Professional workshops

Professional Workshops

Supporting its YouTube series Decoding College Applications, since last year, CWC has been conducting a series of professional workshops on writing Statements of Purpose (SoPs), Cover Letters, and Emails throughout the academic year to help students and professionals with drafting documents that are integral to their academic or professional applications and can make a crucial difference in their prospects. Of the three rounds of such workshops, the first round was meant for students and staff of Ashoka, while the other two were open to the public. The workshops helped the students prepare applications for different foreign universities as well as various disciplines of study. These topics were also covered later in the Summer School through the College Applications Workshop, which was also open to the public.

Statement of Purpose Writing (SoP) Workshop for Postgraduate Programmes

The first series of such workshops consisted of nine workshops that took place from 23 October to 1 November. It aimed to impart training on composing both SoPs and Cover Letters for Ashoka students and staff planning to apply to postgraduate studies. While the SoP writing workshops were planned and conducted by the CWC, the Cover Letter writing workshop was conducted in collaboration with the Career Development Office (CDO). A total of 120 applicants attended this series of workshops, including staff members of Ashoka University, and representatives from the CDO and Global Education and Strategic Programmes (GESP).

Open to public, the second iteration of such a series, consisting of two workshops, was held on 16 and 17 March, 2021, and aimed exclusively on how to guide students in writing their academic statements of purpose. In this edition, the workshops were divided into Master’s and PhD applications, and the event was attended by 300 participants. The Master’s workshops focused on professional and academic experience both, since programs like MBA or related to the field of public policy tend to require some professional experience, while PhD workshops were geared towards demonstrating how to write about academic interests and research methodologies.

In 2021, a Statement of Purpose (SoP) Writing Workshop was conducted on 25th October 2021. It was aimed at acquainting participants on how to write academic statements of purpose for postgraduate (Master’s and PhD) programs. It covered the basics of writing a SoP- introduction, conclusion, making personal and professional experiences relevant for the program of your choice, addressing gaps in your resume and so on.