Department Specific Question

[rollinsociety]

When you have a question specific to the department your applying to (i.e. if students in the past followed this interdisciplinary approach how did it impact their studies?) :

 

-how much information do you include in the e-mail

-who exactly do you e-mail?

 

For example, would I provide a few lines on past education and current interests such as in an inquiry e-mail?

And by *who* I mean should I send such a question via the department's generic in-site "contact us" form or send it to a faculty member?

 

 

[themmases]

I contacted the admissions coordinator for my program. A lot of times they know the answer themselves, and if they don't they'll be more successful at getting the answer for you than you would be yourself.

 

My experience of being support staff in an academic department was that faculty were way more likely to answer an email from me, trusted staff person, than from an outsider. Sometimes people would even email me and tell me what to say rather than respond to someone themselves, so I would keep being the contact in the eyes of whoever we were in contact with. And some of them hated/didn't check/checked but didn't respond to their email, but I would know that and page them or go find them in person rather than worrying I offended them somehow.

[fuzzylogician]

Read the website carefully. Make sure the question you have is not already addressed there. Often there will be contact information for someone who is in charge of admissions, or for the Director of Graduate Studies (or similar title). If you can't find anyone in particular and this is not a question for your potential advisor that you can ask in an email to them (e.g. 'what positions have your students had post-graduation?'), I'd email the administrative staff. Someone there will either know the answer or know who to ask.

[rollinsociety]

thanks, guys!!

[lyrehc]

Does the program have an academic advisor?  When schools do that is the best place to start.  The graduate liaison is also helpful but I found the academic advisor actually knew more related to application types of questions/questions that I needed answered before deciding to apply.

[rollinsociety]

So, the program has a Director of Graduate Admissions and Director of Graduate Studies. The website says to contact the D of GS for a specific question about the program. I e-mailed that person (my question was more specific than my earlier example), but received a response from the D of GA. The response was very generic--basically copy-paste from the website aside from two lines that answered my question in a discouraging way. I received a much more helpful response from another program, however.