<p>Hey guys, just wondering something as I'm starting the application business. I'm looking at getting an award, poster, or minor publication this year, but it'll be too late for the application cycle, probably second semester or so. Should I mention that it's in the works, or should I just let it alone? I'll probably do it anyways just for fun, since my spring semester doesn't look like much. :P</p>
<p>It would sound odd to my ears (as someone who selects graduate students), to hear “I’m looking at getting an award, poster, or minor publication this year”. Why and what does this mean? It sounds like you somehow have advanced knowledge of this yet you don’t know which one? Are you suggesting this is something you can just ‘do’ and it’s under your control, like joining a club or taking a course? When is the paper being submitted or in what round of review is it? In my field, it would take a year at least from submission to acceptance even for a ‘minor’ publication (and not sure what minor publication means exactly but I am assuming here a second or third tier journal? conference proceeding?). </p>
<p>Without more information, just based on the statement above (so I may be entirely off base and inadvertently insulting so I apologize in advance!), but I’m left with the impression you have almost no real experience in research and academia and how it works. This isn’t just a box you can check because you read somewhere these things look good. It also sounds presumptuous which conveys immaturity (not that you are immature! I’m just judging the statement with no information about you of course!). Bottom line: it gives the wrong impression you want to make! </p>
<p>If you are involved in research over time, it is that experience which may lead to something like an award or poster or minor publication. If you don’t have those things, you can’t say you are going to get those things but you can talk about your research, your involvement, and what stage it is at.</p>
<p>I’m a college senior (so my credentials are different from starbright’s.)</p>
<p>There must be something that leads you to believe you will achieve these things. Are you working on research, or at least connected to a professor/lab/project (whatever applies to your field) where you will do research? Whatever is factually true about your situation right now is what you should emphasize.
I have been told that I can say that I’m working on research that I <em>should</em> lead to a publication. The experiment has been designed so that I should get the quality/quantity of data that is required for publication, and if asked I could explain exactly why that’s true.</p>
<p>@ starbright, faustarp - Actually, this is my sixth semester of research, and I’ll be finding out whether or not I get the award in October, and the award comes with a minor “publication”, insofar as it’s published on the award website. As for the poster, it’s for our school’s undergrad poster presentation, so nothing big there, either, so yes, I do have a pretty good shot at getting them done, something my PI pointed out. I have quite an amount of data already, so this isn’t me being a noob who doesn’t know what’s necessary to present/publish. I should have clarified that in my first post; however, I don’t see why you guys assumed that as an applicant on this cycle, I would have gone into this blind… :</p>
<p>It’s not something particularly important to me, since I’ve got a reasonable amount of experience, just something I’m curious about.</p>