Intellectual Curiosty without Research Experience?

[Akaoooooo]

Hi guys,

So the pre-interview scores were just released, and I scored VERY low in the “Intellectual Curiosity/Scholarship/Research” area. I did expect that as I had no research experience. Going forward, I was just wondering how others that applied with no research experience conveyed this component in the application. 

Thanks 

[OBoyMD]

What were your other EC's? Just for some context.

[Akaoooooo]

On 7/3/2018 at 7:31 AM, OBoyMD said:

What were your other EC's? Just for some context.

 

[OBoyMD]

Sound cool, but doesn't really include many/any intellectual (might not be the right word) experiences.

for example:

- Scholarships?

- Academic competitions? (biology competition is something I did)

 

Honestly this is a tough one...

 

I have some research but I helped with a project on allergy curriculum reform for elementary schools in Ontario? That may be an example of something that would go into this category but is not research.

 

Tried my best but this is a tough one.

[Akaoooooo]

11 minutes ago, OBoyMD said:

Sound cool, but doesn't really include many/any intellectual (might not be the right word) experiences.

for example:

- Scholarships?

- Academic competitions? (biology competition is something I did)

 

Honestly this is a tough one...

 

I have some research but I helped with a project on allergy curriculum reform for elementary schools in Ontario? That may be an example of something that would go into this category but is not research.

 

Tried my best but this is a tough one.

Agreed, thanks for your input. Something to work on for next year I guess.

[MountainAmoeba]

I think you can demonstrate intellectual curiosity without taking about academics. You will have to think hard about how to demonstrate that with your current top ten. Ask what does it mean to demonstrate curiosity? How can you show that? You probably already have that, but you probably failed to demonstrate it. 

 

 

[nice]

.

[Akaoooooo]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone! Really appreciate it. I've been realizing more and more that what I learned from my experiences and how I describe them in the application is A LOT more important. I'll just have to think out of the box and get creative to demonstrate the "intellectual curiosity" component in my non-academic experiences. 

[MountainAmoeba]

On 7/4/2018 at 9:02 PM, KingKunta_chickenwings said:

Maybe doing some self research to learn about a particular topic or skill? 

No. More that it’s an attribute, not an accomplishment. So how can you show that attribute? 

[wewillbeok]

I don’t think you need research experience to demonstrate this category. I talked a little bit about research, but I haven’t done any in 10 years. I do have a course-based Masters though. Besides this, I sought to demonstrate illectually curosity by talking about academic struggles, what education meant to me, spoke to examples of life long learning etc etc. If I can give any advice on the top 10 it would be to minimize descriptive details and really do a deep dive and reflection on what the experience meant to you. What did you learn, how did it shape you... Hope that helps.