- Joined
- Mar 14, 2012
- Messages
- 11
- Reaction score
- 0
I am working on drafting a personal statement. I had a member of an admissions review committee at VCU Medical check out my newest draft. He directly suggested that I "name drop" in my personal statement.
I feel an aversion to this, especially since I will already be listing my PIs in my work/activities section. I also feel that naming someone can either be good (if the reader recognizes the name), or it can waste space (if the reader doesn't recognize the name). Tell me what you think I should do. If the advice came from anyone other than an admissions person, I would simply go with my gut. But in this case... I just don't know what to do.
The possible names I could "drop" are all Harvard and/or MIT people I have worked with, one of which I will be getting an LOR from.
I am not worried about privacy because these people have so many people working for them that this list of names does not matter. The dates of working with these people are all different too, anyway. Please let me know what the general consensus is.... I would particularly like to hear from Lizzy M. I have been browsing these boards for a while and then this issue came up so I decided to post. Pretty much, should I name drop any or all of these names in my personal statement? I am a research heavy applicant with several publications and all of these names were relevant to my studies, but I can just as easily say "My PI at such and such was critical to my growth because blah blah..."
I feel an aversion to this, especially since I will already be listing my PIs in my work/activities section. I also feel that naming someone can either be good (if the reader recognizes the name), or it can waste space (if the reader doesn't recognize the name). Tell me what you think I should do. If the advice came from anyone other than an admissions person, I would simply go with my gut. But in this case... I just don't know what to do.
The possible names I could "drop" are all Harvard and/or MIT people I have worked with, one of which I will be getting an LOR from.
I am not worried about privacy because these people have so many people working for them that this list of names does not matter. The dates of working with these people are all different too, anyway. Please let me know what the general consensus is.... I would particularly like to hear from Lizzy M. I have been browsing these boards for a while and then this issue came up so I decided to post. Pretty much, should I name drop any or all of these names in my personal statement? I am a research heavy applicant with several publications and all of these names were relevant to my studies, but I can just as easily say "My PI at such and such was critical to my growth because blah blah..."
Last edited: