Chronology as Continuity and Change Over Time

You’ll read conflicting advice about structuring your statement chronologically. In general, the best statements simply read smoothly and easily without jumping around. Especially if you are applying straight from undergrad, or with only a few years of entry-level work experience, chronology serves you best. You want to show the continuity of your interests and efforts over time as well as the growth of your skills and experience. This kind of narrative structure--a kind of professional biography--suggests that you have a serious, sustained investment in the field. 

Note that you should never harken back to childhood, nor even high school. Nothing before college is relevant, and only your work in your major (presumably the field in which you are applying) matters. The strongest statements will not, however, start with something about how you chose your major. (See Introductions for more ways to begin.) No hooks, no fancy or attention-grabbing first sentences, please! Faculty members roll their eyes at such cheap tricks. At the same time, chronological narratives are not just a straightforward march through time. You want to think about the qualities you’ve identified and experiences that illustrate those qualities. How can you show their development over time?

Consider, then, starting with a short example from sometime during your undergraduate years that illustrates your intellectual passion and personal commitment to the field. A research experience is always best. Use the body section of your statement to focus on your intellectual experience with the field, your scholarly interests, and explain why you can best continue your interests at the particular institution to which you are applying. Conclude with your professional plans beyond graduate school.

Again the focus is on your intellectual and academic development, not your personal growth. Explain what you’ve done and avoid describing in any detail how it made you feel.

The argument as claim and evidence

If you have been out of school for more than a few years, and especially if you have five or more years of professional experience, you need to structure your essay as an academic argument. Academic papers always have a claim or thesis. Yours? It must answer this prompt: Why are you coming back to school? That’s the question professors will have in mind as they read your application. You are arguing (in the scholarly sense of supporting claims with evidence; it’s not a debate!) that you are an excellent candidate for graduate study and will succeed in the program. 

So start with the here and now, describing a key experience that brought you to the realization that it’s time to return to school for a graduate degree. It might be a problem you encountered at work that made you realize you needed more training and expertise to address. Perhaps you’ve recognized persistent issues in your profession that you need the time to explore in more depth with expert guidance. Or, if your professional career is not the same as the field you hope to study in graduate school, you’ll need to explain the detour.  

Your introductory paragraph will end, like an academic paper, with a thesis statement that sets out two or three reasons why you are especially prepared and qualified. 

The body of your statement will then be structured like an academic essay. Each paragraph of the body takes up one of the reasons in your thesis, and you may then weave in details from your academic as well as professional experience without fidelity to chronology. Choose your best examples as evidence in support of your claim from various points in your undergraduate years and professional career. What have you done that shows your independence or initiative? What research experiences have you had in school and your career? Group your experiences by theme, harkening back to the questions of temperament that you considered when brainstorming.