Opinion: Administrative and support payroll grew 88% from 2010 to 2024, outpacing revenue and instructional salaries, according to an analysis of federal data. Some leaders will say administrative growth is an unavoidable consequence of regulation or institutional complexity. But it can be avoided, this essay argues. chroni.cl/46urF3W

Graduate admission season is almost upon us, and I would like to share some tips for crafting your statement of purpose (SOP) and (if university requires it) personal statement. This is informed by serving on physics admissions committees, and is probably applicable to other STEM fields. With many programs not requiring/allowing standardized tests and UG grades being famously inflated, these personal statements make up a proportionately larger fraction of your application than before, and might be scrutinized more. What are these? SOP is a statement of your professional experiences relevant to the PhD program you are applying to (education, employment, research, teaching), with an emphasis on things that set you apart (e.g. your specific research experience). A personal statement, if the program requires, is more open-ended. Some people use it to discuss their leadership/service work relevant to PhD (e.g. president of physics club). Some people use it to explain why they had poor grades for a portion of college. Some people use it to discuss challenges they overcame (e.g. needing to work for money during UG). As a general guideline, a PhD application is a job application, because in a PhD, you are employed doing teaching and/or research. The tone and content of the SOP and personal statement should be that of a job application: explaining how you are qualified for the ‘job’, not throwing out obvious red flags, and being aware of how different audiences might view ‘personal’ information in the context of a job application. Additionally, good writing is often a proxy for clarity of thought and other things relevant for PhD, and a very sloppy/illogical SOP can be a red flag, especially in the absence of standardized tests and reliable grades as a metric for PhD-relevant intelligence. With AI editing tools, it is easier than ever to make your SOP polished and logical (However, AI will have a hard time writing draft 1 since it is supposed to be about you). What to include in your SOP: 1) Your research experience. You should write this portion first, and it should be the dominant part of the narrative, because a PhD is a degree for research. You should describe the project and your contributions clearly enough so that the reader 1) sees that you can articulate technical ideas in a terse manner to a non-expert audience 2) sees that you have made contributions. It is a good idea to emphasize that you have skills transferable to a new research group. These skills can include but are not limited to 1) knowledge about the subfield you are going into 2) coding 3) standard lab skills like UHV or cryogens 4) data analysis. Mention any publications you are on, including ones in preparation. Mention presentations or awards. 2) A (short) list of professors in the program you are applying to with whom you are interested in working. This is becoming more important as decreasing program sizes force programs to better match students with faculty at admissions. There is no obligation to work for someone listed in your application, but it is often taken as guidance in admissions. This should be the last paragraph of the SOP. Note that ‘emeritus’ means retired means they are probably not taking students. 3) (In some fields) If you are switching subfields (e.g. did UG research in Astro but want to do condensed matter in PhD), the reason for this should be well articulated. Ditto if switching from theory to experiment. 4) When/if discussing coursework, keep in mind that your transcript is right there in the application. Bring it in if it is an important part of your narrative (e.g. you were motivated to pursue research in this area after taking a certain course), if it is un-standard but helpful (e.g. your coursework in EE aided your physics research in a distinct way), or if it otherwise merits discussion. A SOP can be successful without discussing coursework. 5) Write the introduction last. Good general rule, but critical for avoiding an unfortunate introduction to your SOP. The introduction can just be one or two sentences summarizing the rest of the SOP. 6) Revise for narrative and logic. I find reverse outlines (outline what you have written after you have written it) to be helpful for finding/filling logical holes or finding repeats. Others use AI tools. Narrative means that your SOP tells some sort of story; not just a mishmash of paragraphs. Make sure your tone is appropriate for job applications. Because personal statements are more varied, the best guidance I can give is that this is part of a job application. 1) Successful personal statements can take on many forms: discussing your leadership positions, teaching, or tutoring (note: this could go into SOP instead); discussing how your work in industry informed your decision to pursue PhD; sometimes discussing personal challenges you have overcome; sometimes discussing unique experiences you have had which are professionally relevant (e.g. working a service job and learning discipline/communication). 2) An unsuccessful personal statement also can take on many forms: (perhaps most common) trying to explain some semesters of poor performance but in the process throwing out many red flags which will 100% be an issue in a PhD program; not saying much of anything at all; not having awareness of multiple sensibilities on topics; showing insufficient maturity/agency. 3) If a program does not request a personal statement, some of the attributes of a good personal statement can be folded into one paragraph of the SOP if it helps your ‘job application’.

The issue here is that absolutely no one wants to subject themselves to a “hard SAT.” Most people do not want college to be one giant awkward nerd fest and people want social, vibrant people on campus to make the college experience more fun.