Author: Rishu Garg

Date: 7th September, 2022

Grad Application Tips Part-2 | Stress on Personal History Statement

Hi everyone, I'm glad that you found my previous post helpful.

I got a bunch of similar questions from you and decided to make the second part of my previous post.

Diversity Essay/ Personal History Statement:

Often people who consider themselves 'normal' struggle with this question. A typical statement looks like this:

Stanford University regards the diversity of its graduate student body as an important factor in serving the educational mission of the university. We encourage you to share unique, personally important, and/or challenging factors in your background, such as work and life experiences, special interests, culture, socioeconomic status, the quality of your early educational environment, gender, sexual orientation, race or ethnicity. Please discuss how such factors would contribute to the diversity (broadly defined) of the entering class, and hence to the experience of your Stanford classmates.

A good way to tackle such questions is to take a deep breath, close your eyes, and explore your past. Make a separate Doc file. Start from the very beginning and write details about your past in small paragraphs. Forget about the relevance, the flow of your story, grammar. Just focus on the text now. Everything can be shaped afterward. Also, do not aim to finish this in 1 day. Finish this essay piece-by-piece. Don't spend your whole day on this essay. An hour or two is fine. I would say it is totally fine to spend as much as a couple of weeks on this essay. Remember, this is not the defining part of your application. DO NOT STRESS ABOUT IT. But, once you finish it, it can be used in myriad other applications that you'll be writing in the future.

Now let's consider the worst-case-scenario: You are a heterosexual male belonging to an upper-middle-class family. Now let's tackle this question and eliminate your possibilities. The available points are:

Work and Life experiences, special interests, culture

Let's divide and conquer!

Work and Life experience: You are applying to grad school. This means that you have experienced college, worked hard, and now are committing yourself to at least a couple of years for another degree. Was there a particular problem that took the most out of you, but taught you important life lessons? Was there a professor that had a unique style of teaching that inspired you to pursue grad school?

Special Interests: Are there any personal interests that differentiate you from the group? Do these interests teach you something? Are you a fan of Pokemon? Do you know how many leagues Ash has lost? A LOT. But he still strives to be the best! If he can still fight, why can't I?

Culture: Does there run a legend in your family that provides you solace in difficult times? Does your mother or father always say that one sentence that relieves you from all your worries? Do you celebrate a special tradition/festival that teaches you something?

Remember, you don't merely have to tell stories. You have to relate these experiences and explain how they shape you into the individual you are today (see the last statement of the problem statement). It'll take time, but I'm sure with persistent efforts, you'll make a stellar essay.

You don't have to be a handicapped individual belonging to an underprivileged community to be diverse (no offense intended). Everyone is unique in their own way. You all faced challenges in your life and had a life experience that is different from the rest. Don't try to be unique, just be yourself, and you'll become unique. Because guess what? You are unique.

How to select prospective research advisors?

In the case of MS applications, it is often debatable whether to include prospective faculty names under whom you would like to do some research. While most of the Master's are coursework based, it is always a good practice to include a basic layout of your plan in your SoP. Which courses are you planning to take? Why are you planning to take these courses? And if you are planning to do some kind of project, then which lab are you planning to join.

Once you decide that you are planning to do some kind of research project, then a natural follow-up question would be the name of the faculty. How to identify a prospective advisor? Surely, reading a ton of research projects is the brute force way to approach that. But it is not the most optimal way. What I felt helpful was to first identify what 'outputs' excite me the most. In the end, this is what you are going to care about. So, just see the result section of the paper, and see whether the outcome brings a smile to your face. If it does, then just peruse the paper and see what kind of approaches are used in the paper. If that aligns with the courses that you are planning to take, then Bingo!

What should be the split? (Dream/Get-table/Safe)

This question depends a lot on what is your purpose of doing MS/PhD.

If your purpose is to go abroad, get a bit of exposure, and land a high paying job, then I would suggest that you target more towards safe schools and Get-table schools. Also, if getting better job opportunities is your primary target, then target school close to the Bay Area/New York in the US and Toronto/Vancouver in Canada. Also, check out what kinds of jobs do the alumni land after graduating from these schools. A good split should be 5%-50%-45%.

If you are unsure whether to go for MS/PhD, then target those schools which offer a thesis-based masters. I find Canadian universities exceptionally compelling in these cases. Universities like Alberta, UBC Va, SFU, UToronto, McGill are some of the big names which are very motivated towards academia. Often most programs offer an MS to PhD conversion option. If after a year, you find yourself resonating with your advisor, you can submit a petition to convert your MS to PhD (given that option exist in your dept. and you meet certain criteria).

If your purpose is entirely centered around getting a quality education experience, then do not apply in safe schools. Because what is the point of applying there? A mere acceptance will just make you feel good that you got in, but is it beneficial? Your split should be 25%-75%-0% in this case.

Depending on your budget, anywhere between 10-15 (or more :P) universities should be enough to convince yourself that you gave your best shot.

Lastly! give your best shot and leave the results in the hands of God, Nature, or any other entity that you believe in. You might get accepted in every school that you apply to or get rejected in most of them. You might get into your dream school and get rejected in every safe school. Anything is possible. But, I'm sure regardless of the results, you'll cherish this chapter of your life.

All the best and I hope to hear about your great admits from you soon!

Let me know if I missed something.