Hi everyone,
I am really interested in an internship at USC in the Natural Language Processing Group. The requirements mentioned on the site state that an SOP needs to be enclosed with the Resume. I would be extremely grateful if you could proofread my SOP and suggest improvements where ever necessary.
Thank you :)
The SOP as I have written it is as below :
Respected Internship Coordinator,
When I sat down to write this statement, not having written one before, I dint really know what was expected of me, so I decided to answer four basic questions.
Why research?
Steve Jobs rightly said in one of his speeches -
"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking."
My first exposure to programming computers was in High school, and then there was no turning back. After careful self-evaluation I realized that my ultimate professional ambition is to pursue a research career and this internship will prove as the best platform for this.
Why NLP?
The field of Artificial Intelligence has always fascinated me, and a course in the subject as part of my under-graduate course exposed me to the fundamental concepts.
Living with eight dogs and a cat (my mother has a passion to pick up homeless animals), I have always wondered what goes on in their minds and what they try conveying through their bark. I want to one day be able to come up with a system (of course with the help of cognitive scientists) that could help us understand animals better using their natural language.
Why USC?
USC's Information Sciences Institute is one of the largest university-based Artificial Intelligence groups in the world. This internship will give me an opportunity to work with the under the able guidance of distinguished faculty of your institute and learn from them. It would provide me with the perfect start on my chosen career path.
The project areas I would like to work in are either Semantics or Creative Language.
Why should you chose me?
I have maintained a consistent record throughout my academics, standing at or near the top in school. I completed a Bachelor's program in Computer Science, with a CGPA of 3.765 where I ranked first out of a batch of 54 students. I am currently pursuing a Master's degree in Computer Science, having completed the first semester of the course where I obtained a GPA of 9.67 on scale of 10.0 and ranked first in a class of 76.
I have always attempted to into the problem at hand and tackle it from different angles. Challenging environments provide me with the much need mental stimulus, and thus I actively participate in various challenges on websites like hackerrank and topcoder.
Having shifted to a different city every two years (my father is in the defence services), I have developed a passion to learn about new cultures, interact with people from varied backgrounds and the ability to adjust well to changes.
Conclusion
The life of a research scientist is not always as exciting as it looks on the published papers, and requires a lot of commitment, hard work and perseverance. But I am confident that my aptitude and drive will see me through the challenges. Hence, I appeal to you to consider me for this internship.
Typo: dint --> do not (a good rule to follow is to not use contractions in formal writing)
Critique: Take this with a grain of salt but when I hear SOP I don't necessarily think of a letter addressed to someone but rather a statement to show passion towards a particular study/program. Given this, I would eliminate the statement's address ("Respected Internship Coordinator, ") and perhaps the formatting of the questions. Rather I think it would be more beneficial to break your SOP into groups (not distinctively) and have them flow properly. I've listed below a template that I feel may fit your current formatting better:
Paragraph 1: Illustrate your passion
Paragraph 2: Give reasons to why you are and would be successful with this internship. State your objective and goal.
Paragraph 3: Demonstrate why USC is best. Perhaps here is a great time to mention prospective advisers and show how their research is interesting to you.
As additional critique, I would focus more on your strengths than weaknesses. This is a chance to prove that you're the right candidate for this internship. Your opening sentence illustrates uncertainty so I would either reword this or simply eliminate it.
Very good advice. I too agree with ScientistShan. The SOP in the eyes of admission officers can be the most important document in the application. Other parts of your graduate-school application like test scores, transcripts, letters of recommendation etc. do not say as much about you as a person as the statement of purpose can: your proudest accomplishments alongside your fondest hopes and dreams. So, it is good to present your SOP more creatively.
