Good strategy for the application?

[dantt]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hi guys, I just wanted to know whether you guys thought this is a good strategy for my application.

In my personal statement, I mostly talk about my background in biomedical engineering and my clinical experiences but do not mention research that much because I feel it is detailed pretty extensively in my activities descriptions.

For research, I have attended 4 conferences and have presented at 3 of them. I have a publication as a second author (where I actually wrote the materials and methods and results and produced several of the figures) and actually won "best poster" at one of the conferences which I detail in my activities.

Obviously, research is very important to me so should it definitely be in my personal statement or is the personal statement better left for non research activities?

 

[juelz721]

I would weave your research into your personal statement. It doesn't have to be a big part, maybe just a note about your dedication to it.

Hi guys, I just wanted to know whether you guys thought this is a good strategy for my application.

In my personal statement, I mostly talk about my background in biomedical engineering and my clinical experiences but do not mention research that much because I feel it is detailed pretty extensively in my activities descriptions.

For research, I have attended 4 conferences and have presented at 3 of them. I have a publication as a second author (where I actually wrote the materials and methods and results and produced several of the figures) and actually won "best poster" at one of the conferences which I detail in my activities.

Obviously, research is very important to me so should it definitely be in my personal statement or is the personal statement better left for non research activities?

 

[juelz721]

I have a question for you-- how long did you do research for to achieve all that fun stuff. This is my second summer doing research, and I aspire to achive the same as you. Any suggestions?

Hi guys, I just wanted to know whether you guys thought this is a good strategy for my application.

In my personal statement, I mostly talk about my background in biomedical engineering and my clinical experiences but do not mention research that much because I feel it is detailed pretty extensively in my activities descriptions.

For research, I have attended 4 conferences and have presented at 3 of them. I have a publication as a second author (where I actually wrote the materials and methods and results and produced several of the figures) and actually won "best poster" at one of the conferences which I detail in my activities.

Obviously, research is very important to me so should it definitely be in my personal statement or is the personal statement better left for non research activities?

 

[dantt]

I have a question for you-- how long did you do research for to achieve all that fun stuff. This is my second summer doing research, and I aspire to achive the same as you. Any suggestions?

I've done research for 1 and a half years but it was pretty intensive. ~20 hours / week during the school year and ~40 hours / week during the summer in the same lab. Regarding publications and poster award, it's really hit and miss. I matched with a post-doc mentor who was simultaneously working on 2 publications so he handed off one of them to me when our PI gave us a 2 week deadline for a 1st draft manuscript. 😱
Poster awards are random sometimes...I really don't understand how they evaluate. One of my former roommates had best undergraduate research by the chancellor and everybody was like thinking wth???

Definitely attend all the undergraduate symposiums as your school usually sponsors you for free no questions asked. The professional ones, I got lucky because my post-doc mentor was a member of ASCB and my professor was relatively high up at ATS.

 

[dantt]

*bump*

Anybody else have any opinions?

 

[Haemulon]

*bump*

Anybody else have any opinions?

I think definitely mention the research, but don't have it as the heavy focus. For me, I took a chance and made my PS a discussion of my background in general and the development of my interests, culminating in how they all came together for my motiveation to go to med school. I have many years of intense research experience but barely mentioned it specifically in my PS. I did spend a good bit of space showing my appreciation for the trials and sacrifice of medical training and practice and my long held admiration of physicians. Basically, just tried to give a sense of who I am in my PS. Whereas in my EC's i described in detail my experiences.

 

[dantt]

One more question . . . so I'm actually an engineer.

For my senior project, I designed a breath-activated inhaler. Should I include that in one of the 15 activities??? It was technically part of a couple classes but we went from an idea to a conceptual design with labels and a 3d printed prototype. It's not technically an activity but you have to admit, that's pretty unique!

"For my optional senior project, I led a group of four students mentored by a senior engineer from Omnica Product Development to design a breath activated inhaler. Starting from an idea, most inhalers require coordination between user inhalation and activation and thus often results in inaccurate dosing, we went through the phases of market research, technology selection, product definition, regulatory requirements, product engineering, and proof of principle prototypes. Under the guidance of our mentor, we researched inhalable medications and identified insulin as an economically viable inhalable drug of interest. We researched and chose pressure transducers to detect the change in air pressure following user inhale and exhale to trigger the release of the powdered drug and reverse-engineered the Advair Diskus to come up with a delivery mechanism. We also included a microprocessor that would discourage accidental drug overdose. After we conceptually designed the product, I modeled the inhaler teaching myself Solidworks, a computer aided drawing program, and prototyped the product using a three-dimensional plastic printer. We then presented our design to a panel of engineers and professors and submitted documentation. "

 

[Wookey]

If you're applying MD/PHD, I think it would be OK to focus on research (MD/PhDs correct me if i'm wrong). If not, then less so and more clinical.

 

[gridiron]

One more question . . . so I'm actually an engineer.

For my senior project, I designed a breath-activated inhaler. Should I include that in one of the 15 activities??? It was technically part of a couple classes but we went from an idea to a conceptual design with labels and a 3d printed prototype. It's not technically an activity but you have to admit, that's pretty unique!

"For my optional senior project, I led a group of four students mentored by a senior engineer from Omnica Product Development to design a breath activated inhaler. Starting from an idea, most inhalers require coordination between user inhalation and activation and thus often results in inaccurate dosing, we went through the phases of market research, technology selection, product definition, regulatory requirements, product engineering, and proof of principle prototypes. Under the guidance of our mentor, we researched inhalable medications and identified insulin as an economically viable inhalable drug of interest. We researched and chose pressure transducers to detect the change in air pressure following user inhale and exhale to trigger the release of the powdered drug and reverse-engineered the Advair Diskus to come up with a delivery mechanism. We also included a microprocessor that would discourage accidental drug overdose. After we conceptually designed the product, I modeled the inhaler teaching myself Solidworks, a computer aided drawing program, and prototyped the product using a three-dimensional plastic printer. We then presented our design to a panel of engineers and professors and submitted documentation. "

Hey, thats real cool. We are going to design a artificial pancreas with the help of baxter labs!

 

[dantt]

Hey, thats real cool. We are going to design a artificial pancreas with the help of baxter labs!

That's what I hope the adcom says too 😀

But as you can see, my writing can use some work 🙁

I'm deathly afraid of my application being thrown out with them laughing at my writing. I had my personal statement edited by others but I can't really expect them to look at all of my activity descriptions and secondaries.

 

[gridiron]

That's what I hope the adcom says too 😀

But as you can see, my writing can use some work 🙁

I'm deathly afraid of my application being thrown out with them laughing at my writing. I had my personal statement edited by others but I can't really expect them to look at all of my activity descriptions and secondaries.

Hey, I'm in the same boat as you. I am horrible at writing--thats why I stuck with engineering. Plus, I think that are our practical and design knowledge separates us from a lot of applicants.