MSK statement of purpose outline
Part 1: Introduce yourself, your interests and motivations
Explain what you’re interested in, and perhaps, what sparked your desire for graduate study. This should be short and to the point; don’t spend a great deal of time on autobiography.
Considering a more personal approach with a personal experience for this part?
I want to bring up my uncle passing away without this shit coming off as a sob story. This may be tough to balance.
In October? of 2024, my Uncle Jeffrey passed away after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.
Since then I have seen many people suffer in similar ways.
In my nearly 2 years working as a medical scribe, I have seen people facing some of the hardest diseases, cancer, HIV, ESRD, etc.
These tales of sadness but also hope inspired me to want to join the fight against cancer(?)
Absolutely fucking do not use this language in the final draft, please for the love of Jesus Christ of Nazareth make this a little more personal AND professional simultaneously
Part 2: Summarize your undergraduate and previous graduate career
- Research you conducted. Indicate with whom, the title of the project, what your responsibilities were, and the outcome. Write technically, or in the style of your discipline. Faculty are the people who read these statements.
- Important paper or thesis project you completed, as well as anything scholarly beyond your curricular requirements.
- Work experience, especially if you had any kind of responsibility for testing, designing, researching or interning in an area similar to what you wish to study in graduate school.
this marked a somewhat dramatic shift in my area of focus of research
Prior to my interest in cancer biology much of my work was with with plant biology
My research project in college was an .... Melaleuka APETALA1.... God I don't wanna recap this
Glimpse into my le Coding genius (I use arch btw)
Part 3: Discuss the relevance of your recent and current activities
If you graduated and worked prior to returning to graduate school, indicate what you’ve been doing: company or non-profit, your work/design team, responsibilities, what you learned. You can also indicate here how this helped you focus your graduate studies.
This is the part where you explain the significance of your resume
QCC Cancer expert btw I'm like a total genius
OSH and how I learned that treating cancer is not just about cancer or something
Expand on these so much jesus
Medical coding and computer coding are not the same and my coworkers think I'm nuts
Part 4: Elaborate on your academic interests
Here you indicate what you would like to study in graduate school in enough detail to convince the faculty that you understand the scope of research in their discipline, and are engaged with current research themes.
- Indicate the area of your interests. Ideally, pose a question, define a problem, or indicate a theme that you would like to address, and questions that arise from contemporary research. This should be an ample paragraph!
- Look on the web for information about the program you are applying to, including professors and their research. Are there professors whose research interests parallel yours? If so, indicate this. Check the specific program; many may require you to name a professor or professors with whom you might work.
- End your statement in a positive manner, indicating your excitement and readiness for the challenges ahead of you.
This might be a problem for another time. Specifically, I want to address the challenge of going preparing to go into practical medical research for the MSK paper. Ideally, this is the part where you look up research specific doctors (professors?) individual research projects and express what makes you so excited about them