BEYOND THE BEAKERS
120
Baylor College of Medicine
National Science Foundation
Chapter Fourteen: Grad School Applications
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Baylor College of Medicine
National Science Foundation
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BEYOND THE BEAKERS
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124
Baylor College of Medicine
National Science Foundation
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1.
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125
BEYOND THE BEAKERS
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126
Practical Pointers for Describing Research/Work Experiences
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Baylor College of Medicine
National Science Foundation
Impact of Research Descriptions
Your research/work description can make or break your graduate school application. Having excellent grades won’t matter much to a reviewer if you write three
sentences about your research/work experience. Don’t laugh – I’ve seen students who
submitted no more than a few nebulous lines about their research. Even if your mentor
has great things to say about your work, you need to convey what you did, what you
learned, and what it meant.
I know of cases when a student’s grades were less than stellar and GRE scores
were not strong, but whose research description was so strong and reflected such
interest and commitment that faculty took the time to read letters of recommendation
carefully. One such student was invited for an interview and wowed everyone. Her
knowledge and enthusiasm were evident. The program decided to give her a chance.
Once she was taking courses in the field she loved, her grades improved, her research
was outstanding, she received a national fellowship, and became a leader in her Ph.D.
program. She was not only selected as her program’s most outstanding Ph.D. student,
she received the award as the most outstanding Ph.D, student in the entire graduate
school of nearly 500 students. Without a strong research description, the grad school
that became the home in which she could develop so completely might not have given
her the chance to “sell herself”.
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