Elizabeth A. Pelser (Biology 2013)
My experience with the IE Internship was incredibly helpful during application time. I was mentored by UT Institute for Neuroscience PhD student Ben Scholl, who gave me advice on everything from the application process to grant writing and presenting research at conferences. His educational background is very different from mine: his undergraduate degree is in Physics and he was in biomedical engineering for some time before deciding to pursue a PhD. Listening to the story of his application process gave me some much-needed reassurance that graduate schools would look at me as more than the sum of my undergraduate degree. He was admitted based on his skills as a researcher, and in every meeting his enthusiasm for his work was infectious. We were able to attend a conference together, where we both presented posters on our research. He set an example for me through his hard work and dedication to his degree. I enjoyed learning about graduate school from his perspective.