(1) High Professionals Help
Students take high professionals to help in writing their SOP. We should have a good command over English but not very high-end or over-board English & do not need great writing skills to write SOP. University admissions team gauge the students’ level of English with their IELTS/TOEFL/PTE exam and will clearly know if the students’ have taken the professionals help in writing the SOP. Good simple English with clear & concise meaning is required to write SOP.
(2) Copy SOP
Most students copy the contents of other students’ SOPs or copy from the internet. This should never be done because SOP should be extremely personalized & unique.
(3) Grammatical Mistakes
Students tend to make a lot of grammar & spelling mistakes in their SOP because of their bad English which results in admissions team declining the application. So they should be extra careful with the grammar & spellings.
(4) Too Long
Students think that the longer the SOP, the more the chances of getting an admission. This is not correct. They should always keep in mind that SOP is not an essay or an exam to write very big. The SOP should be simple, clean, straight forward & honest.
(5) Unnecessary Issues
Students write all unnecessary things in the SOP which puts off the admission team. They should mention only important & relevant issues of their life which impresses the admissions team. They should clearly elaborate the main purpose to study in that country & in particular that university & course. They must give proper & correct reasons for choosing that university & course and also emphasize academic & future career goals after completion of the course. They should prove to them that they are a good fit for their university & will be an asset to the university.
(6) Random Events
In the SOP, The students mention the events in their life in random
order. This is totally wrong. The events mentioned must always be in order like building
blocks in their own life’s journey from schooling through till the present part of life.
(7) Flattery
The students in the SOP always flatter the university & its program with words like your university is the top/best/wonderful/fabulous/fantastic etc. university & program. This unnecessary flattery will do more harm than good to their chances of approving their application because the university clearly knows its own status very well so it prefers honest & straight forward reviews of it.
(8) Only Positives
The students always mention only the positive issues about them & highs in their life in the SOP, which is not right. They should always mention their failures, negatives, weaknesses & lows in their life’s journey & how they overcame all those with their inner strengths, abilities & knowledge.
(9) Only Academics
The students boast about their academics & achievements in the SOP. This should not be done. They should not boast about anything in the SOP but only mention it. Not only academics, but they should also give details about the extracurricular activities they have participated and mention their talents & traits they have.
(10) Perfect SOP
Students try to write perfect SOP thinking that a top-level SOP will guarantee admission into the university which is totally a wrong notion. A good simple, clean, specific, truthful, straight forward & honest SOP will impress the admissions team.