Okay yes I know another 'I'm a bad candidate help me' post sorry.
I was in grad school years ago but I quit because the program wasn't good for me. The exact program doesn't matter. It was a small one on the USA west coast though, and for MS not PhD.
The problem was the people in the program didn't like my concentration field (lie groups). All the profs thought their own fields were more interesting, wanted me to focus on those instead (like discrete geometry). No other students were really interested in my concentration so important classes got canceled, "low enrollment" they said.
Now I want to apply to a new school that I think does not have this problem. I want to know though, how can I talk about this in my statement of purpose? I have to address the reason I left a previous program but I do not want to sound whiny or vengeful or make the admissions committee think the problem was my fault.
Note I made up some of the details here because in case some admissions person at my future school reads this forum. But the general point is still right. Thanks!
Answer
Don't go "negative" in a statement of purpose, or any other statement for that matter. Instead, turn your negatives into positives.
For instance, don't write, "I've had bad experiences with programs that don't offer courses in Lie groups." Just say, "I am very interested in programs like yours that are strong in Lie groups." People know that there are good and bad programs around, but they appreciate your not going negative on others, which saves them the worry of, "when will this guy go negative on us?"
On the other hand, if you cast your aspirations in a positive light, the feeling is more likely to be, "our program is a lot better, or at least more suitable for this candidate than those others that don't emphasize Lie groups." They'd worry much less about what you want that they don't have, because you haven't mentioned those things.
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