What did your mentors do for you in the application process?

[topsailpsych]

What did your mentors do for you in your process of applying?  What did they offer to do?  What was most helpful?  What do you wish you could have had help with?

[1|]010ls10o]

• Reviewed materials I needed to upload,
• Emphasized fit over prestige (or the other way around, in other cases),
• Recommend people that they believe are good mentors,

That's basically it. I wish more were done. Improving my chances by offering me the opportunity to work on more pubs/presentations/posters. It felt like I was just a grunt. Still doing basic research tasks.

 

[bubble_psych]

My mentor does not work in the psychology field and typically mentors pre-med students, but he did a mock interview with me and he connected me with a neuropsychologist so I could do a mock interview with him too. Other than that, he mostly gave me challenging situations where I could grow as a researcher and provided advice on how to tackle those problems. The only way I could have had better mentorship was if my mentor was in the clinical psych field, since they would be able to guide me in the nuances of the application process.

Edited January 30, 2018 by dr. bubbles

[t_ruth]

2 hours ago, 21ny14 said:

• Reviewed materials I needed to upload,
• Emphasized fit over prestige (or the other way around, in other cases),
• Recommend people that they believe are good mentors,

That's basically it. I wish more were done. Improving my chances by offering me the opportunity to work on more pubs/presentations/posters. It felt like I was just a grunt. Still doing basic research tasks.

 

Have you asked for more opportunities? Maybe presented an idea or showed willingness to go above and beyond the normal "grunt" work? It is a lot of work to be the PI and manage a lab--I love to give talented and motivated undergrads opportunity to do more grad-student-like tasks, but it's too risky to offer this to everyone.

[Raka]

Reviewed my app materials, made suggestions, connected me with teachers in the programs I am applying to, and wrote to them to personally recommend me. 

[1|]010ls10o]

3 hours ago, t_ruth said:

Have you asked for more opportunities? Maybe presented an idea or showed willingness to go above and beyond the normal "grunt" work? It is a lot of work to be the PI and manage a lab--I love to give talented and motivated undergrads opportunity to do more grad-student-like tasks, but it's too risky to offer this to everyone.

Yeah, I've brought it up before with two of my mentors. One of them responded and placed me on a project where I could learn a new methodology and something out of my comfort zone. But she's generally like that -- working with her is exciting because it's never the same.  She trusts me with more complex tasks, and I often handle and analyze her data. I'm also writing results, so her mentorship is precious to me.

The other, we started by exclusively working on a paper, then she hired me through a grant contract for a few months. I was thrilled because I was willing to work for her and gain authorship on a volunteer basis. And she is fantastic to work with. After that contract expired, she hired me for a full-time paid position on a different project. I figure it would be good to not only earn some money but develop more of a rapport with her. But it was completely different, and the earlier project where I was exclusively writing (instead of data collection, entry) was basically suspended.

Since the start of this job I've asked for opportunities for growth (or to go back and work on the other project) thrice over the course of a year but the paid project is her priority. She's receptive to me working on my own on the earlier project, but after a full week of work I rarely have time to have a life, work on the tasks that my other mentor offers me, and also independently make progress on the suspended project. Maybe I just need to suck it up.

[AliCip]

My mentor has conducted research with me and has actively encouraged me to do things that would stand out in a doc application during my first year in his MA program (i.e. present research in a talk form instead of a poster, participate in a cross-cultural field study, get my thesis manuscript in shape to be my sample research paper). He also suggested faculty within programs that would be a good fit for my interests, connected me with some of those faculty, looked over and critiqued my application materials, encouraged me to retake the GRE and encouraged me not to give up on a doctoral program when those results weren't entirely ideal, encouraged me to apply broadly but still focus on fit with a faculty, wrote a letter of recommendation an interviewer described as "glowing", and emailed a few faculty about me once I had applied. The only thing that could have been improved is the speed of working on the manuscript for a study we worked on together and want to publish because I could have had a publication if that was more timely. 

[oddity]

My mentors have been incredibly helpful in this process! They wrote me great recommendation letters, gave me feedback on my application materials, suggested faculty to apply to and gave me insider knowledge on what those people might be looking for in applicants, and generally have been cheering me on the whole way. My main advisor encouraged and funded me to attend a conference before the application season so that I could network with potential PIs. They also have been helping me prep for interviews. It's really made me realize how important it is to have a good mentor with your best interests at heart!

[b_l91]

If I'm being totally honest, I more or less had a "go it alone" approach this year. I applied last year and didn't really love the help I got (I work in research but not in academia so direct mentorship is minimal at best, and getting timely responses from anyone is like pulling teeth). This year, I rounded up all the lessons I learned from last cycle and made the improvements myself. I received significantly more interview offers this year (6) than last (1). That being said, my mentors were more than willing to write outstanding letters of recommendation. One of my PIs also pushed me to get a first author manuscript submitted to a journal and really lit a fire under my behind to get that submitted prior to application deadlines (so he could talk about it in my recommendation). I wouldn't necessarily advocate for this route, but you have to work with what you've got sometimes.