Hello. I'm a spoken word poet and I was thinking of submitting a poem as my Statement of Purpose. I've converted my SoP into a spoken word piece and I've even formatted it so it fits in two pages, the word count being around 650. Does it sound like a good idea to send it in or am I taking too much of a risk?

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9 comments

  • Friday, Nov 23 2018

    Thank you everyone! I hear ye, and I'm sticking to an essay :)

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  • Thursday, Nov 22 2018

    I totally commend you wanting to take risks in the personal statement, but this is not the way to do it. Be bold in what you write, but not in how you format or your medium. They are asking for an essay, so give them an essay. You can be poetic in your choice or words and the way you style your writing, the admissions officers get bored reading personal statements i'm sure, so spicing up the writing in a tactful way can improve your chances, but don't submit a poem.

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  • Thursday, Nov 22 2018

    Do not submit a poem. I've heard from deans of admission at several top 14 schools not to do that, and that every year they receive poems, and just put it to the side.

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  • Thursday, Nov 22 2018

    Its great to put you write poetry on your resume, or write a personal statement about performing poetry, but a poem for a personal statement doesn’t match the needs of the writing situation. You could possibly have an excerpt of a poem in the statement, but that would connect to the narrative of the PS

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  • Thursday, Nov 22 2018

    If you have a 178 and a 4.0 sure

    If not, don’t

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  • Thursday, Nov 22 2018

    Thank you so much, after hearing out some other people too, I think I agree with you there. Thanks for your honest thoughts :)

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  • Thursday, Nov 22 2018

    To be brutally honest with you I don’t think it’s a good idea. Of course it depends on the specifics, by poem do you mean a text narrating a clear story?

    The main advice I hear everywhere is not to try too hard, don’t be creative, just tell your story in the most natural way that it’s familiar to the admission people (essay format).

    You could directly ask the schools you’re interested in, I’m sure their opionin is more valuable.

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  • Thursday, Nov 22 2018

    I mean my personal statement.

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  • Thursday, Nov 22 2018

    You mean as your personal statement? Or is Statement of Purpose an optional statement? Can you copy and paste a statement-of-purpose prompt here?

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