Always mention school applying to in PS? Forum

[2807]

I was not planning on mentioning the particular school I am applying to in my PS. Mine is more a general statement about me and an issue and my aspirations.

I do have a "why xx" for schools that want one as an addendum.

Is it better to always add a line or two at the end that says the boring and obvious... "if accepted to xxx I will..." That seems so forced to me, but is it what they want?

Thanks

[Sandro]

I was thinking about this earlier. The only place I could see putting it in was at the end and it seemed to me like it would come off as forced and probably just changed the name for each school...

[etown989]

If there is an actual reason you wish to attend the school. Example: civil rights/ strong economics program/ international law etc. Then you should mention that, but otherwise I would stay away from ending a PS with "XYZ sounds like the right school for me because of all these reasons blah blha"

[2807]

Thanks. I agree it sounds very forced at the end... BUT---

The bummer is (and this may apply to a lot of us): I crafted my PS and then began applying only to find out that some schools have generic descriptions of what a PS should address like "Tell us something interesting about you, an obstacle you have overcome, what our school offers you, and why you want to come here...."

Wellll, that changes a lot of PS work for some of us. Do you recommend sending a solid universal PS, or should everything stop, and a re-write be done for each school that unfortunately drops that bland-bomb and causes a pre-written PS to not cover those things?

It is hard to follow the conventional wisdom of writing a traditional PS if each school is going to ask for these specifics..

[Hawkeye Pierce]

.

[Sandro]

My whole PS is about my experiences with community development, would throwing a shout out to school X's land use clinic offerings be trite even if I didnt just tack it on as the last sentence?

[2807]

My whole PS is about my experiences with community development, would throwing a shout out to school X's land use clinic offerings be trite even if I didnt just tack it on as the last sentence?

No. If it flows well with what you are saying AND links you to the school, then you are lucky. Do it.

It is the opposite for me. Trying to "crowbar" in a reference to the school in a PS that is about me.

Yours sounds reasonable, almost .. proper.

[saltoftheearth]

Thanks. I agree it sounds very forced at the end... BUT---

The bummer is (and this may apply to a lot of us): I crafted my PS and then began applying only to find out that some schools have generic descriptions of what a PS should address like "Tell us something interesting about you, an obstacle you have overcome, what our school offers you, and why you want to come here...."

Wellll, that changes a lot of PS work for some of us. Do you recommend sending a solid universal PS, or should everything stop, and a re-write be done for each school that unfortunately drops that bland-bomb and causes a pre-written PS to not cover those things?

It is hard to follow the conventional wisdom of writing a traditional PS if each school is going to ask for these specifics..

[fragged]

I crafted a universal PS but left an area open for a target paragraph. I used this paragraph to address "Why X" for each specific school, tying it in to the rest of the statement. I don't know if it helped, but I figure it can't hurt to show a school you know a little something about their program.

Some schools are very specific in what they ask you to write in a PS, and for those I drafted a unique PS. But for the ones that weren't too specific, I wrote my PS like a narrative on the kind of person I am, what compelled me to apply to law school, etc. Without even trying, I found that the story I wrote had answered all the questions they asked.