Dedi

Julliet: I want to up-vote your post a couple hundred times. This is exactly what I'm looking for in an advisor! I hope I'm putting my faith into the right person...I know I should have multiple POIs, but the POI I'm going to work with (a week and a half to go!) has been supportive and understanding, timely on his feedback, and receptive to my research interests. However, it's been over e-mail and the phone so far, so I'll see if I did make a good choice in a few weeks.

My goodness, I feel like it was yesterday when I applied for undergrad! I am planning to apply to 2 programs for one school (same POI; see signature). I might also apply to University of Delaware for their Behavioral Neuroscience program. It depends if the POI has funding for me (which reminds me, I should e-mail her regarding that now that the 2014 application season is over...). Honestly, I've done my research and e-mailed potential advisors--those are the only two schools that I would be happy with. I don't want to apply to a grad school for the sake of going to grad school. I want to apply to a grad school because I really want to go to that grad school. If I don't get accepted, there's always next year. It's not going to sprout legs and run away. My research interest is epigenetic approaches to caged stereotypies. I have not asked my professors for LORs, though I'm sure they know I will ask them for one. I have pretty close relationships with them. I plan to take the GRE during the summer (August, most likely. I haven't actually registered). I've been doing a little studying here and there, but the bulk of my studying will probably be the next couple of months. This summer, I am a research volunteer/intern in my U of T POI's lab. I am also editing my SOPs for grad school, editing my research proposal for grants/fellowships, and starting to fill out those grant/fellowship applications.

That is good advice. I wasn't sure if I should explain my low grades in my first year (it was an adjustment problem). I am allowed a page or less for the bio program I want to apply to, but I have a little more flexibility for the psych program. My POI understands, but the admissions committee may not. Would it be a good idea if I explained my low grades in my psych SOP but not the bio (especially since my POI will be more involved with the bio application)?

My advice (even though you've already decided) is to consider the amount of independence you have with the research project. Will you be creating the methodology? Will you be writing the proposal? Will you analyze and interpret the results? Getting a paper published in a prestigious journal wouldn't be the point, but rather the experience that can be added to the SOP (which I believe is still important). I feel that you would probably have more independence at your home institution, so I don't need to convince you otherwise.

It might seem ambitious, but I'm planning to apply for the Canada's STEM Award. However, I'm going to wait a few weeks into the summer (Mid to late May) before I commit myself to the application. I want to make sure that my POI and I will get along outside of e-mail and the phone.

Okay, let me take this one paragraph at a time...(by the way you posted this in the wrong forum, but that can be moved) A fascination for science and technology and a keen interest in the ever-growing world of technology motivated me to take up (maybe different wording here. "Pursue" might be a better word to use) engineering. I chose to major in Instrumentation Engineering with an intense urge to delve into the challenging field. During my undergraduate program I learned the various fundamentals of Instrumentation Engineering, which with practical course work reinforced interest. Whenever I used to watch megafactories , a television show in National Geographic channel in my school days I was fascinated by technology used by industries like automobiles where robotics working in place of human and assembling parts, fixing doors and many other works. (Get rid of this) Technology development from manual to automatic working made more (awkward wording. "Inspired me"?) to take up Instrumentation Engineering in my bachelor degree in BVB College of Engineering & Technology a well rated college in India. (Integrate this sentence into your first paragraph) During the course of my undergraduate study I was exposed to various courses with applications like Control systems, Power electronic, Electrical measurements, Linear Integrated Circuits, Electronics, digital circuits, Digital Signal Processing, and Micro Controllers. But ("However"?) I always had an interest in PLC (What's PLC? Make it clear) programming. To acquire more knowledge in PLC programming, I obtained CAE (Certified Automation Engineer) from Technocrat Automation Pvt Limited (IAO Accredited), Chennai. With ("I received"? This sentence is a fragment) 2 months hands on practical experience (Do not bold anything!) in Industrial Automation Tools specializing in PLC, SCADA and VFD. I am very interested to do a MS in automation and control engineering in your esteemed college. I realize the need for me to study at the center stage of activity in these fields at your college in USA. My earnest desire to continue my future studies at your graduate school stems from "it being?" one of the top colleges, having a fine record of academic excellence and backed up by expert faculty and research facilities. The other reason why I want to study at your esteemed college is that it provides the kind of exposure needed to broaden my thinking and indo (I'm not quite sure what this word is supposed to be. "Undo"?) any insular prejudices that might be still prevalent in me. Your college is a confluence of people from every nationality, religion and race. Overall development of the personality can be done (Ick, passive voice. Reword this to active voice) and it helps me to broaden my concept from the narrower confines of nationalism to internationalism. This paragraph changes the tone suddenly to using flowery language. It almost sounds like you didn't write it based on your tone from previous paragraphs. I am fully aware about your curriculum and I aver that I have the necessary commitment, intelligence and stamina to look forward to do it all. (Show, not tell. Be convincing that you do have the commitment, intelligence and stamina with examples from undergrad) I am convinced that my study at your department would be meaningful and rewarding experience. I look forward to have a long and profitable association with your esteemed college. I especially thank you for giving me the opportunity given me to express about myself. (Get rid of this sentence) Mostly grammatical errors. Also the change in voice needs to be revised; go with one or the other. Just my two cents. You probably want an English major to go over most of the grammatical errors because I probably missed a few. I was looking for the major errors.

Ahh. I'm not a bar person and will go to a movie every now and then. I'll probably end up spending most of my time at the University with going out farther west during the weekends. Thank you for the info.

I will be going to U of T--Scarborough this summer to do research with a POI. Anyone know what that area's like?

I was told when starting an SOP, to just write and never look back. Don't worry about the page limits or if you're spelling things right, just write. Then you can edit and cut down. It's easier to reduce your word count than to buff it up without making it sound too wordy (though I've never heard of a minimum...). For me, I do what I've done with my papers: write a detailed outline, add transitions and get rid of the bullet points. It's been really effective for me in order to write academic papers, so that's what I did for my SOP. I can not say the results of this technique--I apply next fall. And yes, leave out your childhood, please. It's over-done and there are more convincing ways to show your passion.

I'm not going into the computer science field, but that might be a good thing as you'll get a fresh perspective. Go ahead and PM me.

Err... I'm not in grad school, but I can share my experience with undergrad. I definitely gained the "Freshman 15" in my first year. Overall, in my first two years, I gained 35 pounds in my first two years. Now I have the opposite problem. I lost everything I gained within a year (and maybe even more, I haven't weighed myself lately). I was originally a pretty skinny person and nothing that I'm doing is working for gaining weight. It's kind of scary. Interesting how things turn around so quickly... Then again, it's probably the change in meds that caused the gain and loss... But yeah. I assume I'll lose weight in grad school, mainly because when I get stressed, I lose my appetite. Sorry about your situation, though. I'm not too happy with my situation, either.

The content looks fine, but the way it is conveyed may give a reader some trouble, especially a professor that looks through hundreds of applications. At some areas when I was reading this I was thinking, "get to the point..." I'm not sure about the computer science field, but Life Science majors are usually expected to be concise and clear. This statement is too...wordy in my opinion. So, for example (I just picked a random sentence): While these research assistantships and internships, matured and molded me into an industry professional from an unworldly college student, I was still surrounded by the dubiousness of “Is this what I should be doing in 10 years from now?” and was still seeking for an answer. This is what I would write: While these research assistantships and internships matured and molded me into an industry professional, I still wondered if this what I should be doing 10 years from now. This reduces your word count from 46 to 28, gives the same content, and is easy on the eyes. One more example to exemplify my point: When I came to the United States in 2009 as a mere 18 year old without the ability to speak a proper sentence in English, the only weapons I was equipped were vigorous determination and an audacious spirit. I would write: When I arrived in the United States with a limited English vocabulary, I was equipped with only vigorous determination and an audacious spirit. 38 words to 23. Don't make words for the sake of making words. I hope this helps. Good luck with applications.

Kay, thank you.

Thanks for the advice! The omission contingency project, as I see it, is a class project that can transform into something more provided that there are interesting results (I include it because I might do something more with it). But the whole course focuses on that one project. I am doing most of these projects alone. That is why I mention the teamwork in the POI's lab. My main reason for doing work in the POI's lab is because I am interested in behavioral epigenetics, but I have no experience in the process. I want to be sure that it's the right fit for me. And, you're right! I don't want to come across as one-dimensional. How could I combat that aspect?

It depends on where you apply to. I know that there's the Ontario Trillium Scholarship for international students going to grad school in Ontario, but you need to be nominated. Same with the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships program. I'd look at the Government of Canada's website for information. It tends to be helpful.

hikaru: You're right in saying that the capacity to do research is more important than the product. I'm just saying what the document my advisor gave to me said (which could be more for grad students anyways). It's just another's opinion on how a CV should be written. My advisor is reviewing my vita, but I might send it to some other professors and the writing center to get their feedback. I still don't think my experimental psych project (which has human participants) has a place within all the animal studies. The network analysis project doesn't either, but that is something I would be probably working with after grad school, so I'm keeping it. Cultural: Definitely! I don't count what I've presented at the university's academic conference, but I've put down projects that I've presented at other conferences.

I plan to apply to U of T psych and bio programs (my POI is in both and encouraged me to apply to both to increase chances of getting in somewhere) next fall. They don't have a neuroscience degree, but rather a collaborative neuroscience program that feels like an emphasis to whatever you are studying primarily. I would love to study behavioral epigenetics. More specifically, the epigenetic mechanisms (if there are any. There has been little to no literature on this) behind caged stereotypies (abnormal repetitive movements for nonhuman animals). Research in caged stereotypies are a little scattered, in my opinion. There's too many definitions and "causes" that it ends up being a collaborative disorder than a symptom tailored to each species. They are all caused by poor welfare, but there really hasn't been one brain mechanism that explains all of them (hence "causes" is in quotes). That makes sense if you are talking about a disorder--it's like saying all symptoms of depression have one brain mechanism. That's why I want to throw out the label and look at the pattern of behaviors that is consistent between species. In this case, most of what are considered "stereotypies" are obligatory feeding responses inappropriate to the situation. Mice chew on bars. Tigers pace. Giraffes tongue-roll. Since D1 and D2 receptors are involved in feeding responses, I want to look into the regulation of those receptors in the epigenome of an animal that is performing stereotypies. What about you? What do you hope to study? Good luck this application season!

I sent the mentors I did research with/felt close to a holiday card (this was last semester, keep note) with a hand written note saying how much I appreciated their help (showing with examples, I feel it makes my words more meaningful) and a Barnes and Noble gift card (no more than 10 dollars for the professor I felt close to, 5 dollars for the mentors I did research with). My professors had a positive reaction to that. You probably want to do something different (like a blank thank you card that you write the note in). In my opinion, do enough that shows your appreciation, but not too much that the prof perceives that you're bribing your way into a good relationship (whether it is true or not). Each professor is different, and the student-professor relationship is different, so this is a relative thing. Good luck with your talk!

Psh, my verbal is subpar (151 on practice tests) for someone who is a native speaker. You're fine. I might be able to help with a cognitive sciences SOP if you have computer sciences and cognitive sciences separated. Go ahead and PM me.

I've been working with a probability-learning project for 3/4 of the school year (including winter term) and I'm not getting a lot of data, but my situation is different. The rats aren't meeting the criteria (100 trials in 60 minutes) due to some complications with the operant chamber (basically, the rod is really rigid and hard to manipulate and they need to manipulate it hard enough so the software interprets it as "pressed"). Only two rats hold promise out of the eight tested. This will not lead to a publication, but I've convinced my research mentor to reduce the criteria (It was supposed to be 4 consecutive successful sessions, but now the "consecutive" part is dropped) to get some numbers before the school year ends. This would most likely lead to a poster highlighting preliminary results. We'll try again next year with a new procedure. My research mentor has been thrilled with my commitment to this project that I'll likely end up first or second author if next year produces enough results to lead to a publication. I guess what I'm trying to say is that, in relation to undergraduate research, process seems to matter as much as product. Sure, getting positive results would be nice, but what you gained from it is just as important, if not more so. If I learned anything about my behavioral analysis course, it's that process matters.

I actually talked to my advisor and he gave me a document that showed what a psychology CV should look like.It was quite useful. Basically, for the projects, it should be titled "projects underway" and list the most important projects (as defined as producing a paper or a poster at a conference outside the university). So I've eliminated my required Experimental Psych project cause I don't see it going far. The rest of the current projects have potential. The main concern is padding--the effect that someone says "Why are they putting so much in here?" Of course a lot of projects is good, but with no publications it's all tell and no show (which is true, at least for now). I thought I'd put the update here!

For me, I started really early (I won't be applying until next fall). I started looking at grad schools and doing research on the programs since freshman year. Obviously, interests change but as I learned more I was able to get a sense of what I truly wanted to do for my grad school dissertation. Right now my research plan is pretty specific. This allows me to contact POIs that are specific to my research interests. Basically, I've proposed my project to them, and the professors that have responded tend to be positive about it. Many of them do not have space in their labs, so it's useful to ask them whether they plan to have room in their lab in the future. I have a first draft of my SOP for the programs that I definitely want to apply to and a first draft of my CV. Extra research experience, especially relating to what you want to study, always helps. When I talked with Stanford admissions about whether extra classes/certificate or a research project would give me an edge, they said that research experience is considered the number one priority. That gave me some insight as to how important research is (at least in my field). Make strong relationships with professors, but don't try to force anything on them or it seems artificial (in my opinion). Letters seems to flow better when the student-professor relationship flows naturally. I don't know how else to say it. My advisor told me that it's not hard to write LORs for me because he has a lot a positive things to write about. They may also provide opportunities to research with them and create an even stronger letter (considering that you were committed to the research). That's all I can think of, but those are a few things that I am doing to prepare myself for the next application season.

I think skills are pretty important in my field. Thank you so much for your example! I can understand things better visually rather than a description. I'll try that. The SOP is short for the programs I want to attend so far (1 page or less) so I'm probably just going to highlight my ongoing projects and the project I did with the POI (as it is very relevant to what I want to study). With the project I want to do in grad school being so specific (this is why I'm not applying to 6+ schools. I have e-mailed every professor I want to work with to see if they would be interested in doing the project and if they have space), I can't fit every past project in my SOP.

I'm not quite sure about my field, either. Anyone in the neuroscience field know about this? Relevant experience could also work. Would I put in skills from working my on-campus job as a biology lab assistant in that section as well?

My letters of rec will come from two professors that have been mentoring me for the ongoing projects. The third letter of rec will come from a professor that I'm pretty close to and I plan to do an independent study with him next spring (so it won't show up anywhere when I apply to grad school, unless the deadline is in the late winter/early spring). My ongoing projects are: The physiological and behavioral effects of enriched or barren tanks on zebrafish (I learned how to do behavioral analysis and immunohistofluorescence. I've also made a budget, applied for a mini-grant, received that grant, will present at two conferences, and try to publish in an undergrad journal). This has been going on for almost a year and a half, and plan to continue the theme of the project next spring (again, won't show up anywhere). This project is part of a course called Research in Biology and I have two research mentors to work with me one on one.It is of my own research design. Multiple choice probability learning in rats (I definitely learned how to be flexible in this project! I was given a taste of how single case-design works and how to try to control for extraneous variables instead of trying to "balance them out" via statistics). This project was not for credit (others were supposed to contribute but it seems it's not working that way) but I'm getting a very strong letter of rec from it. We will continue this project with tweaks to the protocol in fall semester in Research Seminar, a research course in psychology. The original protocol was of the research mentor's design. I've been helping with the tweaks, though. My current semester projects: The effects of mental illness and sex on empathy (This is a vignette based study and probably one of my harder projects because it involves people and shameless advertising.) This is for a required Experimental Psychology course. The idea for the study was my own, but had stringent requirements for the design. The effects of sucrose concentration in the rat: an omission contingency experiment (This one i haven't technically started yet because I need the IRB approval. This is another single-case design.) This project is part of the Research Methods in Behavioral Analysis course. This study is of my own design. Future semester projects: Summer--I'll be research volunteering at a lab with my top choice POI (I need to find more POIs, to be honest). I'll be studying behavioral epigenetics. It is not part of a course, and not of my own design. This project emphasizes teamwork between other undergrads and graduate students, something that hasn't been addressed based on other projects. A behavioral ecology project with zoo animals. I'm thinking of something along the lines of enrichment, but I'll have to address that to the professor. Research Seminar -- I've already discussed this. Continuation of the zebrafish project -- Again, I've discussed the gist of it. Independent study on psychology -- Rarely does anyone utilize this course, but I only need a couple more credits to graduate with a double-major in psych and animal behavior. I'll be helping a professor with the analysis of results from a project he plans to do this summer. It's basically a social network analysis of the effects of meditation (how does meditation affect the meditator's friends? Friend's friends?) Of course, this study is not of my own design. -------------- The "skills" section might be useful. And yes, we do have a career and writing center. I'll see if I can make an appointment with them sometime this semester or fall semester.