Application Materials for Faculty Positions

You have identified the type of faculty position you'd like to apply to and you are ready to start applying to faculty positions.

What types of materials?

Faculty application packets typically include a Cover Letter, a Curriculum Vitae (CV), Letters of Reference, a Research Statement and/or a Teaching Statement or Diversity Statement.

Who will read the materials?

The materials will first be screened by a faculty members on the search committee. Depending on the institution, faculty members may come a wide range of backgrounds, so it's best to write the materials for educated non-experts. Once you are invited to interview, the materials may be shared with the rest of the faculty members in the department.

How will they read it?

Faculty members often need to review hundreds of applications, which means that you will need to demonstrate you are a promising candidate through your Cover Letter and your CV in just 3 to 10 minutes for the first selection.

Are your materials ready?

Use these checklists to make sure your application materials are ready to send out:

• UCSF OCPD Checklist for Faculty Materials
• UCSF OCPD Checklist for CV at R Institutions
• UCSF OCPD Checklist for CV at RT Institutions

The cover letter (1-1.5 pages) is meant to be a guide to your application package, so that the reader wants to continue reading your application and knows what to look for in your materials.

Your cover letter should highlight and summarize your strengths and it should help the reader quickly decide that you are a potential fit for the position. It also should be well written and edited to make sure you come across as thorough and professional.

Suggested layout for a cover letter:

• Paragraph 1: What position you are applying for, where it was posted, what you currently do and where.
• Paragraph 2: What your area of expertise is, what you have accomplished to this date (details in CV), who you’ve worked with (details in CV). Highlight your strengths as a candidate for this position, make them want to read your CV.
• Paragraph 3:
  • For a research position: What is your research vision (details in RS), why is this relevant (details in RS), is it fundable (details in RS), does it fit with the position, the department, the institution?
  • For a teaching position: What is your teaching experience (details in TS), what is your approach to teaching (details in TS), why I our interested in teaching at that particular institution (details in TS)?
• Paragraph 4: In what other ways will you contribute to the department (service, outreach), what have you done that can demonstrate you will do any of this (details in CV)?
• Paragraph 5: Express enthusiasm for the position, the colleagues, the department, the institution.

Resources

• Download our Tip Sheet for Cover Letters
• Additional Resources: Science Careers Article: Writing a Winning Cover Letter by John K. Borchardt.

General format:

Academic CVs follow a fairly standard format, which can be anywhere from 2 to 15 pages long. A CV should list all experience relevant to an academic position. Keep fonts coherent.

Common sections in the CV:

Education, Research Experience, Teaching Experience, Mentoring Experience, Grants & Awards, Honors, Publications, Trainings, University Service/Professional Involvement, Memberships. (The titles to these sections can vary)

Different versions of your CV:

Because the first few pages of a CV are "prime real-estate," the order of these sections will vary depending on the research- and teaching-focus of the position:

• For a highly research-focused position: Research Experience, Grant & Fellowships, Publications sections may immediately follow the Education section.
• For a teaching position: Teaching Experience, Mentoring Experience, University Service/Professional Involvement sections may immediately follow the Education section.

Therefore, if you are considering applying to a range of positions (from teaching-focused to research-focused), you will need to keep several versions of your CV.

Additional resources:

• Browse our collection of Sample Application Materials for academic positions below.
• Read our handout on "General Tips for Formatting Your CV."
• Download Instructions for using Microsoft Word to Format your CV."

Research Statements:

• Download the OCPD Tip Sheet and Checklist: "Developing a Winning Research Statement."
• Use this fairly comprehensive rubric that helps a candidate evaluate the content, style and form of their research statement.
• From Cornell University, this website contains a clear outline for writing a research statement and provides several example statements to help candidates when evaluating their own.
• Read “Developing Your Research Statement” a webpage that demystifies what a research statement is and offers some brief do’s and don’ts.
• From AAAS’s Science magazine, this article includes a “How To” section addressing elements of a successful research statement.
• For example research statements, view the sample faculty application materials below.

Teaching Statements or Statements of Teaching Philosophy

• Developing your teaching statement is part of our Evidence-Based Teaching Course!
• Rubrics for developing and evaluating a teaching statement:
  • An in-depth rubric developed by Kearns & Sullivan; this rubric is very comprehensive and provides good information for crafting your teaching statement, but is probably more in-depth than most biomedical, or research-intensive positions require.
  • A simpler Rubric for Statements of Teaching Philosophy (Kaplan, O'Neal, Meizlish, Carillo, and Kardia, 2005) can be used to develop your teaching statement.
  • From the University of Minnesota’s Center for Educational Innovation, this website provides links to rubrics that are more general and can apply to a variety of applicants.
• From Vanderbilt University’s Center for Teaching, this website is not directed to biomedical students specifically, but does contain helpful information about writing a teaching statement, the Kaplan rubric, and provides links to other resources.
• From AAAS’s Science magazine, this article provides a more science-centered perspective on writing and evaluating a teaching statement.
• Browse the "Teaching Philosophy webpage" for sample teaching statements & how-to articles targeted to scientists, by the University of Michigan's Center for Research on Learning and Teaching.
• Download “Writing A Teaching Statement” by the University of Washington’s Center for Instructional Development and Research. Contains good writing prompts to help you get started writing your teaching statement.
• For example teaching statements, view the sample faculty application materials below.

Diversity Statements

How to write one:

• An essay from Inside Higher Ed that provides tips for writing an effective diversity statement
• Guidance from Carnegie Mellon on writing a diversity statement
• A collection of further resources on writing diversity statements curated by the Office of Postdoctoral Services at Duke

How universities assess them:

• University of Washington provides tips for assessing diversity statements, which can help you understand what faculty are looking for when they read your statement
• UC Berkeley's rubric for assessing diversity statements
• UC Office of the President guidelines for evaluating contributions to diversity for faculty appointment and promotion

Sample diversity statements:

• Excerpts from samples across different fields, provided by University of Pennsylvania Career Services (at the bottom of the page)
• Guidelines for both writing and assessing diversity statements from UC San Diego, including three sample statements in science and engineering fields

The following annotated samples are based off of the Academic Career Readiness Assessment (ACRA) framework.

Applications to R institutions

• UCSF OCPD Sample Cover Letter Annotated.pdf
• UCSF OCPD Sample CV Annotated.pdf

Applications to RT institutions

• UCSF OCPD Sample Materials ACRA_RT_CL_Annotated.pdf
• UCSF OCPD Sample Materials ACRA_RT_CV_Annotated.pdf

• Sample I (Cover letter, CV, teaching statement)
• Sample II (Cover letter, CV, research statement, teaching statement)
• Sample III (Research statement)
• Sample IV (Cover letter, CV, research statement, teaching statement)
• Sample V (Cover letter, CV, teaching statement, estimated budget)
• Sample VI (CV)

• Sample I (Cover letter, CV, teaching statement, research statement) - small liberal arts college
• Sample II (Cover letter, CV, teaching statement, research statement) - small liberal arts college
• Sample III (Cover letter, CV, teaching statement)
• Sample IV (Cover letter, CV, teaching statement, research statement)

Positions at R institutions:

• Psychology Public Health and Health Promotion (Cover letter, CV, teaching statement, research statement)
• Psychology (Cover letter, CV)
• Nursing (Cover letter, CV)

Positions at RT institutions:

• Clinical Psychology (Cover letter, CV)