<p>Is it a bad idea to contact the professors of the labs you mentioned in your SOP while you wait to hear of admission results? By contact, I mean asking questions that has to do with how likely it is you will be admitted.
If it matters, I have contacted these professors before submitting my apps, so they should be able to recognize my name.</p>
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Yes, this is a bad idea. Annoying your potential advisors hurts your applications, not a cost to be endured just to judge your chances. If you are going to contact them, do so only with a genuinely good reason, and only in the proper time. As much as it will suck, you really just need to wait until they start sending out offers - at this point, you can only make things worse.</p>
<p>That’s just inappropriate.</p>
<p>Yes, it’s a bad idea. What is the point? You will know whether you will be admitted or not in a few weeks, so you must be patient.</p>
<p>okay, thought so.</p>
<p>You will find out soon enough. The national decision day is April 15 and the schools which really want you will make an offer much sooner than that. Frankly, when I get that kind of question, I simply answer that the committee makes all of the decisions and my annoyance usually shows through in my response.</p>
<p>Is it proper to ask them if my application made it their way?
I was talking to somebody today and thought of this question. He said sometimes your apps are stuck in a pile that professors never look at unless you contacted them.
This seems kind of strange. I made it clear in my SOP who I wanted to work with.</p>
<p>Your “somebody” has some kind of odd in ultimately incorrect information. I didn’t contact anyone before I applied to the program I am currently in.</p>
<p>I’m willing to be that you submitted your application electronically, and the electronic system might have some tracking mechanism designed to avoid the department getting a deluge of requests about the receipt of applications. Check the website first.</p>
<p>If there’s nothing, and you have concerns for some reason, then you may want to ask the departmental secretary (but not any professors) if your application was received. But if it is more than two weeks past the deadline, then don’t ask this question. It’s a moot point.</p>
<p>It’s okay to contact a professor whose research your interested in before you apply to get the general idea of it they have space, are looking for new students, etc. It’d be poor form to contact them after just to see if they have your application, if they’ve made a decision yet, etc. If you’re super super antsy, you can call the admin contact number of the program, but even that is a fine line.</p>
<p>“Is it proper to ask them if my application made it their way? I was talking to somebody today and thought of this question. He said sometimes your apps are stuck in a pile that professors never look at unless you contacted them.
This seems kind of strange. I made it clear in my SOP who I wanted to work with”</p>
<p>No, it is not.
But if you already had an interview (in person or over the phone or via skype) before (like last summer) and the professor liked you and asked you to email him/her when your application went through, it would be fine. Actually, in this case you must contact him /her via email to remind the professor of your application. Otherwise you shouldn’t waste your (and their) precious time.</p>