research essay what to include

[chebella7604]

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I have been working on my research essay for a week now and this is long considering that I wrote my Personal Statement and Why MD-PhD essays within a few hours. (And I am very please with them both despite how quickly I was able to get them done). This research essay, however, has been coming slowly and is sub par besides....

I cannot go into detail about some of my research because it is still ongoing and my PI asked me not to 'give away the farm.' I have written very briefly and vaguely about what I am doing and the two main things that I learned from it so far. That being said, I just feel like this is not enough. But I also feel that if I discuss how my research has driven me towards medicine and the MD-PhD program, I will be reiterating my other 2 essays.

Any advice? Any at all, please. I'm so frustrated! I don't want this to be deal-breaker.

 

[Remuneration]

Have you gone over the essay with said PI? I had a somewhat similar situation and looked for balance between discussing common knowledge background on my work (I.E. prior results in the field that lead to the development of the project), and describing my work in a manner that is descriptive of the process in general without giving away important details. After achieving what I thought was a good balance, I went over it with my PI to confirm both that I didn't leave out important details and described it in a way, as my PI puts it, fitting for an aspiring researcher rather than a lab tech, and to confirm that I was appropriately vague.
Some examples from my essay are (paraphrased):
I tell them that one of my projects involves developing a method for co-localization of miRNA and mRNA signals by ISH, and mention the import of co-localization in allowing us to potentially determine what cell types, etc, miRNAs are expressed in. However, I don't describe the suggestive (unpublished) results of some of our preliminary ISHs.
I explain previous results suggesting novelty seeking behavior in rats is correlated with prospensity to self-administer drugs of abuse, and the role of rats selectively bred for the trait in our study without telling them the particular (unpublished) differences we may or may not have discovered between rats bred to be high or low responders to novelty.

 

[Neuronix]

I cannot go into detail about some of my research because it is still ongoing and my PI asked me not to 'give away the farm.' I have written very briefly and vaguely about what I am doing and the two main things that I learned from it so far.

I think Renumeration's example is great. This is usually a non-issue. You speak fairly generally about your project in an essay. Give the background known in your field and say what you're working on in terms that are general enough that your PI isn't unhappy but specific enough that adcoms have an idea what you're doing. The vast majority of the people who decide on your application will not be in your specific subfield of science, and won't care about nit picky details anyway. What you write needs to be general enough that any biomedical scientist can understand, whether they be chemists or physicists or cell biologists. MDs who review your app will be especially impressed/happy if you can make it clear to them and how it is or could be important for medicine.

For example you don't have to be very specific about exactly what you found or what specific protein isoform you're looking at for example. You can say you're looking at "a protein" that is implicated in X disease for example. Or you can say what protein you're looking at, but not give away the novel part of your lab's work (an interaction, a factoid about the protein, etc). You can easily talk about how the protein has previously been studied and talk about how your current work could have greater impacts for science/medicine. Just put something together that you think is appropriate and show your PI. I do think it's important to talk about your role in the project, and where possible talk about (at least some of) the techniques you used in that lab as well as anything concrete you earned (poster, abstract, publication, etc).

But I also feel that if I discuss how my research has driven me towards medicine and the MD-PhD program, I will be reiterating my other 2 essays.

You can mention MD/PhD in your personal statement, but typically the personal statement is more clinically geared. That being said, don't be too scared of restating yourself, as long as it isn't extensive and/or copy-paste material. Frankly, many people don't read your essays, and those who do often skim, read one essay and not the other, etc... You need to make good clear stories in both essays as well as each AMCAS activity. Even if you explained the research in your essay that you did in the AMCAS activity, you still need to discuss it on AMCAS.

 

[injunjoe]

well, damn. i was pretty in-depth in my research essay (i talked about the specific proteins i used and my results), but my PIs seemed pretty cool with it. I made sure that someone with a research background should definitely know what I was talking about, though. Was this a bad idea?

 

[Neuronix]

There is no correct way to write an essay. You can be as in depth or not in depth as you see fit. Obviously there are essays that are too focused on nitpicky detail to the exclusion of other important things (application, contribution of the applicant, time spent in lab, etc) or are just ridiculous in the amount of technical detail. i.e. Several paragraphs just describing a project and the results? Not good. It also shouldn't be written like a journal article and shouldn't include references. On the other hand there are essays that give little to no information. The rest is a spectrum with no specific cutoff.

 

[chebella7604]

Wow these are all really helpful! And I was worried that no one would respond!

Thanks so much. I will be discussing my research a little more thoroughly on your advice.

 

[chebella7604]

well, damn. i was pretty in-depth in my research essay (i talked about the specific proteins i used and my results), but my PIs seemed pretty cool with it. I made sure that someone with a research background should definitely know what I was talking about, though. Was this a bad idea?

I'm sure you're totally fine if your PIs were fine with it. The only reason I'm concerned is because my PI specifically asked me to be vague, otherwise I'd be all into detail about it cause it's what I do!

 

[Tyreeq Wood]

Yea, I totaly agree wif the prompt you have. sounds intriguing. you single?