发信人: decay (decay), 信区: Biology
标 题: post-doc fellowship -prepare application
发信站: Unknown Space - 未名空间 (Tue Dec 9 02:35:17 2003) WWW-POST

letters, CV, autobiography, personal statement, reprints, your PI's CV,
funding status, reprints...

I'm not sure what is more important, just prepare every aspect well. But
don't worry about autobiography and personal statement too much. We
over-emphasized it too much when we applied for graduate school. And I found
they don't care at all. They just want to know what kind of person you are
and what's your general interest. I sent those to my PI for grammer checking
and she didn't change anything, even though I still have a lot grammer
problems.

Letters are certainly important and are out of your control. But be sure to
talk/chat to your references well before the deadline. Make sure they know you
well before they write the letters. The letter from your advisor is the most
important one. But my PI is famous for writing so so letters and there is
nothing I can do about it. I picked up two of my committees who were in my
written, oral and defense. I had another one who is very famous for his
toughness. He has failed lots of students in my dept. for their prelims and
always asked tough Qs in student journal club and defense talks. He always
came to talk to me and always challenged me with lots of Qs. He came to me and
offered to write letter for me. I was nervous about him for some time. But I
can't turn him down. But it turned out his letters helped a lot. During my
interview, Dr. Hogness specifically how did I get to know him because he
happens to know him in his graduate school. Make sure all your letters are
sent out on time. If the person is too busy, tell his administrative assitant
to put it on his calendar and push him from time to time. This works better
than you push the PI himself.

As for the schools/labs you come from and going to. I'm not sure which one is
more important. LSRF is the only one states that only your own bkg is
important but not the lab you are going to. If you look through the awardee's
list, certainly >80% awardees are in SF Bay or Boston. But I know people in
mid-west, 2nd or 3rd tir school get DRCR award as well. LLS fellows are just
everywhere.

From my interview experiece (hhwf is the only one that require interview),
they certainly look for the creativity and independece of the candidate. I
know they specifically get rid of two classes people: 1. people who is boring
to talk to and doens't show much general interst/enthusiasm for science 2.
people who has impressive CV& publications but don't seem to be smart and
independent. Dr Hogness specifically asked if I came up with my proposal ideas
by myself or not. They also look for how long people finish they Ph.D. They
consider it as good if less than 5 yrs, but bad if longer than 6 ys.

For your info, I personally come from a so so school in China, came right
after BS, get my Ph.D. from a so so school, but a good lab in a so so field,
and get into a top school, but a so so lab in a good field. My past PI has
people from or into his lab get DRCR or ACS award, my current PI doen't have
any one get HHWF or DRCR or JCCM. I had a RNA and Cell paper, both are 1st
author and only has my PI's name in addition. And I finished my Ph.D. in 4.5
ys. Both my Ph.D. work and proposed work are completely from my own ideas and
outside the scope of my PI's mainstream work.


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