emailing alumni to ask about their experience?

Graduate School
1

<p>so I don't plan to visit a few grad programs I got admitted to until at least another week. Since the schools I got admitted to aren't in the top 10 of their field (they're in the top15 or so) I'm getting really anxious to know whether previous students of the profs I'm interested in working for were able to get good post-docs or not. Alot of the profs I'm interested in at the schools I got admitted to are young and only recently got tenured so they only have 2-3 graduates. </p>

<p>Would it be a good idea to email these alumni and ask about their experience and advisor?</p>

2

<p>does anyone know?</p>

3

<p>I wouldn’t. You probably won’t get an honest answer anyway.</p>

<p>IMO, you are getting far too deep into details that may never affect you or which aren’t really relevant. Unless you were accepted to work with a specific PI, then you should go only as deep as making sure that the program carries out publishable research in your area and that the general structure of it meets your needs/desires. Let’s just say that you do so much research that you enroll having decided to work with Professor A. But when you arrive, you discover that either Professor A is not accepting new graduate students or that he doesn’t want to work with you. Now what? Will you be bitter that you turned down another program for this one? </p>

<p>The most annoying graduate students are the ones who make a nuisance of themselves. They ask the wrong questions or too many irrelevant ones. They pester professors. administrative staff, and other graduate students. You don’t want to become one of those because, if you do, then no one will want to work with you. Yes, of course, you should base your decision on information, but a lot of that should have been gathered prior to applying. It’s perfectly fine to ask graduate students about the strengths and weakness of the program in general, but it is inappropriate to ask them to evaluate specific professors. If you say you are considering Professors A, B, and C, and they offer advice voluntarily, that’s one thing. But to put them on the spot by asking for a critique of someone is unfair. They don’t know you, and they don’t know what you’ll do with the information. You’ll learn a lot about prospective PIs anyway once you arrive.</p>

4

<p>You probably won’t get an honest answer anyway.</p>

<p>I disagree strongly with this - I find that graduate students and recent graduates tend to be very honest about their experiences with their advisors and their graduate programs. But I don’t think you should contact alumni, unless you know some already. I think talking to current graduate students, and then asking your potential PI for a placement record or discussing where their former students have gone, should be sufficient.</p>

<p>I also very strongly disagree that it is inappropriate to ask students to evaluate specific professors. It is ENTIRELY appropriate because your advisor/PI can make or break the beginning of your career. You need to know if you can mesh with the advisor and if this is the kind of person who will help you finish or who will nitpick the 13th draft of your dissertation after 8 years in the program. Does he publish regularly and will he let you be first author on the papers you do the most work on, or is he unfair and takes all the credit for himself? These are things that graduate students can tell you.</p>

<p>Also, in my field, you don’t learn about PIs when you arrive. It is too late then, far too late. You need to learn about PIs before you go because you choose your programs based primarily upon PIs and the research that you will be doing in a particular lab. In my field, you find out whether Professor A is accepting students before you even apply, and when you are accepted to come here, you are accepted to work in Professor A’s lab. It is possible to switch or do cross-lab work, but they accept you to work with a specific person. While I don’t advocate hunting down prior students, I think asking graduate students about their experiences is a brilliant idea.</p>

<p>That said, as a doctoral student myself, we are always very honest with each other, with new students, and with prospectives about working with particular PIs. I know what you are going to do with the information - you are going to decide whether to work with my crazy prof or whether to go elsewhere. For example, there is one professor in my department who is difficult for 95% of the people in my dept to work with, and the knowledge has been passed around with the students. We know which professors will never read your drafts, which ones take 2 weeks to get back to a simple email request and which ones have decided that you should work 6 12-hour days a week. And best of all we know the way our own advisor(s) functions.</p>

<p>I think you should ask either the departmental coordinator or the professor of interest about names of graduate students to talk with, and email them for advice on the program in general and potential PIs in particular.</p>

5

<p>Here’s the problem about expecting an honest answer from alumni: presumably (and I’m assuming we are talking about doctorate holders), the alumni are now colleagues of the professors the OP is asking about. Unless there is some confidentiality mechanism in place, alumni/colleagues are unlikely to say anything bad, especially in writing.</p>

<p>Talking to graduate students is indeed a whole other story, although even then you might not hear all the dirt. Going to open houses/interview to gain a sense of how the students interact with the professors is an important piece. Unfortunately, you sometimes have to read between the lines. Chatting with graduate students about the general lab/working atmosphere with the PI is fine, but asking them to critique the PI’s performance can be dicey, especially if you do it via email which puts their thoughts in writing. Besides, most graduate students can be assumed to be working with a particular PI for a reason. </p>

<p>Graduate students are generally much more honest with one another than they are with outsiders, but, of course, that depends on both the program and the individuals. As a prospective student, you are more likely to hear the good stuff over the bad, although again, read between the lines. </p>

<p>As I said above, unless you were accepted to work with a specific PI,. you must consider all the researchers in your specialization as possible mentors. If you get your heart set on one because of what graduate students say, then you may be disappointed. Professors often turn down graduate students who want to work with them because of limited resources or other factors. It happens. Of course, all this changes if there is only one possible PI. In that case, your first step is always to make sure that person is accepting students. Next, chat with the graduate students in the lab to get a sense of the dynamics and the research. Look at recent publication history. Although none of this is foolproof, it helps to gain a sense of the program/PI.</p>

<p>I don’t often disagree with Juillet, but in this case I really don’t think you’ll get an honest answer from alumni. And I don’t think you should expect graduate students to say anything bad about their PI. HOWEVER, I do think you should talk to graduate students about their experiences, and you should find out whether your POIs are accepting new students.</p>

6

<p>Here’s the problem about expecting an honest answer from alumni: presumably (and I’m assuming we are talking about doctorate holders), the alumni are now colleagues of the professors the OP is asking about. Unless there is some confidentiality mechanism in place, alumni/colleagues are unlikely to say anything bad, especially in writing.</p>

<p>That’s precisely why I agree with you here: I don’t recommend hunting down alumni and asking them.</p>

<p>Let me clarify: I don’t think you will get <em>full</em> honesty from <em>alumni</em>, as in PhD holders who are now working as post-docs and assistant professors (especially the professors, because as Momwaitingfornew has specified, they are now a part of the profession and so they are less likely to say anything bad about it). I do think that the more recent they are the more likely they are to be honest, but I think grad students are the best bet as far as that goes.</p>

<p>I think our disagreement stems mostly from field difference. Whether or not it’s important to find out depends on whether you are assigned to work with a PI prior to arrival, or whether you’re at once of those places where you can pick later. I think the advice to keep an open mind is a good one if you are coming to a program without knowing 100% who you will be working with.</p>