Well Howdy, and welcome back to the Resilience in STEM podcast. I hope you guys are having an amazing summer so far. Mine has been pretty nice. I’ve been exploring San Francisco and feel like I haven’t touched the tip of the iceberg. There are so many things to do here and in Berkeley and I haven’t even done half of them. Labwork is also gonig well. My mentor has been supportive of my work, and since I am applying to graduate school this cycle, they’ve been beneficial in advising on my application and certain programs I should apply to. I’ve even started to begin writing my application essays. 

 

One thing I wanted to revisit from my last episode was that I talked about summer research experiences for undergraduates and how to apply for them. I realized after I published the episode that I didn’t cover all of the benefits of attending these programs. While you get to do research at these top institutions or with individual faculty, learn new techniques, visit people from all around the world, and learn new perspectives in science, one extra thing you get from these programs is a stipend. This stipend ranges from $2500 - $7000. This depends on the institution and the cost of living at the location. This covers the time that you work in the lab. You also get covered housing. These internships will offer you housing on campus (usually in one of the nicer dorms) or off-campus apartment complexes nearby so you have a place to stay over the summer and a good living experience throughout the program. This is also good so you don’t have to worry about finding an apartment and dealing with summer rental rates. So in summary, these research experiences offer housing and a stipend. So you do not have to pay for participating in these summer research experiences. Some programs will even offer to pay for your flight to attend. In addition to doing research and exploring new places, this is a benefit for applying for summer research experiences. That’s one thing I wanted to mention during this episode since I forgot the last episode. 

 

But I want to kick off this episode by talking about graduate school, mainly focusing on how to begin the application process. As I go along this is going to be helpful for me so I can know where I began and what I’ve done since then. So this is also going to be a recap of the last few episodes. In my introductions, I talked about my graduate school updates where I talk about things I’m doing throughout the months. Honestly, the summer is a great time to start your application because you’re either at an internship, relaxing, or taking summer classes. Either way, you may have less stress than in the normal fall and spring semesters. It’s a good time to get a head start and plan your steps for the fall semester. If you do start in the fall semester, you may end up with a good application, but sometimes details may get lost along the way. 

 

This leads to the big question: ‘How do I start my graduate school applications?’. I’m going to go through a list of 4 important pieces of advice I would look into. You may potentially see adding another step. 

 

So the first one is to look at the schools you want to apply to. Do you want to be in a certain location? Are you looking at certain faculty or certain areas of research? Are you considering campus resources? I have to say looking at certain faculty you are considering working with is the most important factor out of the ones I listed. But they all have a value on where you decide to apply for graduate school. Typically, I would say to look at 10-12 schools. That way you have a broad application range and you’re not just applying to 2 schools. This also allows you to have more opportunities and explore different areas where you envision yourself happy living. By doing that, I would look online. For example, I would look at “neuroscience programs focused on stem cell research”. Also, look at the particular faculty you’re interested in. You may realize they do research at (for example) the University of Washington or somewhere else. That allows you to explore the program and the other faculty that are associated with a particular program. Once you start doing that you can start building your list. When you start looking into the graduate schools of interest, I would list the faculty from each program you want to apply to and see if they’re publishing or are still active in the lab. You may be interested in certain professors, but then you realize they’re not publishing anymore or aren’t looking for graduate students. It could be a range of things. So make sure you have 3-5 faculty you are interested in. This also gives you flexibility in deciding what programs you want to be in. In addition, if you get accepted into a graduate program, it's good to have multiple options if you don’t end up matching with your first-choice professor. This could be due to them not wanting a graduate student, their lab being inactive, or their mentorship style isn’t a match for you. In summary, you should look at around 10-12 programs, and these programs have 3-5 faculty members you are interested in working with. 

 

The next thing I would look into is making a spreadsheet. This will evaluate important factors and necessary documents you’ll need in your application. You might look at the number of letters of recommendation a particular program requires, what student resources they have to help their students succeed, and what diversity initiatives they are pursuing. When I made a spreadsheet, I listed all the universities I am interested in applying. From there, I looked at different factors including location (where the program is located), application materials (online application, unofficial transcript, CV, or resume), stipend (how much money they are giving to their graduate students), cost of living (you may see a smaller stipend, but if you’re living in a place with a low cost of living then you’re getting the best value), when does the application open, when does the application close, number of faculty I am interested in working with, interview, and decision. I will attach a picture of how mine looks below. 

 

Another important reason for having a spreadsheet is you will see how much the application fee is for each program and in total. Yeah, the application may be only $50 for one school, but if you end up applying to a lot of programs those application fees can start adding up. I do have this section on my spreadsheet. This is especially important if you plan on applying to California schools or private schools because their application fee can be quite expensive. I know after looking at a lot of UC schools, their application fee is over $100. You could end up spending over $1000 solely on application fees, which isn’t that good. It will also help you get information on how you can apply for a fee waiver. You can reach out to the listed program coordinators about getting a waiver. If you ask earlier on it can be more advantageous because some programs have a limited number of fee waivers they can give out. So if you ask earlier, you’re more likely to receive it. 

 

Also, another great benefit of creating a spreadsheet with all of your applications is it’s really important to have all of your important information and links in one document or file. In my spreadsheet, I include the application websites, which contain important information about each application, their requirements, and deadlines. So if I don’t remember some important information, I can just click on the link in my spreadsheet instead of roaming around the internet to find it. While all graduate school applications are generally similar, some may have specific requirements that you should keep in mind, such as asking for a 1-2 page resume instead of your entire CV. 

 

You should also reach out to top faculty of interest. I would recommend reaching out to 1-3 professors from ⅓ of your school list. These faculty of interest can be from your top choice schools. That way the professors who you want to work with will already have a connection with you. Sometimes it’s a great advantage so you can know if the professor is (a) still going to be having a research lab and (b) is looking for graduate students during the cycle you enter. If they’re not looking for students during Fall 2024, this is good to know. This happened to me, I reached out to a PI (principal investigator) I was interested in working with, but he told me that he was close to retiring so he was not looking to bring on any students during Fall 2024. While it was a little sad for me, I also reached out to other professors. This gave me more flexibility and options. This is important to know when filling out the online applications because they may ask to list up to 3 faculty of interest. By reaching out to certain faculty, I can know if they’re still planning to work on their lab, current projects, and future directions of their lab. So when you reach out to them, I prefer doing it over email. Give your background information (what school do you go to and your major), talk about your research interests, why you are interested in going to graduate school, and request to have a meeting with them. Usually, when I send these emails out I attach my CV so they can get an idea of what I do and what my motivations are. Professors are busy so you might not hear from them or you may get a response stating they would rather talk when you get an interview. This helps them know if you’re more likely to get admitted to the program. But it is also good to reach out so they can recognize your name, remember your name, and you established that contact already. 

 

The last thing for getting started is to make a document for all of your essays. This will be pretty similar for all schools because most programs you apply to will require a statement of purpose (talks about your research experience and why you want to go to graduate school), a personal history statement (talks more about diversity, your personal experiences, and motivations for attending graduate school), and some other supplemental essay. Usually, programs will ask for the first two essays or a combination of the two. It is good to have a document for all of the essays so you can start early, have some ideas, and get a good first rough draft during the summer. Having the rough draft, you’re not worried about other things when writing and you can focus on editing so many times until it’s golden. 

 

Another reason why you want to have a document for all of the essays is because it’s in a central location. For example, let’s say I’m applying to the University of Pennsylvania and I only have one document for my UPenn essays. But I also apply to Johns Hopkins and I have another document for that as well. Let’s say you lose one of the documents and now it’s a problem. It is also a benefit because you don’t have to search for a bunch of documents as you apply for different programs. Overall, these essays will be pretty similar, but then the question will be how will you tailor your essay for each program. Also, it’s a good way to see the little differences between the program requirements. One program may ask you a certain question, which could be more focused on diversity or your specific research experience. I experienced a very specific essay that asked, “What does translational research mean to you?”. It’s just little nuances that appear in each application but they are very important to pay attention to. The main idea of these essay topics can be very similar, but if you dismiss the small details or do not answer all of the questions it can diminish your chances of getting an interview or being accepted. Always make sure you include the prompt of these essays and that you address it entirely. 

 

To summarize it:

1. Look at the schools you want to apply to 

2. Make a spreadsheet

3. Reach out to top faculty members you would like to work with

4. Make a document for all of your essays

 

That is how I would at least start the graduate school application process, specifically for the summer. All of this can lead to a rough draft of your personal history statement and your statement of purpose. Again, it doesn’t need to be perfect. Mine definitely will not be. I’m still in step 4 of this process and thinking of ideas for how to write my essays. But it’s a good way for me to stay ahead of the game. In addition, I know how busy I get during the fall semester, and the thought of writing an essay from scratch during that time doesn’t sound like a good idea to me. If you relate to that, I would start soon. 

 

The last note I wanted to share is that this may seem early, but take advantage of that. You can ask a lot of questions and advice along the way to your research mentors, your friends, or someone you know who had applied to Ph.D. programs. They can also serve as people to give you feedback on your essays. Some of you may think “Oh the deadline is 6 months away, I have all the time in the world to do this”, but you want to make sure you have the time to make sure your application is the best it can be. The more time you have to write and edit your essays serves to your advantage. Worst case scenario, you may end up procrastinating and you don’t deliver the best work you can. Especially when applying for graduate school, you want to give it your best shot and they do not doubt to accept you. That’s my lovely synopsis of this episode.

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