The Statement of Purpose (Applying to PhD Programs in New Testament)

It is that time of the year again, you know, when people are applying to graduate school. My sympathies go out to all those applying to PhD programs, especially. I was in your shoes last year and it is not a process I would want to repeat. The application is a stressful and difficult stage. My prayers are with you, Mike, Ken, and Mike.

Mike Kok(e) recently asked for some advice about the statement of purpose (SOP) for PhD applications. I wrote a few notes on his blog and thought that it might be appropriate to re-post them here in a slightly expanded form.

The SOP is a required component of every PhD application, although it varies in style from each school. Some will give clear guidelines such as page length, specific order, or additional questions. The applicant needs to pay close attention to those guidelines if they are included. The page length for the SOP is usually between 2 to 5 pages. The shortest SOP that I wrote was for UCLA at only two pages; the longest (Emory) was about five pages. Since the SOPs are so short, one needs to take off quickly and address their research. The readers are probably going to be more concerned with the applicant’s academic interests than their personal history. Nevertheless, the applicant will usually need to talk about their personal history at some level in order to contextual their academic interests.

Here is how I generally arranged my SOPs:

1. I generally started with a short statement about how my decision to do a PhD in New Testament (or early Christianity) was neither made in haste nor a recent development. Then I would highlight (very briefly) a few points in my history where this decision was solidified.
2. I then quickly moved into a discussion about the history of my education. I discussed my BA and MTS courses of study and how they prepared me to do PhD work in my field. Here I talked about the importance of my majors (classics and biblical studies), languages (both ancient and modern), and the world views of the programs (secular and theological).
3. The discussion about my education made for an easy transition into a discussion about my academic interests and the work I had already done on those topics. Here one my want to outline a specific dissertation topic or just explore their research in a nuanced fashion. Some schools, especially ones in the UK, will want the applicant to be specific about their intended dissertation, but for the most part the admissions committee wants to know if the student can perform research in a sophisticated way. This is where one needs to show that they can operate on a PhD level, and dispel any preconceived notions that the readers might have about their past. For instance, if an applicant went to a conservative seminary, they may need to demonstrate that they approach texts openly and critically, regardless of their theological dispositions.
4. After discussing my own interests, I then connected them to the academic interests of the faculty. It’s important for the applicant to apply to the schools where their interests are congruent with those of the faculty. For this reason, one should not simply apply to Yale, Harvard, Duke, Emory, Princeton, Chicago, etc., just because they are the “top” schools. The applicant should strategically choose the best fits. This will make this section of their SOP easier and more convincing. Again, this section will vary widely. I played up my interests slightly differently when applying to different schools. For instance, the two texts I had been interested in working on was Luke-Acts and the Didache. When I applied to Emory, I put more emphasis on the Luke-Acts section because it’s one of the strengths of the department. When I applied to UNC, I put more emphasis on text-critical and source critical issues related to the Didache. Of course, one shouldn’t contrive false academic interests just for the application because the committee will probably (hopefully) see through that.
5. Lastly, I brought in other reasons why the school was a good fit and how serious I was about attending the school were I admitted. If I had family in the region or there were other reasons that the institution was attractive to me, I mentioned them. This at least let the admissions committees know that I had good reason to accept their offer if they extend one. Common sense tells us that if an admissions committee has two equally qualified students they would select the one who is more likely to attend their school.

A couple of things to consider. The applicant will want to frame their SOP differently based on the type of school to which they are applying. For instance, I applied to schools that are religiously oriented, secularly oriented, and something in between. Therefore, my application to Marquette differed from my application to UNC. In the Marquette application I emphasized my theological training and commitment to the church, whereas in my UNC application I was more interested in historical-critical aspects, although I didn’t compromise my Christian background. The basic point that I am making is that Phd programs are housed in different types of institutions: seminaries, public universities, private research universities, and private religiously-affiliated universities. They are not all looking for the same type of student and the applicant needs to frame their SOP differently depending on the type of institution. Of course, there is no one right way of writing an SOP. Each school looks for something different and each person will have different advice. So whatever I said on this blog, take it with a grain of salt.

That’s basically how I approached my SOP. I ultimately applied to eight schools and it was a bit of a chore, but it was well worth it and I’m very grateful that it worked out. Remember, if you’re at the stage of writing your SOP, there is light at the end of the tunnel and you will have a social life again, I promise.