Please refer to my statement of purpose, in which I explain in depth why I intend to do a degree at Harvard.

Is this correct and natural?

Please refer to my statement of purpose, in which I explain in depth why I intend to do a degree at Harvard University.

Use "desire" or "wish to". "Intend" sounds as if you're sure you'll be admitted.

What about the rest of it? Could others also comment, please?

alpacinou said:

Could others also comment, please?

Click to expand...

I see no need.

Do we "do" degrees?

I might say:

I plan to go to Harvard, study XYZ and earn a degree in that subject.

alpacinou said:

Is this correct and natural?

Please refer to my statement of purpose, in which I explain in depth why I intend to do a degree at Harvard University.

Click to expand...

"Intend" feels a bit too forceful to me in this context. I assume you are writing to university administrators, who have the power to grant or deny you admission, regardless of your intention. I might change "intend" to "seek."

Also, I prefer "pursue a degree" to "do a degree" in this context, because it shows them that you do not take it to be a foregone conclusion that you will complete your degree there. In other contexts, "do a degree" works fine.

Please refer to my statement of purpose, in which I explain in depth why I seek to pursue a degree at Harvard University.

Years ago, I asked a former philosophy professor of mine, "Did you do your Ph.D. at Berkeley?" (I had just seen him at the U.C. Berkeley campus for a 50-years-of-teaching celebration of one of the philosophy professors there, now deceased.) To this day, I remember his exact response: "I did it at Harvard."