Assignment: First Draft of Application Statement Most graduate schools ask you to submit a “statement of interest.” For example, UTD asks graduate applicants to “mail in a brief narrative (written in English) outlining your academic interests. Include any current or long-range interests in research, teaching or other professional objectives. The narrative should be approximately 650 words.” The University of North Texas simply asks for a “statement of goals” and I can’t find what UT South Western’s Clinical Psychology program asks for. Many students find it difficult to write a statement because they are not sure what the graduate schools want. When students ask questions about what they should write, they often get vague answers, “Well, there is no single way to write a statement,” which is of course true, but not very helpful. I am going to try to help you get past the ambiguity of the task by “forcing you” to write a statement that conforms to one specific structure. Although this is a proven structure (i.e., several of my students have used it to successfully gain admission to graduate schools), you ultimately may want to restructure your statement when you actually apply to suit your own tastes or in response to specific requests made by the graduate application materials. This structure is designed for statements written for clinical and academically oriented programs. If you will be applying to other kinds of programs (e.g., industrial/organizational, business, medical) then you will need to refocus the middle paragraphs somewhat. What follows is a general outline of topics that each section of the statement must contain. Note that some sections only apply to Ph.D. programs where research interests and experience are important. If you are not planning to apply to a Ph.D. program, then omit these sections from your statement. Your statement must be double-spaced with one-inch margins all around. It should be no shorter than one page and no longer than three pages. Usually, two pages is about 600 words. If you don’t have clinical and research experience to talk about, then you’ll probably have no more than one page (which is fine). Only write good stuff; don’t stretch it out just to make it longer. Make your writing as close to perfect as possible. Keep your sentences direct, short, and to the point. Go through and eliminate all words that are unnecessary or optional (e.g., adjectives like “very” or “extensive”). Read it out loud to yourself (or to someone else) and revise it a couple of times. Then have someone else proof read it. Paragraph 1: State your ultimate career goals. That is, describe the type of job position(s) that you want to have after you’ve completed graduate training. Be at least moderately specific without overly constraining your possibilities. For example, “a professor of psychology at a major research university” or “a private practicing psychologist who also teaches part-time” or “a social worker operating a women’s crisis shelter.” It is okay to describe a couple of possible career paths so long as they are consonant with each other and the goals of the graduate program you are applying to. The opening should take the form of: My ultimate career goal is to ………. Paragraph 1 continued: This should be immediately followed (in the same paragraph) by a brief description of the evolution of your career interests and goals. It should take the form of: My interest in X first began to emerge ……….
Try to have this section tell a coherent story. Don’t dwell on childhood experiences and don’t selfdisclose information that is “too personal.” It should mostly deal with college, and perhaps high school, experiences that lead you to decide to seek this career path. Use this section to demonstrate to the admissions committee that you have a savvy, in-depth, understanding of your chosen career path. Paragraph 2: Start a second paragraph that describes your research interests, activities and accomplishments. Skip this section if you are not going for a Ph.D. It should take the form of: A number of different experiences have shaped my research interests ……… Then go on to describe the things that have shaped your interests. It is great if they include working in professors’ labs or doing a thesis or working on a paper that was published/presented at a conference. If you have had these kinds of research experiences, then write a few sentences about each describing the goal of the research, your role, and the findings. Mention faculty mentors by name. You can also comment on how the experience affected your interests (i.e., you became more or less interested in the topic). If you haven’t had these kinds of research experiences, then talk about courses or personal experiences that shaped your interests, favorite professors, and term papers you’ve written. To the extent possible, use the STAR method to answer the question “describe experiences that demonstrate your aptitude for, and skill as, a researcher.” The purpose of this section is to tell a story about what you have done and where your research interests are headed. Paragraph 3: Describe your clinical/helping interests, activities and accomplishments. It should take the form of: My clinical interests have grown out of ……. Then describe the experiences that have shaped your specific clinical/helping experiences. You probably want to mention three different sorts of interests: (a) the age of the population (e.g., children, adolescents, adults, elderly), the types of problems (e.g., depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, abuse, etc.), and (c) the therapeutic approach you are currently most comfortable with (e.g., cognitive behavioral, humanistic, dynamic, behavioral, etc.). Again, try to be moderately specific while not overly constraining yourself. You can mention more than one set of interests. As in the research interest sections, if possible try to tell a story grounded in volunteer/internship/personal experiences that shows the evolution of a savvy understanding of your chosen clinical/helping area. Use the STAR method to answer the question “describe experiences that demonstrate your aptitude for, and potential skill as, a clinician/helper.” If appropriate, write a few sentences about each of your relevant volunteer/internship/personal experiences describing the goals of the work, your role, and the resulting impact on your thinking and interests. Paragraph 4: Describe the fit between your career, research, and clinical/helping goals and interests and the goals and personnel of one specific graduate program you might apply to. This should take the form of: Your graduate program appears to be well aligned with my goals and interests. ……. Don’t bother with broad ingratiating statements like “I would be honored to become a part of your really prestigious program.” It sounds self-serving and is unnecessary. The main goal of this section is to show the admissions committee that you are a good fit with their program. You really need to do your homework about each program you apply to in order to write this final paragraph well. If you are
applying to a Ph.D. program, then you should mention by name and research area 2-3 faculty members at the program who have research interests that in some way “fit” with yours. You don’t need to say a lot about each, but it is best if what you say reflects more familiarity with each faculty’s research than is described in the departmental brochure. You’ll need to use PsychInfo and read abstracts of the faculty’s most recent publications. In terms of clinical interest, you need to be familiar with the programs overall training philosophy, the types of field placements they offer (in the local community), and the particular area of clinical specialization (populations, problems, and approaches) of the faculty. This information is less readily available, but you need to dig up as much of this “insider info” as you possibly can. Hopefully, the entire statement will tell a coherent story that leads the committee to think that you write and think well, that you have had a rich set of experiences that have shaped your interests into a well-thought out set of goals, all of which fit nicely with what the particular graduate program offers. The length of your statement will vary depending mostly on how much you have to talk about. Take whatever space it takes to succinctly address each of the above issues. If you haven’t done much yet, then don’t try to stretch it out—keep it short and focused. Email me with your questions. Remember, this is just the first draft. You will get another chance to revise and improve you statement.