A friend of mine who was worried about my application to Yale Divinity School, given Yale's relative conservatism, suggested if I was going to look at schools out in Connecticut that I also look at Hartford Seminary. So I went online tonight and browsed around a bit, and I found a sample personal statement/statement of purpose for applications for their Master of Arts program (which is different than the Master of Divinity program in which I am interested, but nonetheless)...
http://www.hartsem.edu/academic/guidelinesforpersonalstatement.pdf
I think it is interesting they include such a sample on their website (they also have very step-by-step application instructions), and I was frankly glad to see a sample because I am having a lot of trouble getting much accomplished on my Statement of Purpose.
What do you think of this structure and approach?
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Thats a good outline. Wow, 3-4 pages? Mine has to be 300-500 words which I think will be equally challenging in keeping it short and to the point. We need to exchange emails so we can proof for each other.
ReplyDeleteI think mine are generally limited to 1000 words, but I better double-check they are all consistent. I am guessing that the disparity in length has to do with the way ministrial applicants have to address the notion of "calling" (not to mention that they really want to get a good feel for your writing abilities/language). What are you studying, again?
ReplyDeleteOh, and I totally agree that keeping it shorter adds a new challenge. I am already struggling with the 1000 word limit. Yeeks! I hope none of my schools want a shorter one.
ReplyDeleteMy email is g er f a o @ m s n . co m (take out all spaces).