📝 อยากเรียนต่อนอก ต้องเขียน SOP แบบมี Passion!? Ep.4 💡 พี่ๆ APPA จะพาไปดู SOP Hins & Hacks เขียน SOP ยังไงให้ไม่แป๊ก!? สำหรับยื่นสมัครเรียนต่อมหาวิทยาลัยต่างประเทศทั้งปริญญาโทและปริญญาเอก

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💡 HOWs and WHATs ตอบให้ได้ก่อนเริ่มเขียน !

✅ What personal details or specific skills might make the admissions committee better understand you and make your SOP unique?

✅ Do you have any unique aspect/characteristic which you believe is worth sharing? If yes, please mention and also specify why should we and your fellow classmates consider it as an important characteristic?

✅ What is the reason behind choosing the specific institution, course and university?

✅ What is the most appealing aspect about the program that you’ve applied to?

✅ Why do you think and how well this program will help you achieve your career goal?

✅ What are your expectations from both the graduate program, and the university?

✅ Is your experience related to you choice of degree? If you are already experienced, what additional skills are you planning to gain from the degree? Mention the time span as well

✅ Other than education and work, what are your hobbies, extracurricular activities, habits, and interests?

✅ What other things do you want to learn from the degree if you are currently experienced?

✅ Are you planning to study or research under any particular professor? If yes, Please explain why do you choose them.

✅ What do you aim to do after obtaining your graduate degree?

✅ Would you choose to settle for a job or take up any research project after graduation?

✅ What kind of understanding do you have about the student community and culture of your preferred university or institution?

✅ What kind of values and ethics can you bring to your fellow mates as well as to the institution?

✅ How can you contribute to our university and our program?

✅ Why do you think you will fit in?

✅ Why should your desired university choose you?

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💡 Write Stories, Not Statements !

❌ Unprofessional Sample

“I used to work in a multinational software company in the development team, and I had to do the same job every day: code stuff. There was nothing new for me to learn at work, and there was nothing very exciting about going to the office. One day I decided that I had to get out of there, so I applied to college to study higher courses and get a better job.

✅ Professional Sample

“Late in the night one Monday, I had found myself in the middle of a deserted office, and fifteen thousand lines of code. Full of caffeine in my bloodstream, and an empty life beyond office, I realized that the computers started coding my brain, and controlling my life. No longer wanting to let the machines feed on me, I decided that college would be my salvation.”

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💡 Quantify Your Stories with The Power of Numbers

❌ Plain Sample

“During my engineering days, I helped a local NGO by joining as a math tutor, where I taught basic math concepts to school children.”

✅ Authenticity & Authority Sample

“During my second year of engineering, I joined ‘Teach Math’, a local NGO, where I was a part of the Math tutoring team. For a period of 10 months, I taught basic math like algebra, geometry and arithmetic to more than thirty 5th and 6th grade students. And every single student I taught to, secured an A in math that year. I’ve never been prouder in my life.”

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💡 Example of Strengths & Weaknesses

“Because analytical research and writing are my most well-developed academic strengths, as evidenced by my GPA, undergraduate thesis, reference letters, and writing samples, I am especially interested in pursuing the independent research project in this program.”

“I noticed that I struggled with time management during one of my undergraduate courses, and so I developed the habit of planning out work schedules for all of my tasks in advance in order to meet all of my deadlines.”

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💡 Example of Focused Interest in the Field

"My interest in the Health Economics specialization option is a testament to my conviction that health is one of the most interesting and complex determinants of social welfare. In my experiences as a traveler, researcher, and student, I understand health policy to be one of the most defining characteristics of a national identity as well as the locus of key clashes between equity and efficiency. Health economic policy is the most interesting because it juxtaposes health care, in which universality and equality are perceived as dominant principles, against the rationality and efficiency considerations of an increasingly liberal global economic reality. Graduate studies in health economic policy is the ideal corollary to my academic, personal and social background. I am most keen to explore the relationship between economic and psychological models of human behavior to hopefully advance a more holistic social sciences perspective on why people act against their own self-interest when it comes to their health."

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💡 Example of Academic & Professional Preparation

"After spending four years as an Arts & Science undergraduate and earning a Minor specialization in Economics, I have developed strong analytical research skills, a capacity for truly critical thought and an appreciation for the universal relevance of economic investigation. My interest in the social determinants of health, and how these interplay with policy and economics, was the impetus for my senior undergraduate research project entitled, “Health and behavior: Advancing a microeconomic framework for changing decision-making in people with obesity.” I was fortunate to work with economists Drs. Levi and Traut, with whom I interrogated the classical and contemporary theories around human behavior and health. In my role as a research assistant, I conducted three literature reviews, one of which was used to support the work of a senior graduate student and will be published in an upcoming issue of Health Economics and the abstract was accepted for a poster presentation at the Annual Health Economics Conference in Denver CO."

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💡 Example of Career Plans

"It is the responsibility of economics researchers to offer sustainable and feasible alternatives and recommendations to experts in all other fields regarding their most pressing challenges such as climate change and regulation of illegal trade. Further, the intermediary between economics research and the implementation of its corresponding results is the policy process. Because analytical research and writing are my most well-developed academic strengths, as evidenced by my GPA, undergraduate thesis, reference letters, and writing samples, the MA Economic Policy (Health Specialization) program is an ideal launch point for a research career in academia with branch points into policy work in the social determinants of health. Eventually, I want to complete a PhD. I want to build a focused academic practice at McMaster where I can help civil society, government and social enterprises understand and address ‘wicked problems’ at the intersection of economics and public health. The skills I aim to acquire through this graduate training are crucial to the evolution of my practice."