Hello, I am Prashanth from India, and I hope to apply for a seat in Msc. Economic History at two places: LSE and Oxford. I sat down to write a personal statement a couple of times, but I get stuck within the first few lines. I somewhat believe my stuff sounds very conventional with nothing new in it. So, what I immediately need is a good start. Here is a quick run-down on my profile:
Academic achievements:
- Currently pursuing BA. History (2nd year) at Madras Christian College, Chennai.
- Chosen to receive the "Lord Pentland Prize" for academic achievement in April 2010.
- Received "Star Champ Award" for academic achievement in 1998.
- Selected as a finalist in the "All India Reynolds Scholarship 2001".
Extracurricular achievements:
- Authored a book on free market economics, named "The Political Economy of the Spontaneous Order".
- Elected to the post of "Department Representative (History)" in the student council of my college.
- Appointed as the editor of my college's history newsletter.
- Won the first prize in the Inter-college Quiz competition held at Stella Maris college in February 2010.
- Won the first prize in the Inter-college Quiz competition held at Loyola college in December 2009.
- Won the first prize in the Intra-department Quiz competition held at Madras Christian College in February 2009.
- Won the second place in the Intra-school Quiz competition held in August 2000.
- Won the first prize in the Zonal junior basket ball tournament held in August 2002.
- Won the second prize in the Zonal under-19 basket ball tournament held in August 2005.
- Won the second prize in the Intra-school basket ball tournament held in 2002.
I have a lot of questions, but my first question is, how do I start?
Hi Prashanth,
Does this program ask for a personal statement and a statement of purpose? Typically, personal statements can be more flexible in terms of content, while statements of purpose (SOP's) need to show a clear connection between your past, present and future goals.
Regardless, and in either case, I think you should think about how your interests have evolved. You're obviously an accomplished student--but how did you find yourself interested in economic history? I imagine the path didn't immediately start upon your matriculation to college. It might have spun out of an inspiring professor's words, topical news that fascinated you, a completely unrelated class, or an extracurricular club. Find your moment of inspiration, and build out your statement and candidacy from there.
Be careful not to create a statement that feels like your resume in slightly more narrative form. You want your essay to read like an authentic, humanizing and organic story, which also builds a firm case for your candidacy.
Personal statements require ample self-reflection--that's what makes them so challenging. However, the more time you can devote to thinking about your past, and mining your background for the best stories and pivot points, the stronger your final personal statement will be.
Best,
Brooke
Hey Ivy,
Thanks for your reply. Is there a real difference between a SoP and a Personal Statement? I see the terms being used alternately.
And regarding LSE and Oxford admissions, they ask for a SoP to use the right term. And hence I believe my write-up for a SoP must be very formal rather than involving casual language.
Is there a real difference between a SoP and a Personal Statement?
Some people would tell you that there is a difference, but it seems to me that the way various Admissions people and other stakeholders interpret them varies too much for us to say anything about either in an absolute way. The school culture, the application guidelines, etc... and the individual personalities of the readers... these seem to make it vary.
In my opinion, the MOST important thing to so for either PS or SOP is to show that you have a detailed plan that is well developed... that is how to prove that you are one of the exceptional ones, one of the driven ones.
Others may disagree, though...
As you write yours, I think you should leave out much of this info that already appears on your transcript and focus instead on really showing the reader your PURPOSE, as I described above. As you know, most students do not have a strong sense of purpose. Most are just being blown in the wind, and this is why it is so impressive when you PROVE that you have a sense of purpose by describing your future in this essay. Focus more on future than past. The transcript shows the past.
Thank you very much Kevin. I have started sketching my essay. I will post it here in the next few days.
Hi Ivy, Kevin and others, I have written a preliminary draft (basically addressed at LSE.. yet to prepare one for Oxford) of my SoP (and it has almost very little about my past). Please have a look and comment. I hope you guys give your honest opinions. I am ready to rewrite the whole thing too, if it doesn't fit the bill. So, please be open with your comments.
Statement of Purpose
"I am writing this statement of purpose on behalf of my application to study in the Msc. Economic History (taught) program at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). What follows traces my interests, the reasons why I believe I am well-qualified to study the particular program at LSE, and more importantly, why I want to be spending my year at LSE.
At the root of my desire to study economic history lies the passion that I have possessed for years to explore questions pertaining to the subject. It began with casual observations of real-world economic events when I was in school, and getting to know how prominent intellectuals (belonging to different schools of thought) interpreted current economic events from different perspectives. Controversies and disagreements that ruled over the intellectual atmosphere of the field proved to be an instant lure that engaged me. What began as a thirst for controversies began to widen in scope, and turned me towards literature on general economic theory and the economic history of particular geographical regions and individual nations.
Most of my time off school, and later off college, was spent on voracious reading, exploring various economic questions like underdevelopment, the history of free banking and the gold standard, the Bretton Woods system, speculative bubbles in history etc., and theoretical issues like price theory, economic calculation under central planning, Walrasian General equilibrium theory, interest rate theories, the distribution problem and others. I also got engrossed with the works of prominent economists like Lionel Robbins, Friedrich von Hayek, John Kenneth Galbraith, Milton Friedman, John Maynard Keynes, Karl Polanyi, Joan Robinson, Joseph Schumpeter, Thomas Sowell, Paul Krugman, and many others. More specifically, during the past couple of years that I have spent on pursuing my undergraduate degree in history, I have been able to widen my knowledge through extensive reading and research of over one hundred books pertaining to economic history, which also included a sincere analysis of several economic treatises right from the era of classical economics to the modern age.
My gratifying journey through the years, of reading the evolution of economic doctrines and varied interpretations of economic events, eventually culminated in the decision to pen down a book of my own, named "Political Economy of the Spontaneous Order", in which I explain the vital principles behind the working of a market economy. The name of my book was partially inspired by the works of Nobel prize winning economist Friedrich von Hayek on the nature of the spontaneous order. In two of his principal works, "Denationalization of Money" and "Prices and Production", Hayek argued about the inherent nature of Governments to misuse monetary authority to serve the demand for cheap credit and huge public spending, which eventually disturbs the relative prices of goods in the economy ending in cyclical economic debacles and debt crises.
The misuse of fiscal and monetary authority, inspired by Keynesian and Monetarist view of the economy, to gradually debase the economy's currency has lead several economies into a moribund state. The case of Latin America, which has experienced multiple episodes of hyperinflation is apt for study from the point of view of the role played by monetary debasement (through the banking system) in economic cycles. My primary objective in the next few years is to study how the fate of such economies in Latin America has worked out to be, with Hayekian theory of credit-induced business fluctuations and the choice of competing private currencies at the background. Interestingly, Hayek's theory of business cycle and the argument for competing private currencies was brought to LSE through the efforts of economist Lionel Robbins who also headed it's economic department. I believe a year spent under Professor Colin Lewis at the Department of economic history, who has carried out extensive research on Latin American economies and also authored several journal articles and books, like "Argentina in the crisis years (1983-1990): from Alfonsin to Menem" for instance, can guide me further in my path of studying the history of flawed fiscal and monetary policy.
Apart from the immediate objective to understand the economic performance of Latin America, in the longer-run, I am enticed towards producing a theoretical work on the history of economic thought. Standard accounts of the history and evolution of economic thought, for the most part, are restricted to the post-Adam Smith era. Mainstream accounts of the history of economic thought, at best, provide a very fleeting mention about the growth of economic thought before the times of Adam Smith. There have been very few (and often sidelined) economists who have dealt seriously with the evolution of economic thought before Adam Smith. I believe that many economic theories of the contemporary era could very well have their roots extended well into the middle ages. I understand that such a project would require lots of attention and can only be completed after years of painstaking work. I believe, if given a chance, my year at LSE can lay the best footing towards my leviathan goal."
I would use parentheses:
What follows traces my interests, the reasons why I believe I am well-qualified to study the particular program at LSE, and (most importantly) why I want to be spending spend my year at LSE.
At the end of that short first para you could add a POWERFUL thesis statement that expresses the main idea of the whole essay. Add a sentence that contains the soul of the essay.
This does not work: my desire comes from my passion
At the root of my desire to study economic history lies the passion that I have possessed for years to explore questions pertaining to the subject. Ask yourself again what is at the root. What is at the root of that passion? Why this instead of something else?
Ah, I got it!
At the root of my desire to study economic history lie the controversies and disagreements that ruled over the intellectual atmosphere of the field -- instant lures that engaged me.
Do you like it that way?
This is a great sentence: Mainstream accounts of the history of economic thought, at best, provide a very fleeting mention about the growth of economic thought before the times of Adam Smith.
Ha ha, I am impressed! You really prove that you have already gained deep knowledge of this field.
Thanks Kevin. I have made the necessary changes and the second paragraph now reads like this:
"At the root of my desire to study economic history lie the controversies and disagreements that ruled over the intellectual atmosphere of the field -- instant lures that engaged me. It began with casual observations of real-world economic events when I was in school, and getting to know how prominent intellectuals (belonging to different schools of thought) interpreted current economic events from different perspectives. What began as a thirst for controversies began to widen in scope, and turned me towards literature on general economic theory and the economic history of particular geographical regions and individual nations."
I have made the change to the first paragraph too.
Hope it's fine now, like how I hope LSE should really be impressed with my SoP. But, hey, where do I fit in my past into this essay? Shall I just start off a new paragraph below the stuff already written? Shall I make it stay under a side-heading?
Next, I will have to sketch out an essay for the scholarship programmes I'm gonna apply for. This is again the first time I'm gonna write an essay for a scholarship programme. Any advice before I start?
Keep that verb tense consistent:
"At the root of my desire to study economic history lie the controversies and disagreements that ruled rule over the intellectual atmosphere of the field...
where do I fit in my past into this essay?----One easy way is to put it at the start of paragraph 2 (the first "body paragraph"), right after you give your thesis in the intro paragraph. That way, it will be easy for the reader to follow you into the backstory.
Do you know what I mean? Ideally, telling about your past is part of your process of supporting an overarching theme that is the central meaning of the essay. You should proceed as though telling about your past is part of the way you support your clear thesis.
As you begin that next essay, search around essayforum to get some inspiration and ideas!
:-)