Please give me suggestion about my NIW case

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run4GC

Registered Users (C)
Hi all,
I am PhD in Biomedical field. I am thinking of NIW and not sure if I can give a try. Could you please give me your opion about my case:

1) PhD student in Top 25 school
2) Advisor is fellow of National Science Acad
3) Background: B.S. in biology, M.S. in ECE and now doing cancer related bio-imaging applications.
4) get DOD fellowship
5) P.I. of one grant ( $100K)
6) one peer review paper (2nd Author) in my recent field 2005 in good Journal ( Index Factor > 7.0), one review paper (3rd author) at so so Journal ( I. F. >3) 2006
7) independent letters from other country/ company
8) will present in a big conference next year 2007.

I am planning to finish my study next winter (2007) and will have 2 more papers (first author) before next summer.

Here are my thoughts regarding my case:
because I have a) papers, b) grant c) strong ref letters d) multiple background so I should try NIW now.
However, I am not sure if I have national impact because 1) no citatioin 2) not first author.

Can anyone give some clues and point out what I need if I try NIW now? Thanks a lot.
 
Since you work in cancer related research, you can use to explain third prong:
You have less papers to prove other prongs. I think you are better off waiting for your other 2 papers to be atleast accepted. Meanwhile, gather more of reco letters from independent researchers and from other countries too.
 
I too would recommend that you have in hand the two first author papers that you anticipate and then apply for NIW. My experience (personal and friends' cases) is that people are more willing to write reco letters for you when they have something to judge you by (your papers, unless of course they know you). As you know it is valuable to have recos from independent experts in your field, so it might be useful to wait.

I think your work being cited is the important factor on basis of which you can argue that your work is important and has an influence on your field.
As an additional note; have you tried Google Scholar for checking you citations for the paper you already have? This search engine gave me a lot more citations for my papers than Pubmed did.

All the best!
 
You have not completed you PhD and you are a PI in the 100K grant???? or is that your advisor......dont understand how? What position do you hold now?

You do have very few papers. I had about 6 publications and I was skeptical myself. You might want to search the web and try and get citations regarding your work....like i had some company cite my paper for a product launch, some university journal club presented my paper....etc etc. These help. Any newspaper citations? OH AND YOU HAVE TO GET KILLER LORs...... I mean the place has to be in the top 5 in the nation preferrably. In the end I think my lawyer was awesome.....the way you present you case and the writing of letters also makes a hell of a difference.
 
kulbikr said:
You have not completed you PhD and you are a PI in the 100K grant???? or is that your advisor......dont understand how? What position do you hold now?

Yes, I am PI of this grant and my fellowship is paid by this $100k too. So it's not much money at the end.

You do have very few papers. I had about 6 publications and I was skeptical myself. You might want to search the web and try and get citations regarding your work....like i had some company cite my paper for a product launch, some university journal club presented my paper....etc etc. These help. Any newspaper citations? OH AND YOU HAVE TO GET KILLER LORs...... I mean the place has to be in the top 5 in the nation preferrably. In the end I think my lawyer was awesome.....the way you present you case and the writing of letters also makes a hell of a difference.
Click to expand...
 
Thaks all for your suggestions. I did google search and found one citation for my 2005 paper. Maybe I need spend a little more time on it.

Do you guys think how useful those 2 first author papers could be for my application? I ask this question because now I can get good ref letters from independent researchers and from other countries because of my advisor. (Although I do agree that it will be better if I apply with 2 paper as first author. )

Thanks again.
 
Actually its not the money you get but the grant you have makes all the difference. So that is a plus point for you. Describe that in detail in your application.

First author papers are da best. 2 may be less yet better than zero. I think if you manage to get GOOD RECCOS from varied places and people (like dont get all lettest from one place and not all in one aspect of your field) you should manage to build a good case. Also you can file under 2 categories...File under EB2-NIW and EB1-EA/OR both together. That will give you a bit more leeway. i know they say EB-1EA is tough to get but you dont have anything to lose....sometimes they might think you are just good enough...you never know.
 
1) PhD student in Top 25 school
good for you but hardly matter for NIW independently!

2) Advisor is fellow of National Science Acad
I must warn you as you said this twice this might work against you. People will write that they know your popular boss thats why they are giving you letters...NIW is for you and not for ur boss you have to prove NI or NIW, substantial merit and your skills.......

3) Background: B.S. in biology, M.S. in ECE and now doing cancer related bio-imaging applications.

thast will help projecting NI of NIW

4) get DOD fellowship
5) P.I. of one grant ( $100K)
6) one peer review paper (2nd Author) in my recent field 2005 in good Journal ( Index Factor > 7.0), one review paper (3rd author) at so so Journal ( I. F. >3) 2006

Present well ...citation will surely help. One or two citatiosn will take your case down.


7) independent letters from other country/ company

seeing your qual..this is only thing which can save you.

8) will present in a big conference next year 2007.

if this next year comes after ur application its useless..........


I am planning to finish my study next winter (2007) and will have 2 more papers (first author) before next summer.

My honest suggestion will be you wait and and file after your acheivements are solid.
 
kulbikr said:
Actually its not the money you get but the grant you have makes all the difference. So that is a plus point for you. Describe that in detail in your application.

Great point!! it's very important for my case. Thank you again to point it all.

First author papers are da best. 2 may be less yet better than zero. I think if you manage to get GOOD RECCOS from varied places and people (like dont get all lettest from one place and not all in one aspect of your field) you should manage to build a good case. Also you can file under 2 categories...File under EB2-NIW and EB1-EA/OR both together. That will give you a bit more leeway. i know they say EB-1EA is tough to get but you dont have anything to lose....sometimes they might think you are just good enough...you never know.
Click to expand...
I think I may try NIW first. May try EB1-EA/OR when I have more papers or presentation.
 
kulbikr said:
Actually its not the money you get but the grant you have makes all the difference. So that is a plus point for you. Describe that in detail in your application.
Click to expand...

Great point!! it's very important for my case. Thank you again to point it out.

kulbikr said:
First author papers are da best. 2 may be less yet better than zero. I think if you manage to get GOOD RECCOS from varied places and people (like dont get all lettest from one place and not all in one aspect of your field) you should manage to build a good case. Also you can file under 2 categories...File under EB2-NIW and EB1-EA/OR both together. That will give you a bit more leeway. i know they say EB-1EA is tough to get but you dont have anything to lose....sometimes they might think you are just good enough...you never know.
Click to expand...

I think I may try NIW first. May try EB1-EA/OR when I have more papers or presentation.
 
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Thanks all for your comments. I think I should start preparing ref letts so I can send my application out once my paper is submited and my conference over.

Thank eb1doc's warning. I will watch carefully for those independent letters so that they don't mention my boss.

My weak point is the citatioin, total I have 3 (2 self-citation) and will have 2 more self-citation. I don't have anything to do with it (I can't let other group cite my paper) What's the best way to get around it? Can I just talk about the journal instead of citation? Or can those independ letter mention that they notice my paper and are going to do something about it?

Any other thing should I pay attention about?

Thanks again.
 
what is a good number for citations? Is more than 100 good enough for EB1a and NIW? Also a good number for TSC may not be good enough for NSC.
 
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