2017-2018 Case Western Reserve University

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Hmm.. I was complete on 7/14 but haven't gotten any decision on my secondary page.
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Hi all!

Any consensus on how to answer the "Describe your research" question if your results are still not published? General vibe I got is that, even if there isn't really a danger of getting scooped and it's a harmless question, I don't think my lab mentors are comfortable with me going into too much detail. However, this would be my most significant research experiment and I would hate to not be able to mention it.

Does it look bad if we say "While I'm unable to go into too much detail at this moment..." or "These results are only preliminary and inconclusive" and then go on to talk more vaguely about findings? How have you guys approached this q?
 
CaffeineJunkie said:
Hi all!

Any consensus on how to answer the "Describe your research" question if your results are still not published? General consensus is that, even if scooping isn't very likely, I don't think my lab mentors are comfortable with me going into too much detail. However, this would be my most significant research experiment and I would hate to not be able to mention it.

Does it look bad if we say "While I'm unable to go into too much detail at this moment..." or "These results are only preliminary and inconclusive" and then go on to talk more vaguely about findings? How have you guys approached this q?
Click to expand...

I got an II from both case and CCLCM, and I went pretty in-depth on the design of my senior thesis. didn't go into any details about results, but explained the project and background, hypothesis, procedure, why it's awesome, etc.
 
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lord_leonan said:
I got an II from both case and CCLCM, and I went pretty in-depth on the design of my senior thesis. didn't go into any details about results, but explained the project and background, hypothesis, procedure, why it's awesome, etc.
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Hella fast reply! And congratulations on the interview! Love this school and their programs.

What do you mean by "why it's awesome"? What implications it has on medicine/drugs/treatment? Why you like it/how you personally grew from it? How it influences our understanding of disease?

Oh and P.S., did you cite sources?
 
CaffeineJunkie said:
Hella fast reply! And congratulations on the interview! Love this school and their programs.

What do you mean by "why it's awesome"? What implications it has on medicine/drugs/treatment? Why you like it/how you personally grew from it? How it influences our understanding of disease?

Oh and P.S., did you cite sources?
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Lol I am on these forums way too much to be mentally healthy.

I did not cite sources (maybe I should have re: the background I went over but I doubt they're that nit-picky here). I went over how it influences our understanding of disease yes. Why the project is novel and necessary (it's something that you might think would've been done considering other research in the field, but it hasn't been), and yes how I've grown so far thanks to the project. I think my excitement about the project was made very clear.

I really think you should just show that you're 1) involved in research 2) know your **** 3) are clearly passionate and 4) some combination of how you think critically and are an independent researcher. They can't really ask for any more than that can they?
 
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CaffeineJunkie said:
Hi all!

Any consensus on how to answer the "Describe your research" question if your results are still not published? General vibe I got is that, even if there isn't really a danger of getting scooped and it's a harmless question, I don't think my lab mentors are comfortable with me going into too much detail. However, this would be my most significant research experiment and I would hate to not be able to mention it.

Does it look bad if we say "While I'm unable to go into too much detail at this moment..." or "These results are only preliminary and inconclusive" and then go on to talk more vaguely about findings? How have you guys approached this q?
Click to expand...

The general rule I have with my lab is that we use false names for any of our proteins/enzymes/etc of interest when talking with people from other labs who might "scoop" us. So when I wrote the essay for Case, I just gave a very in-depth look at what was happening, but used the false names for the proteins. It's fairly common practice in plant physiology, so it didn't seem weird to me.
 
hypophora said:
If anyone here has filled out the MSTP app, can you tell me how your filled in the GRE section? They only provide space for two subjects and the GRE General Test has three (verbal, quantitative, analytical writing).
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The only sections on the GRE anyone cares about are Verbal and Quantitative, so most schools don't even ask for the writing score. There was a trend for a while to add writing sections to tests, but the data didn't back up those scores as being useful for predicting success in any way. That's why the MCAT had one and then didn't, etc. I would guess the reason the GRE still has one is that it already tests so little.
 
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Their twitter account (it has a little widget thing of it on the portal) says as of today they have 4800 apps already
 
Last year I think they only had like 6100 total apps. That's crazy fast


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Carmiche said:
We are all in the same exact boat for the 7/14 submissions... Weird.
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Another +1 for the 7/14 submission. It's a reach school for me though so I'd rather have silence over a rejection
 
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II! Submitted 7/24. So excited about this school :D
 
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woah, complete on 8/8 followed by an II on 8/11. that is speedy.
 
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I have two ongoing research projects, one basic science and one clinical. Do you think it would be okay to have 4371 characters? Its really had to get it under 3500 without losing the necessary information..
 
MareNostrummm said:
I have two ongoing research projects, one basic science and one clinical. Do you think it would be okay to have 4371 characters? Its really had to get it under 3500 without losing the necessary information..
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Probably not
 
toservethesuffering said:
For what it's worth, I had about 4000 for the most significant challenge essay, as it said our essays would be saved in their entirety. I realize this is over the limit, but for an event this personal and meaningful, cutting words would have meant cutting information that was 100% vital to the essay. If you feel like you HAVE to, you "could", but I would really think hard about whether something is really necessary. You don't want to seem like you can't follow directions about trivial or basic procedural information.
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Thanks for the input, I'll try to keep it down as close to 3500 as possible!
 
:( somehow all my responses are around 1200 characters and I know for a fact I "edited them" on the application to get down to 1000 but I guess it didn't save, am I screwed
 
Hi everyone, working on this secondary and I am confused on whether I should write for the optional research essay. I work as a clinical research coordinator for an observational research study and my responsibilities include consenting patients, following up with them over a year, performing neurocognitive assessments and formal interviews, giving MRI scans, and data curation/entry.

As of now, I have not actually done any of my own hypothesis formulated research or written any manuscripts within this study but it is a possibility over the gap year.

Should I still talk about this in that essay? Are they looking more into my contributions to the actual scientific inquiry?
 
hellowalnut said:
Hi everyone, working on this secondary and I am confused on whether I should write for the optional research essay. I work as a clinical research coordinator for an observational research study and my responsibilities include consenting patients, following up with them over a year, performing neurocognitive assessments and formal interviews, giving MRI scans, and data curation/entry.

As of now, I have not actually done any of my own hypothesis formulated research or written any manuscripts within this study but it is a possibility over the gap year.

Should I still talk about this in that essay? Are they looking more into my contributions to the actual scientific inquiry?
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I too would like an answer for this question
 
If I spent a significant amount of time in two different labs through my undergraduate career, should I talk about both research projects in the research essay or just one of them?
 
bubblymimi said:
If I spent a significant amount of time in two different labs through my undergraduate career, should I talk about both research projects in the research essay or just one of them?
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Can you go into detail on both within the character limits? I would either A) do the most recent one or B) do the one you can talk about more easily (like can explain it much better in terms of writing etc.)
 
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rejected today from university program, still hopeful for the college program. best of luck everyone
 
Orthopedics101 said:
I thought if you get rejected from the university track, its an automatic rejection from the college track but guess not.
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I honestly do not know. on the portal it doesn't say rejected from the college track. But you may be right though. oh well
 
bubblymimi said:
If I spent a significant amount of time in two different labs through my undergraduate career, should I talk about both research projects in the research essay or just one of them?
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Great question. I was invited for an interview for both college and university tracks, so I feel qualified to answer this. I, too, had two influential research experiences in my undergrad, and I talked about both of them in great detail. I think they want to see that you're passionate about the research you did, that you actually joined the conversation in your field and contributed something meaningful, and that research informs the way you approach problems in other settings in your life. I was able to go into a striking amount of detail with the character/word count they gave me; it's really pretty generous. Anyway, best of luck!
 
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II for the university track! Complete early July. Rejection for the college track, which is fine, interesting that they both come at once. Makes me think that perhaps you wont find out about either track until your app is reviewed by both adcom groups.

For example:
(hypothetically) University track reviews my app on 8/1 and decides to extend an interview.
College track reviews my app on 8/15 and declines sending an interview.
Receive decision for both on 8/16.
 
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