research ON the professors

[whirlpool4]

Plan: immunology / microbiology PhD

I was going to write a generic SOP for all my schools until I found out about the "fit" portion, so now I'm going through and seeing what I like about each individual school and with whom I'd like to work. How much research should I do about their research? I am planning to scroll through all the faculty, pick out all the ones whose topics seemed interesting, read some of their papers, and mention my interest in the SOP, but it seems like it would take forever!!

I am taking a gap year, so I have a lot of time to do so, but it sounds dreadful to take on.

I've also read that you're not supposed to mention specific professors in the SOP?

Would I also be expected / encouraged to talk about papers I've read in the interview as well?

Thanks in advance

[eklavya]

I was going to write a generic SOP for all my schools until I found out about the "fit" portion, so now I'm going through and seeing what I like about each individual school and with whom I'd like to work. How much research should I do about their research? I am planning to scroll through all the faculty, pick out all the ones whose topics seemed interesting, read some of their papers, and mention my interest in the SOP...

yes, this much research is enough

but it seems like it would take forever!!

yea, it does. i did it myself.. took a couple of months at least to go through their bios, current papers, focus areas, and such. but it was completely worth it.

I've also read that you're not supposed to mention specific professors in the SOP?

not true! you can, and should mention few professors you envision yourself working with in that department in your SoP. in sciences, it is pretty common to name names and explain why you want to work with them.

Would I also be expected / encouraged to talk about papers I've read in the interview as well?

didn't happen to me, and i think it's not very common. but if you have read the papers, it gives a lot of things to talk about when you meet people in person. it also tells them that you did your homework very well, and might/will be impressed with your dedicated passion.

[emmm]

Yes, it is a lot of work. Make sure you budget your time so you don't have to rush at the end (too much, annyway).

It IS worth it! Good Luck!!

[Johndg2]

you don't really need to mention specifics about their research. The department wants to know if your interest/background aligns with some of the prof's focus. I wrote more about my research background and how it could benefit the department, and it worked for me.

[soramimicake]

I'm a little late in responding to this topic, but...that seems like an awful lot of research to do. When I was writing mine, I honestly went to the web pages and picked out professors whose work seemed interesting and gave a brief explanation as to why I thought it was interesting. I feel like reading multiple papers of each person's work is kind of a waste of time. However, I also didn't make that a huge part of my SOP--I think it was the last two sentences or something in the section where I would talk about my interest in the school. So yeah, seriously, don't burn yourself out reading a bunch of papers to write a few sentences.

Also, in a similar vein, when you go on your interviews, you don't need to read a bunch of papers from each person you're interviewing with. Towards the end I got really lazy and knew maybe only the general field that the person was studying, and my interviews all went fine. They're gonna tell you everything they want you to know anyway.

[Genomic Repairman]

If you are going to mention professors by name in your SOP, you may contact them in advance and see if they are taking on students in the future. If they aren't its just a waste of time.