Statement of Academic Purpose

Requirements

Graduate School applicants are required to provide a statement of academic purpose with the admission application. Your statement is to be uploaded and submitted with the application prior to the deadline.

The statement should not exceed 1,000 words and must be written in English. The Graduate School does not have specific formatting requirements. The statement should include:

• Plans: Highlight current academic and future career plans as they relate to the Princeton degree program to which you are applying.
• Experience: Include relevant academic, professional, and personal experiences that influenced the decision to apply for graduate admission and obtain a graduate degree.
• Goals: Outline the goals for graduate study.

Revisions

Please be sure to review the final statement before uploading and submitting the admission application. If you submitted an application and need to revise the statement of academic purpose, you may upload the corrected version through the checklist if it is before the deadline. After the deadline, no revised statement of academic purpose will be accepted.

Resume/Curriculum Vitae

Requirements

Graduate School applicants are required to upload a resume or curriculum vitae with the admission application.

Resumes or curriculum vitae should include:

• Employment
• Activities
• Community service
• Education
• Academic or professional honors

Revisions

Be sure to review the final resume or curriculum vitae before uploading it and submitting an admission application. If you submitted an application and need to revise the resume or curriculum vitae, you may upload the corrected version through the portal if it is before the application deadline. After the deadline, no revised resume or curriculum vitae will be accepted.

Formatting Requirements

The Graduate School does not have specific formatting requirements when submitting statements of purpose or writing samples. However, each department may have set their own requirements.

Upload Requirements

Please refer to the File Upload Requirements article for specific instructions on uploading your materials.

Return of Application Materials

Your application and all materials submitted to the Graduate School become the property of Princeton University and will not be returned under any circumstances.

Materials and Upload Requirements

During the application process, you will be required to upload statement of academic purpose, resume/curriculum vitae, transcripts, fall semester grades (if applicable), and additional required files as specified by the individual departmental requirements. When preparing application materials to be uploaded, please note the following:

• Files must not exceed 10 MB. Uploaded documents may contain no more than 75 pages. We support the following file formats:
  
  • Document: .doc, .docx, .odg, .odp, .odt, .pdf, .ppt, .pptx, .rtf, .wpd
• We support media files as large as 5GB, but please be advised that larger files will take longer to upload from your Internet connection and may stall if you are on a wireless connection or one that cannot sustain a connection for the necessary period of time. We support the following file formats:
  
  • Video: .3g2, .3gp, .avi, .m2v, .m4v, .mkv, .mov, .mpeg, .mpg, .mp4, .mxf, .webm, .wmv
  • Audio: .aac, .m4a, .mka, .mp3, .oga, .ogg, .wav
  • Slide: .bmp, .gif, .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .tif, .tiff
• Files cannot be password protected.
• PDF files cannot have a digital signature.
• Files should not be poster size.
• Each file should be saved separately.

Recommendations for Hard Copy Materials

When scanning hard copy materials to upload into an application, please note:

• The resolution should be no more than 300 dpi.
• Black and white is recommended.
• Removing images will help reduce the file size.