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Additional questions in USC application

Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2014 6:57 am
by the_cowboy
Generally the graduate schools ask for Statement of Purpose in which the applicant is required to enter the previous research experience, future goals and research interests for graduate studies. In USC application, there is a section named 'additional questions' with the following statements followed by 1000 character blanks

Research Topics:
Please list 2 or 3 scholarly/research topics that are especially interesting to you.

Faculty:
Please list the names of 2 or 3 faculty members whose research you find most interesting and with whom you wish to work during your graduate studies.


Research Experience: Describe your pertinent research experience, training and publications. For your Research Experience, please describe in your own words the overall goals, your role in the research project, whether you worked independently or as part of a group and the overall results that you obtained. For publications, please provide the complete reference information that would be included in a scientific journal such as Science, Nature or Cell.


Then there is another section in the application named 'additional materials'. It requires the applicant to upload Statement of purpose and says 'Please adhere to specific requirements for your Statement of Purpose or any additional documents you submit below, as established by the school or college for your chosen program of study.' The physics department mentions 'Describe your scholarly and professional plans, as well as your interest in a specific area of emphasis within the Department of Physics and Astronomy.'

So I was wondering if I should split my SOP and answer each questions mentioned in the 'additional question' section or just upload the pdf version of my SOP and leave those field blank.

Thank you very much for your time and help.

Re: Additional questions in USC application

Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2014 1:35 am
by djh101
I was a little confused by that. I included my research experience in my SoP but additionally included a description in the research experience section. Also in my SoP I mentioned one or two professors that I might like to work with and gave a short summary of what, particularly, I was interested in that they were studying while under the faculty section I simply gave three names.

Edit: The deadline is today, so I guess I'm a little late. :(

Re: Additional questions in USC application

Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2014 9:40 am
by the_cowboy
No worries, I did the exact same thing :D.