In general your SOP should include at least some information directly addressing why you are applying to that school. I have a different SOP for each of the schools I'm applying to and you should too. I use word 2007 maybe the new versions that you use works differently! Why 10 separate documents? you write the SOP in one word file and each time edit part of it. HappyQuark wrote:With Word, even the smallest change requires that you open 10 separate documents, change them and save them all separately. Using LaTeX in this way forces my documents to be consistent. With Word, even the smallest change requires that you open 10 separate documents, change them and save them all separately.Īlso, I can totally see myself doing a final check before submitting an SOP, finding an error and fixing it but not thinking to make the same changes in my other documents. In LaTeX I just edit my single reference file and then run my macro that compiles all of my documents.

For example, say I decide to re-word the section of my SOP that describes my research experience. On a more serious note, the only reason I used LaTeX was because it eliminates the necessity to edit 10 different documents any time I decide something needs to be changed. Rims wrote:Am I the only one writing everything in Word? Do you think it is necessary to use latex instead? Of course it's not mandatory, but considering the fact that everybody is using latex, it might look like I didn't take my statement seriously enough. I heart Cornell sooooooooooooooooooooooooo much because. But now I just use a macro in TextMate to compile and run all of my files. At one point I was using a python script I wrote to find my tex files, compile/run pdflatex. With an intro tex file and general tex file all I have to do is finish off the SOP with school specific information. Since I'm interested in 2 different fields of research and applying to schools based on these 2 fields, I've created 2 different intros (plasmaintro.tex and particlesintro.tex). To elaborate a bit more on what I'm doing. For the most part I only customize the header and the ending paragraph, but it's good to have options. Then I create the sops with a simple Perl script that takes the structure-tex, checks if customized files exist for that school, and uses a general default file if not (to make sure I can still have a complete sop even if I run out of time to customize them all). tex files for header (since some schools want their name/department, my date of birth, etc), intro, then the main body of the sop, and lastly the ending paragraph illustrating fit for the particular school. It looks a little something like thisĬonsidering my research experience and area of interests outlined above, became super happy fun time for my brain! This means I only have to write about the general stuff once.

Then I create a separate document in which I allow LaTeX to reference that section, and then include information specific to that school. applicable to each university) section about myself, research experience, grades, etc. HappyQuark wrote:The way I've gone about doing my SOP is, via LaTeX, writing a generic (i.e.

Sop textmate