Welcome to the new SNRS Student Network Blog! The purpose of the blog is to provide a communication forum for student researchers. All members of SNRS are encouraged to participate in order to provide novice researchers with the opportunity to communicate with experienced researchers.
I am looking forward to engaging in professional, enriching discussions as our research interests develop. Happy blogging!
Johnanna
Hello everyone! I would like to welcome you to the SNRS Student Network blog as well. I hope that this becomes a source of information for students and a means of sharing the experience of being a doctoral student.
ReplyDeleteThe leadership of the SNRS Student Network is aware that some students either do not feel comfortable using Facebook, so I wanted to start sharing some of the discussions that have been happening on Facebook that might be useful...
As many of you know, APA has come out with a 6th edition style that has a lot of people confused and frustrated. If you are not an Endnote or Refworks user, make your life a lot easier and purchase one of these reference managing packages. Endnote has student rates for purchasing.
If you are currently an Endnote user, you can download the APA 6th style for free...
Go to: http://www.endnote.com/support/enapa6thstyle.asp
Click on "Download the APA 6th style package"
Follow the instructions.
Thank you for this new blog. I look forward to engaging discussions.
ReplyDeleteAlaina Cyr, UTA
Another Facebook discussion that I wanted to share was about finding scholarships for doctoral students.
ReplyDeleteCommunity of Science is a great resource and one that all doctoral students should become familiar with. This is their website: http://www.cos.com/
You need to create a profile and then you can set up a search so that every week you get an email with the funding opportunities that you might qualify for or be interested in. You can specify what state you are in, if you are a US citizen or not, your area of interest, etc, etc.
One more from Facebook about writing the personal statement for your application...
ReplyDeleteThe question posted was: I am applying to doctoral programs - anyone have any advice about writing the personal statement? How about the application process - how did you pick the schools where you applied? Was there something specific about them, such as location, their research topics, etc?
The responses from several people are below...
As far as the personal statement, I completed many boring drafts about who I was and where I was going based on what I thought schools would want to hear. Then, I had an epiphany of sorts and actually wrote who I really was, what excited me and where I really wanted to go. I am not sure how important that statement was, but I was accepted at each school I applied to. I picked the schools based on the strengths of the faculty and how well they matched my interests. I am interested in child health and the choices are limited where I am and moving would be difficult since I have a family and love where I live. The school I chose had the largest critical mass of child health faculty in my vacinity and also has a great reputation. I am so thankful that this was my number one priority. I know others that did not select a school with a mentor in their field of interest and now are having trouble getting faculty to understand their research interest and being encouraged to change their focus.
I am going to second the previous recommendation to focus on schools where there is a strong match to your research interests. That is definitely the most important factor in terms of you being able to do the work you want to do. As you interview at different schools and meet with potential advisors, think about how you interact with these people... you will be sitting in their office for the next several years and it is important that you be able to communicate and get along with them :)
or my personal statement - like everyone else who has posted - I really focused on how my doctoral education can help me facilitate local change in health care as well as perhaps even global change.
I am not a traditional learner and in fact - all of my advanced education has been completed online. When I decided to search for the right program - I had several criteria that were important to me. First - I wanted to match my research interest with the university. Second, I wanted total flexibility in being able to complete my degree. Third, I wanted to know that there were a network of learners that I could connect with during my education. Last - but perhaps the most important was the success rate of the students entering the program. I wanted to know how many actually graduated with the PhD and how many were ABDs?
By the way, ABD means "All But Dissertation."
Hi all,
ReplyDeleteOne of the most highly requested topics from our recent survey of SNRS student interests was finding funding. So, along those lines, I thought I would share some insights into the process of applying for an F31 National Student Research Award (NRSA) through NIH. I first submitted my NRSA in the August of my second year of the PhD program. Although I had T32 funding through my school, I anticipated that I would not get funded on the first try (since very few people do) and decided to try and get started early. Supposedly, they also review grants a little bit less harsh if you are a earlier in your program than if you are further along because they know you still have a lot to learn :).
Applying for the NRSA at the beginning of second year was a challenge. I did still have a lot to learn and a lot to think about, but I came in to the program with a pretty good idea of my topic and with a lot of help from my advisor, we were able to pull it off. I actually took an independent study with my advisor in the Spring semester of my first year so that we could have the time we needed to work on it. If this is at all possible, I would highly recommend it. Writing a grant like this is a huge amount of work (at least, if not more work than a typical class) and trying to do it on top of a full course load is doable, but tough.
So, I first submitted in August. I got a score back some time in October (I think), but did not receive my actual reviews (some people call them "pink sheets") until some time in late November. These dates may be a little off since it has been several years ago now (sorry). The reviews were tough, but pretty fair. Something I learned that worked for me along the way of writing many, many drafts and getting a lot of feedback is that I handle reviews best if I quickly look through them when I get them and then put them away for about 24 hours before I start working on making changes. I think it is natural to be a little frustrated and I found that if I started working on anything right away I wasn't very productive and the frustration would come out in my writing. So, if you have the luxury of 24 hrs, try it out and come back to it when the frustrating has subsided and you can more clearly respond.
Unfortunately, since the reviews didn't come back until late November, it was going to be an extremely fast turn around to get it in for the next submission date, which was in early December. I'm not sure how other schools work, but my school required that the grant be submitted to the Office of Student Research one week prior to the NIH deadline and the Research Support Center within the School of Nursing required it to be to them a week prior to that. So, that was pretty much impossible. Instead, I resubmitted in April of my second year. I was a little surprised by how much work the resubmission was. The reviews really didn't seem that bad, but once I started working on it, I realized that it could be a lot better (I learned a few things in the mean time) and I ended up making quite a few changes. Of course, they tell you not to make changes unless the reviewers have commented on it because you don't want to draw attention to something that wasn't a problem in the first place.
My previous thread was too long, so here is the rest of it...
ReplyDeleteThankfully, all the hard work paid off. I got a fundable score and was able to start my F31 funding about half way through the first semester of my third year, which meant that I only had a half semester of not being funded. The way that it works is that as a pre-doctoral student you can get 5 years of funding from NIH. Since my T32 was 2 years, I was able to apply for 3 years of funding from the F31. I believe that if you have not had any other NIH funding, you can apply for up to 5 years on the F31.
Other thoughts...for the training grants (like the T32 and F31), NIH is particularly concerned with the people and the resources you will have in order to get the training that you need. It is important that you have a good research topic and ideas on how to pull it off, but it is equally, if not more important, that you show them that you have good support from faculty at your university (and/or at other universities) and that you have a good plan for how you are going to get the training you need to successfully do your research.
NIH also wants to "grow researchers," meaning that they want to get people in early in their careers to start getting good training so that they can continually fund them throughout their research careers to produce excellent research. They really do want to fund pre-doctoral students, so don't be afraid of applying. It is hard work, but you are going to have to do the work at some point. I kept telling myself that I was either going to have to do the work then or do it when I was writing my dissertation proposal, so I might as well have done it then and have the added benefit of funding.
So, if you're thinking about it... go for it! Good luck!
Hello all,
ReplyDeleteI am serving on the development committee where we are trying to improve the virtual mentor wall. Any comments for improvement will be greatly appreciated! This would include sale process or visual appearance of the wall.
Thanks!
Erin Routh
SNRS-Salimetrics Distinguished Student Scholar Award in Biobehavioral Science
ReplyDeletePurpose: The purpose of this award is to recognize the contribution of a rising pre or post doctoral student-investigator who is actively conducting research to advance nursing knowledge related to the interactions between biology and behavior. Awardees will receive a plaque, fee admission to a Spit Camp, and a monetary prize of up to $500 to cover travel and expenses to attend Spit Camp, offered by Salimetrics, LLC (Please go to http://www.salimetrics.com/spit-camp/ for details)
Award Guidelines: Each nominee for the Salimetrics-SNRS Biobehavioral RIG Distinguished Student Scholar Award must:
• be a student member of SNRS in good standing;
• be a member of the SNRS Biobehavioral RIG;
• have obtained committee approval for conducting a project that uses a biobehavioral framework and corresponding measures for studying a clinical problem;
• demonstrated success in obtaining extramural funding for this research (including Sigma Theta Tau, NRSA, NSF, AHA, AACN, or similar grant mechanism)
• adhere to the nomination process as outlined below.
• give a presentation at the annual meeting of the RIG
Nomination Procedure: Nominations must be made by an active SNRS member (regular, student, or retired member); self-nominations will be accepted.
For more information, please contact Barbara Carlson at bcarlson@unc.edu. The final deadline is December 31, 2010.
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ReplyDelete