A Statement of Purpose also referred to as an SOP, is a reflection of your purpose in joining a college or an organization that you portray in front of it. It generally consists of four parts:

• Why do you find yourself suitable for joining a course (in a college) or a job (in an organization)
• What goals do you have in your life in both the short– and long–term that can be aligned with the course of the job
• How does this particular course or job help you to bridge the gap between where you stand now and your goals, among other things
• What do you especially like about the course/job, the college/institution, the city where it’s situated etc?

SOPs can be written creatively too – like a story, a letter or a confession.

Many colleges and organizations insist on an SOP for their admission procedures. Most of the b-schools both in India and abroad ask for SOPs either directly or in the form of an Admission Form, which contains the questions generally answered in an SOP.

A statement of purpose helps the evaluators:

• to understand your clarity of thought about yourself, your goals and your purpose for joining the college or the organization.
• to validate whether whatever you say in the interview matches with what you thought a few months back while writing the SOP.
• to gauge if you have done enough work on your preparation for writing the SOP and in turn, for the interviews.
• to comprehend whether you are serious and sincere about joining the course / the job in the college / the organization.
• to provide them with enough justification for selecting you as a student in their college or an employee in their organization.

1. Write stuff that is generally not covered in your academic documents or your résumé.
2. Make sure that there is a logical flow from the beginning to the end of the SOP and information is not scattered untidily.
3. Probably the evaluators are reading your SOP after reading hundreds of such SOPs – make the writing as attractive and unputdownable as you can.
4. Avoid criticizing anyone or any organization directly, bursting out in emotions or blaming things on others, especially on the system.
5. Get help from mentors, who have years of experience in guiding students to write admission-winning SOPs.