Writing a SOP: Admit Weaknesses?

[psychologue]

From what I've read, the most important elements of your SOP are to explain your commitment to research as well as your fit with the specific program/mentor. Okay.

Is this also the place to address weaknesses in your application?

For example, I majored in Psych in college but was not involved in clinical research because I hadn't decided I wanted to do it as a career, and there were practically no clinical course offerings/faculty (this was a choice on the part of the department). Should I explain my lack of this type of experience in SOP? Or gloss over it with my other RA experience?

Another example is that I do not have any independent research background. I had the option to do this in college but chose not to in order to pursue another type of independent project (international ngo work) which was very successful and continues to this day. I made this decision based on my career goals at the time. Explain this or focus on my other strengths?

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[bpsydme]

From what I've read, the most important elements of your SOP are to explain your commitment to research as well as your fit with the specific program/mentor. Okay.

Is this also the place to address weaknesses in your application?

For example, I majored in Psych in college but was not involved in clinical research because I hadn't decided I wanted to do it as a career, and there were practically no clinical course offerings/faculty (this was a choice on the part of the department). Should I explain my lack of this type of experience in SOP? Or gloss over it with my other RA experience?

Another example is that I do not have any independent research background. I had the option to do this in college but chose not to in order to pursue another type of independent project (international ngo work) which was very successful and continues to this day. I made this decision based on my career goals at the time. Explain this or focus on my other strengths?

You mentioned a) you didn't get involved in any clinical research and then b) you don't have any independent research background...but yet you have "other RA experiences". So my question to you is 1) how many years of experience in research do you have and 2) are they related/relevant in any way to your topic of interest/POI's topic of interest. If it's the case that all you have is animal/microbiology research experience pipetting cells and washing beakers, you probably want to take out some extra time to obtain more clinical/independent research experience.

With that in mind, I would definitely NOT say the bolded in your SOP. You never want to place the blame on your alma mater, your professor, or anyone else. Instead, I would say something like you seeked out clinical research experience after college, when you realized you wanted to study blah blah blah. Even if there were really no clinical research experience at your undergrad, you could've gotten that experience elsewhere, and plenty of people do that, so that's no excuse.

For the second paragraph, I don't know what you mean by lack of independent research experience. If you're talking about an honors/senior thesis, that's fine since I never did one and no one seemed to care. However, if you mean you don't have any experience in research past data entry or other grunt work, or if you have never tried to analyze any data on your own, it could be problematic not only for your SOP but for your application in general. Hope that helps.

FYI, google "kisses of death in grad school apps". There was a thread about it a while back on here, I thought all the advice given on there were pretty true.

 

[LucidMind]

In my opinion you should definitely NOT talk about your weaknesses. It seems like all it would do is to plant a tiny seed of doubt in the reader's mind, and that could be what ends up separating your application into the "deny" pile rather than the "interview" pile. Remember, good programs get hundreds of applicants for less than 10 spots! Definitely focus on strengths....everybody is going to have negatives in their background, but NOT everybody is going to point them out. Better to let them remain tacit than outwardly stated.

 

[WisNeuro]

In my opinion you should definitely NOT talk about your weaknesses. It seems like all it would do is to plant a tiny seed of doubt in the reader's mind, and that could be what ends up separating your application into the "deny" pile rather than the "interview" pile. Remember, good programs get hundreds of applicants for less than 10 spots! Definitely focus on strengths....everybody is going to have negatives in their background, but NOT everybody is going to point them out. Better to let them remain tacit than outwardly stated.

Depends on the situation. In terms of internship and postdoc, the programs want to see what they offer you in training in some way. If you already have the exact same internship experience, then there is no reason you should be going there. You can talk about your weaknesses in a strategic way. And it's actually the people that can talk about those weaknesses and how they would be addressed by certain programs that get the interviews.