Strangefox

I believe that there are all sorts of US departments: some are competitive, some are collegial. As far as I know the one where I will be sudying is of the second kind

Hm, I thought that US departments are LESS formal...

@Phil Sparrow and Mal: I could not say better! @Just me: Boo on you! You are not realistic, you ARE bitter! And we know that perfectly well. When you came here for the first time to ask for advice - we tried to support you but you have apparently not done anything we recommended. Instead you come now to pour your bitterness on us, telling us in different posts that what we are doing is worthless, that academic path we have chosen won't lead us anywhere. I say, it's a very bad way to thank us for out attempts to help you.

I think it can be fine in any field if you mention in your emails that you've contacted other profs from the department (may be name them even) - so that it does not look like you are sending emails randomly in hope that somebody will get interested

"I can only recommend graduate school in the humanities—and, increasingly, the social sciences and sciences—if you are independently wealthy, well-connected in the field you plan to enter (e.g., your mom is the president of an Ivy League university), or earning a credential to advance in a position you already hold, such as a high-school teacher, and even then, a master's degree is enough." Well, I believe it's too harsh.

Depends on what you mean by negative feedback. You mean a POI writing: "Your research is not interesting, don't apply here" or something to that effect? Well, there are all kinds of profs and may be some of them are mean enough to write this kind of reply. But I think that 99% will write you something more encouraging, even if they are not directly interested in your research topic (provided you have yourself been polite and expressed your ideas clearly). Last year I contacted 10-15 people (not sure how much exactly...) and though some were less interested than others and some were very consise in their replies, nobody reacted negatively.

Yep, the quota has always been there but it seemed to me it was more than 3 (I thought 5)...

You are right! It's more difficult to skim texts in social sciences.

Hm, I guess that unloading all your qualifications in the first email to a POI is not the best idea Just say the essential, like - "I have MA in ***logy". And then move to your academic interests and experience. I think talking about experience and research you are hoping to do in this program is far more important than awards. Awards will matter too, of course, when you are sending your application in. But contacting a POI you might skip this part.

Weird...

Oh, I did not know all that... I am glad this issue has come up!

Folders??

Thank you! I was just thinking that may be it would be easier (for me at least, or may be at this stage, may be I will evolve) to write an article first and then to gear it towards a certain journal. I'd prefer to have an paper ready in case there is a conference I'll want to take it to. And if I choose to try to publish it in a journal - I can always rearrange my article, tweak it for a certain venue. Like you wrote - the research stays the same.

You mean, writing a paper with a specific journal in mind? So how does this "targeting" work? You mean, I can't simply do a research, write a paper and THEN look for suitable journals?

Hm, I guess it might be field dependant... I will tell you what I think about things you've mentioned. I believe it is indeed better to tell them about your research first and if you see that they are interested - ask them about openings. If you start by asking whether they will be taking grad students next year, you may appear pushy to them. First it's better to establish rapport (I believe). You may ask things about their research if you truly have what to ask. Otherwise it may seem artificial and as if you are sucking up to them. You can mention their works that you've read and found inspiring - or you may not, it depends on curcumstances. Giving a transcript - I certainly would not do that (only if they ask). May be attach your CV - that is way better. But there is no need to attach it if you don't want to. Remember that it depends a lot on a person you are contacting. Some may become annoyed at one thing others won't even notice it or see it as a sign of your enthusiasm. In short, contacting profs is a game and you never know what reply you will get - long or terse, friendly or annoyed. I would recommend to rely on your intuition. Remember that professors are very busy and receive lots of emails from students. But they are always glad to communicate with intelligent, polite and enthusiastic people (well, normal profs sure are - if they are not glad to do that then I would not want to work with them ). So you want your letter to be to the point, not too long but not to curt either, explaining your research interests well, showng your enthusiasm and showing that you've done your homework before contacting a POI.

I would like to ask - why when you look at a list of titles of threads some of them have those blue dots on the left and some have stars and some don't have anything and applear on the white background?

I would contact them early and if you don't get a reply in a couple of weeks, send another email. I believe that contacting profs early (rather than close to applying) shows how serious and organized you are. Though some people on these forums mentioned that they had contacted profs late and those were happy to reply and help anyways. So it depends. Now I want to ask you - what kind of conflicting info have you herd about contacting POIs?

In fact the digitalization of the process is a good thing, becase it saves you time and money. You will see it yourself later. Good luck!

It is definetely a good sign, especially the part where she encourages you to contact her again. But that does not mean acceptance yet. So, though you should definetely apply to this school, it's better to contact professors in other programs as well and apply to places where profs will express similar interest. While it's definetely great to have a professor who is interested in working with you, that does not automatically guarantees success because a lot of factors matter in admission process - like funding and department politics. A profs might want to work with you but if he/she does not have enough clout in the department - they might not get what they want. A prof might get suddenly ill or - God forbid - hit buy a bus. To reiterate, this IS a very good sign but it doesn't guarantee admission so contact other profs and apply to several schools with profs who've expressed interest in working with you. Then your chances of getting into one of these places will be indeed high.

Very interesting, thank you!!

Thank you very much guys for all your input! Now I don't worry anymore that I am reading too slowly. Funny thing, when I stopped worrying about that I started reading faster because before when I was reading I used to think: "OMG, why am I so slow??" and thinking about that took a lot of my precious time

Not sure I understand you correctly... You mean more notes where you can type in info for one reference? If you click on the name of a book/article in the middle section and choose "Add note" you can add as many notes to one book/article as you wish.

Well, I was looking for such advantages but it seems that both of them, being good in general, have lots of advantages and small disadvantages so that whether a person chooses to use one or another depends more on personal tastes and idiosyncrasies. I like the fact that I can export my data from one to another anytime. It means that I can start working with Zotero now and if later I find out that I like Mendeley more, I can always switch to it (or to EndNote - in another comment you wrote that you can export data from Zoreto to EndNote and vice versa and that is great!). I think I will stick with Zotero also because, as I've written somewhere else, some people in another thread had written that Mendeley software is still being developed and sometimes it crushes with unpleasant results for users. I will probably buy 1 GB of Zotero storage space later. $20 a year seems a good deal to me. Moneywise, Mendeley is better than Zotero when we are talking free space (only 100 MB with Zotero and 1 GB with Mendeley) but when it comes to bigger storage space they are practically equal - $60/year for 5 GB at Zotero and $60/year for 7 GB at Mendelay. Of course there is 2 GB difference but I don't think I will need more than 5 GB anyways. Of course there is EndNote with unlimited (?) storage space but it does cost more and I don't believe that paying $115 for it once will be all I will have to pay. There will be updates which I won't be able to get for free as with Zotero. Anyway, if Zotero was so much worse than EndNote, I believe people would not be using it and prasing it. And you are using Zotero, right? Are you satisfied?

One thing that worries me: when I choose a reference software (be it Zotero, Mendeley or Endnote) and start building my reference database, that probably means that it would be very difficult to switch from one of them to another down the road, right? I won't be able to transfer references - I will have to start anew! That's a disturbing thought A lot depends on my choice! UPDATE: "I will note that the “Import from Zotero” feature worked seamlessly; I seeded my Mendeley account with all of my Zotero data so I would have something to work with as I worked through the tool. Given the syncing abilities, it would be possible (and not terribly difficult or time consuming) to, say, work with Zotero as your primary tool yet sync with Mendeley so as to increase the content in your field and just add to the community in general. If you’re looking to try Mendeley and you already have a Zotero account, I recommend importing your library in this way and playing around with the data you’ve already collected." (from here: http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/using-mendeley-for-research-management/25627)