Grad student CV: Listing undergrad stuff/posters & articles from same project?

[futureapppsy2]

Hi all,

I'm a first year grad student in a PhD program. When I was applying, I obviously listed my undergrad research experience, clinical experience, thesis, awards/scholarships, and a couple of poster presentations at undergrad conferences. At what point should I take these off my CV? On one hand, I've seen a fourth year grad student list UG conference poster presentations that he was an author on on his CV. OTOH, I've seen people say that after you get in, undergrad stuff, with the exception of publications and maybe presentations doesn't matter. Does anyone have any ideas about the general practices for this?

On a related note, on another thread O Gurl said:

Also for future reference, be advised that listing the same project in more than one format (publication and conference presentation) becomes more problematic at later training stages as it may look like CV-"padding".

Is this true in your experience? In the lab I worked in as an undergrad and the labs I work in now as a grad student, we typically get 1-2 presentations or posters out of our projects in addition to one or more publications. Pretty much all of the posters and presentations I've been in author on are linked to projects that we've published or are planning to publish, so if I took them off, it would look like I pretty much never presented. OTOH, I know CV padding can look quite bad, so I want to avoid giving any impression of that...

Thanks in advance

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[cara susanna]

Not sure about the first question and was wondering that myself. I'm also wondering something about graduate CVs as well: how do you differentiate between projects you were an RA on and projects you're actually a collaborator/PI on, which were not published or presented? Do you list them under the same heading like "Research Experience" or should you separate them? Do you have to list your responsibilities even for projects that you headed?

As for the second, I was told it's okay to have multiple presentations for one project as long as you only put one on your CV.

 

[krisrox]

Hi all,

I'm a first year grad student in a PhD program. When I was applying, I obviously listed my undergrad research experience, clinical experience, thesis, awards/scholarships, and a couple of poster presentations at undergrad conferences. At what point should I take these off my CV? On one hand, I've seen a fourth year grad student list UG conference poster presentations that he was an author on on his CV. OTOH, I've seen people say that after you get in, undergrad stuff, with the exception of publications and maybe presentations doesn't matter. Does anyone have any ideas about the general practices for this?

On a related note, on another thread O Gurl said:



Is this true in your experience? In the lab I worked in as an undergrad and the labs I work in now as a grad student, we typically get 1-2 presentations or posters out of our projects in addition to one or more publications. Pretty much all of the posters and presentations I've been in author on are linked to projects that we've published or are planning to publish, so if I took them off, it would look like I pretty much never presented. OTOH, I know CV padding can look quite bad, so I want to avoid giving any impression of that...

Thanks in advance

I'd keep anything on the CV that wasn't strictly undergrad (i.e., anything presented at a national rather than undergrad conference). Publications are all fair game, in my opinion.

 

[Ollie123]

I would leave undergrad stuff on as long as it is relevant. Heck, many senior faculty still have awards, scholarships, things like that from undergrad listed.

Let's be careful in talking about things as "projects"...this can get confusing. There is nothing wrong (at least that I have ever heard) about having multiple presentations/publications coming out of the same study. If there are two presentations that are completely unrelated save for the fact that they were part of a larger project it is absolutely legit to put both on there. Some people stretch it (i.e. publishing each DV as a separate paper) and that can get ridiculous, but many studies can legitimately answer multiple questions and that is fine. However you don't want to see the exact same poster title presented to the department, the school, the local hospital, the state conference, and a national conference all as separate presentations. THAT is padding, and obvious padding. List the national one and call it a day.

I've never heard that posters should be "removed" once the study is published...that seems a bit non-sensical to me, and I don't know that I've ever heard of someone doing that. All my fellow grad students do it. All our faculty do it. All the faculty at my old institution did it too. Every CV I've seen from others has done it. Maybe I was misunderstanding what was being said?

Now what you will frequently see is "Select posters from past 5 years" or something like that. This makes sense to me. It might be good for giving you a feel for someone's research direction for things that are lagging in publication, but once someone reaches the faculty level, no one is going to care about poster presentations. Heck, I do them for fun and to get my face out there for networking but even as a grad student I don't feel like they are worth terribly much. When a school is hiring a faculty member, I highly doubt the phrase "Well, he has lots of really great publications in top-tier journals, but only a handful of posters so maybe we should go with someone else..." has ever come up.

 

[O Gurl]

On a related note, on another thread O Gurl said:



Is this true in your experience? In the lab I worked in as an undergrad and the labs I work in now as a grad student, we typically get 1-2 presentations or posters out of our projects in addition to one or more publications. Pretty much all of the posters and presentations I've been in author on are linked to projects that we've published or are planning to publish, so if I took them off, it would look like I pretty much never presented. OTOH, I know CV padding can look quite bad, so I want to avoid giving any impression of that...

Thanks in advance

Hey, I think I need to clarify. I don't mean that listing related products is a problem. That is quite common and actually a GOOD thing. Ideally, a project should yield quite a few great products. For instance, I was able to get 3 articles out of my dissertation. However, I was careful not to repeat the same findings. I also presented my preliminary findings from my dissertation at a conference before I defended, which was listed on my CV. So that is 4 products from 1 project. I've been advised that as an intern, the poster (that later turned into a whole dissertation) has been OK to list. I may drop it from my post-doc applications as I now have articles presenting the same data and several other posters to demonstrate that I am familiar with presenting at conferences.

When I say padding, I mean listing a poster that you presented at a regional conference and then at a national meeting as two separate entries. In that case, you would just list the national. Or perhaps presenting a poster at a conference and later turning it into a paper (without any additional analysis). In that case, you would only list the paper as peer-reviewed articles are more prestigious. Or another example would be giving an lecture at your departmental colloquium and later at a regional conference. In that case you list one. My understanding is that these rules are more lax for trainees as we are still building CVs. So PLEASE check with a mentor before taking anything off your CV.