MD/PhD Essays

[DeadCactus]

"Describe your significant research experiences. Include the name and title of your research mentor and your contributions to the project. Also list any publications, awards or presentations, which have resulted from your research."

Is it appropriate to spend a portion of the essay (1/3 or so) on the background to your research? On one hand, it seems necassary before I can go on to explain what I did and like it would make it clear that I understand what it is I'm doing. On the other hand, do they really care about the research itself or do they just want a list of "I've done this, this, and this"?

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[seraph524]

Some background is inevitable (and often required depending on your area of research), but mostly they are looking for a list of accomplishments in essay format.

 

[johnnyanders]

Do they want a detailed explanation of the experimental approach? Results? Or is it more like "I did this experiment, which taught me patience..."?

 

[gstrub]

No, they do not want you to describe that in the essay. You will have the opportunity for that in an interview. They want you to briefly summarize your experience. You can say, "employing western blotting, RT-PCR, and EMSA to analyze the effects of XYZ," but not "then I washed the membrane 3x with TBST, probed with primary antibody at 1:500, then sat on my *** for a week when none of it worked"..etc

 

[LunderKind]

Do they want a detailed explanation of the experimental approach? Results? Or is it more like "I did this experiment, which taught me patience..."?

More likely they want you to say "I did experiment x, which showed y, and y is important to saving humanity because of abc..." It's about the science, not about life lessons...although life lessons can surely be taught in the lab as well.

You will need to put some background, but I agree with the above, that you want to focus mostly on your contributions to the project. For every major project you have contributed to, it is probably appropriate to introduce the importance with about a paragraph or two of background.

 

[DeadCactus]

More likely they want you to say "I did experiment x, which showed y, and y is important to saving humanity because of abc..." It's about the science, not about life lessons...although life lessons can surely be taught in the lab as well.

You will need to put some background, but I agree with the above, that you want to focus mostly on your contributions to the project. For every major project you have contributed to, it is probably appropriate to introduce the importance with about a paragraph or two of background.

That's basically what I did:

(1/5) Description of when I worked, for who, in what lab, and what the lab did.

(2/5) Why the work was important and the basic theory behind the work.

(2/5) My specific project, it's relevance to the overall work, and what I contributed.

(1/5) Awards.

Sound good? Maybe emphasize the last two bits more?

 

[LunderKind]

That's basically what I did:

(1/5) Description of when I worked, for who, in what lab, and what the lab did.

(2/5) Why the work was important and the basic theory behind the work.

(2/5) My specific project, it's relevance to the overall work, and what I contributed.

(1/5) Awards.

Sound good? Maybe emphasize the last two bits more?

Just my two cents from my own experience:

Given that everyone is applying with different amounts of research experience, I'm sure these ratios will be somewhat applicant specific. I applied with a lot of research experience (2 years undergrad + 2 years full-time); thus, my specific projects took up nearly 60% of my essay. When writing about my specific projects, I found it helpful to look back at abstracts that I had previously written as a guide for what points to emphasize. About 30% of my essay was background. You can definitely cut down on the first portion (the description of when and for whom you worked) to make room for more research...this can be covered in a pretty concise paragraph.

Someone else is free to disagree with me here...but I don't know how important awards are to this essay, since you will probably cover these in the activities portion of the application. You should certainly mention them in the essay if you have room, but each award should probably only consume about a sentence. It may actually make sense to merge your awards with the description of when and for whom you have worked.

Overall, you seem to be on the right track...maybe just see if there is anything you can add about your specific work or possibly about another project in the lab to which you have contributed. Definitely have your PI look over this essay if he/she is willing to do so!