Research Experience Essay ... background information?

[nystargate]

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Hey everyone, quick question on the 3rd essay for the application

The prompt says "describe your significant research experiences" and I'm planning on talking about my contribution to the project, what were the results, and what was the significance of the research. I'm wondering how much background information would be appropriate to include before discussing each project I worked on. I don't want to just jump in and start describing what I did without any context. So, how much background do you guys think is appropriate?

The reason I ask is because I have 3 distinct projects I've worked on. Two of them were in the same lab and one was during a summer fellowship with NASA. I really want to highlight all of these experiences but I'm concerned about the character limit. Just describing the background on one project takes up perhaps 1500 characters, so that's a total of 4500 for all 3 and I haven't really described my contribution. Please off your input 😀

Complete side note --- For those of you that have applied or are applying this cycle, I would appreciate your advice on schools to apply to with sub-35 MCAT scores (32R for me). Thanks cancerkiller for the thread you started, it helped, but I don't know many programs that well and how strict they are on the MCAT scores.

 

[URHere]

I think you should be able to provide a decent background for your projects without using up 1500 characters for each description. You only really need to talk about your project's background enough to explain what your main research questions are, provide any field-specific information necessary to understand them, and explain why exactly you are asking those questions in the first place.

I would think of it like a more-detailed version of an abstract. You don't need to provide every detail (and you don't need to talk about other people's work like you would in a publication introduction), just enough to give your work a context.

As for where you should apply with a 32, I would suggest your state school(s), and other state schools that tend to be forgiving such as the SUNYs and OHSU. I had a 32 also when I applied, and from experience I can tell you that the "top" schools didn't show me much love, but there were plenty of schools willing to look past a slightly lower score.

 

[GWD]

When I did it, I think the char limit on that section was around 3,000...

I pretty much limited my descrips to one paragraph for each lab, and maybe 2 paragaphs for my most significant lab.

Don't go overboard with any particular project... nobody is as interested in what you do as you are.

 

[CancerKiller007]

I am just finishing my research essay. I had similar dilemma. I just described little bit of background as a set up to explain my research.

As for the schools, there is no way to predict what an adcom is gonna think. Go with the gutt feeling. For me, I applying to schools with strong cancer research programs. I have started calling some of the schools, so I can gauge how much emphasis they put on MCAT.

 

[PBandJ]

I think you should be able to provide a decent background for your projects without using up 1500 characters for each description. You only really need to talk about your project's background enough to explain what your main research questions are, provide any field-specific information necessary to understand them, and explain why exactly you are asking those questions in the first place.

I would think of it like a more-detailed version of an abstract. You don't need to provide every detail (and you don't need to talk about other people's work like you would in a publication introduction), just enough to give your work a context.

As for where you should apply with a 32, I would suggest your state school(s), and other state schools that tend to be forgiving such as the SUNYs and OHSU. I had a 32 also when I applied, and from experience I can tell you that the "top" schools didn't show me much love, but there were plenty of schools willing to look past a slightly lower score.

One or two sentences of background should do the trick. Think of it as a really short abstract, with a few sentences of background / motivation, results, and conclusions (even if they are only preliminary conclusions), and don't forget to include a brief description of what YOU specifically contributed to the project. Definitely emphasize points where you shined as a budding independent scientist (e.g. if you developed a new protocol, wrote a significant amount of a manuscript, etc.).

I have gone through the application process with a sub-32 MCAT score (just finished my first year of med school). It's not easy, but it's doable. I think what helped me a lot was having the ability to write and speak confidently about my research experience and my research abilities. I'm pretty sure that my score shut a lot of doors at the top 10/20 schools, but I did get 5 interviews overall, which just goes to show that not every school is completely obsessed with MCAT scores.

Good luck!

 

[ecoli]

my problem was that I started to get bogged down with too much methods and not enough background. Putting in more allowed me to make the essay more interesting. I'm not done with it yet, though, so I'm not sure how the 10k character limit is going to work out.

 

[yuc]

We don't cite references in this essay, right?

 

[nystargate]

Yeah, I'm not citing any references. I'm just saying things like, "it has been established" or "previous experiments have determined..." I'm not planning on including much background research other than what's necessary to explain how my project was developed.

 

[ecoli]

In my case, My project got started because another scientist basically gave me (or my PI rather, who then gave it to me) all her bacteria strains and said "good luck with that, I'm not working on it anymore." So, obviously I have to credit her for these samples.

The good part, is that if your PI or department director is a big name in the field, referencing them can make yourself look better 😛.

 

[yuc]

hmm. by referencing, i meant the proper citations (for a paper and such).

 

[ecoli]

hmm. by referencing, i meant the proper citations (for a paper and such).

oh yeah... well that word look weird in an essay format anyway. I doubt they're interested in that stuff anyway, and wouldn't likely have time to read background papers.

 

[sunshine8i8]

Hmm...
One of my friends wrote her research experience essay like a grant proposal; she said her MSTP interviews were impressed by that since I guess most people don't do that. Just putting it out there.
Although, she only wrote about her big overarching project from 1 lab; I can definitely commiserate with those who have multiple projects/labs to be writing about. I definitely did mine more abstract style. Background info, although needs to be short and concise, I think is key since you can't guarantee your reader has a background in your particular (sub)field.

 

[ecoli]

I think background info is the most important. Adcoms want to know you did, but you should also demonstrate that you know WHY you did it.

I think trying to make it sound like an abstract is a bad way to go, because it'll wind up sounding dry, and probably more detail than they care about.

Writing about background is simply more interesting to me, rather than taking them through all the steps in which you did your project (which they might know already, anyway).

There's probably no right way to do this though, and each person and each project will have different requirements, depending on what message you want to convey.

Personally, I'd rather give an overveiw of the multiple projects I have worked/am working on, which hopefully will show admissions that I'm coming from a diverse scientific background. This makes sense for me, because I stated in other essays that I'm interested in integrating different areas of research.

 

[Laviathann]

Is it assumed that you will give a brief description of each of your research experiences (i.e. undergrad, summer fellowships, and post undergrad research) if you have had multiple?

I assumed this until my PI told me I should just focus on the one major project which has comprised 70% of all my research experience, has been far more involved, and it by far the most interesting. He is very convinced it would be a mistake talk a little about several (i.e. four) projects. He argues that my undergrad (2 years) and summer experiences were not significant to full time research for a year plus doing cutting edge translational research.

What do you y'all think? Has anyone just focused on one major project?

 

[ecoli]

I focused on two that were done in the same lab, done over the course of 3 -4 years. I briefly mentioned my experiences in high school as part of the intro.

I mentioned 2 because the first project we're submitting for publication, but was done with a grad student mentor. The second is still in the relatively early stages but I'm doing the work independently.

Since its the same lab, the two projects are related in some way.

If you've only worked on 1 major project, I'd say just talk about that one. But if you've had multiple significant experiences, and you think you can use the space effectively to talk about both, I'd say go for it.

 

[Laviathann]

thanks ecoli. do you (or ayone) have other summer experiences etc. that will be in your work activities section and will not be discussed in your research experiences essay?

 

[nystargate]

thanks ecoli. do you (or ayone) have other summer experiences etc. that will be in your work activities section and will not be discussed in your research experiences essay?

Yes, I have two research projects/internships I'm putting in the work activities section but for sure will not be discussing in research experiences essay. One was summer before undergrad and the other was a 3-month project, but in both of these labs I just worked on whatever else was happening.

My advice would be not to worry if you're discussing 1 or 4 projects, focus on the ones you really contributed to. If you developed the project, got results, presented or anything talk about it. Just be careful about the length of each research project you discuss. Giving a little background/results/conclusion statement for each project takes up a lot of space when you have 4 projects to discuss.

 

[ecoli]

thanks ecoli. do you (or ayone) have other summer experiences etc. that will be in your work activities section and will not be discussed in your research experiences essay?

yeah, i had research in high school that I'm not mentioning in any detail in the essay.

In college, I've only been at one lab, even during the summer. Also, I only talk about the research I did, but didn't mention the two summer fellowships I received at that lab.

 

[silverlion]

Is it wise to end the essay with a slight reference to the work that one would be starting soon?? I am about to start work at NCI as a postbacc....I've had three "significant" research experiences during summer breaks in the past...I finished it all within 7000 characters and wanted to say something about the work that I would be involved with soon...is this a bad idea?

 

[reine1jb]

Is it wise to end the essay with a slight reference to the work that one would be starting soon?? I am about to start work at NCI as a postbacc....I've had three "significant" research experiences during summer breaks in the past...I finished it all within 7000 characters and wanted to say something about the work that I would be involved with soon...is this a bad idea?

I don't think so..When I was writing my primary essays, I was just starting my summer program..I made sure to write about my summer program last year and obviously the lab I have worked in extensively but I did mention stuff for this summer like this is a little bit of the background, this is the problem this is how we're going to approach it...ect I definitely didn't spend that much time on it

 

[PBandJ]

i concur with the poster above. the AdComs want to hear about your past experiences, not your future ones, so focus on what you've done so far. you can always send them an update letter later on if you feel that they should know in detail about your current experience.

just because the total is X characters doesn't mean that you should feel the need to use that many. if i were reading the essays, i would prefer concise, well-written essays.