How important is contacting PI in advance?

[Yiyu Liu]

Hi everyone, I'm a Senior undergraduate student and will apply for graduate school this fall. Now I wonder how important it is to contact PIs in advance. And more specifically:

1. If I'm going to apply for 10-15 grad schools, and I may have 20-30 PIs, should I contact them all before application?

2. If I don't contact PIs in advance, will I still have a chance to get into the interview cycle?

3. If I send emails to PIs now and some just give general replys like "encourage you to apply" or even does not respond at all, does it mean I should give up that school? 

4. Usually the interveiw begins a month after the application DDL. So should I contact PIs again and ask for an opportunity to skype with them? Or should I just wait for the invitation for a interview?

I'm super stressful at this moment and really would like to hear from your experience. Thx!

[PsyDuck90]

1. Yes, you want to contact all potential PIs at all schools. The emails should be about your research interests meshing with theirs and asking questions about their current research. You want to make sure that you are not asking questions that are answered on the website or their lab web page. Also, ideally, try to send emails to all faculty at 1 school within the same day or so. That way it doesn't seem like you're just going for your 2nd choice or anything.

2. You may still have a chance if you don't email faculty, but the purpose of reaching out to PIs is to hopefully establish a rapport so that they remember you when looking at your application. 

3. If a PI doesn't respond, you should still apply to the school. Some PIs just won't respond to prospective student emails. 

4. Do not contact faculty after the deadline. If you make it to the interview round, they will invite you to the interview. If you know the interview date has passed and you did not hear anything, you can reach out to faculty for feedback on how to improve your application for the next cycle. 

[ResilientDreams]

I second the advice about contacting all potential PIs at the same school at once. I only emailed one person at each school and of course some aren't taking graduate students, so sending the email to the second person feels weird. 

So far I've gotten one really positive response (PI specifically excited about me), two more generally positive responses, one really positive response from a PI not taking grad students this year (which is a shame), one neutral response from a PI not taking students, two no responses, and one really bad response from a PI I thought would be interested in me (decided not to apply there). I think emailing is helpful because it makes yourself known and you also find out more about your potential PI. Interest goes both ways. 

[Yiyu Liu]

On 8/12/2018 at 9:22 PM, Hk328 said:

1. Yes, you want to contact all potential PIs at all schools. The emails should be about your research interests meshing with theirs and asking questions about their current research. You want to make sure that you are not asking questions that are answered on the website or their lab web page. Also, ideally, try to send emails to all faculty at 1 school within the same day or so. That way it doesn't seem like you're just going for your 2nd choice or anything.

2. You may still have a chance if you don't email faculty, but the purpose of reaching out to PIs is to hopefully establish a rapport so that they remember you when looking at your application. 

3. If a PI doesn't respond, you should still apply to the school. Some PIs just won't respond to prospective student emails. 

4. Do not contact faculty after the deadline. If you make it to the interview round, they will invite you to the interview. If you know the interview date has passed and you did not hear anything, you can reach out to faculty for feedback on how to improve your application for the next cycle. 

Thanks your reply really help me a lot  And one thing I'd like to ask is that I heard that someone received a skype interview from the PIs in addition to the formal on-campus interview. I wonder whether PIs will send out those informal skype interviews when they start to review the material or even earlier?

[ResilientDreams]

16 hours ago, Yiyu Liu said:

Thanks your reply really help me a lot  And one thing I'd like to ask is that I heard that someone received a skype interview from the PIs in addition to the formal on-campus interview. I wonder whether PIs will send out those informal skype interviews when they start to review the material or even earlier?

Hello! I'm the person who was offered a Skype interview. I was offered it after my initial email to the professor because he thought we had a lot in common. 

[t_ruth]

On 8/19/2018 at 12:02 AM, Yiyu Liu said:

Thanks your reply really help me a lot  And one thing I'd like to ask is that I heard that someone received a skype interview from the PIs in addition to the formal on-campus interview. I wonder whether PIs will send out those informal skype interviews when they start to review the material or even earlier?

Sometimes PIs will do informal Skype interviews or phone calls just to help the candidate (and the PI) get a better idea of fit. This isn't really an interview like those after applications are submitted. There may also be a phone or Skype interview after applications are submitted before or in lieu of an on-campus interview. These are more formal. You may have both.

The first type are really beneficial because you can reference your discussion in your application materials.