Tricks for SOP

Tricks for SOP

“Syed Muhammad Raza Kazmi” <syed.raza.kazmi@gmail.com>

0. Before starting, you must have some idea what you want to do in your higher studies… not very exact but still there should be some inclination of your heart n mind.1. The first step is to fish a Professor – your intended supervisor of your research work. How to find that Professor??? Well there are two ways I can think of: 1). If you’ve read some research papers during the course of your study, or the text book etc, then the author (if his work has inspired you) can be your intended supervisor. I think this method must be adopted if one is going for PhD studies. 2). Goto the sites of famous universities and browse for the webpages of the department you want to get in. Browse further into the profile of various professors and find those whose research interests match yours, or inspire you. You must sort out the professor in the University whose research enchants you. This requires just one day’s web browsing of Japans different universities’ laboratories. Unlike Pakistan, in the rest of the world the Universities are known by their location, so you can easily search for Tokyo, Tohoku, Kyoto Universities etc etc.

2. Now very carefully you have to write your Research Proposal. It is not at all difficult, firstly because it is not required to be very specific one and secondly if you have the aptitude for the Masters or PhD then naturally you must have some inclination towards a certain area. After the completion of the task 1. stated above you already have targetted a professor of similar research interest, also you have got some idea about the type of research going on in his lab. So the trick is that you write a research proposal that shows your interest to be similar to the lab’s research themes. Better if you can extrapolate by conceiving the future advancement that can be done in the on going research in that lab, showing that you can be a very useful member to the Professor’s research team.

3. The number 2. is I think the easiest way to flourish an SOP, specially for those like myself who are not extraordinarily brilliant enough to propose and advocate their own course of research separate from the lab’s interest. One may do so but there are a few risk involved, the biggest of which is that if your proposal is too far away from the lab’s interest then the Prof may not take you due to the unavailability of some special equipment essential for your research theme, or due to the lack of expertise of the research staff who are suppose to provide you with guidance. So its always safe to enter as a part of the existing team instead of making your own.

You are most welcome to try more than one Universities.

Another very important advice that I want to give as a big brother to all the Job seekers and Advanced Study Enthusiasts… Kindly for God Sake please dont send the one-liner type of emails saying “Find my attached CV” or “Consider me for the job”. Your email suppose to act as your cover letter which should be convincing enough for the potential employer to choose and open your CV among the hundreds he receive. It shows your presentation and communication skills also.

May God Bless the youth of Pakistan with the best of health, wisdom, prosperity and faith.

Read Full Post »