What Universities and Visa officers look for in an SOP?

Everyone’s SOP is different and unique but they all should contain vital information that admission team and the visa officers look for . Every university expects a student to answer to some basic questions that the admissions committee has. They may not ask you openly, but these are generally what they expect you to answer:

• What you want to study at graduate school?
• Why you want to study only this degree?
• Why do you want to study at this particular college?
• What do you like in us?
• Why did you choose to study in this particular country?
• What do you like about it?
• How much and what kind of experience you have in your field?
• Is your experience related to you choice of degree?
• If you are already experienced, what additional skills are you planning to gain from the degree?
• What you plan to do with your degree after graduation?
• Would you choose to end up with a job or take up research?
• What are your expectations from both the graduate program, and the university?
• Would you like to study or do research under any particular professor?
• If yes, why only them? How can you contribute to our university and our program?
• What specific skills do you bring to the table? Apart from work and education, what are your hobbies, interests, and habits?
• What are you like, as a person?
• What do you understand about our student community and culture?
• Why do you think you will fit in?
• What is that one unique aspect/characteristic about you that we should know?
• Why does it matter to us or to the fellow students of your class?

They don’t expect you to include everything in your SOP but you should include most of them.If its your first time writing a SOP, we have a guide for you to follow if you need help on how to write it here. If you have already wrote one and need help checking if its up to the Australian standard, you can use the contact us form and send it to us for a quick insight. You can view our other samples by visiting Statement of Purpose Sample page.