<p>For a number of reasons I've been a little behind in the application process lately. I still have faculty I want to get in contact with at some schools; is this inappropriate to do this late in the game, especially if application deadlines are December 15th? </p>
<p>Actually, I am planning on writing to them anyway, unless doing it one or two weeks before the deadline is looked down upon. </p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>@beartato: I was behind in my application process as well. I sent out emails to PAs last weekend. I received replies from most of them with good advice and additional people to contact. One forwarded my email to their admissions director and asked if I had time (after the Thanksgiving weekend) to speak on the phone. I now have two phone interviews scheduled for this upcoming week and I’m still waiting to hear back from only 1 PA.</p>
<p>When contacting the professors I stated that I was in the final stage of selecting potential graduate programs, gave a brief explanation of my research interests, related it to the professor’s current/previous work in the field, and asked if they thought that there might be enough overlap in our interests to warrant applying to that particular program. I also asked, if the professor didn’t think that we might be a good fit, if they knew someone else in the department who I might contact.</p>
<p>I had one prof. who informed me that he didn’t feel that our interests would mesh well, but gave me two additional contacts within the department as well as a third professor who was the department chair AND the director of an institute that was in my field (and which I wasn’t aware of). I’m having my phone interview with one of these additional contacts.</p>
<p>While I wouldn’t do it, Liminalist did make a good point in the letter to professors…I would think that if you say that you “are in final stages of applying” it suggests that you have taken your time to do your research and these programs (professors you’re writing to) have made your shortlist. Make sure you sound thoughtful.</p>
<p>Thanks for your responses. Why wouldn’t you do it, ticklemepink? Is it because you’d be risking coming off as insincere, writing so close to the deadline? I am just worried that not making any effort to get in touch with them would hurt me even more, especially for engineering. </p>
<p>I will definitely take your guys’ advice and try to be careful and thoughtful. The truth is, I did a lot of research through department websites on potential faculty weeks ago when selecting programs, spreadsheet and everything. But for some reason I never even thought to contact them… so obvious in retrospect that I should have shot each an email to find out more…</p>
<p>Just the fact that it’s so close to the deadline can make one seem like a procrastinator and it’s not something that professors are looking for in their new students.</p>
<p>I definitely see what you’re saying; I really should have gotten my act together earlier. But is this going to kill my chances? Or is it one of those “better late than never” kind of things? I guess I will still send out some emails tomorrow, because I’d still like to learn about their programs. Luckily I still have a few schools whose deadlines are in January, and school’s almost over, so I will make sure to get those right this time.</p>
<p>Just to pass on the information, my daughter was told by her professors that it is not a good idea to contact professors unless there is some real pressing reason. At her college it was not part of the application process to contact professors. She said that they are flooded with unwelcome emails from overseas students who don’t know better. Of couse this will vary by professor, and perhaps the custom in the field, but you won’t want to annoy anyone by asking information available about the department elsewhere or just to show interest. Your application is an expression of your interest. She only contacted one, however, because there was a question (and she had attended a talk of his.) And she did get a nice response and did choose to go to that one.</p>
<p>Many professors are busy and therefore annoyed when prospective students contact them.</p>
<p>I never contacted anyone and I did fine. The same is true for many other students.</p>
<p>I also never contacted anyone, partially because I didn’t feel I had anything pressing to say, and partially on the advice of my undergrad PI, who advised me not to contact anyone. I left the “name the professors with whom you’ve corresponded” boxes blank. It did not cause me problems.</p>
<p>If there’s a PI or two you’re really interested in talking with, you might consider asking one of your recommenders to write to him/her, if they are both in the same general field. My undergrad PI offered to introduce me like this via email, which I think would have signaled my seriousness and ensured that my email wouldn’t get lost in the noise.</p>
<p>Firstly, thank you everyone for your thoughtful responses. I am really glad that I started this thread, because I wasn’t sure of what I should do… </p>
<p>That professors might find emails annoying definitely crossed my mind as I began this thread. I would still like to send out a couple emails, because I have legitimate questions about their research that isn’t on their websites. Hopefully they won’t be annoyed : P </p>
<p>@ Slorg and molliebatmit: I’m glad to hear that many people do just fine without contacting anyone. Leaving that “name the professors with whom you’ve corresponded” box blank does make me really nervous, though. I’m not sure if it matters, but I also think I happen to be on the lower end of most applicant pools. (For reference, if you at all happen to be interested, I posted my stats a while back on 11/09.)</p>
<p>I’m just worried that leaving that part blank could still hurt me, even though a highly qualified applicant might get away with leaving it blank. </p>
<p>Thanks again; I was not expecting to receive such helpful responses!</p>
<p>Before you listen to the “it’s not necessary to contact anyone” crowd (who I’m sure are well meaning, and probably right in relation to their own areas of study), you should note that expected practices vary by field. Both my parents are professors at top research universities - my father in history and my mother in ecology/evolutionary biology. My father has told me that his (somewhere in the top 5-10) department routinely rejects strong applicants it doesn’t think have shown enough interest in the program, where contacting faculty is the primary way to show interest. In my mother’s field, it is basically essential to contact faculty, because admissions decisions are made nearly entirely on the basis of whether a particular faculty member wants you in his or her lab and is willing to advise you. Those are the only two fields I really know well (since I’m personally also in history), but I’d recommend you ask professors in your area at your undergraduate school what the expected practice is in your field - contact may not be necessary (or even desirable) in molliebatmit, Slorg, and BrownParent’s daughter’s fields, but it is in some - and it might well be in yours.</p>
<p>It is definitely field-dependent. My PI (chemical engineering - I’m applying for bioengineering programs) advised me that it wasn’t really necessary to contact professors, except maybe to eliminate schools that I probably wouldn’t want to go to unless I had the opportunity to work with a particular professor. He also said that he gets 100+ emails a day, so if you don’t hear back from a professor, you shouldn’t necessarily take that as a bad sign. Several PI websites I’d browsed wrote that you should contact them about available grad student positions AFTER you’ve been accepted to their department.
I ended up not contacting any professors. I’m hoping that recommendations from my PIs (who have some contacts at the schools I’m applying to) and my SOP describing my research in their labs will count for enough.</p>
<p>It’s not only field-dependent but also program dependent. And within programs, faculty-dependent. All you can do is try to contact possible PIs/professors with intelligent questions and hope that they respond. If they do not respond, don’t take it as a negative, however.</p>
<p>I’m in History and every professor I’ve contacted has been very receptive and positive about my contacting them, often exceeding my expectations. Not sure how helpful or necessary it is, but it definitely can’t hurt. Don’t see how a professor can be “annoyed” by an inquiring prospective student. My undergrad professors told me they know how the system works and they get these emails all the time. They may not answer you, but they may also keep your email in their box if they come across your application down the line. If a professor gets “annoyed” that a prospective student is asking about their research or whatever, then I definitely wouldn’t want to be working with that type of teacher in grad school no matter how reputable in the field they are.</p>
<p>
I can think of several ways.</p>
<p>One is a prospective student sending what is clearly a form email talking about his or her research interests in very vague terms, and not specifying how these interests fit with the PI’s. In some cases, the described research interests have nothing to do with, or are completely opposed to, the PI’s research interests. (There are some interesting blog entries by professor bloggers on this phenomenon, but my googling is completely failing me.)</p>
<p>Another is a prospective student sending what is clearly an email just to send an email, perhaps asking rudimentary questions that are easily answered by reading the PI’s website or publications. </p>
<p>I don’t think it’s problematic for students to contact professors if they have a genuine reason to initiate the conversation, but I think it’s problematic when students send meaningless emails to professors for the sole purpose of filling out the lines on the application that ask for names. Sending a meaningless email to someone who will be evaluating your application is almost certainly worse than sending no email at all.</p>
<p>Well, yeah, I meant annoyed as a more general annoyance of talking to Prospective Students… “I can’t bother discussing my research to these lowly prospective students, these people think I have nothing better to do with my time,” etc. Obviously if you are sending a half-assed, misinformed, redundant email, it won’t go favorably for you. But I feel as if a “Dear Dr. so and so, I am applying to your program, and I feel like your interests line up well with mine. I would like to know if you are taking on students for semester so and so.” is always appropriate and even expected…</p>
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<p>You would still be an annoyance in EE unless the department is low-ranked (i.e. doesn’t get large volume of mail). Everyone and their aunt thinks they can improve their chances by contacting faculty. Too bad sincerity can’t be gauged from emails. I’ve talked to faculty about this. You may think that you’re special but the routine gets old fast for them, even the young and enthusiastic. Count on a “Thank you for your interest; please contact after admission” email.</p>
<p>Now, EE programs are large (thousands of applicants). It might work in smaller fields, especially humanities. But your contention “always appropriate” is dead wrong in some fields.</p>
<p>I can’t speak on the fields you’re talking about, so perhaps you are right, but I still contend that the potential upside is much bigger than the downside on the rare chance you get a faculty member who gets annoyed by attempts at being contacted. I don’t have much experience with this, as I’m only applying right now, but I’m speaking on what seems like common sense to me. There is a much better chance that you get a professor who says “this applicant contacted me, has shown an interest, maybe he or she’ll will be a good fit” than “this applicant is qualified but annoyed me a few weeks ago with an email.” It’s all about increasing chances. Maybe it’ll do diddly squat, but I still can’t see how it can negatively affect your application. And if it can help you, and can’t hurt you… then the choice is obvious in my opinion. Who cares if you get a “thank you for your interest; please contact after admission?” At least you made the effort, and won’t have any what ifs left after the admission process is over.</p>
<p>It won’t help you. No professor is going to say “maybe he or she will be a good fit” based on simple correspondence alone.</p>
<p>As a blanket statement, this is quite simply untrue. I have had many professors initiate extensive discussions with me beginning with e-mails - including several who have expressed interest in advising my research, encouraged me to apply to their programs and discussed funding opportunities.</p>
<p>The real rule is that this is field-specific, as with so many things in graduate school. In my field of interest, contacting professors is important.</p>
<p>What is true is that you must be specific in your correspondence. Don’t send professors a form letter fawning over them. Ask if they are accepting students, briefly explain your research interest and tell them why you believe the professor and program would be a good fit. Professors are more impressed by intellectual thinking than empty flattery.</p>