Personal statement for grad school with research experience in the wrong field

[Epsilon36819]

Hi everyone,

I am currently writing my personal statement for the application to grad school in pure mathematics. I am aware that grad school comitees usually want to hear about the specifics of your research experience: the project, your role in it, etc. However, my only research experience was from an REU completed in a very experimental field of physics. I wanted to know to what extent should I provide the details of my project.

On one hand, providing lots of details confirms that I knew exactly what I was doing, knew my role in the group and gives indication that I was not simply a mindless technical worker. However, I feel that giving the details, because of the technical terms and specifics, derails the spirit of the letter towards experimental physics, which is NOT the field that I am interested in.

Would anybody experienced with this have suggestions?

 

[Vanadium 50]

You should be specific.

 

[Choppy]

I agree. You want to demonstrate that you were actively engaged in the research that you took part in.