Applications for study abroad ask for both these documents – the personal statement and the statement of purpose. While the two sound similar, there are technical differences that make them different from each other. That means, you have to spend time on both of these documents to ensure that they are perfect and add value to your application.
The major differencesbetween a personal statement and statement of purpose are summed up in the table below:
|
Personal Statement |
Statement of Purpose |
|
Revolves around motivation factor, inspiration, goals and achievements |
Revolves aroundmotivation factor, goals, professional experience as well as extracurricular activities |
|
Explains why you are the right candidate for the program |
Explains why you want to study the given subjects |
|
An informal tone can be taken up for drafting a personal statement |
Statement of purpose has to be in a formal tone |
|
Maximum character limit if 4000 characters that comes down to almost 1 page |
SOP can extend up to two pages and the word limit can extend up to 1200 words |
|
Personal statement has to be university specific and should answer the prompts given by the university |
SOP can be generic and may or may not be university specific |
|
Inclusions:
|
Inclusions:
|
Tips for Effective Writing
While both the documents may take a different tone; one being extremely formal and the other one not so much, both the documents have some common tips that should be taken care of while writing these documents. A few tips include:
- Crisp and clear grammatically correct use of language
- Unique document demonstrating who you are as a person
- Original writing that avoids copying from any source
- Include real details about academics as well as extracurricular activities
- Take a story-telling approach wherever possible
- Make your motivation factors clear to the readers
Ensure to spend in enough time on your documents to make them fool-proof and strike through as unique to the admission committee.
All the Best!!
