<p>Hi everyone!</p>
<p>I am currently working on writing my statement of purpose for several PhD programs in Stem Cell/Developmental Biology, and have some questions I'm hoping you can help me out with.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Should I cover ALL of my research experience in my statement of purpose? Just one or two big projects that were particularly in depth and important in my decision to pursue a PhD? I have two years of research experience (including two summers full time), and I feel like my statement of purpose could just turn into me regurgitating my CV if I try to include everything.</p></li>
<li><p>How much (if any) field specific scientific jargon should I use? When describing my research should I talk more generally, or is it OK to state very specific findings? For example I characterized a certain set of cells I was interested in as having two specific markers that would probably only be known to people in the field of skeletal muscle/satellite cell differentiation.</p></li>
<li><p>Should I "name names" of professors I want to work with if I haven't contacted them? I have heard arguments both ways and I would be interested in what people have done and what did/didn't work for them.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks in advance for any help!</p>
<p>SciGirl</p>
<p>No, don’t cover all of your research experience. Select projects that you can talk about in a compelling manner that give a good representative look at your motivations for entering graduate study and your preparation for such.</p>
<p>Speak more generally. You don’t know who in the department will read your statement, but likely there will be people reading it who are not in your specialty, and you need to communicate your science in a way they can understand. You can speak biologist - you can even speak stem cell biologist - but don’t speak jargon that a biologist outside of skeletal muscle/satellite cell differentiation wouldn’t understand.</p>
<p>Yes, you can name names of professors even if you haven’t contacted them, and in fact, you SHOULD do this. I did in my own app (a social science field that operates like a natural science - with labs and advisers) and it worked out to my advantage. They want to know that you have done research on their department and that you will be a good fit, so you need to designate possible advisers.</p>
<p>Thanks for your reply!</p>
<p>One last question - would you still include possible faculty to work with if that information is covered in another portion of the application? About half of the applications I have started have a section that asks me to list the top 3-8 faculty members that I would be interested in working with.</p>