resources

inspired to share by the incredible Ava Mackay-Smith.

for context

When I was starting to apply to programs and fellowships, I felt pretty overwhelmed at the thought of having to write about myself – along with graduate school as a whole. To that end, I was incredibly fortunate to have received help from those more familiar with the process, in addition to reading over what they wrote in their personal statements. By sharing my own writing samples, I hope to pay it forward. In doing so, please respect my intellectual property and practice academic honesty.

For context, I applied to Ph.D. programs and the NSF-GRFP as a senior undergraduate; I applied to the Goldwater Scholarship as a junior undergraduate. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions!

cv

I wrote my CV using a standard word processor. The one attached below is more up-to-date, but the overall formatting has remained consistent throughout all my applications.

Jim’s CV

graduate school

I interviewed with 5 programs: UC Berkeley (MCB), Harvard Med (BBS), Stanford Med (Biosciences - Structural Biology), UCSF (Tetrad), and UChicago (BMB). Below is a representative copy of the statement of purpose I submitted. UC Berkeley was unique in that it required an additional personal statement, so I’ve attached that as well in case it might be of any help.

Statement of Purpose (Stanford) | Personal Statement (Berkeley)

In terms of resources, Berkeley Graduate Division has two great articles on writing the Statement of Purpose and Personal Statement, which I found useful even beyond my application to MCB.

If you have any particular questions about Stanford Biosciences, reach out! I’ll hopefully have some perspective to share by then.

nsf-grfp

Below is my personal statement and research proposal that I submitted for the NSF-GRFP, in addition to the feedback I received from reviewers.

Personal Statement | Research Proposal | Reviewer Feedback

In terms of advice, Alex Hunter Lang’s website was super helpful, especially the repository they maintain with examples of successful essays.

goldwater

Finally, here is the research proposal I submitted for the Goldwater Scholarship.

Research Proposal

closing thoughts/tips

Aside from application-specific resources, my last pieces of advice are pretty standard. Find a trusted group of people - friends, your advisor, fellow labmates - to read over what you write and revise, revise, revise.

Hopefully this was helpful. And again, don’t be afraid to contact me if there’s any questions!