，不给自己留遗憾~

放宽心了，虽然我觉得我SOP还可以吧

楼主这篇找的很好啊！

南冥 发表于 2014-12-2 17:49
放宽心了，虽然我觉得我SOP还可以吧

90+的余裕~

我这种高不成低不就的菜鸡已经放弃抵抗了
童鞋加油~！

我的sop已经磨了将近两个月，今晚，我想开了。
明天就submit。

faculty一栏我还选了这个老师，美籍华人，挺diao的

可惜research不夠=.=