SOP hell
I know you guys probably hate the words statement of purpose right now, but please help! This is a rough draft, I know it's long and I need help whittling it down. Background: Applying to U. of Michigan, Wayne State, Bowling Green, Michigan State programs in Biopsych/Behavioral Neuroscience. Non-traditional (32 years old), Gre: 740 V, 560 Q, 3.5 GPA with 3.97 in major.
Also, this school has separate personal statements and SOP, should I include anything academic in my personal statement then?
Thank you so much!
When Phineas Gage had a railroad spike forced into his skull in 1843, he had no way of knowing his experiences would irrevocably alter the path of behavioral science. His impact on me was only slightly less eventful. His was the first recorded incident of brain injury permanently and empirically affecting personality and behavior. What had heretofore been a mild mannered temperate man became an angry, abusive, hard drinking one. Learning his now famous story in my intro psych class my first year at community college, I was fascinated. The idea that who we are, our very identity, resided in the physical machinery of the brain, compelled me.
My presence in that intro psych class was altogether less fortuitous than it may seem. I had no idea at that point that Psychology and the brain would become my passion. I merely knew that it seemed interesting, much like my Humanities and Western Civ. Classes. My only academic preparation was the books I loved and the woefully inept program at my high school. It was through my lifelong love of reading that I became interested in the biological basis of behavior and it’s interaction with environment, devouring works of natural philosophy, anthropology, biology and most importantly, evolutionary psychology. It was Matt Ridley’s book The Agile Gene, which demonstrated the way in which nature and nurture impose their effects upon each other and cemented the direction my studies would take.
Upon receiving my Associate in Arts from Washtenaw Community College, I transferred to Eastern Michigan University, where I majored in Psychology and minored in both Anthropology and Biology. The three perspectives of human behavior were pivotal in my forming a multi-dimensional, nuanced understanding of both human and non-human behavior, as well as its evolution. Coursework in Physiological Psychology, Genetics, and Evolution were eye opening, as well as Learning, Neuroanatomy, and Physical Anthropology. These classes exposed me to both the universal and simultaneously diverse nature of humanity.
At EMU I sought out research experience with the sole professor in the Psychology department who listed the brain as a research interest. Because he had not done research in some time, he requested we first do a semester literature review on his specialty, Conditioned Taste Aversion. That semester was spent scouring databases and hunting down journals in the library archives, deconstructing protocols and discussing the results of various experiments and what they might mean to any work we might do. By the end of the semester we had attracted a couple other students and decided on a plan of action. We would attempt two studies at once, in teams of two. My study sought to successfully replicate the work of John Garcia and create a Conditioned Taste Preference based on recovery from illness, and then to use an NMDA inhibitor to see if learning of this type is associated with NMDA as CTA has been shown to be. The other study, which I assisted on, was a repeated measure escalating dose attempt to see if there were empirical differences between chronic and acute CTA.
The first task at hand was to clear out the suite of laboratory rooms, which had gone virtually untouched for some time. There were a dozen or so aging rats housed for teaching purposes in experimental psychology, so new pups were ordered. I had the pleasure and joy of working hands on in the rat lab, from initial set up to daily upkeep to problem solving; and cannula implantation in the final phase of our study. I gained invaluable skills and experience, including oral gavage, IP injections, and euthanization.
In my senior year I transferred from Dr. Rusiniak’s lab to Dr. Delprato’s Cognitive Psychology lab on Memory. Here I worked with human subjects for the first time, in a study building on the work of M.C Anderson in Retrieval Induced Forgetting. Some of the new skills I garnered in his lab were the recruitment and scheduling of subjects, administering computer based memory tests, scoring and analyzing results, and SPSS data entry. More informally, weekly lab meetings to discuss how the study was progressing and to suggest new ideas for future studies were a solid foundation for the teamwork required in research and lab work.
While these experiences were greatly rewarding and informative as to the life and work of a researcher, my own interests are in a different area of the same spectrum. The entirety of behavioral neuroscience/biopsychology intrigues me, and I find pleasure in the subject overall. But my keen curiosity stems from the evolution of the human brain, what we share as a species and what demarcates us from other species. The intersection of the evolutionary past which has formed our neurochemical processes and anatomical structures, intertwined with the plasticity which allows for the here and now to affect our development, is a massive work of complexity that never ceases to amaze me. The manner in which our environment affects our biology, which affects our behavior, which affects our environment in turn, is variables which constitute a life’s study. Synaptic plasticity, Long Term Potentiation, neuronal branching and the connectivity concept, the genetic basis of fixed action patterns and behaviors, the evolution of the forebrain in hominins; all these subjects serve to inform us of our own place in the universe, and I believe are within the grasp of humankind at the present time.
The University of Michigan is the ideal institute for me because of its dedication to basic research, and it’s understanding of the importance of organismal experimentation. The Psychology program is interdisciplinary, an essential part of behavioral study. I have been in contact with several professors whose work I feel I can contribute to, namely Randolph Nesse and Scott Altran, Kent Berridge and Jill Becker. I am also interested in the opportunities that the Culture and Cognition program and Cognitive Science and Cognitive Neuroscience offer.
I am confident that my research and life experiences make me a well suited candidate for the study of Biopsychology at the University of Michigan, and that my background will be a welcome addition to the diversity of students there.
Also, this school has separate personal statements and SOP, should I include anything academic in my personal statement then?
Thank you so much!
When Phineas Gage had a railroad spike forced into his skull in 1843, he had no way of knowing his experiences would irrevocably alter the path of behavioral science. His impact on me was only slightly less eventful. His was the first recorded incident of brain injury permanently and empirically affecting personality and behavior. What had heretofore been a mild mannered temperate man became an angry, abusive, hard drinking one. Learning his now famous story in my intro psych class my first year at community college, I was fascinated. The idea that who we are, our very identity, resided in the physical machinery of the brain, compelled me.
My presence in that intro psych class was altogether less fortuitous than it may seem. I had no idea at that point that Psychology and the brain would become my passion. I merely knew that it seemed interesting, much like my Humanities and Western Civ. Classes. My only academic preparation was the books I loved and the woefully inept program at my high school. It was through my lifelong love of reading that I became interested in the biological basis of behavior and it’s interaction with environment, devouring works of natural philosophy, anthropology, biology and most importantly, evolutionary psychology. It was Matt Ridley’s book The Agile Gene, which demonstrated the way in which nature and nurture impose their effects upon each other and cemented the direction my studies would take.
Upon receiving my Associate in Arts from Washtenaw Community College, I transferred to Eastern Michigan University, where I majored in Psychology and minored in both Anthropology and Biology. The three perspectives of human behavior were pivotal in my forming a multi-dimensional, nuanced understanding of both human and non-human behavior, as well as its evolution. Coursework in Physiological Psychology, Genetics, and Evolution were eye opening, as well as Learning, Neuroanatomy, and Physical Anthropology. These classes exposed me to both the universal and simultaneously diverse nature of humanity.
At EMU I sought out research experience with the sole professor in the Psychology department who listed the brain as a research interest. Because he had not done research in some time, he requested we first do a semester literature review on his specialty, Conditioned Taste Aversion. That semester was spent scouring databases and hunting down journals in the library archives, deconstructing protocols and discussing the results of various experiments and what they might mean to any work we might do. By the end of the semester we had attracted a couple other students and decided on a plan of action. We would attempt two studies at once, in teams of two. My study sought to successfully replicate the work of John Garcia and create a Conditioned Taste Preference based on recovery from illness, and then to use an NMDA inhibitor to see if learning of this type is associated with NMDA as CTA has been shown to be. The other study, which I assisted on, was a repeated measure escalating dose attempt to see if there were empirical differences between chronic and acute CTA.
The first task at hand was to clear out the suite of laboratory rooms, which had gone virtually untouched for some time. There were a dozen or so aging rats housed for teaching purposes in experimental psychology, so new pups were ordered. I had the pleasure and joy of working hands on in the rat lab, from initial set up to daily upkeep to problem solving; and cannula implantation in the final phase of our study. I gained invaluable skills and experience, including oral gavage, IP injections, and euthanization.
In my senior year I transferred from Dr. Rusiniak’s lab to Dr. Delprato’s Cognitive Psychology lab on Memory. Here I worked with human subjects for the first time, in a study building on the work of M.C Anderson in Retrieval Induced Forgetting. Some of the new skills I garnered in his lab were the recruitment and scheduling of subjects, administering computer based memory tests, scoring and analyzing results, and SPSS data entry. More informally, weekly lab meetings to discuss how the study was progressing and to suggest new ideas for future studies were a solid foundation for the teamwork required in research and lab work.
While these experiences were greatly rewarding and informative as to the life and work of a researcher, my own interests are in a different area of the same spectrum. The entirety of behavioral neuroscience/biopsychology intrigues me, and I find pleasure in the subject overall. But my keen curiosity stems from the evolution of the human brain, what we share as a species and what demarcates us from other species. The intersection of the evolutionary past which has formed our neurochemical processes and anatomical structures, intertwined with the plasticity which allows for the here and now to affect our development, is a massive work of complexity that never ceases to amaze me. The manner in which our environment affects our biology, which affects our behavior, which affects our environment in turn, is variables which constitute a life’s study. Synaptic plasticity, Long Term Potentiation, neuronal branching and the connectivity concept, the genetic basis of fixed action patterns and behaviors, the evolution of the forebrain in hominins; all these subjects serve to inform us of our own place in the universe, and I believe are within the grasp of humankind at the present time.
The University of Michigan is the ideal institute for me because of its dedication to basic research, and it’s understanding of the importance of organismal experimentation. The Psychology program is interdisciplinary, an essential part of behavioral study. I have been in contact with several professors whose work I feel I can contribute to, namely Randolph Nesse and Scott Altran, Kent Berridge and Jill Becker. I am also interested in the opportunities that the Culture and Cognition program and Cognitive Science and Cognitive Neuroscience offer.
I am confident that my research and life experiences make me a well suited candidate for the study of Biopsychology at the University of Michigan, and that my background will be a welcome addition to the diversity of students there.