10,000 character Significant Research Experience Essay

[totalcommand]

Hi,

I'm really struggling with this essay question more than any of the others. Are they looking for just a description of our research experiences, or are they expecting an *essay*, where we weave them all together for some larger goal?

I've chosen the latter, but I'm finding that I'm quickly running out of room.

I've worked in one lab for three school years and two summers, with 4 separate projects. I've also worked in two other labs for a total of 2 projects. Then I've done some clinical research at a hospital for a toal of 1 (should I leave this one out??). That's a total of 7 projects, and it's becoming impossible for me to fit it in the space provided, especially if I weave it into a story. I'm really at loss of what to do . How much detail do they want about the project?

Are people listing all of their research experiences, or are they just choosing certain ones? I think for my development and deciding to do an MD/PhD, almost all of them have been significant for me. Perhaps I should just put ones that gave good results?

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[ClarinetGeek]

I could be completely off on this, but I recommend dropping the "weaving" concept. Rather focus on describing each project briefly providing background, rationale, significance, and interesting results/conclusions drawn from your work. Emphasize your "independent" role in each project, basically what your contributed. Also demonstrating any creativity is a plus. In terms of writing, I would try to tie all of the projects together, especially considering you seem have a huge variety of project. Keep things fairly cut and dry. Remember all you want to demonstrate is your research experiences and your scientific writing skills.

 

[javaduke95]

I'm actually at the loss of the same problem. You have a very solid research background, and I'm sure you've put a number of your research experiences on your activities section as well.

Thus, I don't think this 10k char should be used to scratch the surface on all of your experiences, but rather, it should be a statement about what *significant* research experiences you've had. I'm in a easier situation, where only a subset of my experiences was significant, but I think it makes sense that you should try to talk about a few of your projects in depth.

Anyone else have any ideas? Also, what do people think about the problem with talking about the same things in the activities page and then in the MD/PhD research essay?

MD Applicant

 

[totalcommand]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I think I have two choices right now. I could either cut out a few experiences and weave it into a good story, or I could leave all the experiences in there and gut out a lot of the continuity.

Clarinet - thanks for the reminder of why I'm really writing this essay. After the PS and the MD/PhD essay, I was trying to make it too 'exciting'.

about the activities & research essay - I think I'm going to talk about my research in the activities section only in its most general terms. After all, I think the adcom will be skimming and glossing over most of the information in this section. With the research essay, they are actually looking for detail, so I think I'll leave all the specifics in there.

javaduke - i'm having trouble figuring out which of these projects should be deemed significant. do you think they mean significant in terms of productivity, or significant in terms of my development, or significant cause it was long term.... maybe you have an example of an in-significant experience that you're not including? thanks!

 

[durfen]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

I think I have two choices right now. I could either cut out a few experiences and weave it into a good story, or I could leave all the experiences in there and gut out a lot of the continuity.

Clarinet - thanks for the reminder of why I'm really writing this essay. After the PS and the MD/PhD essay, I was trying to make it too 'exciting'.

about the activities & research essay - I think I'm going to talk about my research in the activities section only in its most general terms. After all, I think the adcom will be skimming and glossing over most of the information in this section. With the research essay, they are actually looking for detail, so I think I'll leave all the specifics in there.

javaduke - i'm having trouble figuring out which of these projects should be deemed significant. do you think they mean significant in terms of productivity, or significant in terms of my development, or significant cause it was long term.... maybe you have an example of an in-significant experience that you're not including? thanks!

I've pretty much worked in the same lab, but under a few different PIs, but given that I can tie everything together I am writing it as if its a journal article about my research.

 

[javaduke95]

Thanks for the feedback guys.
<snip>

javaduke - i'm having trouble figuring out which of these projects should be deemed significant. do you think they mean significant in terms of productivity, or significant in terms of my development, or significant cause it was long term.... maybe you have an example of an in-significant experience that you're not including? thanks!

One example would be my freshman year research experience... I worked in a lab where the experience made me think that research was all about pipetting someone else's solutions and being confused about what I was supposed to be doing. Of course if I had to write about it I'd be able to say some fairly "significant" things about it as well. However, because I felt like it did not contribute to my eventual decision to apply for MD/PhD programs, I deemed it insignificant...

If you think all of your experiences contributed to your eventual decision to be a physician scientist, then I think you should talk about all of them. Regardless of your decision, I agree with clarinetgeek that keeping the material cut and dry would be the way to go as well.

MD Applicant

 

[pasymuradd107]

I have a question about this essay too: When providing background about your area of research, do I have to cite other articles in my essay? I know this question sounds stupid, given the 10,000 character limit, but my situation is that I have been working in the same lab for 2 years, and I am now doing my 2nd project in the lab. I wrote a proposal a couple months ago for a summer fellowship, so I was just gonna copy the background part from the proposal to inlclude in this essay and then talk about how my current work derives from previous research in the lab... I just wasn't sure if I should take the citations out or not. Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

 

[Wertt]

I wrote a summary paragraph or few for each lab I worked in, under a heading detailing my role in that lab (thesis student, research assistant, etc.)

First I described the general area and direction the lab was going in, and then a project in a good amount of detail, but so that someone outside the field could understand it.
In labs where I worked on a few projects, I would mention them all very briefly, and go into detail on one that I most enjoyed, as an example of the type of work I was doing. I made sure to mention instances where I came up with a project on my own explicitly.

I didn't cite other papers in my research experience essay.

 

[pandora123]

hi
I have been doing research for the past 3 yrs and have written 3 articles (am the first author on all these articles) - one article has just been submitted (3 weeks ago) and 2 others that are pretty much done and about to be submitted.
I am not sure how to mention these - should they be a part of the research essay or in the work/activities section? If I leave them out completely, then it looks like 3yrs of research just resulted in a couple of conference presentations.
Thanks,