也聊 phd 的 sop

转自网络，看到了一篇CMU的ap写的，非常有趣
还有一些有趣的关于sop的，可以看这里

https://www.cc.gatech.edu/fce/pe ... radschool/sops.html
In my opinion, a statement of purpose is where you tell the professors why
you want to go to graduate school.  When I read applications, I want to
know *why* this person wants to go through the pain of several more years
of very difficult classes, a lot of "hoops", late late nights for no pay,
etc.  Why do you want that unpleasantness for the next 6-8 years of your
life when you could be out making $40K a year for a 40-hour work week -
what is it that *you* want to do in the world that you can't do without a
PhD? What makes you think you want to do whatever-it-is and what makes you
think you can't do it without a PhD?  

BTW, this doesn't apply for a masters - a masters is short, not that much
different from an undergraduate degree (there not as painful) and gets you
more money when you get out - so the motivations are pretty obvious.  PhD
programs on the other hand are much more difficult, much longer, and mostly
degrading and demoralizing unless you have a "vision", a "burning desire"
that will see you through. The statement of purpose is the place to discuss
that burning desire.


You can use my name.

Bonnie

Bonnie E. John
Assistant Professor
Computer Science and Psychology Departments
Human-Computer Interaction Institute
School of Computer Science
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh PA 15213
Phone:  412-268-7182
FAX:    412-681-5739
E-mail: bej@cs.cmu.edu

Now I am almost done with my Ph.D., and this year I sat on the admissions
committee at Berkeley.  I read about a hundred applications, and I think
that the advice that I had gotten was actually not too bad.  The way
that the process works is that the applications are sent out to the professors
to read, which professor reads your app. is chosen by the area of interest
stated in your application.  The most important part of the application is
the letters of recommendation.  If another professor at a good school thinks
that the student will make a good Ph.D., that goes much farther than GRE
scores or even grades (although both are important).  Most people don't have
such letters, and so grades and scores factor in more heavily.  From
what I saw, the essays were mostly a +/- sort of thing.  A really good essay
might get you a +, a really bad one will work against you, but most of them
are middle of the road and don't count for all that much.  If your essay
is really specific about exactly what you want to do, that could work
either for or against.  If one of the professors gets excited about
your ideas, you have a much better chance to get in.  (If you really have
such great ideas, you might be better off telling the professor you
think will be most interested over email.  Don't depend on luck for the
right person to read your application.)  However, if you say you really
want to study a very specific problem in area X and the department
feels that they have no faculty in that area, or the one person in that
area is on sabbatical, or not taking any new students, or very short on
funds, or that person is just not interested in your specific problem
(and thus is not excited about having you as a student),  then you will
have a worse chance of getting in.

I have been on the admissions committee at a large "top-ten" (in CS)
university for 2 years. Our committee basically disregards the statement of
purpose, so it doesn't much matter what you write. Think of it as a writing
sample (make sure your English is good --- that will be noticed), and talk
about what you like about CS, and why.

The only thing you don't want to do is proclaim that all you've ever wanted
to do is X, when the dept doesn't have anyone doing research in X. X might
be computer-human interaction, or databases, or performance analysis ---
all good areas of research, but not at all schools. So if you do have some
clear ideas of what you want to do, make sure they coincide with the dept's
strengths; this may mean modifying your statement for different
applications.

I know that at some (mostly smaller) schools, the statement of purpose is
used to help make application decisions. But we get so many applicants
(600+) that undergraduate GPA and GRE scores (especially the generals) are
used for the first pass over the application pool, and recommendations
after that. It is much more important to get good recommendations ---
especially if you can get a recommendation from someone well-known, whose
will be familiar to people on the admissions committee --- than to have the
most interesting statement of purpose.