Admission pre-experience Master: motivation letter

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Experts,

I am applying to pre-experience Master. Currently I am finishing up my undergraduate program, and I want to join next Sept. Besides the GMAT and TOEFL they also require a letter where you state why you want to join their program. They want me to motivate my choice for the specific programme, as well as short description (incl. hobbies and interests).

I have some trouble writing my letter. The set-up that I have thus far looks like this:

- First paragraph: Why I want to do a Masters programme?
- Second paragraph: Why I want to join their Masters programme?
- Thrid paragraph: Why they should want me in their programme?
- Last paragraph: hobbies and interest

I find it especially hard to complete the first and third items.

Sincerely,

Hen Kvuh

PS: I am currently in an engineering programme.
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by Superduperstudent » Thu Feb 03, 2011 7:05 pm
they also require a letter where you state why you want to join their program. They want me to motivate my choice for the specific programme, as well as short description (incl. hobbies and interests).
Hi HenkVh,

You clearly have good reasons to sign up for the pre-experience Master program, and you just need to get in touch with those reasons. I would scrap the first paragraph because it's too general and not relevant for the reader. They don't want to know why you want to do any Master's program, they only care why you chose to sign up for theirs. You're covering that in your second paragraph, so that's great.

Go to the program's website and find specific courses you look forward to taking or professors you can't wait to meet. Tell them why you are so interested in those courses and professors, for example: what knowledge gap they will fill for you, or how you intend to use the material in your life after graduation.

Questions you can ask yourself are: what do I want to accomplish with this degree? What things can I do WITH this master's that I can't do WITHOUT it? Why do I want to do those things? Why do I feel that I am qualified for this program?

As to your paragraph about hobbies and interests: keep it relevant. We all have a variety of things we enjoy doing in our free time, but only some of them are relevant to a pre-experience Master program. Perhaps you were captain or coach of a soccer team, or something like that.

Check out my website for tips and support.

Good luck, and feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
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