<p>I am having trouble with my SOP. I am trying to get into grad school for a mechanical engineering PhD. I have a lot of research experience but I am wondering in how much detail should I discuss my experiences? Should it be very detailed, or should I just state what I was working on and the skills it helped me develop?</p>
<p>Yes should be very detailed, and should to go into technical details (about your research experience) and while you are there, relate yourself to some of the faculty members’ work.</p>
<p>Don’t make it sound like a personal statement, we are scientists. I made that mistake once.</p>
<p>Sorry to hijack this topic, but what if you have research experience, but it’s not related to what you want to do in grad school? So e.g. I did some physics research as an undergrad, but I want to do electrical engineering research in grad school?</p>
<p>Should I still mention the experience or will it look like I’m not sure what I want to do? Also, I don’t feel comfortable asking the professor, under whom I did research, for a LOR. Should I even mention that research then? Will the admissions office wonder why that professor didn’t submit a LOR (I only him 3 times during the semester).</p>