Internships!
So last year, I chose two summer research internships in February and found two lovely recommenders with good credentials (a professor in whose lab I work and a dean with whom I took a discussion-related class) and neither accepted me.
So this year, I chose five summer research internships in December and used the same two lovely recommenders and so far, two have declined me and one has accepted me (and I'm using that acceptance to urge the other two into acting soon)
I haven't had that much more interaction with either recommender since then, so either starting two months earlier, sending three more applications, or being a year more experienced made the difference. But the experience shouldn't make a difference, since all of the programs say that research experience is not required and they in fact encourage those who don't have research opportunities at their home campuses to apply. It might be that my essays were that much more fantastic, since I have a lable for my primary research interest (Cognitive Neuroscience of Emotion!) and I'm just a little more fluent in Neuroscience now than I was then. It might be that opening my range of searches to the entirety of the United States gave me better options, whereas last years' had to be within driving distance of two specific small towns in the Northeast. Or maybe I'm just more open-minded this year, including animal behavior and psychiatric nursing instead of pure lab benchwork.
Either way... I GOT AN INTERNSHIP! Someone wants to pay me $4000 to have fun in their lab all summer, and they're going to pay for my membership fees for a few professional associations, and they're going to check in with me every year to guide my scientific progress. How darling are they?!
As for the other two from whom I have yet to hear a decision, I have already commenced Operation Play The Remaining Program Admission Committees Off Each Other.
So this year, I chose five summer research internships in December and used the same two lovely recommenders and so far, two have declined me and one has accepted me (and I'm using that acceptance to urge the other two into acting soon)
I haven't had that much more interaction with either recommender since then, so either starting two months earlier, sending three more applications, or being a year more experienced made the difference. But the experience shouldn't make a difference, since all of the programs say that research experience is not required and they in fact encourage those who don't have research opportunities at their home campuses to apply. It might be that my essays were that much more fantastic, since I have a lable for my primary research interest (Cognitive Neuroscience of Emotion!) and I'm just a little more fluent in Neuroscience now than I was then. It might be that opening my range of searches to the entirety of the United States gave me better options, whereas last years' had to be within driving distance of two specific small towns in the Northeast. Or maybe I'm just more open-minded this year, including animal behavior and psychiatric nursing instead of pure lab benchwork.
Either way... I GOT AN INTERNSHIP! Someone wants to pay me $4000 to have fun in their lab all summer, and they're going to pay for my membership fees for a few professional associations, and they're going to check in with me every year to guide my scientific progress. How darling are they?!
As for the other two from whom I have yet to hear a decision, I have already commenced Operation Play The Remaining Program Admission Committees Off Each Other.