So I'm freaking out a little here.
I'm applying for MPAs/MPPs in enviro policy, to various very well regarded schools. I wrote my SOP, sent it to a couple of good friends, family, and professors to read, all of whom liked it. My prof is an MIT grad and really liked it, and a Princeton alum did too. Not trying to name-drop, just saying they've been through the process lol. :)
I had a para in there that was admittedly somewhat generic because it talked about faculty at University XYZ and their legacy, intellectual attitudes and so forth. I initially had nothing, then thought I should say SOMETHING about the schools and added it in. There wasn't a whole lot I could have said specifically about the school though - it's a professional degree, no thesis, and when you apply to Harvard you don't need to explain why you are applying to Harvard, so I just said basically that I wanted to go there because of its legacy. (Not that I applied to Harvard!)
Now I'm a little worried. The generic para was in there when I sent it for review, and not one person mentioned anything, so I left it in the app submissions, but now it's struck me that it might be SOP suicide? It's a bit more indepth than others might be, so maybe it didn't stick out as a generic para with flashing neon lights, but it's still not really specific.
Are admissions committees likely to discard what is otherwise, IMO, a really strong SOP just on the basis of this? Or will it really not make any difference to the overall app? I'm counting on my SOP and LORs to carry a lot of weight...
I don't know. Help?
Yes, a bad paragraph can sink an essay. A good essay can become a bad essay if it is polluted. The thing is, though, you have no way of knowing what experience the reader will have with your essay or how s/he interprets the criteria being used to judge you. Moreover, tons of factors are at work to determine whether you get accepted, and you can't control all of them. We might have an apocalyptic event tomorrow, and your wilderness survival skills will become most important! It's not about whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game.
Admittedly, I don't know a lot about graduate school admissions (I'm only in the process of applying undergrad myself). I agree pretty much with what Kevin said, but I think it also depends on where the bad paragraph is in the essay. If you begin badly or end badly, it's likely to be noticed, but if your bad paragraph is in the middle of the essay, some of the bad elements may be overlooked. Someone please let me know if I'm wrong about this - it's just the impression I've gotten.
thanks for the reply! and hmm. Well, it's basically the last paragraph in the essay. the reason I wrote it the way I did was because the essay itself was a bit holistic/abstract and going into details about profs and such would have killed the flow. I could have been a bit more specific admittedly, but I couldn't have done a full-on 'why X' thing. Also, I did take some care - I made sure to mention the university name at least 2-3 times plus the program name etc so it's not just a throwaway sentence lol.
