statement series pt. 1
How to use reflective journaling to get clear about your intentions before writing a statement.
Personal statement, statement of purpose, academic statement – all graduate applications will have at least one statement requirement, sometimes two, sometimes more. While the exact prompt and word count may vary, the intentions are usually the same. Statements allow applicants to showcase their scientific values, demonstrate how their research experience has informed current interests, and express their motivation for applying to a particular lab. Statements of any kind are a rare opportunity for applicants to tell their story themselves, with the sole goal of convincing admissions committees they are indeed a perfect fit for their university.
After my previous two rounds of applications, I am convinced statement writing is an art form. A great statement effortlessly exhibits an applicant’s personality while using an academic and professional tone. It demonstrates the importance of personal history without ever sharing an anecdote about childhood experiences. It shows why a piece of previous research experience helped to develop current research interests; it doesn’t tell.
Showing, not telling, is a common piece of advice many mentors give their mentees while guiding them through the statement writing process. A statement should paint an entire picture of the kind of scientist you are, and the kind of scientist you could become under the direction of a proposed PI. A great statement flows and doesn’t feel fragmented. That was a hard lesson for me to learn – I took the statement instructions so literally that I found myself answering each component of the directions systematically, only to find my words did not flow together. I was not showing why I was a good fit for that university and that lab. Sometimes we can get so caught up in discussing our experiences, hoping to impress with the duties we have or the projects we’ve completed that we forget who our audience is – the program itself. If admissions committees were really only interested in our bulleted accomplishments or responsibilities, they could quickly look over our meticulously organized CVs. I think it’s safe to assume most faculty are looking for something much more, something deeper and connected to their personal research or lab.
Before I continue on it’s important to note these are my personal interpretations of most statement directions, and it’s always possible some faculty are looking for something different. However, an important reminder is that you shouldn’t necessarily be molding your statements into something you think a faculty member would like, or bending your research interests to try and signify you are the perfect candidate even though you aren’t. Of course, answer the prompts and be sure to answer each element of the prompt – what I’m suggesting is that pretending to be someone you aren’t could quickly bite you in the butt. Graduate school is 5+ years of you being mentored by this person and engaging in research they enjoy doing. Good mentorship is typically a lifelong relationship. If you stretch the truth and try to suggest you are interested in variables they are for the sake of appearances, your 5+ years of graduate work could become miserable, and you may miss out on a valuable professional relationship long after you’ve graduated.
Staying true to yourself is a theme that will likely recur throughout any blog post I make about statement writing. The only way to be authentically you is by understanding your values and motivation on a deep, reflective level. One mistake I made the first year I applied to PhD programs was attempting to write a statement immediately. I failed to engage in any personal reflections about what I hoped to accomplish, why I was applying to graduate school, or take time to develop my long-term plan. Further reflections during my second round (guided by a fantastic mentor who truly knows how to dig deep with her mentees) revealed that I knew very little about the profound, meaningful, fulfilling reasons why I wanted to pursue graduate level work.
Though I was proud of the statements I wrote last year, I am a different applicant this year in both subtle and apparent ways. Before I attempt to rewrite statements for the 2020-2021 application cycle, I plan to take some time to continue reflections through journaling and discussions with my professional mentors. I’m going to share my process with you, so you can come along if you’d like. These are meant to be difficult questions that increase vulnerability and openness to the admissions process itself – it is grueling and exhausting, but the hope is that after journaling you will come to better understand who you are not just as an applicant or professional, but as a person. As my mentor told me – “Be ruthless with yourself”.
Ideas for Statement Journaling
What are my personal scientific values?
What do I want to contribute to society as a researcher?
Why do I think my area of interest is important to research?
Think about your 5-year, 10-year, and 20-year plans. What do you hope to accomplish as a researcher or clinician? What community impact will you have had?
How have my previous research experiences informed my desire to pursue graduate work?
How have my previous clinical experiences informed my desire to pursue graduate work?
What qualities do I want in a mentor? What qualities do I not want in a mentor?
Which training model (clinical science, scientist-practitioner, practitioner-scholar) is best aligned with my future career goals?
Do I want to be clinician-focused? Research-focused? Why?
Synthesize your research interests. How do each of your proposed mentors fit into those interests? Are you compromising any elements of your interests to pursue graduate work with these mentors?
If you had unlimited resources, what sort of research study would you conduct? Think about population, design (cross-sectional, longitudinal, etc.), variables, and Co-I’s. Who do you want to be conducting research with? Who will benefit from your research? Dig deep here.
What is a memorable research study you’ve read? How had it informed the way you think about your population of interest?
Why do I want a PhD? Do I need a PhD to engage in the work I want to do?
What personal experiences have shaped me into the applicant/scientist/researcher I am today?
For most of these questions, I recommend using the “5 Whys” strategy. The 5 whys are typically used to get at the root of a problem in business settings to allow critical thinking beyond an initial surface-level answer. It can be extremely useful while prepping for statement writings, and also a bit painful. This strategy requires that you are brutally honest with yourself, and the answers to your 5 whys may surprise you.
The above questions are just some of many potential journaling prompts or thought exercises you could utilize. Even if you think you are crystal-clear about your intentions and motivation for pursuing graduate school, it’s always possible to increase clarity before beginning the work of writing statements. I am excited to potentially have some of you along for this journey, and hope the idea of reflecting before writing is useful.
Please comment and let me know if you plan to use these journal prompts, or share any other strategies you are using to prep for statement writing.
Thanks for reading, and happy reflecting!