Secrets behind successful SOP

and LORs
NISTHA TRIPATHI
MS CS, UIUC
MBA Dropout, NYU Stern
Asst Vice President, Citigroup Global Markets
Director of Operations, Yipit
Founder, Scholar Strategy
 Nistha Tripathi
• When I was an engineer, I thought that I could never manage to study
in USA, I am from a middle-class family. Thank God, I did not give up.
• I went to Top 10 schools in USA for my MS and MBA
• I earned $100K+ seven years ago
• In last one year, I have helped 50+ students go to Top 40 universities
in USA.

So, I know that studying abroad is for anyone and everyone. Many
students have built a successful career by studying abroad and so can
YOU.
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Agenda
1. Application Documents
2. SOP Strategies
3. LOR Strategies
4. About Scholar Strategy
5. Q and A

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MS in USA Application Process

WHAT APPLICATION DOCUMENTS

ARE REQUIRED?
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Application Materials
• Statement of Purpose (SOP)
• What’s your story?
• Letter of Recommendation (LOR)
• Choose right people and help them
• Resume
• Download our free template at www.scholarstrategy.com

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What is Admission Committee looking for?

• Candidates with good technical exposure and passion

• Candidates who are accomplished, showing promise to be
their field leaders in future
• Candidates who have clear goals
• Candidates who need MS/MIS to attain those goals
• Candidates whose research interests align with what the
university has to offer
• Candidates who are excited to study at this university

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What you don’t want to be?
• Immature/Mediocre/Weak at communication
• Confused about field of study
• Aimless about goals
• Lacking passion or expertise in your core subjects
• Not excited about the university you are applying to

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Secret of a successful
application
Craft a compelling story in your SOP and
LORs

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Its all in your hands

SOP

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What’s your story?
• Background – Academic, Personal, Professional
and Extracurricular
• What are your goals?
• How does MS fit into it?
• Why are you applying to University XYZ?
• Why should the University accept you? Why you
are good?

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Components of an effective SOP
1. Background and Aspirations
a) Clear goals help
2. Academic and Professional relevance
a) Show you are good in your field
3. Personal Story
a) Show a face behind the application
b) Talk about how you have overcome challenges, what
motivates you?
4. Talk about how you have applied your learning
a) Show that you can execute your lessons in practice
5. Why are you applying to this school?
6. Why should this school admit you?
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Intro example

“From programming cells of an excel sheet with math formulas in my fourth

grade to building a security plugin for Mozilla Firefox considering the current
threats to privacy and security on Internet, I have realized that problem
solving is what excites me. After a year and a half as an Application Developer
in Risk Technology at JP Morgan Chase, I have found my passion in improving
the way Information is used in businesses. Therefore, I wish to return to school
to pursue a Master's degree in Computer Science that will allow me to explore
the subject in greater depth, particularly the fields of Data Mining, Database
and Software Engineering, and use it effectively to address real-world
challenges.”

He knows about his field

Solid background and proficiency
Clear goals

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Showing Personal Side
“With my father’s illness and added responsibilities at home, my
academic performance in second year suffered a lot and my GPA
took a plunge. However, it only made me more motivated to work
harder and restore my confidence. With extra hours and renewed
focus, I was able to restore my GPA to a more respectable figure.
While it is way below what I feel I am capable of, I am proud that I
could take care of my family when needed and still manage three
B’s in that semester.”

• Turns shortcomings into strengths

• Shows that anyone can stumble but its important to note that
you got back up and learned your lesson/did best under the
situation
• Shows courage of talking about your weak points

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Introducing the SOP Canvas

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If you fill out this worksheet sincerely,
you can rest assured that your SOP
would be better equipped than
majority of the applicants out there!

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SOP Mistakes
▪ Rehashing the resume
▪ “I have CCNA and CCNP certifications in most of the fields to serve as a proof for
my knowledge in these fields”
▪ “For instance, in my math class, I found myself getting frustrated with my
calculator because it could not handle matrices with complex numbers. I took
the matter into my hands and wrote a java program to find the determinant of a
matrix involving complex numbers, which would run on my mobile phone. It
worked well, and this was just the beginning of bigger things for the next three
years.”
▪ Hollow claims – SHOW, don’t TELL
▪ Don’t say you are passionate, show what you did
▪ “As it is evident, my academic qualifications in the field of networking are
exceptional.”
▪ “During the internship, I faced a crunch situation while designing a Cost-
effective Power Generation Unit. Since factors such as time to procure and
implement the solution were not considered by me before designing the circuit,
the entire complexion of the solution got changed - which taught me my first
lesson in engineering management.”

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SOP Mistakes continued…
▪ Lack of confidence
▪ “I wish to return to academic study to build on my learnings from
undergraduate school particularly in the fields of Theory of
computation and Network Security so that I may be able to provide
more effective produce in academia or industry.”
▪ Discounting your failures
▪ Don’t ignore weaknesses in your application, tell me why they don’t
define your capability
▪ “My GRE exam happened to coincide with a big project release at my
work. The professional in me could not let my work suffer and
unfortunately in the process, I had to compromise with my GRE
preparation. Without seeking an excuse, I can only request the
admissions committee to not judge my candidacy by my GRE score
alone.”
▪ Cheesy cliches and generalisations
▪ “I hope to apply the knowledge I gain, back in India, if required with
suitable adaptation, to alleviate globally pervasive problems.”
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Let others confirm your story

LORS

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What is a LOR?
Place where a third person can confirm that
you deserve to be admitted!

A good LOR is one that validates your

candidacy by sounding genuine, vouching
for your ability to excel at your target
program and coming from someone who is
credible.

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Right person to get LOR from?
1. Credible
– Universally known (some internationally renowned
person or someone with very notable achievement)
– Very senior e.g. HOD
– Has great background (PhD, studied from a
wellknown place etc)

TIP: people at higher positions are expected to

connect with more number of students and
therefore their evaluation can be more
trustworthy
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Right person to get LOR from?
2. Someone you worked closely with
– Who has spent enough time with you to be
able to comment on your abilities genuinely!
(your project guide, team leader, Professor
etc)

TIP: don’t choose to get LOR from Dean of

your college if you haven’t worked closely
with him because he won’t have really good
things to say about you!
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Right person to get LOR from?
3. Project Manager/Lead at work (Fulltime
or Internship)
– For people with any kind of professional
experience outside college

TIP: adds a new dimension to your profile

by commenting on your ability to work in a
professional environment

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3 LORs
2 Academic
+
1 Professional (if you have any interesting
internship/fulltime work experience) else
another Academic one

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For MIS/MEM
• At least ONE PROFESSIONAL LOR should be
there

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Writing the actual LORs
• Senior Professors, Managers can do it
themselves
– Help them by giving them a brief summary of
what things you want them to cover in the
LORs
• Your achievements under them
• Your characteristics that you would like
highlighted
• Some might ask you to draft

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When drafting the LORs yourself

• Don’t overpraise yourself! Be realistic

• Write subtly and formally as a
recommender would write
• Vary your language slightly for each LOR
so that it doesn’t seem that same person
has written 3 LORs! You might try to ask
your friends to write these

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Follow up with your recommenders

• Remind them of your accomplishments

• Brief them on your work and what/where you
are applying to
• Provide them with written descriptions of
projects that they can use in their letters
directly
• Follow up politely so that the process gets
done on time (remember they are busy
people)
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Improving the state of things

SCHOLAR STRATEGY

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 SCHOLAR STRATEGY

• Recently featured on YourStory for our innovative counseling

and success

• Strategic one on one guidance for students

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Mentioned by UIUC CS page

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MS Book: Smart Engineer’s Guide to MS
in USA
• Launched MS Book last
month, already a hit
• Insider tips for Applications
• How to manage MS finances
• Interviews of Professionals
• Sample SOPs, SOP canvas
download etc
• www.scholarstrategy.com/
smart-engineer-book

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 OUR MS APPLICATION COUNSELING
SERVICE
COUNSELOR-

• Nistha (Me)
- MS from UIUC (briefly worked with Adcom, RA)
- MBA from NYU (worked as a TA)
- Wall Street, Tech Startups in New York
- Wrote a book on MS in USA for Engineers

• Other Mentors:
- Successful professionals on Wall Street, Consulting, Tech firms,
Startups…

Our Network:
- Alumni in UIUC, Cornell, Columbia, CMU, Duke etc

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 Why Scholar Strategy?
• Lack of genuine advice in the market
– No good university has tie ups with counselors!
• Personal experience
– Have done it myself – twice at TOP universities
– Admission committee insights
• Better resources and connections
– Network of students and professionals in US
and UK

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Our approach
• We do a detailed call to craft student’s
story and then formulate strategy for SOP
and LORs

• NEVER use templates! Each application

should be unique

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SOP evolution (Before)
“My long and enjoyable interaction with computer science
goes back to my fourth grade vocational course, when I
applied math formulae to cells of an excel sheet.
Programming since has had my interest and my motivation
to choose to computer science as my major. After a year
and a half as an Application Developer in Java and ETL
logic at JP Morgan Chase, I wish to return to academic
study to build on my learnings from undergraduate school
particularly in the fields of Theory of computation and
Network Security so that I may be able to provide more
effective produce in academia or industry.”

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(After)
“From programming cells of an excel sheet with math
formulas in my fourth grade to building a security plugin
for Mozilla Firefox considering the current threats to
privacy and security on Internet, I have realized that
problem solving is what excites me. After a year and a half
as an Application Developer in Risk Technology at JP
Morgan Chase, I have found my passion in improving the
way Information is used in businesses. Therefore, I wish to
return to school to pursue a Master's degree in Computer
Science that will allow me to explore the subject in
greater depth, particularly the fields of Data Mining,
Database and Software Engineering, and use it effectively
to address real-world challenges.”
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OUR STUDENTS ARE GOING TO…

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 PACKAGES

Check our counseling packages at

http://scholarstrategy.com/counseling-packages/

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Check out these free resources

✓ Scholar Strategy – www.scholarstrategy.com

✓ Free resume templates, free process guides, case
studies
✓ Our newsletter has grown 500% in last 6 months
✓ Edulix forums
✓ US News rankings
✓ Quora – www.quora.com (can ask insightful questions)
✓ LinkedIn – Use to effectively contact with students studying
abroad
✓ StupidSid – Aggregates useful information about US
universities
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 TO DO list for YOU
• Get your copy of http://
scholarstrategy.com/smart-engineer-book
(now is the right time)
• If you need personal guidance, contact us
- http://scholarstrategy.com/contact

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