The following personal statement is written by an applicant who got accepted to the Masters’s leading to Ph.D program at University of Notre Dame. Read this essay to understand what a top personal statement for MS leading to Ph.D. looks like.
Sample Masters leading to Ph.D. Personal Statement
Given the current status quo of the world and its socio-economic condition at large, interdisciplinarity stands out as a plausible approach to comprehending and addressing the issues that we face – including the ones that are emerging and the ones that we anticipate.
My disciplines, Sociology and economics have created an intellectual space where I can experiment with an array of theories and explore the interplay of material and non-material cultural and economic artifacts. The splice of these two has allowed me to aggrandize my perspective in dimensions I could not have conceived without having my beliefs and concepts challenged at every step. What I have taken from this is the understanding that I have to be conscientious about what I learn and must be open to novel ideas, however, not without punctilious scrutiny.
How I see the world leaves me with questions whose answers are not always readily available, or perhaps I have developed a meticulous research ethic. Arguments often seem to want logical explanations if not presented with evidence or are over-generalized or extrapolated to situations with no objective connection. I do not see myself as someone who will be easy unless ideas are explicated ontologically and epistemologically and can be evaluated in a multicultural realm.
This is one reason I adhere to the principles of academic research and yearn to acquire relevant expertise. Since I had planned on going for a doctorate from the beginning of my undergrad, I decided to hone my skills right from the start. For that reason, I took up a thesis in my major subjects, Sociology and Economics.
My Economics thesis elucidates the global pricing dynamics of pharmaceutical drugs. Multiple macro and micro-level aspects were extracted from the literature review, which included governmental and structural factors. Their relationship with the prices of twelve drugs from fifty countries was studied. The thesis also includes a comprehensive descriptive analysis of the fluctuations in drug prices.
My second thesis, in Sociology, aims at studying children’s food patterns. A self-constructed questionnaire and a complete weekly journal were used to collect responses from children of multiple socio-economic statuses. The data was then used to study the relationships between healthy food choices and other external factors chosen from the confluence of the ecological model and the social cognitive theory.
Having completed two theses over the past three years, I have had the opportunity to work with an enormous amount of data. I realized an entire spectrum of ideologies, meanings, and concepts could be identified and studied even in the simplest of samples. My particular interest in Anthropology was also spurred at the same time when I read the incredible anthropological work by Daniel Everett, “Don’t Sleep, There are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle.” I was enthralled by the intricacies of linguistic and semiotic dynamics and how language, a powerful tool used so casually, had the autonomy to concoct reality anew and contort an entire worldview. I was also taken aback by the ideas I was able to generate using this book as an inspiration: there were philosophical, linguistic, economic, and aesthetic contexts that were the backdrop to the book’s intriguingly unfolding plot. Interestingly, I began to see this work as a microcosm and apply my learning from it in multiple other settings.
Despite how my interests change as I grow and learn, my primary fascination rests with language, aesthetics, and philosophy, and I always try to incorporate these into my major disciplines. Since Anthropology offers an interdisciplinary space, a Ph.D. will assist me in polishing my ideas. Therefore, I wish to pursue a Master’s leading to a Ph.D. program to edify my career trajectory in five years and catalyze the acquisition of research and teaching prowess.
Being in academia, I hope to publish works extensively and work with students to continue to nourish their intellectual capacity. Notre Dame’s Ph.D. in Anthropology program is promising in how the faculty profiles are dynamic, and their specializations synchronize with my interests. The university also focuses on developing pedagogical skills in students, along with those of interdisciplinary research, which has become a major attraction for me.
Moreover, there is a strong sense of community that Notre Dame exudes. Having volunteered at Poverty Action Lab and served a Christian community for almost two years, I am committed to paying back and improving the world at a scale that is even as tiny as mine. Working for the lab has taught empathy in me and positively transformed my personality: respect for others, regardless of their differences, is key to material and spiritual success.
People have ideas that might mend our perspectives for good – I believe it is my job to be a careful listener and allow someone to express their ideas comfortably without compromising my ethics. As it promises, Notre Dame seems to be a place where communal ethics are regarded to create and innovate for humanity, which I believe is commensurate with my values. While I hope to extract every smidgen of knowledge that I possibly can from this program, I do not doubt that Notre Dame will benefit from my skills, personality, and work ethic just as well.