Question 1

What are the most common SOP clichés?

Accepted Answer

Openings like "Ever since I was a child" or "In today's fast-paced world", vague claims like "I have a passion for technology", flattery like "your esteemed university", and endings like "I am confident I will be an asset to your program". They're common because they're easy to write, and that's why they don't stand out.

Question 2

Is "passion" a bad word in an SOP?

Accepted Answer

Not on its own, but saying you're passionate proves nothing. Show it instead: the project you built in your own time, the paper you read and tried to reproduce, the problem you kept working on after the course ended.

Question 3

Why does it flag "passed out from" and "pursue higher studies"?

Accepted Answer

Both are normal in Indian English but read oddly to admissions readers abroad, where "passed out" means fainted. "Graduated from" and "a master's degree" say the same thing clearly.

Question 4

Where does this list of clichés come from?

Accepted Answer

It's our own editorial list of phrases that make an SOP sound like every other SOP, not an official list from any university. Treat each highlight as a prompt to check the sentence, not a rule.

Question 5

Is my SOP uploaded or stored?

Accepted Answer

No. The check runs in your browser and the text is saved only on this device. It's shared with our wrong-university-name checker on the same device, so you only paste it once.

SOP Cliché and Overused Word Checker

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