Research Experience Essay

[roca88]

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[mercaptovizadeh]

Hi,

I've already written this essay, but I could modify it if advice here warrants that. According to the prompt, it seems that they want you to basically focus on one research project that was significant. For me, I wrote about a project that i presented twice, did a poster on, etc. However, while I was doing that project, I actually had a smaller project going on as well, but I did not get very far with it; I did though co-create a working protocol, which my lab seemed to say was important. Can I include information regarding this other project, like stuff you'd have in an introduction and where the study could be headed? I think it's the more interesting material, having applications in neurodegenerative disorders and i think the reader would find it more interesting.

Also, does anyone think I should include the work that I am currently doing but have not yet finished?? It too is very interesting, moreso than the one project I have written about in-depth. Or should I leave this out and talk about it at a potential interview when it will have been completed?

Thanks in advance as always for all help/advice! This forum is great!

Yeah, I have the exact same question, and I suppose that many aspiring MSTPers have do to.

My essay is 15000 characters now, so I think it is way too detailed and I must cut it down. At the same time, I want it to be descriptive enough to interest the reader, since I don't have a publication I can just cite (which would save a lot of space, and seem less rambling, I suppose).

 

[huseyin]

Yeah, I have the exact same question, and I suppose that many aspiring MSTPers have do to.

My essay is 15000 characters now, so I think it is way too detailed and I must cut it down. At the same time, I want it to be descriptive enough to interest the reader, since I don't have a publication I can just cite (which would save a lot of space, and seem less rambling, I suppose).

Well, my essay is around 11,000. I did include two of the projects that I have done. One of them was a failure at the end and the other one led to a first author. I did not include litreally any experimental details. For instance if it is a tissue culture experiment and I have done multiple experiments with it, I have just stated the conclusions and thought process. How one of my findings or something in the literature motivated me to perform another experiment. That is being said, I guess my essay looks more like the discussion part of a broad interest journal(Current Bio, Nature etc. )

regards,
hk

 

[stherling]

According to the prompt, it seems that they want you to basically focus on one research project that was significant.

...

Also, does anyone think I should include the work that I am currently doing but have not yet finished?? It too is very interesting, moreso than the one project I have written about in-depth. Or should I leave this out and talk about it at a potential interview when it will have been completed?

Are you talking about the AMCAS research experience essay? Where does it say you should focus on a single project? This is the prompt I saw:

"Please describe your significant research experiences. In your statement, please specify your research supervisor's name and affiliation, the duration of the experience, the nature of the problem studied, and your contributions to the project. The available space is 10,000 characters. "

I took that to mean I should describe ALL my significant encounters with research, which for me was a summer of ecological research in high school, my honors research (experimental psych) in senior year, and a year of working in a neuropsych lab full time, on various projects. For each of those I gave enough background info (i hope) such that readers can understand what we were studying and why, and described my level of involvement in the study and/or manuscript prep, and whether it got published/submitted.

Then again, this is my first time going through this app, so i don't really know anything. 😛

regarding unfinished work, I would definitely include it, especially since it seems more interesting to YOU. there's no shame in saying a project is still ongoing, and it'll give them a prompt to ask you about it during interviews...

 

[Sonya]

definetly write about ALL your activities.

I'm writing mine is an into/method/result/conclusion format, followed by a section that says what is my role. I am actually using those titles.

My brother, who is a MD PhD insisted I use passive voice for it all... it's a pain to convert it all to passive, but I am.

I have, like five research experiences since 1999 - all significant. so, that's 2-3 K characters for each... and it's getting really tough to cut it down to that... i'm at 12-13K totally.