Brown University Graduate School (PhD)

Essays

1. Statement of purpose · required

   While most applicants must submit a personal statement regarding their interests and/or intended areas of study, some programs ask applicants to respond to short-answer questions instead of a personal statement. Some programs ask applicants to address specific questions in their personal statements (they are provided in the prompt).

   Get a read on this essay

Thin by design: Brown's Graduate School names the requirement and leaves both the prompt and the length to the program, so the piece is called a personal statement rather than a statement of purpose and no cap is published. The same page says three letters of recommendation are required and that all letters should comment on the applicant's ability to do research. No deadline dates on this page.

Checked against graduateschool.brown.edu/apply on September 11, 2026. Programs change their prompts between cycles; confirm on the program’s own page before you submit.