Emailing multiple professors in the same department?

[mighettio]

I am beginning to draft my emails to professors that I am interested in working with for PhD programs beginning in Fall 2019, but I'm not sure if it is bad to email multiple people in the same department at one school? 

[ResilientDreams]

30 minutes ago, mighettio said:

I am beginning to draft my emails to professors that I am interested in working with for PhD programs beginning in Fall 2019, but I'm not sure if it is bad to email multiple people in the same department at one school? 

I avoided it. I think you could probably do it if you sent all your emails at once, but I sent mine one at a time and it felt weird emailing a second person if I had already talked to someone else, especially if I was very specific about being interested in their particular research. 

[high_hopes]

41 minutes ago, mighettio said:

I am beginning to draft my emails to professors that I am interested in working with for PhD programs beginning in Fall 2019, but I'm not sure if it is bad to email multiple people in the same department at one school? 

I think it is totally fine to email more than one prof at a university. You're checking to see if they're taking new students and whether they'll be around when you hope to study, so it would make sense to check with all of the faculty whose research interests fit yours very well. With that said, I've heard some universities have policies of not responding to individual inquiries. However, other universities encourage the practice. If the university you're interested in encourages that you check with faculty, I wouldn't hesitate to email more than one.

[manofthehoff]

14 hours ago, high_hopes said:

I think it is totally fine to email more than one prof at a university. You're checking to see if they're taking new students and whether they'll be around when you hope to study, so it would make sense to check with all of the faculty whose research interests fit yours very well. With that said, I've heard some universities have policies of not responding to individual inquiries. However, other universities encourage the practice. If the university you're interested in encourages that you check with faculty, I wouldn't hesitate to email more than one.

Totally agree with this. You should be applying to programs with at least two professors you're interested in working with (and three or four is better). You should reach out to each of them briefly to make sure they are taking new students and that their research will continue in the same direction. If you don't have that information, you won't be able to write an informed statement of purpose that is specific to each school.