warm-valley

I haven't applied yet, but from what I understand I don't think that they will ask very different things for the LORs. After all, your recommenders will probably send their letters to more than one institution, and I doubt they have the time to write a different letter for every institution. I read that it would be ideal if you could give your recommenders plenty of time, maybe try a month or two before your intended submission date. It would also be helpful if you could give them some materials, such as your CV, draft of the SOP, maybe some ideas on what they could touch on, etc. Here is a website I've seen linked on gradcafe a few times that could come in handy, it has a section on LORs: https://sites.google.com/site/gradappadvice/letters-of-recommendation

Undergrad Institution: top 20-30 UK, Russell group Major: Computer Science / Software Engineering Grade: 2:1, could be 1st depending on final year grades Type of student: International female GRE scores: N/A Research experience: currently working on a summer research project on bio-inspired reinforcement learning/machine learning for Visual Place Recognition, could possibly extend a few more months into the semester and result in a paper; thesis project on reinforcement learning & dopamine modelling, title TBD in the next month but looking to focus more on the computational neuroscience side Letters of recommandation: 2 from research mentors (summer research + thesis), third could be from either another research mentor or a professor that knows me well (depending on how the thesis research turns out) Other: received two scholarships for academic achievement from my department Questions: I'm looking at programs for neuroscience and biomedical science (if they have a neuroscience group), preferably with a good number of systems/computational/disorders people. Mostly looking at the east/northeast. I've been looking at Columbia, NYU, and the tri-institutional comp bio & medicine programme because of their computational/systems people, but I imagine none of these are really within reach. Does anyone know for what kind of programs I could be competitive for/suggestions for universities? At this point aside from getting my grades up I can't do much.

To add some detail, I'm interested in neurodevelopmental and mood/anxiety disorders, particulary in researching what are the differences in the brains of these populations vs typical brains, and how these differences impact motivated behaviours and decision making. The particular project I do would somewhat depend on the methodologies/focus of the lab I end up joining. Should I write about how the work in each lab would help me research my interests? Should I also give examples of questions I could research for each of them, or would this make me look too scattered, since it would look like I don't have a clear project in mind? For context, I'm applying to programmes in the US.

Not sure how helpful this is, but on the website of one of the unis I'm interested in they mentioned: "The purpose of this optional essay is to get to know you as an individual and as a potential graduate student, and to understand how your background will add to the diversity of our school. Please describe how your personal background has motivated you to pursue a graduate degree." I know that some SOP guides recommend mentioning significant life events (to stand out), but if some department requires a different personal history essay, then maybe that's where you should mention most of these things. They also mentioned: "Please note that the Personal History Statement is not meant to be a general autobiography." I have taken it to mean that if the SOP is an essay focused on the intellectual/academic reasons, then the personal history should focus on what happened in your life (outside of university/school) that motivated you. Fair disclaimer: I haven't applied to any programs yet, so I'm not quite sure how right it is. I'd also like to know more if anyone else has any input.

At my university we aren't allowed to take classes outside from what the department has pre-approved, so I didn't have many opportunities to take other classes. My undergrad field and what I'm planning to pursue in grad school are different (computer science -> neuroscience), would it look bad if I mentioned some MOOC neuroscience courses under a "other classes / workshops" section in my CV? Or would it not have much of an effect anyway?

I was just wondering how common/accepted is it, since I know it depends from field to field. Anyone who already applied/got in that has some insights?

Long story short, I was initially planning to go into software engineering, but then realized that it wouldn't give me what I want out of a career. I then discovered that being a research scientist would allow me to do what I liked. Would this look like I am not commited to my goals? Or would it look like I put thought into it? Or both, depending on how I phrase it?

How bad are my chances if I have little research experience for getting into a neuroscience PhD? I'll be starting work in a lab part-time soon, and I have my Bachelor's dissertation (thesis) next year, but that's all I have. Also, does it reflect badly on the application to have a disability?