Contacting Faculty - Admissions Politics

Graduate School
1

<p>Applying to graduate school is a lot different than applying for understand.
I'm getting a lot of subtle hints that when it comes down to it, applications are getting more and more competitive..the key to getting in might rest of contact with prospective faculty you want to research with.</p>

<p>I plan to visit all the schools I am applying to next year, so that they can put a face to my application, and to show how serious I am. Right now, I am contacting faculty that I am interested in working with. One of them suggested that I get into contact with many faculty and other suggested that I get into constant dialogue. </p>

<p>My questions are...after I make my initial e-mail, do you have any suggestions of what I should say when I e-mail them to keep a dialogue going? Do I just keep emailing them about their research projects? How many emails a month is too much? Too little? When February comes, would it be okay to ask about admissions decisions? Would it ever be okay to ask them if I have a definite spot on their research team? Or should I just keep sending subtle hints that I want to work with them in graduate school? </p>

<p>What are your thoughts on this?</p>

2

<p>

No.</p>

<p>

If you have unrelenting, unfaltering interest in a professor’s lab/research, then you shouldn’t have a problem maintaining dialogue and in an appropriate manner. Anything less, and contacting faculty is just a waste of time, given there’s no guarantee 1) that you will be admitted in the end (particularly if the professors you contact are not involved in admissions) and 2) that your impression of the best lab/research area for you will not ultimately change.</p>