[University of Florida]

I am applying there. I got an email from the department saying that the M.A. is fully funded, so afterwards, I started an application. However, I plan on finishing it a little closer to the February deadline, since I am balancing classes with application submissions. 

 

It's unfortunate that their Ph.D. funding was removed, but it is nice that they are able to provide funding at the master's level. 

[Dear 2015 applicants, here is what we have learned from the 2014 season]

Do you think naming professors you'd like to work with is a bad idea? It seems to me that there are only a couple situations in which this could really hurt you:

 

• The professor(s) you name don't work on what you think they do
• You overlook some noteworthy people in the department who work on your areas of interest, while naming professors with only tangential interests
• Someone reading your app works on your areas of interest and feels slighted by your failure to mention them specifically

The first two seem easily solved by actually looking into the research of the professors you mention, rather than rattling off names based on a cursory glance at the department website. And the last point just seems a bit unreasonable to me - of course prospective students will mention well-known professors at a great rate than newer assistant/associate professors. So mentioning professors doesn't seem too harmful to me.

 

Of course, it probably doesn't matter a whole lot either way, since (as Schwitzgebel points out) statements of purpose tend to be poorly written in general, and adcoms are mainly looking to see whether you can describe your research interests in a halfway coherent manner and whether you seem like a good fit with the department. Whether you mention specific professors doesn't seem to have a tremendous impact on those, at least to me.

 

 

I think this is, for the most part, true. It probably doesn't matter too much either way.

Looking into their research, reading their work for some schools, and including this in my SOP made it more interesting I thought, but not applying somewhere just because I have not comprehensively researched certain professors seems like it could be a missed opportunity. I have tried to research their work at least to some extent, even if I'm not mentioning their names.

[Dear 2015 applicants, here is what we have learned from the 2014 season]

I think it makes sense to name some relevant profs you've formed relationships with in some way. E.g. I mentioned the name of a prof from a course I audited, since the course was at another institution and I had actually done everything for the course, including writing a term paper that became my sample. So I said something like "I audited course X with Prof Y at Z University, and the term paper for that course became the basis of my writing sample."

 

Great, I think I will only add this in I find it is relevant to the research areas that I am discussing. 

[Dear 2015 applicants, here is what we have learned from the 2014 season]

Is everyone mentioning the names of the professors that they have taken classes from?

I saw the example statements of purpose on The Splintered Mind blog, where two people had mentioned the names of professors that taught their classes. I wondered if you guys are mentioning the names of professors that you have had classes from in your personal statements (or if you think it is a good idea to do this). Thanks! 

[CUNY application deadline]

Yes, I noticed it, but submitted it by the December deadline anyway. I may attempt to resubmit my writing sample if they will accept it, but I'm not sure if I will do this yet. 

 

They have had two separate deadlines posted for a while. My statement of purpose could also have been revised.