Application Materials

Application materials

Tailoring is the discipline at the heart of this skill: the same person, presented so the parts most relevant to this opportunity come first and loudest. It is selection, ordering, and emphasis of true facts — never invention. A tailored SOP makes an admissions reader feel the applicant has thought specifically about this lab; a tailored CV puts the relevant publication or skill where the eye lands first. The raw material is the applicant's real record; the craft is fit.

Step 1 — Load source material and target

Read the applicant's profile/cv-master.md (the complete superset of their record), profile/profile.md, and profile/research-statement.md if present. Read the target: the professor's profile at knowledge-base/professors/.md and the opening/application at knowledge-base/applications// or knowledge-base/openings/. Note the program's explicit requirements (length, prompts, format) and follow them exactly — an SOP that ignores the stated word limit or prompt reads as careless.

If the master CV is thin or missing, ask the applicant for the missing material rather than inventing it. You can only tailor what truly exists.

Step 2 — Decide what to emphasize

Compare the applicant's record against what this target values (from the professor's agenda and the opening's requirements). Identify the three or four things about the applicant most relevant here — the matching method, the on-topic project, the transferable result — and make those the spine of the documents. Relevant-but-secondary material stays but moves down; truly irrelevant material can be cut for length. The same applicant's CV for a theory lab and a systems lab should look meaningfully different in ordering and emphasis.

Step 3 — Produce the documents

CV / resume

Reorder sections and entries so the most relevant come first. Tighten bullet points to lead with outcomes and the methods this lab cares about. Keep it truthful and verifiable; never inflate a role, a result, or a skill level. Output applications//cv.md.

Statement of purpose

The SOP is an argument: this applicant + this lab = a good bet. A workable arc:

1. A specific opening that signals genuine, particular interest (not "since childhood I have

loved science").

1. The applicant's relevant trajectory — what they did, what they learned, the results —

selected for relevance to this lab.

1. Why this lab specifically: the professor's work, named, and how the applicant's

direction connects to the lab's open problems.

1. Goals and fit: what they want to work on and why this is the place.

Weave the applicant's real experience toward this lab's work. Mark with [brackets] any specific only the applicant can supply (a motivation, a result, a number). Output applications//sop.md.

Personal statement

Where a program asks for a separate personal statement (often about background, resilience, diversity of perspective, or fit with the program's mission rather than research), keep it distinct from the SOP — personal and reflective, still grounded in the applicant's real experience. Output applications//personal-statement.md.

Step 4 — Keep voice consistent and honest

All documents for one application should sound like one person and tell one coherent story — ideally aligned with any research proposal and outreach email for the same target. Match the applicant's voice from their existing writing; avoid generic admissions-essay clichés and overblown phrasing. The hard line from shared/references/ethics.md: tailoring selects and orders true facts; it never fabricates or inflates. An exaggerated CV is both dishonest and a liability the applicant can't defend in interview.

Step 5 — Save and hand off

Write the documents to knowledge-base/applications//. Tell the applicant what you emphasized and why, and list the [brackets] they must fill. For submission-grade formatting (a polished PDF or Word CV/SOP), hand off to the pdf or docx skill.

Guardrails

Never invent or inflate credentials, results, or skills — the entire value of tailoring is that it's true material well-arranged. When something relevant is missing from the master CV, ask rather than fabricate. Respect program prompts and limits precisely.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: bydeng01
• Source: bydeng01/phd-application-skill
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.