I applied to Harvard RD and am curious about whether I should email a professor or two in the English department. I’ve done a lot of creative writing so I’d love to send some of my work over to a faculty member. But I know that a supplementary writing portfolio will be looked at by a professor so would it be seen as unnecessary at best?
By the way, this doesn’t just apply to Harvard but to basically all my reaches I applied to. And I only ask this because I’ve seen several reports about students emailing professors (from various fields) and receiving uplifting replies.
The majority of Harvard professors are NOT members of the Admissions Committee and therefore have absolutely zero input into which students are admitted, or even recommending their applications move to committee. As @ap012199 wrote, you should follow directions and upload your creative writing supplement to the applicant portal as you do NOT know which English professors (if any) are members of the committee this year.
Professors are busy teaching and doing research. Can you imagine if many applicants sent them their work? If admissions feels they need input from professors, admissions will ask them for it. I think that doing something like that could seriously backfire, if not with admissions, when you one day sit in their class!!
The above posters are wrong. Sending an email to a prospective department can be very worthwhile. Departmental professors are oftentimes asked whether a potential applicant is good or not. This is especially relevant in the CS, Physics, Math etc departments. Also contacting professors almost never backfires unless you are obnoxious about it. Frankly many professors complain that not enough UG students contact them. Some professors even go as far as giving students extra points for going to office hours.
@collegedad13 really? What do you think the word choice/phrasing/structure of my emails should be if I do send them out? Right now I’m not planning on sending them out
I have heard of applicants contacting profs before they submit their app, but not after. I agree with those who say it’s hard to wait, but sit on your hands. Don’t annoy admissions. You took your best shot, now wait unless you have some significant achievement you just found about–significant. Hopefully all you need to say is already on your app.
I’m sorry @collegedad13 you are absolutely incorrect and just plain W-R-O-N-G.
Let’s use a real world example: the husband of Marlyn E. McGrath, who is the Director of Harvard Admissions under William Fitzsimmons, is Harry Lewis. Dean Lewis is also the head of Harvard’s Computer Science Department and sits on the Admissions Committee. My guess is that Dean Lewis personally reviews all students interested in CS.
Now . . . if a student emailed David Malan with their computer science portfolio (Harvard’s CS50 professor), Professor Malan, who DOES NOT sit on the Admission Committee, would say – at best-- “I’m sorry but I’m not a member of the Admissions Committee and therefore have ZERO influence on a student’s application.” In addition – knowing what I do about Harvard’s committee structure – I seriously doubt David Malan would forward the information to Dean Lewis. Therefore this kind of communication would be a dead-end for the student. It wouldn’t hurt their chances, but it would be a total waste of time and effort.
As a parent of Harvard graduate, I understand how Harvard works, but do you? If a student didn’t know to email Harry Lewis directly would it advance their application? No! So, please don’t give applicants false hope about randomly emailing Harvard professors with their work!
collegedad seems to be referring to current undergraduates emailing professors, not applicants. That is my reading of his post.
Again, imagine if every applicant emailed professors in the department. I truly think one function of admissions is to protect faculty from applicants! They have other things to do.
If you are accepted, then fine, contact a professor if you like, though I am not sure why you would do that and it could be annoying. Better to go to the accepted students’ day and visit the department.
@Gibby sorry but you are absolutely incorrect. I have personal knowledge to the contrary of your opinion. First off many of the departments set up groups of professors to review applications as requested by the AO.
CS has probably assigned two or three professors to review applications with extensive CS experience contained in them. They can tell Admissions whether this is some one they really want or not and what the experience means. It is not binding on admissions but is given great weight in many cases. I doubt Malen reviews applications . I wouldn’t be surprised if some one like Radhika Nagpal is part of the group that reviews applications . She is very much into promoting women and minorities in CS and may be looking for those in that group that have great potential.
Also in a number of cases professors have written notes to Admissions based upon a candidate they have reviewed and would like to have as a concentrator. So by way of example if Radhika found a feamale candidate who knew 12 computer languages proficiently and had done well in Hackathons and sent a note to admissions it would carry great weight. I also know a lot about Harvards committee structure. Maybe we will just disagree on this matter.
^^ @collegdad13: We shall have to agree to disagree, as I also have personal knowledge that your opinions are just plain wrong-headed.
That’s key actually, as I seriously doubt Harvard department heads would review an applicant’s portfolio on their own **if not **requested to do so by an AO.
Correct, but what if a student emailed Professor Malan and asked him to review their work WITHOUT having been requested to do so by an AO? Do you think Professor Milan would do so? I don’t. Therefore approaching David Malan would be a waste of time. But, how does a a protective applicant know which professors would be worthwhile and which would be a waste of time? They don’t! So. are you suggesting students do a scattershot approach?
If the AdComms wanted faculty input, they’d ask for it, @collegedad13. Bugging busy professors (especially if you aren’t even accepted at the college yet, let alone matriculated!) will not help your chances.
Correct, but what if a student emailed Professor Malan and asked him to review their work WITHOUT having been requested to do so by an AO? Do you think Professor Milan would do so? I don’t."
This is off topic but I find it funny how the guy’s name literally changed spelling 3 times lol
The pronunciation of Malan’s name precludes anybody knowingly writing “Milan.”