<p>Hello,</p>
<p>I am applying to several schools for Art History Ph.D program.</p>
<p>1) When is the best time to contact the school to meet up with the professors of your itnerest? How well in advance to my actual submission of application? </p>
<p>2) In your experience, what sort of conversation should I expect to these meetings? And how do you communicate with them throughout the process of selection?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>I have seen many programs state not to contact individual professors until you have been accepted to the program. </p>
<p>From the time you have been accepted, to the time you have to decide, you will have several months to tour departments and talk to prospective advisors. </p>
<p>I'm sure departments and professors don't want to be bothered by individuals that might not have a chance in hell of getting accepted into their program. Until they decide you are a candidate, they don't want to talk to you. Rough as that may be, I think it's a good policy. People tend to overestimate their own intelligence and abilities. </p>
<p>When you are picking programs to apply to, you don't really need to talk to advisors in the prospective programs. Read their websites, look at journals in your field, talk to your own academic advisor. If you still want to talk to a professor in another department, call up the graduate admissions office and ask them if it would be appropriate to contact a certain professor.</p>
<p>Email the DGS (Director of Graduate Studies in the department to which you are applying), not individual professors. Express your interest in visiting, if this is the case. Detail your interests in the email, and ask if it would be possible to meet with Professors Y and Z (whose fields of expertise correspond with your field of interest).</p>
<p>The DGS will take it from there.</p>
<p>If you correspond with individual professors, odds are they will just forward your email to the DGS.</p>
<p>So you're supposed to ask the DGS to arrange a visit?</p>
<p>From the impressions I got from last year's admissions on this forum, I thought the school invited you based on the strength of your application. I do want to visit some schools before deciding, but I did not realize that I had to arrange the visits myself..</p>
<p>hopefullyIvy,</p>
<p>In the hard sciences, it is more usual for students to be invited. In the social sciences and humanities, students who wish to visit ask the DGS to help them arrange the visit. Many times, the department can defray some expenses, or at least arrange for local hotel or campus accommodations.</p>
<p>I serve this function in my department, and I've arranged visits for applicants whose applications we'd not yet received, for applicants whose applications we had received (and looked like they had little chance of admission), and for applicants we actively wanted to court.</p>
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1) When is the best time to contact the school to meet up with the professors of your itnerest? How well in advance to my actual submission of application?
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<p>It's never too early in my opinion. Getting your foot in the door should be a big priority. Some people start as early as freshman year.</p>
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2) In your experience, what sort of conversation should I expect to these meetings? And how do you communicate with them throughout the process of selection?
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<p>First and foremost you should talk about research. Specifically, you should ask some questions about that professor's previous, current, and future research. It's always impressive when students actually bother to read and understand some of the professor's writings. You will be in a great position if you can offer a sound scholarly critique of the research in question.</p>