tissue engineer 2012

I emailed a professor to show interest in working her lab, and she emailed me back telling me about where her research is going in the next few years and to ask what I am interested in. She mentioned a family of disorders, and I was wondering if it would be appropriate to tell her that I am very motivated to work in that field because my dad has one of those disorders. Would that be oversharing, or would it be...I don't know...humanizing? Make me more of a real person? Or would it be bad to show that I have some sort of personal motivation to finding "the cure" because it is so closely linked to me emotionally? Thanks for any responses, I just keep bouncing back and forth on this... edit: or maybe I could just keep it vague and alude to it? Like..."I would be very interested in working with you on disease X because I have some family history with a disease in that group." Would that work?

I majored in materials with a biomaterials focus in undergrad. I was going to apply to materials PhD programs but am thinking now that I would like to focus mostly on bioengineering and should maybe apply to bioeng. programs instead. Overall, are there more people applying to bioengineering PhD programs than materials, i.e. is it more competitive? Would it be in my best interest to stick to materials and just try and do some interdisciplinary work in bioengineering? I don't have a very good GPA (3.2) so I am trying to be smart about where I apply, and under what program...thank you for your time!

Thank you for your responses! Looks like I'll be keeping that under wraps, then...I appreciate your insight and recommendations!

Hi everyone, I'm interested in studying genetics and I'm trying to figure out if being transgendered is something I should mention at all in my SOP. I'm interested in studying genetics to see how gene therapy can potentially help mitigate gender identity disorder, as well as to gain a better understanding of the relationship between biological sex and gender, and whether there may be any genetic indicators that are related to someone's future gender identity. I'm wondering if this will help me at all, though. Without it, I'm just a fairly stereotypical white dude on paper. The only other things that I can write about is putting myself through college (although I won't be able to mention how I also financed my own surgery, hormone therapy, and a year of therapy to get an official diagnosis), and the fact that my dad was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (after suffering from trigeminal neuralgia for years) my sophomore year (which has also shaped my research interests and is certainly something I would be interesting in studying as a means of finding genetic indicators and other possible genetic therapy). I'm just wondering if this will help or hurt me. I'm very much an activist and involved, and would not be a typical graduate science student in the sense that I am very extroverted, was an RA for two years, am very articulate, outspoken, and emotionally empathetic, etc. I am focused on more than just research and would like to teach eventually and help students find the same passion for science that I have. I guess I'm wondering if that's something I should mention as well...a future interest in teaching and a passion for social change and being a mentor and positive role model? Any and all advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Hi everyone, I'm looking to make a bit of a switch in my study area and I'm not really sure where to even start looking...I'm finishing up an undergraduate degree at university of maryland-college park in materials engineering this year! gpa:3.2 gre: just took it today, score ranges for both quantitative and verbal were 750-800, will find out final scores in november! research experience: one semester in a lab anodizing aluminum, 4 semesters+2 summers in a cell biophysics lab researching pharmaceutical delivery via vesicles, no major results/publications recs: will be good in the sense of "this student has performed well and will in all likelihood be succesful as a grad student," but not exceptional or raving about how awesome I am. other: put myself through school national merit scholar two years as an RA always held at least 2 part-time jobs so lots of different work experience summers spent as the manager for overnight orientations for incoming freshmen caucasian transgendered-reason why I'm interested in studying genetics as it relates to gender/sex I'm also interested in integrating what I've learned in materials science somehow with genetics, especially nanotechnology and tissue engineering (no longer my focus though, my forum name is misleading now!) I'm really just trying to determine at this point what level I should be looking at. I haven't really been able to find any information on university of washington-seattle's genome sciences program...I know it's selective, would it even be an option as a reach school? are there any PhD programs I would be eligible for, or I would have to do my master's first? Thanks in advance!!!