<p>Hi,</p>
<p>For personal statements for graduate work in engineering (PhD, MS), do you think it's necessary to pick several professor who you're interested in working for and mention them in your essay? Is it not enough to talk just about the school and why you're interested in studying there like the research that they have and what you're interested in?</p>
<p>Also, does anyone know who reads and evaluates our application package? I know the admissions committee does, but is this a graduate school committee or a departmental committee? </p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>It's probably not necessary to name specific professors, but it's a good idea. The research that's being carried on, after all, is not actually carried on by the department, but by individual professors and their research groups. So if you are interested in a particular aspect of a department's research, it should not be difficult to find a PI who's generating that work.</p>
<p>Professors from the department to which you're applying are the admissions commitee which reads your application.</p>
<p>I think a few of my applications actually requested I name a few professors and why I'm interested in working for them in some of the essays I had to write. Stanford and Berkeley come to mind, but I can't be sure.</p>
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Professors from the department to which you're applying are the admissions commitee which reads your application.
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<p>That's the thing. Say that I mention a professor and another professor is reading my statement. He'll be thinking, "Well, there goes another student to that professor." or if he doesn't like the other guy, "Why would he want to work for him? Let's reject him." Not to mention that the professor might be on sabbatical or extended leave. Anyone care to argue one way or another?</p>
<p>Also, what are schools looking more for in Masters students candidates as opposed to PhD students? If you want to do a thesis for a Masters degree, would you also recommend naming a few professors in the essay?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
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That's the thing. Say that I mention a professor and another professor is reading my statement. He'll be thinking, "Well, there goes another student to that professor." or if he doesn't like the other guy, "Why would he want to work for him? Let's reject him." Not to mention that the professor might be on sabbatical or extended leave.
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<p>First, I think you are over-worrying this a bit. I would like to think this kind of thing wouldn't happen. As for being on leave or not taking students, or whatever, I say just list 4-5 profs with related interests (esp to your interests). Show that you have done your research and you know why you are applying to the school. You shouldn't get excluded because you like the work of someone on sabbatical. :)</p>
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Also, what are schools looking more for in Masters students candidates as opposed to PhD students? If you want to do a thesis for a Masters degree, would you also recommend naming a few professors in the essay?
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<p>I would do more than that. I am not sure on engineering, but most of the time in Biology you should have already picked an advisor and be contacting them directly for a Masters. You only have 2 years to work on a thesis (most of the time) you need to have someone in mind and they need to agree that they can take you.</p>
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That's the thing. Say that I mention a professor and another professor is reading my statement. He'll be thinking, "Well, there goes another student to that professor." or if he doesn't like the other guy, "Why would he want to work for him? Let's reject him." Not to mention that the professor might be on sabbatical or extended leave. Anyone care to argue one way or another?
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Well, or the person who's reading is the person you named, and he thinks, "Ooh, I like this student who wants to be my underpaid research slave." </p>
<p>I mean, this could happen for any aspect of your application. The reader could intensely dislike one of your recommenders, for example, or could think that your intended research focus is a trivial part of your field. I still think the benefit provided by being able to specifically articulate whose research endeavor interests you most outweighs the possibility that your specific choices might influence the reader negatively.</p>
<p>ecnerwalc,</p>
<p>That's just not how it works. </p>
<p>The professors on the admission committee don't choose your area of interest. YOU do. Everyone on the admissions committee is making the same decision: Given this student's interests, can we serve him or her in this department? Are there one or two or more professors with whom this student can benefit? If so, there are probably compelling reasons to consider admitting this student. </p>
<p>As to personality conflicts: Yes, they exist in academe. Some people do not get along with others. However, these conflicts would only be apparent to students (or function in admissions) in completely disfunctional and toxic departments. And you don't want to study in one of those departments anyway, trust me.</p>
<p>Honestly, you have other things to worry about in admissions. This issue is not something on which to waste a moment's thought.</p>
<p>Does the department review the entire application as well as the university?</p>
<p>I think the department would definitely review your entire application, since they're the ones who have to live with you for x number of years... also, the decision will be made by a committee rather than one person, so hopefully (given the department isn't dysfunctional) a single person's unreasonable bias won't cause your application to be canned.</p>
<p>Does anyone think it might be limiting to be too too specific about your research interests? My thought is that the professors you don't mention might be thinking that they'd like a more open-minded candidate, because they need grad students too. Also, maybe the more famous professors are mentioned frequently, but can't accomodate everyone. Then again, I can't imagine that a good applicant would be turned aside for that...</p>
<p>Generally the departments review the entire application and the university does not. The university generally "reviews" applications after the department has made a list of students it wants to accept, and the university does not generally overturn the decisions made by the department.</p>
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Does anyone think it might be limiting to be too too specific about your research interests?
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This isn't about departmental politics, it's about knowing why you want to go to grad school and what you want to do there. Departments know that students who have a very strong grasp on what they want to do are more likely to graduate than those who are unsure. That doesn't mean that an applicant has to have a precise subfield picked out upon application, but it certainly doesn't hurt.</p>