Hey everyone and welcome to my channel.
So I am absolutely shocked.
I've received a lot of requests to go over my PhD application that I would have now turned
in... two years ago.
So for those of you who are new, I'm a Ph.D student in Biology at Harvard University through
the Biological and Biomedical Sciences PhD program - also known as BBS.
And I applied to grad school 2 years ago, so I really haven't thought about my application
since then.
But you asked, and I listen, so I'm going to bring it up from the dead and talk to you
about my application.
So I applied to eight programs? seven programs?
I'll just count.
The two Harvard programs, UC Merced, UC Irvine, Stanford, MIT, and UCLA.
And as you can tell from that list, I really wanted to stay in California, so the ways
things turned out was quite a shock but I had lived in Boston before and I decided that
was a place I would have loved to go to graduate school outside of California so I decided
to apply.
So I don't want to waste any of your time.
I just want to remind you all that every application is very different and every application has
strengths and weaknesses.
So I'm going to be talking about certain parts of my application and you'll be able to tell
which parts were stronger than others, but just because your application doesn't look
like that doesn't mean you're not going to get in.
Like really, calm down. Let's breathe together.
Take a deep breath in... and deep breath out.
Okay.
So to start off with the basics, every PhD application asks their prospective students
a few things.
First, there's the basic data - what school did you go to and all of that.
They ask you about your research experience which is the most important part of the application
because you're applying to a research degree.
They ask you about publications, whether you presented at conferences, things like that.
They'll ask you if you won any awards, honors, and whether you held any jobs or had any volunteer
experience.
They will also ask you for, at the very least, a statement of purpose.
It's different than a personal statement.
A personal statement is about you, and a statement of purpose is about your research.
It's called the statement of purpose because it's asking "what is your purpose in applying
to this program?"
But it's basically you talking about why you're qualified.
So throughout this video I'm going to be covering what my stats were and what my general theme
was for my application.
So let's get started.
So I graduated in 2017 from "Pitcher" "Pitr" Ahhh Pitzer College.
I got a Bachelor of arts because it's a liberal arts school, so that school doesn't in particular
have the option for a Bachelor of Science.
But I did take a bunch of science courses while I was there.
But very well balanced with the liberal arts curriculum.
I majored in Biology and got honors which I was so excited about, and I also got a minor
in chemistry.
Most schools don't care about your minors - like really - I just loved chemistry so.
So in terms of GPA...
I may have mentioned before that I didn't do super well in high school, so I really
went hard in college to make sure that I learned as much as possible.
And that's the mindset I went in with.
I just want to learn.
So thankfully all of that studying did pay off for me, and at the time of my application,
I had a 3.91 GPA in my biology major and a 3.93 GPA overall.
It was physics that brought the GPA down.
Something to keep in mind is that GPA is factoring in other classes that I took from other universities.
So the summer right after my first year, I took both semesters of biology at Boston University.
Full year in one summer.
Please don't do that to yourself -I don't recommend it.
And I also studied abroad my sophomore year, but my GPA doesn't include those classes.
So in terms of the GRE.
I took the GRE the October before my application was due, so that same season.
And I got 92nd percentile in the verbal, 82nd percentile in the math, and 98th percentile
in the writing section.
I was absolutely shocked when I got my math score because I was pretty sure I bombed it..
and I have bombed math in the past.
Like with the SAT, I don't even think I scored above 20th percentile when I took the math.
So it was proof that I had grown.
So yeah those are my basic statistics.
Now onto research experience, which is WAY more important.
So this was actually interestingly one of the weaker parts of my application.
I had a combined total of four and a half months of research experience at the time
I applied.
The reason I don't think this actually negatively affected me too much is because I had a reason
for that.
At my school you don't get paid to do research and as a student who REALLY needed to hold
a job during college, I did other things which I will talk about later.
But it was pretty much impossible to do research and take my classes AND work jobs so I mentioned
that in my application.
So four and a half months of combined research experience.
I had two summers of research.
The first summer was the summer right between my sophomore and junior years and I did research
at UC Merced.
That was a metabolism project and I really enjoyed the work and it was the first time
I was ever exposed to research, so obviously it kept me going.
So then the next summer I did research here at Harvard.
I spent thirteen weeks there and actually wrote my thesis on the work that I did there.
I absolutely loved it.
And that's about it.
Yeah.
Not that much experience.
Most applicants have more experience than I do, even if they're coming straight out
of undergrad like I did.
Usually they will have been in a lab like throughout their college experience.
A lot of people also took two years off at least to be a technician in the lab or work
on projects before they came into graduate school.
That being said, I really missed doing lab work while I was taking all of my classes
and working and such, and I loved talking about my work, so I went out of my way to
go to conferences.
And that actually transitions us into the next part which is essentially like science
communication.
Publications, conferences, talks, etc.
So I think this was actually one of the most important parts of my application.
I gave several talks at conferences because I really missed just talking about my research.
If I remember correctly, I gave two presentations at SACNAS, one for my first research opportunity
and one for my second, and for my first research opportunity I also gave two presentations
at the Experimental Biology Conference.
In addition to that, I was so lucky to actually go to a meeting that NSF put together related
to my first fellowship.
They invited me to talk about my perspective on how to diversify science and make it more
accessible for students since I had had a lot of experience with coming from a background
that didn't really prepare me well for science.
And then I guess, succeeding by their standards.
So I did have one publication but it wasn't really significant.
It wasn't like in a big tier journal or anything.
And I was second to last author, which means I contributed the least on the manuscript.
But it was still cool to have one!
And then I think what REALLY tipped the scales in my favor for the application.
I love talking especially in person about science like honestly, once you get me started
on talking, I like won't stop so beware.
And I think that people at the conferences were able to sense my enthusiasm for things
and how enthusiastic I was -- not just about my science, but about science culture as a
whole and how I wanted to make it more accessible.
So for every presentation that I presented (except for my last SACNAS conference), I
actually won presentation awards.
I won a presentation award for my first SACNAS presentation both my Experimental Biology
presentations, one of which was specific to comparative physiology and I got first place
for that (which I'm very grateful for).
So in addition to that, I won travel awards to go to the SACNAS conference, and in addition
to THAT I won the Goldwater Scholarship which is seen as one of the most prestigious scholarships
in STEM for undergraduates.
The cool thing is I won that after a year of doing lab work, so... did not expect that.
But anyway.
I think it helped tip the scales in my favor.
Also, they'll ask if you applied for fellowships, and I did.
I applied for NSF and Ford.
And even though by the time your application is in and you hear back they won't know if
you got it or not, I think they really appreciate that you applied for it because it means they'll
have more money to fund more people.
So I think that was really the strong part of my application that distinguished me.
I also think the theme of my application was not ONLY science and spreading science and
making it accessible, but was also how I am able to interact with community.
My overall goal is to be a professor so I demonstrated my ability to work with different
kinds of students.
So now the jobs that I worked that I tried to demonstrate that with.
First of all, I was an RA for 1.5 years of my college experience.
First semester sophomore year, then I went abroad, and then all of junior year.
And during that I worked in an upperclassmen hall so I was helping students through a lot
of stress, especially spring semester after grades would come out and then when people
were worried about graduation and stuff.
In addition to that, I was a TA for Cell Bio for one semester and I tutored a bunch of
different biology subjects, like organic chemistry, genetics, and biostatistics.
And finally, when I was a senior (so just as I was applying), I had already accepted
a commitment for a year at the Writing Center.
So I was working at the writing center where I was helping people with their essays, especially
in science, or lab reports, as well as fellowships.
I was a Fulbright Consultant which meant that I worked with the Fulbright applicants to
try and help them win the fellowship.
Also, I volunteered with the college chapter of SACNAS.
It wasn't super active, but my role in it was to try and get as many people as possible
to the conference, cause it was the SACNAS conference that first really opened my eyes
to what research was like and made me even consider it.
Alright, now to the big guns.
I think the statement of purpose is one of the most important parts of the application
because you can be this accomplished person but why are you applying to THIS school in
particular?
And why are you applying for a PhD now?
Something that was really important to me was to talk about my story from a research
context.
So I think I had a lot of interesting things to share on a personal note, but this essay
is not the place for it.
It's all about WHAT led you to where you are today and why are you applying here NOW.
So I did talk about when I was a child, and how I grew up watching my grandmother develop
type II diabetes and how I was really confused because I knew that diabetes ran in my family
but when I was five I didn't really have a strong understanding of the fact that DNA
could influence things.
Like I knew DNA was heritable (thank you Jurassic Park) but I didn't know you could get diseases
from misregulation and all of that.
So I talked about how I was confused because I thought it was a blood sugar disorder but
my mom would tell me that it is actually very prevalent in the Mexican and Mexican-American
community.
And how I became very inspired by that and to actually understand how genetics can lead
to an entire metabolic disorder that is very deadly and known as a silent killer.
And then from there I transitioned and talked about my first research experience where I
working with Northern Elephant Seal pups and studying their metabolism.
Then I talked about what I actually learned from the experience being in the lab -- separate
from my research.
And how I learned about how important hypothesis-driven research is.
Then next I did the same thing as I did with the first research experience but I did it
with my second.
So first I talked about what I actually worked on and show that I know how to talk about
my science, and then talked about what I learned from it.
Then I reserved a paragraph to talk about where I wanted to go next and why it was very
important for me.
And what it was about Harvard specifically or whatever school I was applying to, SPECIFICALLY
that I liked.
And that's another thing.
Apply to schools you actually like.
There's no point in applying to 20 bajillion schools, especially because each application
is very individualized.
For every school I applied to, I knew I would enjoy my time there.
So I talked about what it was that I liked about it and what I liked about that program
specifically, not just the school in the area.
Finally, I just tied it off talking about my goals, wanting to be a professor and to
diversify science and make it more accessible to different communities.
And yeah.
That was it.
I mean I think the hard part about applying to PhD programs is that you don't have a common
app so it's not like college or even med school where you just write the same essay and then
they'll ask you for individualized essays letter.
No, you just have to fill out your name, and address, and phone number over and over and
over again.
So yeah.
And pretty much the last thing about the applications are obviously the letters of recommendation.
I never saw mine so I can't say much about the strength of them.
So the end results.
I didn't get interviews to MIT and UCLA.That's not something to take personally.
It's okay.
It doesn't mean your application was bad, just that they didn't think you were a good
fit for the program for whatever reason.
Either research or your goals (like they wouldn't be able to meet your needs), things like that.
Then I got interviews to both Harvard programs, Stanford, UC Irvine, and UC Merced.
And I got into all of them!
I did six interviews in seven weeks.
And that off week I had to take a midterm so that was... complicated.
But it was really fun.
It's actually interesting because before interviews I thought that Stanford was going to be my
top school because I really liked the northern/central area cause I'd been there before.
And it was in California, which I know I love.
I'd be able to bring my car, etc.
And actually interesting enough, the Boston schools were like my "last choice" schools.
Not that they sucked cause they didn't.
But like moving to Boston as a Californian... like you really have to sell me on that.
And the way things ended up, my program, Harvard BBS, really sold me on it.
I knew I was going to fit right in.
Thank you all for watching.
I've never done a video talking about myself as much.
So I hope any of you found it helpful.
And if you did find it helpful, like the video, subscribe if you're not a subscriber, and
share cause who knows other people will find it helpful as well.
So yeah, as usual, also, if there's anything you want me to cover, just leave it in the
comments section below.
This video was a result of people's requests so I am always happy to take a look and get
new topics to work on.
HAPPY APPLICATION SEASON!