Research Statement

[PessimisticStudent]

Hi all,

I am applying to a pHD biostats program (from undergraduate) which requires that I submit a "research statement". While I have found samples online, most of them are geared towards recent post-doc candidates or people with a lot of experience within the field to apply for professorship jobs and the like. However, since I have only two summer research experiences, both not really fall under the same category (one was more math based while the other one is more public health based) I don't know if I can/need to use the samples I've found as a model. Does anyone have any research statement samples that fit a recent undergraduate student? 

Thank you very much.

P.S. Here's one of the samples I've found http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/files/Research_PhD_Biostatistics2007.pdf

[TakeruK]

If you don't mind, can you provide the exact prompt and instructions for this essay? I think it's a little abnormal (at least in my field) to request a "Research Statement" for graduate schools since as you are finding, this is the term used for the essays required for postdoc and faculty positions. These statements generally focus on proposed future research, rather than completed past research.

So I am wondering if they want a specific type of research statement, or if they still want the standard grad school application essays but they are using the term "research statement" for some reason or other.

[PessimisticStudent]

Thanks for replying. It's the a requirement of UPenn Biomedical Graduate Studies for PhD applications. The prompt is as follows:

"Research Statement - Please provide a description of your research experience(s), including the goals of each project, approaches used, results obtained, and implications of the findings for the project and the field at large. You may choose to describe a single research experience or several experiences, but please limit your statement to around 1000 words in length."

This is in addition to the Personal Statement which is already required. 

Thank you very much!

Edited November 15, 2016 by PessimisticStudent

[TakeruK]

In my opinion, this prompt asks for the same kind of things you would generally write in a Statement of Purpose when describing previous research experience. So, it might be the case that for this school, they are separate the personal and research aspects of the SOP into two statements. 

I don't know of any good examples for you, but maybe someone else can help. But I think it could also be a good idea to look at example Statements of Purpose and read the paragraphs on past research carefully. I would model the research statement like those paragraphs, and take special care to address every point in the provided prompt. Some additional thoughts:

1. It doesn't matter that your two experiences aren't necessarily in your field and that they are in two different fields. The point is that you have experience doing research and some of these skills are transferable to any type of research project.

2. Although an essay that just describes your past experience, in chronological order, would probably be fine, you might want to take an approach of having overall themes that you want to convey in your essay. Think about the overarching message you want to convey about your experience, your specific skillset, and your philosophy towards approaching research questions in your field. With these ideas in mind, you can then write a narrative of your research experience and use specific stories or anecdotes that reinforce/provide evidence for your overarching message. The goal of this statement is for the school to get a sense of how you think as a researcher and where you could fit into the department. 

[PessimisticStudent]

Thank you very much for your reply.  I will take into account your advice in writing this research statement.