Does a non-science Fulbright research project count as research?

[DSM_302.0]

What's up team,

I'm looking through MSAR data for some schools I want to apply to, such as UCSF. The percentage of accepted students who have 'research' experience is 94%.

I'm curious how you think this is interpreted. Personally I'm hoping for a looser interpretation. I received a Fulbright Research grant which sent me to the Middle East for a year and a half. While there, I did a lot of what anthropologists would call ethnographic research, which is a heady academic term for doing interviews. My research was aimed at figuring out the current refugee crisis situation, and my product was a short documentary film outlining my findings in their own words. I didn't publish in any academic research journals or anything like that.

Do you think this will count as research on my application? Am especially interested in hearing from any adcom members who so lovingly support us on this thread.

I have seen other stuff on SDN around the lines of, "I've asked and seen this asked.....just be able to explain what you did in the context of scientific method. Ie be able to explain hypothesis, methods, analysis, etc."

Anthropological research seems pretty far afield from the scientific method, if you ask me, but I do think I designed and worked through my research project effectively.

Thoughts and discussion appreciated!

Sincerely,
Me

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[wantanmd]

I'm surprised nobody answered you. I would think yes but I'm not sure what you did and how you did it. @Goro @LizzyM @gyngyn

 

[tjo422]

I'm going to lean towards yes, but yield to adcoms that would know better.

At the very least, I think many committees will be intrigued by this. I am finishing up a Fulbright in the humanities as well, and although I'm mid-cycle I've had success and a lot of enthusiastic feedback from interviewers.


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[JoaoMoutinho]

I'm surprised nobody answered you. I would think yes but I'm not sure what you did and how you did it. @Goro @LizzyM @gyngyn

I think that just about all of them did answer, actually. This is a double post.

https://forums.studentdoctor.net/th...t-research-project-count-as-research.1242687/

 

[DSM_302.0]

Oh weird. I edited my post, not sure why it posted twice?


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[LizzyM]

I believe that the proportion of applicants and matriculants with research experience is based on the number who have tagged one of their experience items as "research". There is really no other efficient way to measure and report that figure.

Qualitative research is legit research although it is often exploratory rather than hypothesis driven.

That said, Fulbright research is always impressive. I'd list the Fulbright as an honor (although I usually consider the "honors" tag in the experience section as a bit of a waste of time) and then tag the actually activity with the dates and so forth as "research".

 

[DSM_302.0]

I believe that the proportion of applicants and matriculants with research experience is based on the number who have tagged one of their experience items as "research". There is really no other efficient way to measure and report that figure.

Fascinating, thanks for this insight! I was wondering how those numbers were calculated.

That said, Fulbright research is always impressive. I'd list the Fulbright as an honor (although I usually consider the "honors" tag in the experience section as a bit of a waste of time) and then tag the actually activity with the dates and so forth as "research".

Great advice, thank you! The award is the honor, the project I carried out is a separate entity, and that's the research. I can mark them as both.

Many thanks! Honored to have THE LizzyM respond to my post

 

[LizzyM]

Many thanks! Honored to have THE LizzyM respond to my post