FREE STUDY ABROAD TUTORIAL - WRITE ONCE, READ TWICE AND REPEAT PART 1 of 4

Dear Study Abroad Action Takers,

It's free study abroad tutorial day again and we will be going deep over a 4 part series for the next 4 weeks. Who’s excited here?

As a study abroad coach, I get to read a lot of application documents. Two documents that are important to your candidacy for study abroad are:

Statement of Purpose (SOP)

Reference Letter

For both documents, I see a very common mistake that a lot of study abroad applicants make.

It is an example of the blind leading the blind and when I see this I feel so sorry for the owners of these documents, particularly with those that are too stubborn to take correction.

What usually happens with these stubborn people is that they usually end up getting rejected and back in my Instagram DM a year later for the next round. The problem is that time slips away quietly and pretty swiftly.

Before they know it, 5 years would pass and they would still have not relocated. In fact, some have been on this journey even beyond 5 years.

The good news is that, for those that are on this email list, you are not one of them. You are an OPEN MINDED ACTION TAKER. This means you are open to LEARN, TAKE CORRECTIONS AND IMPROVE YOUR APPROACH.

So let’s learn something new today:

So as you know, your SOP and your Reference Letters are simply a series of paragraphs. Whilst your SOP is about you writing about yourself, your Reference Letter is about your referee writing about you

Here are some questions for you

Do you actually think about what you are trying to convey with each paragraph of these documents?

Do you know what is expected in each paragraph? Where do you check to know what is expected?

How would you know if you have written each paragraph well to meet the requirements of what is expected?

If you do not know the answers to these questions, then it is clear you lack a winning system in place. Remember the 3 pillars of study abroad? MINDSET, SYSTEM and ACTION. You need to get all 3 right!

Back to the matter.

Do you know what is expected in each paragraph? How do you know what is expected in each paragraph?

Any program you are aiming to apply for would typically have a course description or course overview section on their website and in here you would find details of the kind of candidate they are looking for in terms of desirable skills and experience. Some programs even go further to provide class profiles - this essentially gives you details of the successful candidates or typical successful candidates. As they say, success leaves clues. This means that in this information about ideal candidates and class profiles, you would find details of the kind of skills they are looking for and this is what you should be writing about in your SOP and Reference Letters. Typical examples of these skills include leadership skills, communication skills, research and analytical skills, technical knowledge of the subject area, academic prowess and curiosity, teaching experience, technical writing skills, ability to work independently, ability to develop independent and novel ideas etc.

So here is a quick example for the MA in Communications Course at Simon Fraser University Canada:

https://www.sfu.ca/communication/students/current-graduate-students/ma-program.html

In the above link, the following was said:

“The expectation is that students will develop the competency to use established theoretical and methodological frameworks to design a project and analyze the research findings and/or theoretical issues, meeting the rigor and standards of academic research. In addition, students are expected to be able to effectively communicate and explain their research in essays and in academic forums like seminars and graduate conferences.”

Let’s see what we can pick out of this:

So here it is stated that the students would develop the competency to use established theoretical and methodological frameworks to design a project and analyze findings and/or theoretical issues - This means you would want to highlight any experience you have in research design. Did you formulate a solid research method for your undergraduate degree project based on a theoretical framework? This is something you want to talk about and ensure that it shines out in your documents.

It is also stated that the students are also expected to be able to effectively communicate and explain their research in essays and academic forums like seminars and graduate conferences - This is another clue on what they are looking for in their students. You need to demonstrate communication skills, academic writing skills as well as presentation skills (as would be required for seminars and conferences. Have you been to one before? If yes, include it in your documents)

So here is a task for you:

Go to the website of the course you are aiming to apply for, read through the overview information and make a list of all the key skills you are required to portray in your application documents. When you complete this task, you would now know what to write about in your SOP and Reference Letters.

So that is it for today. Next week Wednesday, we will be moving on to part 2 to talk about How would you know if you have written each paragraph well to meet the requirements of what is expected?

Until then, keep up the good work, keep learning. Scholarships await you.