statement of purpose/personal statement

[obahcypt]

So, I'm applying to English PhD programs, and I'm having a couple of issues with my SoP and personal statement

Comments

[silverthief2]

I'd wonder if adcoms are going to see dozens and dozens of stories about childhood reading as an inspiration for current work, meaning your statement wouldn't stand out at all. If you do mention it, don't start with that as a lead-in.

[blastulababe]

I don't know about the PS (Thank heaven none of the schools I'm applying to require one, because I wouldn't know the first thing about what to write), but for the SoP I'd just put in a line saying something like "despite a severe illness during my sophomore year, I still managed to (fill in some accomplishment or other)." Just try to frame it as a past event and move right on to focus on the positives.

[negcap]

I don't think that a committee would necessarily look down on fantasy, but be aware that the "childhood addiction to fantasy leading to love of medieval literature" is also extremely common, and that plenty of medievalists would cringe at this connection if you're not careful to explain that you understand the distinction between this connection and the realities of medieval literature/history. This isn't to say that you couldn't write about what draws you to a specific genre, but you'd have to include a level of specificity, and a relevance of that specificity to the scholarly study of literature, that would differentiate you from the crowd

[rather_singular]

I agree; I'd be really, really careful about including anything that could be construed as being a Lord of the Rings fanboy/girl. Granted I worked mainly with medieval social historians in undergrad, who sometimes look down on medievalists themselves (not that they should!), but it does seem to be a connection most medievalists don't encourage.

(That said, before I decided to be an early modernist, I was totally inspired to do medieval history because of how much I loved Karen Cushman's books as a child. And a friend of mine got into Cambridge and mentioned her love for Little House on the Prairie in her application.)

[circumfession]

I am a LoR (and fantasy, at large) fangirl, and I stayed far, far, far from that avenue.

[wocka_wocka]

I used a separate part of the application for this (asking for supplemental materials), as I wanted to make my personal statement as strong as possible without referring to illness or questionable grades. And even then I put a spin on it "I was working full-time and failed stats, but got an A the next time and became a stats tutor." That kind of thing.