The significance of graduate admission written goal statements

Written goal statements are often required of applicants to nursing graduate programs. There is a lack of data describing the significance of written goal statements, the topics addressed by applicants in their written goal statements, and the relationship between goal statement quality of writing (QOW) and graduate-level coursework. Using content analysis, the written goal statements of 157 graduate students from one Midwestern school of nursing were analyzed for their QOW and for the identification of content categories. Analysis of the goal statements' content categories revealed that applicants tended to focus their writing on the immediate goal of getting admitted to graduate school and on clinical practice issues they felt were important to their desired program major. Data were analyzed to determine the relationship between goal statement content and graduate program major as well as that between QOW and the final grade in a writing-intensive nursing theory course. The results indicated that QOW did not differ by program major and that it was significantly related to the nursing theory final course grade. Implications for graduate nursing education and advanced nursing practice are addressed.