A beluga whale helped me first realize my true academic passion. I spent my high school summers and
weekends volunteering at the New York Aquarium, first in the education department, and later in the
training department. It was there, through casual and research-oriented observations of cetaceans, that I
began to wonder about animal and human minds. I later had the opportunity to participate in an
observational research project, helping to record data on the behaviors of new whale calves and
mothers. My informal and formal observations fed my interest in the phylogenetic and ontogenetic bases
of cognition and language.
As a psychology student at [my school], I had numerous opportunities to research and observe human
psychology, both in and out of the classroom. As a sophomore, along with a professor and fellow
students in a seminar class, I helped design and run a study on categorization and user's intentions.
Later that year we presented our findings at the annual American Psychological Society meeting. In that
same year I also assisted a professor in conducting a study on the effects of familiar and unfamiliar
music on reading comprehension.
I spent the summer following my sophomore year (1997) as a research assistant in the [my school]
Psychology Department, funded by a grant from the Howard Hughes Foundation. I collaborated with a
professor, a fellow undergraduate student, and a visiting high school student to research, design, and
run a study on attitudes towards germs and illness. This included conducting an extensive literature
review, specifying research questions, and designing questionnaires that would help us effectively
answer our research questions. In addition to strengthening my research abilities, this experience gave
me the invaluable opportunity to interact with fellow researchers as a student, a peer, and a mentor.
My extracurricular research experience during my sophomore and junior years of college gave me the
tools to independently develop and carry out research projects. During my senior year at [my school], I
completed a long term library-based research project on the evolution of the human linguistic ability. As
a person who tends to look at the big picture when conducting research, this project was the perfect
opportunity for me to integrate research from numerous fields and subfields in order to answer a
psychologically based question. Through the study of anthropology, paleoneurology, neuropsychology,
linguistics, and psycholinguistics, I explored theories debating the neurological and behavioral bases for
language evolution. Although I do not envision the study of language evolution as being my main focus in
graduate school or beyond, I still hold an interest in the field. As soon as I complete my graduate school
applications, I plan to start preparing peer commentary articles on this topic for the on-line journal
Psycholoquy.
My current research interests include language acquisition and cognitive development. I would like to
study the relationship between language acquisition and the development of other cognitive processes.
More specifically, I am interested how the development of metacognition and concepts affects and is
effected by semantic and lexical development in toddlers and preschoolers. This research interest has
developed over the greater part of the last decade; starting with my observations of behavior
development in beluga whales, and shaped by my in depth study of cognition and language as a college
undergraduate.
I feel that my research interests fit extremely well with the psychology department at [school I am applying
to], and in particular with professors [a professor] and [another professor]. I would be elated to have the
opportunity to study in a department where there is such a plethora of researchers who study cognition
and development. The breadth of research done at [school I am applying to] would allow me not only to
pursue my interests in depth with talented researchers, but would also allow me to eventually pursue
some of my secondary interests in other areas of cognitive development. It is because of these fabulous
opportunities that [school I am applying to] is my top choice for graduate study.
I am confident that graduate study at [school I am applying to] would prepare me well for my long term
career goals. I wish to eventually hold a tenured position at a college or university, where I would have
the opportunity to do research and to act as a teacher and mentor to undergraduate and graduate
students. My undergraduate experiences at [my school] have fostered my love of and dedication to
research, and provided the necessary tools to pursue my goals. I know that the opportunity to study at
[school I am applying to] would allow me to grow as a student and researcher, and allow me to make
significant contributions to the field of developmental psychology.
Please note that I have replaced identifying information (my undergraduate institution, and school I wrote
this essay for) with "[my school]" or "[school I am applying to]". Also note that the paragraph about my fit
with the school was different for each school. And I didn't say that every school was my first choice... I
only told that to the two school that were at the time my top choices. (I couldn't decide between the two,
so I felt justified in telling both of them that they were at the top of my list, since they were.) Paragraph divisions have also been removed.
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