rockbender

Another idea would be to ask his boss/advisor/person with whom he is currently working (as long as the work is relevant to the grad program he would like to apply to). I don't think the fact that this person is not a professor would be a big deal, especially if he/she knows your son a lot better than any of his former professors.

Yeah the Baron's book was pretty horrible. I think I only read halfway through it because it had so many mistakes! Peterson's and the ETS books were pretty good though

To be clear, I am not emailing people to pat myself on the back and see how loved/lovable I am. I already know the answer to that question, which is "not much": I'm not sure what other people's success rate with cold emailing POIs, but mine has not been great. I have researched almost 50 professors, emailed ~20 of them (over several months), got responses from half, and positive responses from half of that half. I don't feel all that comfortable only having 5 schools at this stage of the process, so yes I am emailing people more on the fringe of my interests. Admittedly in the case I probably extended too far..

Ok so I did email him back! I basically said that I was interested in his work but was hoping to expand it along a different direction. I said I would be happy to talk to him on the phone if he wanted to explore that different direction... Not sure if he will take me up on it or not, but I guess we'll see. Thanks for the advice!

Crap - Rereading the original email I sent him, I did say that "I thought his research group could be a good fit for me" and that I was particularly interested in this work (organic geochem) that I am not particularly interested in at all (I would prefer inorganic geochem). I just used the standard format that I used for all of my other emails. Now if I tell him that I am ACTUALLY not particularly interested in his work, then the whole point of emailing him in the first place is lost... I don't know, I think I have dug myself into a pretty deep hole with this one. I'll have to think very carefully about what to write so I don't sound like a major flake....

I have been in the process of emailing POIs for a couple of months now, to limited success. Recently I started including people more on the fringe of my interests just to try and get more responses. I guess it sort of worked? I emailed a professor last Friday and he emailed me back (rather quickly!) on Friday evening. He seemed enthusiastic (an alum from my undergrad university) and wanted to set up a time to talk on the phone. I was busy over the long weekend and have been dragging my feet in responding. His work really is on the fringe of my interests (although I have a lot of lab experience in his field from undergrad), and I was hoping to hear more about his projects before committing to a phone conversation (I am really uncomfortable/awkward on the phone - it would hurt way more than help). Plus, since then I talked to my advisor about the other professor's research, and he (my advisor) didn't think he (the other professor) would be a good fit for me. So my questions are: 1. I've waited so long - should I still send a reply? Or does the point come across (rather bluntly) from the fact that I haven't responded yet? I am pretty sure at this point that I will not be applying to work with him, but his email was nice and he DID actually respond, unlike many others. I feel like propriety dictates that I should send a reply but - 2. Do you have any advice on how to word it so it doesn't come off rude? What I would like to say is 1. sorry for taking so long to reply (though I have no good excuse) 2. that his projects are not really along my main interests 3. i emailed him to find out if his current & future projects might incorporate an element of my main interests 4. maybe after that we could talk on the phone (but not now) Help???