Re: Research Statement

Thanks so much for the reply! and Thanks to all who replied to me.

Your suggestions are definitely very helpful. I will keep checking
info. from here:)

Cheers,
Oliver

briangmoore wrote:

I would say in general do as much as you can and make is as readable as
you can. Also, it depends on what kind of faculty position you are
looking for.

I am not the best authority on how to get a job at a major research
university, as I've never had one at that level. I have worked at
regional state schools and 4-year colleges mainly, so take this with
that caveat.

I think there are two purposes of the research statement in the
application. One is to give the readers an idea of what your research
plans are, overall. The other might be to show that you have your
ducks in a row for an actual application ready to go out, and you know
where you should be sending it.

I will say one thing. You should not give any indication of "not
really having an exact plan of a proposal in my mind except continuing
my current research." Even if that is the case, that definitely will
not fly. The best case scenario for you is that your Ph.D. director is
engaged in an absolutely cutting-edge, white-hot research area, in
which case you might be able to almost get by with just continuing what
you are doing (though you have to work out any areas of conflict or
collaboration with your Ph.D. mentor). But even then you don't want to
say something like that. You want to indicate in your proposal your
plan to start-up some unique projects and that these have a likelihood
of playing out into something with "legs" in the future.

Then there are all sorts of other pitfalls. Make sure you know as well
as possible the school you are applying to. E.g. if you are applying
to a small, 4-year college, make sure you address that you have some
understanding of working with undergraduates, and how to make that
work (and further that you are wanting to do that). Also, you need to
be careful about what kind of start-up needs you specify. If you ask
for $400,000 in an application to a small college, that will kick you
out right away. Similarly, my guess is that sending an application to
a major research school and only asking for $20,000 and saying you will
employ only a handful of students might not be a very good idea.

There are lots of people with expertise on this issue who read (or used
to read) this group. You should try a few times to get help here
before you give up.

.

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