Emailing a faculty member at prospective grad schools....

Graduate School
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<p>I wanted to give you guys an update on this;</p>

<p>Since this thread was started I’ve emailed only 6 professors across 4 schools and only got 1 response: The professor thanked me for emailing him but said since he is doing more administrative work and downsizing his lab, he’s not taking any more grad students. </p>

<p>Ok cool, I got a response. But now that he closed the door, what do I do with this? Do I still mention his name in my personal statement/that I want to work with him? His work almost lined up perfectly with my interests (which I think is why I got a response), so I’m sad this is essentially a rejection. Do I talk about someone else in my PS? He’s an associate dean, so if there’s a chance he might be on the adcom, I don’t want to offend him in any way by mentioning him or not mentioning him, if he remembers my email.</p>

<p>Just looking to do the right thing here. Thanks!</p>

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<p>While that is not a great response rate, considering the low sample size I would say it is not that unusual. As to the professor in question, since he has indicated he is not accepting new students I would make sure that you either find an alternate advisor(s) or else avoid applying to that school. I would still mention him - even if he is not taking new students, the fact that you are interested in his work may help the committee find alternatives for you. If you have the ability, it would not hurt to mention the situation in your letter - “While I am aware that Professor Able is not accepting students this year, I am also interested in working with Professors Bravo and Charlie…”</p>

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<p>OP,
It IS summer and many profs are not on campus right now, so I don’t think the lack of response is entirely due to lack of interest, but may be a reflection of how often profs are[ or aren’t] checking their email right now…</p>

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<p>I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again on this thread: many professors do not respond to email from prospective students until after acceptances have been sent out. In some programs, students don’t choose their advisors (and vice versa) until after their first year or even later. In these cases, the students have to prove themselves first before a professor is willing to fund them in the lab.</p>

<p>If a program accepts students to work with a specific professor, then it is essential to contact the people you want to work with. In these cases, you must have read at least some of their journal articles or be knowledgeable about their research. The worst thing you can do is ask questions that can be easily found on the program and/or professor’s web page.</p>

<p>If you get a “I’m not taking students” response and there are no other professors in the program that you’d like to work with, do not apply, no matter the reputation and structure of the program. You’ll be wasting your time and money. Consider that kind of email of blessing; if you hadn’t contacted that professor, you never would have known that he wasn’t taking students.</p>

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<p>You know, I thought about it and I **don’t **want to apply there anymore. Their program just doesn’t look strong enough, and the majority of it’s faculty works in plant pathology rather than a human biology dept. That one professor I struck out on was the only one who didn’t the more I looked into it. </p>

<p>Unfortunately I already spent $20 to send 2 official transcripts to them though. :frowning: Oh well, $20 is better than $120 right?</p>

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<p>Ok I mail bombed 4 faculty members at one school last night. (Mail bomb is just my expression for sending a lot emails at the same time). I still have not received any replies. I thought they were curt and well-written emails.</p>

<p>Is this a bad sign of things to come? If 0/4 professors can’t even answer my emails, is my application just going to be another bore to the adcoms?</p>

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<p>The willingness of a professor to read and respond to your emails is almost completely disassociated with the willingness of a professor to seriously consider your application. Most, perhaps ALL, of those ignoring your emails are doing so without looking at them, or without any consideration of your worth as a student.</p>

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<p>I thought I had captured their attention with my subject/title, which had to do with their research. They were the type of titles that might make them think maybe this guy knows something I don’t. Anyhow, thanks for the encouragement.</p>

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<p>You may or may not get responses and you may not hear back for several days. Most professors are not like us - glued to e-mail every five minutes. Be patient.</p>

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<p>My son emailed 3 profs in Nov, just before he submitted his applications to their programs, so they would be more likely to remember him. He was advised not to email profs earlier by a senior prof who reviews all Grad school applications for his dept.
And all 3 got back to him within 2 weeks.</p>

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<p>My undergrad professor (who is also writing me a letter) said that he receives 150 emails a day about this sort of thing and usually just forgets to respond. He said you can’t be afraid to be pushy and if you need to send them another email start by saying “I sent you a message but you didn’t respond…” He says that usually gets his attention and makes him feel bad, so those are the ones he answers right away. It’s likely I’ll have to use this tactic later in Nov or whenever I send my apps, as Mom suggests. </p>

<p>My plan was to have all these people emailed (w/ answers) before applications opened, so I’d know exactly what to put in my personal statement. But it’s a work in progress. What else is new. </p>

<p>Menloparkmom, is that like Menlo Park CA or the Menlo Park where Edison is from. JW…</p>

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<p>California</p>

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</p>

<p>No, it is not. I emailed 3-4 faculty at a school after being admitted with full funding in February (two month before I make a decision), and still got no responses.</p>

<p>At the school I’m enrolling at, the Professor sent an email saying “feel free to ask me any question” to the students who personally talked to him at the admitted student visit date. When I did email to ask him questions, he never responded in less than 2 weeks.</p>

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<p>I can only offer anecdotal evidence, but FWIW my personal experience corresponds well with what common sense and most other posters seem to indicate:</p>

<p>In a nutshell, it might help, and it certainly can’t hurt.</p>

<p>Frankly, the worst that’ll happen is you get no reply and it makes no difference. But if you’re a credible candidate in the first place, no professor is ever going to think, “Oh, I was just horribly inconvenienced by a polite e-mail from a stranger asking about the work I do. That’s inexcusable, and I’ll go out of my way to make sure he/she is blackballed by the admissions committee.” (And if one actually did, well, that’s not the kind of department you’d want to be in.) The best outcome? Well…</p>

<p>The personal experience: I’d been out of school for a few years when I decided to apply to PhD programs, but I had a clear (if broad) set of interests that I hoped could be refined into a research topic in my field (public policy). I started looking up schools based on the general reputation of their programs, then delved into the faculty directories to see who (if anyone) might have interests similar to mine. The summer before applying, I picked one or two faculty at each prospect school and sent each an e-mail with very brief personal background, a sketch of my interests, and a question or two, including (always) the question, if you’re not the most appropriate faculty member to ask about this kind of research, who might I contact instead? Overall I got a few ignores, one or two very curt replies, a handful of relatively useless boilerplate responses, and quite a few genuinely thoughtful, helpful replies, including some referrals to other faculty. (Some replies were much quicker than others, though; many profs are not diligent about answering e-mail. In each case I allowed myself to send <em>one</em> polite reminder e-mail before giving up.)</p>

<p>I followed up on all the responses as appropriate, had a few interesting ongoing exchanges, revised my list of prospect schools, and then arranged personal visits. This was admittedly expensive and time-consuming – for schools that weren’t within a couple hours of my home, I took a week for a marathon autumn road trip hitting half-a-dozen of them – but IMHO it was invaluable. In each case I scheduled things through the appropriate administrative staff, emphasizing that I was considering applying and had already corresponded with professor such-and-such, and asking insofar as possible to meet in person with both faculty and current PhD students in the program. Some schools were <em>much</em> more helpful with the logistics on this than others… which itself was a revealing bit of information about how the programs were run. Long story short, top faculty (and students) at several schools were remarkably generous with their time, sitting down with me for lengthy conversations about the programs, their work, and my interests.</p>

<p>All this helped me revise the prospect list again before applying, and of course anyplace I’d had a personal contact I was able to reference that in my application materials. In the end I still didn’t get accepted everywhere I thought had seemed like a good fit – there are <em>lots</em> of variables involved, after all – but I <em>did</em> get admitted with full funding at one of my top prospects, where I’m currently studying quite happily, including with the professors I wrote to and spoke with here. I’ve been told that in this field, at least, very few prospective applicants take the trouble to send personalized inquiries to faculty, and almost <em>nobody</em> bothers with in-person visits before applying… and there is no doubt in my mind that those proactive early contacts helped me get to where I am right now.</p>

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<p>Hello y’all! </p>

<p>Faculty replies are coming in faster now that Labor Day is over. (Yay!) I feel like I should reply to those professors to keep the conversation going, but I really have nothing else to say and I don’t want to bother them. </p>

<p>Therefore, is it too presumptuous to say in my personal statement that I’ve spoken with them (emailed) and they “are willing to let me join their lab” or something of that nature, when really all they said in the email is, “my labs have openings but it depends on funding…”?</p>

<p>Is that too much of a stretch? Will adcoms shoot it, try to confirm it, or consider it?</p>

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<p>Informing you that their labs have openings is NOT the same as offering you one of those openings.</p>

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<p>Trust me, it’s a better response than “no, I won’t be accepting students” - which I’ve gotten plenty of (probably at least half). And I’m not saying they’re offering me an opening, my words will be chosen more carefully than that. What I have now is, “…and they *seem willing *to let me join their lab.” I’m hoping that is appropriate. </p>

<p>Ok, but I understand what you’re saying. Do you have any other ideas then? I’m just trying to say something to show I want it badly enough that I’ve done some communicado.</p>

<p>Thanks for the advice.</p>

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<p>Couldn’t you just mention that you’ve been communicating with Profs A and B, and you’re very interested in the work being done in their labs. You could also explain how their work relates to your background and interests.</p>

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<p>eg1 is exactly right. Simply mention that you have been in contact with these people about the work done in their labs, and that it is a good fit with your interests. Do not put any words in their mouths - in addition to the reasons eg1 mentioned, you do not know anything about the behind-the-scenes politics in any of these departments that you might stir up.</p>

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<p>I don’t know whether a *grad applicant * would be able to stir up behind the scenes politics…(but that would kinda be cool right!!) :rolleyes:</p>

<p>This whole idea that you fairly call putting words in their mouth all started w/ a reply from one professor who actually said he “would welcome me to his lab during first year rotation.” I used that on my personal statement for that school and then thought, hey that sounds really good. So now I’m tempted to say something of that sort every time. </p>

<p>Of course I talk about how their interests match mine. That’s implied in other sentences of the paragraph…</p>