MD/PhD application question (Research Experience)

[rofl]

How much science should we talk about? Should we make it available to the layman or to what a PhD molecular biology faculty wants to hear? Make it inaccessible to the public

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[WeAreNotRobots]

How much science should we talk about? Should we make it available to the layman or to what a PhD molecular biology faculty wants to hear? Make it inaccessible to the public

I think this essay is all about the science: from the focus of your lab as a whole, to the scope and aim of your particular project(s), to your particular experimental design and execution on said projects, to results and analysis of your data. You could probably get as technical as discussions during lab meetings or presentations at conferences, but I wouldn't go out of my way to dumb it down. Also discuss any presentations, pubs, or grants you received or contributed to. I would aim for clarity and assume the lowest education of someone in the audience is that of yourself. I'm pretty sure most, if not all, people that read it will either be MD, PhD in some kinda science, or both.

 

[ponyo]

How much science should we talk about? Should we make it available to the layman or to what a PhD molecular biology faculty wants to hear? Make it inaccessible to the public

From what I've heard: It should be the level of a seminar that you give to people who are also in the sciences but not your own field. Think of reading Nature or JBC or Angewandte; even an undergrad with basic pre-med classes can understand the general principles of what the authors are doing and why as long as she reads through the introduction, but what they have written is by no means "dumbed down". Explain any jargon words that would have to be explained in a Nature paper (e.g. "hDAT transport" needs to be explained; "transmembrane protein" doesn't).

 

[Lil Mick]

Present it like you would present it to a PhD in biology (not necessarily your field). Most of MD/PhD admissions committee members are researchers (mostly in biology-related disciplines), some of whom are MD/PhDs at that school.

For that, you don't need to get into the nitty-gritty details about what you did. Just present what your project was, what your role was, and what you learned about being a researcher from that experience. There is plenty of time to discuss the details at interviews (those are the questions you're asked in MD/PhD interviews).

Feel free to PM me if you want me to look over the essay

 

[rofl]

Hey ^^ I might take you up on that offer

 

[ImmunoLove]

I think this essay is all about the science: from the focus of your lab as a whole, to the scope and aim of your particular project(s), to your particular experimental design and execution on said projects, to results and analysis of your data. You could probably get as technical as discussions during lab meetings or presentations at conferences, but I wouldn't go out of my way to dumb it down. Also discuss any presentations, pubs, or grants you received or contributed to. I would aim for clarity and assume the lowest education of someone in the audience is that of yourself. I'm pretty sure most, if not all, people that read it will either be MD, PhD in some kinda science, or both.

Nice! Sometimes it's easy to forget what the task at hand really is.