how much do undegrad research app essays differ from college app essays

Parent Cafe
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<p>What should be in a “why lab X?” essay? Should it be as original as a “why school X?” college application essay.</p>

<p>I mean, my current draft (PM me if you want to have a look!) talks about my interdisciplinary research interests and how I want to focus them, have a chance to attack a difficult scientific problem in biochemistry and see my work pay off. In addition, I would learn a lot about a specialised topic that I a) would start to accumulate expertise in b) use in other fields c) or even pursue further research in (maybe eventually industrial applications!). But I have a feeling many kids will say the same thing. How do I make my essay stand out?</p>

<p>I mean, I have a feeling that working at one lab differs by another by basically what topics they specialise in and how much pre-existing work they have done already. Do other kids talk about fit?</p>

<p>And oh yeah, at times I don’t know how many personal details to put in, or whether to admit that at times, I still am unclear in what direction I want to head. I think it is unreasonable to put “I want to go in all these directions!” because it isn’t realistic, but that’s what I feel like doing. Food science, industrial plastics and neuroscience all seem kind of far apart, but to me, they are pretty close (e.g. the chemical dynamics that guide polymerisation processes in industrial plastic production also can be applied to cytoskeleton assembly/disassembly in the cell and vice versa). But then I feel my essay fill up with jargon and it loses the “human” touch. Is this expected? Are employers familiar with the dilemma anyway? Do they want more “focused” people?</p>

<p>(sorry for posting this in the cafe forum – I’m not getting any responses from people in the admissions/essays forums)</p>

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<p>Be honest. If what you wrote is what you mean, then you can’t be changing it to craft it into something else because you think that is what they want to hear. </p>

<p>I could tell you what I would be looking for applicants to my lab…and you might then change your essay accordingly…while that might get you in, it would be defeating the point of their selection process.</p>

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<p>I mean, I also want a “tighter” essay. What’s the guideline for statements with no word limit?</p>

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<p>Also, I’m just trying to figure out if applicants are supposed to say variants of the same thing, or not. Are your statements supposed to read like grad students’ research proposals? Should it be less about your coursework and research interests and more about your “soft” skills like your people skills and how you work in a team? Are your research interests / experience / coursework the primary defining thing?</p>