How Soon to Contact Potential Professors

[hopefulwoolfian]

Hi everyone,

I'm new here, though I've been reading for a while. I'm currently recovering from a horrible season of 13 rejections and starting to look ahead to 2011. One thing that I really want to try to do this time around is to contact potential future professors at programs before applying, rather than just mentioning them in my SoP. What is the best time to do this? Obviously right now is way too early, as they are dealing with the new incoming class, but is the summer a good time or is it better to wait until pretty close to when apps are due so that they remember me?

Thanks so much for any advice! This place is extremely helpful and I'm really looking forward to taking part in the community.

Thanks,

HopefulWoolfian

[americana]

I'm so sorry to hear about your results for this season. Be not deterred; there are many, many people out there who were once in the same boat and went on to find great offers down the road.

If I could do it all over again, I would have started much earlier (i.e., now, in the spring). The purpose of contacting professors should not really be to make a friend who might champion your application, as such a thing is more likely to happen based on the ideas put forth in your writing sample and SoP, rather than some chummy email exchange.

But determining if a school's resources match your own interests is essential. Find out what these professors are working on (and it's good to be very specific), what they're interested in, what they're bored with, and who they've admitted recently. Don't submit an SoP to a school stating that you MUST and WILL work on Dryden if they just admitted five Dryden scholars last year. Use this as your chance to sleuth out what's going on in the department. You will need as much time as you can get your hands on. And keep good notes.

I heard a story somewhere that one of those SIX people admitted to Penn got in because she mentioned an obscure play that someone on the adcom happened to be working on at the time. (Clearly, the applicant had tons of other stuff going on for her, I'm sure, but when things are this competitive, it's these kinds of details that get you over the last hump).

That's my two cents. Truly, best luck to you next time around.

[Pamphilia]

I'm so sorry to hear about your results for this season. Be not deterred; there are many, many people out there who were once in the same boat and went on to find great offers down the road.

If I could do it all over again, I would have started much earlier (i.e., now, in the spring). The purpose of contacting professors should not really be to make a friend who might champion your application, as such a thing is more likely to happen based on the ideas put forth in your writing sample and SoP, rather than some chummy email exchange.

But determining if a school's resources match your own interests is essential. Find out what these professors are working on (and it's good to be very specific), what they're interested in, what they're bored with, and who they've admitted recently. Don't submit an SoP to a school stating that you MUST and WILL work on Dryden if they just admitted five Dryden scholars last year. Use this as your chance to sleuth out what's going on in the department. You will need as much time as you can get your hands on. And keep good notes.

Yes to all of this!

[Branwen daughter of Llyr]

I'm going to start contacting profs as soon as I'm done compiling my Grad School profiles table - in which I list each school, profs I'm interested in working with in the department (from their school profile and other readings), SoP focus, and pros and cons.

Once I'm done with the table, I'll start contacting specific profs from each department and start fishing for additional information - if my interests suit the department and prof, beginning and academic discussion, finding out about previous cohort admissions (as americana stated before me). Luckily, I have several fields of interest within medieval lit, so I can tailor my SoP for each school and what research I could do there (i.e. shift focus from Celtic Arthuriana to Romance Arthuriana if no Celtic focused profs are in the program, or just focus on Chaucer and his contemporaries instead of Arthuriana if they already have 5 PhD candidates focusing on Arthuriana ).

Basically, I plan starting the contacting process within the next month, so I can narrow down my 28 school list to about 12-13 over the summer. It's really about getting as much information about the programs as possible so I can determine my fit - living overseas, I'm not really going to have a chance to visit the departments unless I manage to wrangle a three week vacation in September. Obviously, I also hope that contacting the profs and engaging them in academic discourse can help my acceptance chances - but that's a secondary goal . The main goal is putting together the best possible application package and gathering as much information as possible to make sure that I'm applying to the right schools for me. I want to make sure that I'll be jumping for absolute joy no matter where I get in (despite being utterly enamored of UCLA and Harvard's programs LOL).

Good luck!

[diehtc0ke]

I heard a story somewhere that one of those SIX people admitted to Penn got in because she mentioned an obscure play that someone on the adcom happened to be working on at the time. (Clearly, the applicant had tons of other stuff going on for her, I'm sure, but when things are this competitive, it's these kinds of details that get you over the last hump).

Completely off topic, but how do people even find out about things like that?

For what it's worth to others reading this thread, I think that contacting professors, though helpful in narrowing down what schools are the best fit, is not completely necessary. I'm a fairly shy guy and the thought of e-mailing these scholars that I admired out of the blue was too daunting a task when I was applying so don't feel like this is a prerequisite for being accepted to a program. With that being said, however, had I been more confident I probably would have e-mailed potential advisors more towards the end of the semester at the school you're looking at or wait until August. I think right now is a crazy time for professors and graduate students alike since semesters are winding down.

Edited April 19, 2010 by diehtc0ke

[americana]

Completely off topic, but how do people even find out about things like that?

For what it's worth to others reading this thread, I think that contacting professors, though helpful in narrowing down what schools are the best fit, is not completely necessary. I'm a fairly shy guy and the thought of e-mailing these scholars that I admired out of the blue was too daunting a task when I was applying so don't feel like this is a prerequisite for being accepted to a program. With that being said, however, had I been more confident I probably would have e-mailed potential advisors more towards the end of the semester at the school you're looking at or wait until August. I think right now is a crazy time for professors and graduate students alike since semesters are winding down.

I read it somewhere on this forum. It had been posted by someone who had spoken with a prof on the adcom.

[strokeofmidnight]

Completely off topic, but how do people even find out about things like that?

For what it's worth to others reading this thread, I think that contacting professors, though helpful in narrowing down what schools are the best fit, is not completely necessary. I'm a fairly shy guy and the thought of e-mailing these scholars that I admired out of the blue was too daunting a task when I was applying so don't feel like this is a prerequisite for being accepted to a program. With that being said, however, had I been more confident I probably would have e-mailed potential advisors more towards the end of the semester at the school you're looking at or wait until August. I think right now is a crazy time for professors and graduate students alike since semesters are winding down.

This. There's an active debate about contacting professors. It *may* help, particularly if you have an adviser/another professor to smooth the way for you. (aka, if your adviser/professor/colleague is telling to do it, and offers to let you name-drop to establish a connection...do it). It might also help if you are very impressive AND articulate, and handle these delicate sorts of emails well. I really do think that it might actually *hurt* you if you come off as being obnoxious, irrelevant, asking the wrong sorts of questions, uninformed about the (sometimes obscure) parts of your field that the professor is interested in, etc. And frankly...now that I do field emails from college students (although not about admissions), even when they are trying very hard, they're often subtly but devastatingly off the mark. The stakes are pretty low when they, say, email me about a paper extension. The stakes are considerably higher if the professor you contact happens to be on the ad-comm, and doesn't walk away from the conversation with a favorable impression of your work. (Last year TA'ing for a professor who actually *was* on ad-comm, I heard plenty of complaints about applicants who did not create a favorable impression via email. Most of the time, they were extremely polite...it's just that this professor didn't see the necessity or particular value of that sort of contact, and was annoyed that s/he now has to take the time out of his/her already overscheduled day to deal with it). Granted, not every professor will respond this way...and granted also, that there are applicants who are sufficiently knowledgeable, with fascinating research interests, who do handle email conversations very well...and can cast favorable impressions even upon busy professors. But I would suspect that those individuals would probably have done just as well without contacting the professors.

Personally, I didn't trust myself to "play that game." I don't think my unwillingness to contact professors hurt me, in any way, in the application process. I do "contact professors" now (that this is well behind me), but I could never successfully navigate the strange/awkward/doubled position of trying to BOTH establish a genuine contact as a scholar while jockeying for attention as an applicant. They're not mutually exclusive, but they do complicate one's subject position in ways that I didn't want to deal with.

[foppery]

This. There's an active debate about contacting professors. It *may* help, particularly if you have an adviser/another professor to smooth the way for you. (aka, if your adviser/professor/colleague is telling to do it, and offers to let you name-drop to establish a connection...do it). It might also help if you are very impressive AND articulate, and handle these delicate sorts of emails well. I really do think that it might actually *hurt* you if you come off as being obnoxious, irrelevant, asking the wrong sorts of questions, uninformed about the (sometimes obscure) parts of your field that the professor is interested in, etc. And frankly...now that I do field emails from college students (although not about admissions), even when they are trying very hard, they're often subtly but devastatingly off the mark. The stakes are pretty low when they, say, email me about a paper extension. The stakes are considerably higher if the professor you contact happens to be on the ad-comm, and doesn't walk away from the conversation with a favorable impression of your work. (Last year TA'ing for a professor who actually *was* on ad-comm, I heard plenty of complaints about applicants who did not create a favorable impression via email. Most of the time, they were extremely polite...it's just that this professor didn't see the necessity or particular value of that sort of contact, and was annoyed that s/he now has to take the time out of his/her already overscheduled day to deal with it). Granted, not every professor will respond this way...and granted also, that there are applicants who are sufficiently knowledgeable, with fascinating research interests, who do handle email conversations very well...and can cast favorable impressions even upon busy professors. But I would suspect that those individuals would probably have done just as well without contacting the professors.

Personally, I didn't trust myself to "play that game." I don't think my unwillingness to contact professors hurt me, in any way, in the application process. I do "contact professors" now (that this is well behind me), but I could never successfully navigate the strange/awkward/doubled position of trying to BOTH establish a genuine contact as a scholar while jockeying for attention as an applicant. They're not mutually exclusive, but they do complicate one's subject position in ways that I didn't want to deal with.

You're right on. I do think there may be legitimate reasons for contacting professors, if you have specific questions about the department that can't be answered by online research. Otherwise, though, I'd be wary.

When I was a college senior going through this hellish process, I knew someone who was applying to grad schools in a different field. She had begun contacting professors in the summer before application season. I have no idea what she said to them, but she used to brag about the fruitful exchanges she'd had, and scoff at me for refusing to play the game. I refused mainly for diehtc0ke's reason: I'm pretty shy, and I couldn't think of anything to ask professors that wouldn't come off as "hey guys, I want to go to your school"--and what professor has time for that? I also had a wise adviser who warned me strongly against writing to anyone. My friend continued to hint that she would get in everywhere and I would get in nowhere. Come March, I was in with funding at three programs. I believe she ended up doing an unfunded MA.

I'm not claiming that her emails ruined her chances, or that my refusal to write to professors led directly to my success. But I DO want to emphasize that her emails didn't help, and that my refusal didn't hurt. (Or would I have gotten in everywhere had I written the damn emails? God knows, but I'm guessing no.)

I should add that my adviser also told me not to mention specific professors in my statement of purpose, and since I worshiped the ground he walked on, I did as he said. He claimed that professors found these mentions even more presumptuous than unsolicited emails. I'm not sure if this is true, and I'm curious what other successful applicants did with their SoPs, but my adviser's rationale seemed sound: THEY decide if they want to work with YOU.

So, my two cents: If you have specific questions that can be resolved only by contacting professors, go ahead. If you're just trying to network and make contacts, it's probably not necessary.

[Branwen daughter of Llyr]

My main reason for contacting profs is to decide if to apply to the program or not, basically. I've found a few profs whose interests don't exactly match mine, but they still may have the knowledge to guide me in my research. I just want to make sure, before selecting the schools that I'll apply to, that I'm choosing the right ones, with profs that CAN forward my research interests.

i.e. - can a prof who works mostly on dream and vision in medieval lit help me explore the role of magic? Has a Chaucer scholar done any work in other texts? My research interests are so odd overall that it's important to me to make sure I'm applying to the right places. So obviously, some schools are a given fit - Profs that have interests listed that are very similar to mine, I won't bother to email. But those I'm not sure about - I could be missing out on a great experience, just from assuming they won't be able to help me in my research.

[Medievalmaniac]

I don't think it hurts to contact people in the prospective departments...I know that it saved me a few hundred dollars in application fees last go-round, because although the webpages of certain departments listed my interests as things being worked on, it turned out that they were no longer up to date and in some cases the professors were working on things utterly unrelated to what I wanted to focus on, despite what the website said...things change.

In the interest of being helpful, here are (edited) versions of the two emails I send out - one is to current graduate students in the department, and one is to professors whose work aligns with my interests. I will say that overall, I get an amazing response to these, especially from the current graduate students (I change or alter them slightly for each department, but mainly they stay pretty close to what is here). A few people have written me several pages in response outlining everything they can think of to help me make my decision. A few even forwarded the email to other graduate students I did not know about who could help me further. Professors at some departments have also forwarded my email to other professors they thought I would like to hear from. There are a few short, curt responses ("only you can determine whether or not you think you would be a good fit here" etc. etc.) - but overwhelmingly, the answers have been helpful and detailed, refreshingly open and honest in terms of both praise and criticism of departments, and I have received answers from everybody I emailed at every department. So, this was a very rewarding approach for me.

If you want to cut and paste from these letters or to use part or whole for your own purposes, please feel free to do so. As I said, I'm posting them in an effort to help others out who might be considering this route.

Graduate Student email:

Dear [current graduate student's name],

I hope you won't mind the imposition, but I am considering [x,y,z university] as a possible location at which to complete my PhD(applying for Fall 2011), and I was hoping that I could get a first-hand perspective from some of the students in the program. For the purposes of clarification as to what I am looking for, I am a literature person; my primary subject area is Medieval, and my sub-areas of interest are Renaissance/Early Modern and Nineteenth century. I have researched the professors in the department insofar as these areas are concerned, and am quite heartened to find figures such as [professor brand name] there. But, of course, "who" I study with is only part of the equation, so I'm reaching out to current graduate students to attempt to ascertain whether the "what" matches with the "who" prior to applying.

I am applying MA in hand, and am aware that many (most) of those credits will

not confer to the degree at [university] - but I have discovered that this is the case

pretty much anywhere, so as far as that goes, I'm prepared to do more

coursework - besides, how can it be a bad thing to do more work on the subjects

I love best with others who also love them? However, I want to make sure that

this coursework is going to challenge me above and beyond what I have already

done - so, my first question is, in your experience how strong is the teaching

component of the program at [university]? How willing are the professors to work with

individual students to develop their strengths and address their weaknesses in

terms of subject matter? How open are the professors to helping you construct

an independent line of research in conjunction with the coursework you are

doing? How are the classes structured, and how much preparation have you found

it to be necessary in order to succeed? Are there any classes and/or professors

you would particularly recommend, or that stand out to you as being

particularly excellent?

Continuing with questions about the department itself - how would you classify

the department overall? Do people seem to be collaborative, interested in

working together, or is it primarily an individualistic program in which

professors work within their own disciplines and rarely cross-research? Is

there a particular pet methodology or critical school employed in the

department? (For example, I know that at [close university in area], it's very

centrally focused on [specific theoretical approach], which is not really my thing). What

critical methods are employed most often in literature courses? How often are

graduate students asked to work with professors on research projects? Are

professors willing to read over and critique independent work completed by

graduate students with an eye to publication and/or conferencing? Are graduate

students encouraged to publish and conference? Are there ample options for

teaching/lecturing available to students? How supported do you feel as a

graduate student overall by the department? How supportive of one another do

the graduate students tend to be?

I am also applying with family in tow; do you know how the department views

graduate students with children? Do they seem to be at a disadvantage in terms

of resources or attention? Are there many graduate students in the department

with children? Do graduate students with children successfully complete

the program on a regular basis? Do you know what the attrition rate and the

rate of successful placement is overall from [university]?

I would be grateful for any information you could provide me with concerning

any or all of the questions posed, and I assure you that anything you disclose

to me will be confidential and not repeated; as I said, I'm just seeking to get

a feel for what it would be like to work at [university], and the more honest

the responses are, the better chance I have of getting a real idea of things.

Thank you,

Professor of Interest email:

Dear [Dr.____________]

I am researching options as concerns doctoral programs in English, with the intention to make application this coming fall, and find that [x,y,z university] seems potentially to be a good fit for my particular set of interests. I wonder if you could offer me some thoughts in terms of this?

My primary area of interest is Medieval Literature, and my secondary areas are Renaissance (Early Modern) and the 19th Century. Specifically, within the medieval tradition I focus on Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Norman (French of England) and Middle English literature. My overarching subject areas of interest are Arthuriana, outlaw literature, and Celtic/ Old Norse folkloric materials; my central thematic interests lie in concepts of identity (both individual and national), the supernatural/monsters/magic, violence, hagiography, particularly as regards women mystics, gender issues, and (predictably) chivalry and courtliness (especially the function of feasts in courtly narrative). I am deeply and profoundly obsessed with textual transmission and questions of textual and subject matter provenance. In the Early Modern period, I focus predominantly on Spenser and Sidney, and also work extensively with Shakespeare (who doesn't...? lol). In the 19^th century, my interests lie specifically within the Gothic and Romantic traditions, and more specifically in terms of their appropriation of the medieval/ medievalism. I tend to take a predominantly New Historical approach to the texts, although I also work with feminist, linguistic/structuralist, myth and postcolonial theory.

You could certainly classify me as obsessed with all things medieval. It would, however, be very difficult for me to list an area of literary studies in which I am not interested (I just picked up the zombie version of Pride and Prejudice, I teach Virginia Woolf and Rebecca Wells, I have taught Dave Eggers and Dom DeLillo, for example…!) So, I am a really flexible student in that regard; I know what I want to focus in, but I'm also open to other areas of study as well. As for my background: I earned a BA from [university] in [year] in French; I then taught for two years in public schools, and returned to complete graduate work in medieval and Renaissance studies at [university] in [year]. After a year at [university], I taught for several more years, and then completed my Master's degree at [university] last spring with a 4.0. My thesis was entitled: "King of the Who? The Collective Unconscious and the Crafting of National Identity in Medieval Arthurian Texts", and I took an experimental psychological approach to the material, focusing on Jungian theories of the collective unconscious and also working with Jung's ideas concerning alchemical transformations. This project is now being developed into a monograph in conjunction with [publishing house]. I currently teach literature and Art History at [private boarding school] where I write and develop my own courses - six courses a term, five terms a year (among my most recent courses are “Bad Boys in British Lit”, which focuses on the Robin Hood/outlaw tradition, “The Bible and Literature”, in which we focus on biblical passages and correlative literary allusions, and “Monsters and Violence in British Lit” in which I introduce my students to literary theory by using Jeffrey Jerome Cohen’s “Monster Culture: Seven Theses” as the cornerstone text and showing them how to apply it to the various works we read throughout the term). I have a number of publications in all three of my eras(mainly encyclopedic in nature), and have presented at several conferences, including [names of conferences].

I must admit that location is a major factor in my decision, for family reasons - however, barring that, the [university] English department website list of publications and research interests seems to indicate that there are a lot of interesting and compelling overlaps between my interests and the work several faculty members (yourself included) are doing. Does this seem to be the case, in your opinion?

I look forward to any insight you might be able to provide in this matter.

Best,

(I will add that the above email to professors garnered a lot of interest from 3 persons of interest, one of whom wants to meet me in person at my convenience - so including your specific areas of interest in detailed fashion does lengthen the email, but ultimately can be very helpful, in my experience.)

hope this is helpful. I have in no cases found anyone to be annoyed or irritated at my contacting them - I think they'd rather you check and then apply knowing for certain it's what you want, especially at smaller departments. That's the impression I have been given, at any rate.

also - in terms of finding graduate students to write to - many departments list their graduate students on the website, but you can also find some names by reading department newsletters, looking at the page for the graduate student association, and checking out the adjunct/lecturer faculty listings as well. Honestly, the grad students were incredibly great about giving me really detailed and honest feedback about the departments.

[diehtc0ke]

I should add that my adviser also told me not to mention specific professors in my statement of purpose, and since I worshiped the ground he walked on, I did as he said. He claimed that professors found these mentions even more presumptuous than unsolicited emails. I'm not sure if this is true, and I'm curious what other successful applicants did with their SoPs, but my adviser's rationale seemed sound: THEY decide if they want to work with YOU.

I actually was told the exact opposite--if I couldn't mention at least three professors in my SOP that I wanted to work with, I probably shouldn't bother sending in the application. I actually did recognize a sense of unwarranted boldness in my first couple of drafts in which I structured these fit paragraphs by saying something along the lines of "If accepted to University X, I would want to work with Professor Y, Z and Goldfish." In the final draft, however, I used that paragraph just to show that I was already familiar with the work of faculty members at these schools (whether this was true or not was another story) and that I would be excited if the opportunity to work with them arose. So I would throw in a few sentences like: "I am already indebted to and hope to work with Professor Goldfish, whose publications have been paramount in my own coming to terms with yadda yadda yadda." Yadda yadda yadda was a very brief sketch of the work that Professor Goldfish has done that I've found pertinent to the research that I was outlining in the rest of the statement. This (an actual quote from my SOP) is probably the most overwrought of these kinds of sentences by far because it was for a professor that I did actually admire and was the person who had initially gotten me interested in my subfield. Others were much less overly enthusiastic in tone.

[foppery]

I actually was told the exact opposite--if I couldn't mention at least three professors in my SOP that I wanted to work with, I probably shouldn't bother sending in the application. I actually did recognize a sense of unwarranted boldness in my first couple of drafts in which I structured these fit paragraphs by saying something along the lines of "If accepted to University X, I would want to work with Professor Y, Z and Goldfish." In the final draft, however, I used that paragraph just to show that I was already familiar with the work of faculty members at these schools (whether this was true or not was another story) and that I would be excited if the opportunity to work with them arose. So I would throw in a few sentences like: "I am already indebted to and hope to work with Professor Goldfish, whose publications have been paramount in my own coming to terms with yadda yadda yadda." Yadda yadda yadda was a very brief sketch of the work that Professor Goldfish has done that I've found pertinent to the research that I was outlining in the rest of the statement. This (an actual quote from my SOP) is probably the most overwrought of these kinds of sentences by far because it was for a professor that I did actually admire and was the person who had initially gotten me interested in my subfield. Others were much less overly enthusiastic in tone.

That's really interesting, and thanks for the information; I'd hate to be handing out false advice. (I should also mention that my adviser did his PhD in the '70s, so his information is bound to be a little out of date.)

My only experience with mentioning a professor ended badly, due to my own incompetence. A few paragraphs of my writing sample focused on challenging the arguments of Professor X--who, I realized minutes before sending off my application to Program Y, would likely be my adviser there. I did my best to tone down the attack, but since my essay wouldn't make much sense without it, I was forced to leave most of it in. I was actually accepted to Y, but I should have known from X's book that he wouldn't be the best person to work with. Oh, well.

[tourist]

To Medievalmaniac, I think those emails are fairly long. Although I'm in a different discipline from Literature, I think you have to keep them somewhat shorter. Judging by the replies you said you'd received, I guess it varies somewhat by discipline. I kept mine to no more than 10 or so lines, and out of about 25 emails that I sent out I believe only a handful of the responses were longer than 5 lines. My main worry was not to bore them or scare them with the length of info, so if I were just starting out, I'd try to write a few short and sweet emails and see how that works, and then you can work from there. I, too, was unsure of what to write, but if you can think of a template that you can tailor for each school, then you'll be fine. Also, don't gauge your chances by favorable responses either. For me, at least, that wasn't the case.

[Pamphilia]

I certainly agree with those who have advised the OP to be cautious about sending these emails. Here are some general guidelines that I used (and some that I learned too late!):

1. Do not go fishing for an ally or to try to seduce a faculty member into loving you. Email to find out more about the program and if you should apply. If these inquiries result in you finding an ally who will push for you in the adcomm (as I was fortunate to find at a couple of programs), that's great. But no one, profs included, wants to be used for his/her position or contacts.

2. To continue with the first point, email early enough that it is clear you are deciding whether to apply. If you email on Dec. 31 after you've already turned in your application, it will seem as if you are just emailing to try and network, which can really turn people off. That said, I still wouldn't contact profs THIS early (as in, April)--it's very difficult to keep a dialogue going for almost a year, and though you should only email to learn more about the program and the scholarship going on there, it's also nice to be memorable (in a positive way, of course). I think it'd be very easy to forget someone who emailed now. I would say perhaps email in August/September/October, once you've whittled down your list of programs to a manageable number and are making final decisions on where to apply (that is, if you're anything like me and started with a list of 50+ schools, shaved it down to about 20 "semi-finalists" by August, and decided for sure on my final cut in September after emailing).

3. Ask really specific questions, and ones that cannot be answered with general research or by looking at the department website.

4. Look up the work of ANYONE you contact, even if that person is not in your field and you are only contacting her because she's the DGS or something. Always arm yourself with at least some knowledge about the work of people you contact, no matter what.

5. As has been pointed out, ask your mentors if you can drop their names. Then, do it gracefully.

6. Try to keep things succinct. It can be a HUGE challenge, I know, but do your best to keep it short, sweet, and relevant.

7. Know that no matter what, you'll probably still piss a few people off. Some people just get annoyed. Be aware of this going in, and weigh very carefully whether you really want to risk it.

Edited for typos and to clarify some points.

Edited April 20, 2010 by Pamphilia

[foppery]

To Medievalmaniac, I think those emails are fairly long. Although I'm in a different discipline from Literature, I think you have to keep them somewhat shorter. Judging by the replies you said you'd received, I guess it varies somewhat by discipline. I kept mine to no more than 10 or so lines, and out of about 25 emails that I sent out I believe only a handful of the responses were longer than 5 lines. My main worry was not to bore them or scare them with the length of info, so if I were just starting out, I'd try to write a few short and sweet emails and see how that works, and then you can work from there. I, too, was unsure of what to write, but if you can think of a template that you can tailor for each school, then you'll be fine. Also, don't gauge your chances by favorable responses either. For me, at least, that wasn't the case.

I have to agree. MM, you ask a total of 20 questions in your first email, and your second is overwhelming. In fact, the second sounds more like a statement of purpose than a friendly, casual email to a potential professor. The myriad details about your educational history, Jungian psychological interests, current job, and love for Dave Eggers belong in a CV or SoP, not in an email. You could cut the email down to one-fifth its size and still ask all the questions you need to ask. As for the first emails, it seems risky to ask current grad students their opinions of professors. Grad students gossip, as do faculty, and your probing questions might harm you in the long run.

One more piece of advice, at the risk of sounding bitchy: Please, never use "lol" in an email to a professor.

[Medievalmaniac]

I have to agree. MM, you ask a total of 20 questions in your first email, and your second is overwhelming. In fact, the second sounds more like a statement of purpose than a friendly, casual email to a potential professor. The myriad details about your educational history, Jungian psychological interests, current job, and love for Dave Eggers belong in a CV or SoP, not in an email. You could cut the email down to one-fifth its size and still ask all the questions you need to ask. As for the first emails, it seems risky to ask current grad students their opinions of professors. Grad students gossip, as do faculty, and your probing questions might harm you in the long run.

One more piece of advice, at the risk of sounding bitchy: Please, never use "lol" in an email to a professor.

Well, as I said, the emails worked for me. I was specific in my questions to grad students and in my inquiry to professors because I wanted to make sure that the programs to which I apply are a good fit, especially after last season. By current grad students, I was complimented on being thorough in terms of my questions, and told that it was a great idea to ask them. By current professors, I was complimented on being so detailed and specific and told it was a good idea because it made it easier for them to see what I was looking for. At one program, the DEGS wrote back asking me to come visit at my earliest discretion, and other professors suggested I come visit other departments as well - so I guess the length of my email did not put off those folks - and frankly, if it did, then I would probably not be happy at that department. I want them to be enthused at my enthusiasm, if that makes sense to you. So far, I've gotten back an effort in responses that corresponds to the effort I put into my emails, and I see that as a very positive sign - it hasn't been a generic "I like Arthurian studies" "OK, go ahead and apply" kind of interface, but much more thoughtful and interactive, and I think that's because of the detail and time that went into my queries. So - I'm happy with them.

Ultimately, obviously, it's an individual thing and I just posted these as an example of emails you "could" send to a potential department, for people who hadn't thought of it or didn't know what sorts of things to ask/put in such an email. I certainly think there are multiple ways to go about it or not to go about it - in my case, I was thorough and detailed, and it worked for me; in your case maybe you don't want to go into such detail or you feel they're too long- and that's totally fine, everyone has different ideas about all aspects of this process.

and no, that's not a bitchy thing to say;). I just didn't want that line to sound as pompous or dismissive as it might, which is why I inserted it. So far, hasn't seemed to bother anyone...nobody emailed back and said, "I liked your query, except the "lol" bit." From my experience at conferences and in two graduate programs, I think grad school students or applicants occasionally forget that the professors are people, too and that often, they have a sense of humor equal to or stronger than our own. The occasional lighter moment is not going to mean immediate rejection or antipathy; certainly not in an initial query email. I certainly wouldn't write it on my SOP when it comes to application season, though!!

In the end, I think this is just a personal choice to make. My posting of the emails I sent was meant solely as one possible approach - maybe not the best, maybe even not great. I just put it there as an example of what worked for me.

[diehtc0ke]

Well, as I said, the emails worked for me. I was specific in my questions to grad students and in my inquiry to professors because I wanted to make sure that the programs to which I apply are a good fit, especially after last season. By current grad students, I was complimented on being thorough in terms of my questions, and told that it was a great idea to ask them. By current professors, I was complimented on being so detailed and specific and told it was a good idea because it made it easier for them to see what I was looking for. At one program, the DEGS wrote back asking me to come visit at my earliest discretion, and other professors suggested I come visit other departments as well - so I guess the length of my email did not put off those folks - and frankly, if it did, then I would probably not be happy at that department. I want them to be enthused at my enthusiasm, if that makes sense to you. So far, I've gotten back an effort in responses that corresponds to the effort I put into my emails, and I see that as a very positive sign - it hasn't been a generic "I like Arthurian studies" "OK, go ahead and apply" kind of interface, but much more thoughtful and interactive, and I think that's because of the detail and time that went into my queries. So - I'm happy with them.

Ultimately, obviously, it's an individual thing and I just posted these as an example of emails you "could" send to a potential department, for people who hadn't thought of it or didn't know what sorts of things to ask/put in such an email. I certainly think there are multiple ways to go about it or not to go about it - in my case, I was thorough and detailed, and it worked for me; in your case maybe you don't want to go into such detail or you feel they're too long- and that's totally fine, everyone has different ideas about all aspects of this process.

and no, that's not a bitchy thing to say;). I just didn't want that line to sound as pompous or dismissive as it might, which is why I inserted it. So far, hasn't seemed to bother anyone...nobody emailed back and said, "I liked your query, except the "lol" bit." From my experience at conferences and in two graduate programs, I think grad school students or applicants occasionally forget that the professors are people, too and that often, they have a sense of humor equal to or stronger than our own. The occasional lighter moment is not going to mean immediate rejection or antipathy; certainly not in an initial query email. I certainly wouldn't write it on my SOP when it comes to application season, though!!

In the end, I think this is just a personal choice to make. My posting of the emails I sent was meant solely as one possible approach - maybe not the best, maybe even not great. I just put it there as an example of what worked for me.

I think the principal reason why your inquiries worked so well for you is that you, unlike most graduate school applicants, know what you want to go into and what kind of environment you're looking for. These aren't correct/incorrect approaches; they're approaches that may or may not work for particular applicants. I know my letters would have been, at best, rambling piles of nonsense if I had written them on April 20th, 2009. Not only that, at that point I thought I wanted to go into a field that's fairly different from the one I want to go into now. I have to agree with Pamphilia in that if the OP feels compelled to write a letter to potential professors/advisers/graduate students, it would be best to wait until after the summer, which I imagine will be a growth period academically. If, on the other hand, an applicant is like you or Branwen who has that kind of confidence in his/her work and his/her future academic trajectory, by all means. Do you.

[foppery]

Well, as I said, the emails worked for me. I was specific in my questions to grad students and in my inquiry to professors because I wanted to make sure that the programs to which I apply are a good fit, especially after last season. By current grad students, I was complimented on being thorough in terms of my questions, and told that it was a great idea to ask them. By current professors, I was complimented on being so detailed and specific and told it was a good idea because it made it easier for them to see what I was looking for. At one program, the DEGS wrote back asking me to come visit at my earliest discretion, and other professors suggested I come visit other departments as well - so I guess the length of my email did not put off those folks - and frankly, if it did, then I would probably not be happy at that department. I want them to be enthused at my enthusiasm, if that makes sense to you. So far, I've gotten back an effort in responses that corresponds to the effort I put into my emails, and I see that as a very positive sign - it hasn't been a generic "I like Arthurian studies" "OK, go ahead and apply" kind of interface, but much more thoughtful and interactive, and I think that's because of the detail and time that went into my queries. So - I'm happy with them.

Ultimately, obviously, it's an individual thing and I just posted these as an example of emails you "could" send to a potential department, for people who hadn't thought of it or didn't know what sorts of things to ask/put in such an email. I certainly think there are multiple ways to go about it or not to go about it - in my case, I was thorough and detailed, and it worked for me; in your case maybe you don't want to go into such detail or you feel they're too long- and that's totally fine, everyone has different ideas about all aspects of this process.

and no, that's not a bitchy thing to say;). I just didn't want that line to sound as pompous or dismissive as it might, which is why I inserted it. So far, hasn't seemed to bother anyone...nobody emailed back and said, "I liked your query, except the "lol" bit." From my experience at conferences and in two graduate programs, I think grad school students or applicants occasionally forget that the professors are people, too and that often, they have a sense of humor equal to or stronger than our own. The occasional lighter moment is not going to mean immediate rejection or antipathy; certainly not in an initial query email. I certainly wouldn't write it on my SOP when it comes to application season, though!!

In the end, I think this is just a personal choice to make. My posting of the emails I sent was meant solely as one possible approach - maybe not the best, maybe even not great. I just put it there as an example of what worked for me.

Fair enough, and if you got good responses, more power to you! I DO wish I'd known more about at least one of the programs I applied to before I paid the $100...

[greekdaph]

I, too, have heard both positive and negative stories about contacting professors before applying and about mentioning professors in your SOP. It's the latter I'll address here (for the record: I named professors in my SOP but didn't contact any during the process).

My feeling--and granted, this is entirely subjective, but I found it useful during the application process--is that the SOP matters far less as a promise of what you'll study and whom you'll work with and far more as a demonstration that:

--you are applying because you have a set of specific interests you want to pursue, not just because you have always loved literature and can't imagine having any other career besides being a professor

--you have begun to draw from those interests a set of questions, and you can sketch out, in a very preliminary way, what work you would do to further explore those questions and what contribution that work will make (and here, again, no one expects applicants entering with a BA to get to grad school and do exactly what they said they would in their SOPs--schools want your coursework to help you take your work in new and interesting directions. While articulating your interests faithfully is helpful to adcomms in determining fit and helpful to your efforts to end up at the place that would best support your work, I think what matters most is showing that you can (begin to) think like a grad student.)

--you know how to (begin to) fit your work into existing scholarship in the field.

It's that last part that naming professors in your SOP can help you address. here's a template for what that paragraph looked like in my SOPs:

Professor's So-and-So's work on Field is directly in line with the research I have proposed, as is Professor Other Person's work on Blahblah. Though Professor Whosywhatsit's work does not concern the same era as my own, his work on the intersection of Thing and Other Thing will be helpful to me as I think through Interest I Mentioned Above.

By framing it this way this way, the paragraph became less about specific people and more about putting my interests in conversation with the work already out there. For what it's worth, at the programs where i was admitted, the DGSs seemed to have their own ideas of whose work would be a good fit for me--they suggested people I hadn't thought to name, and they implicitly called me on my bluff when I included people whose work I probably wouldn't actually end up engaging with. That's why I think the paragraph is more important as an exercise than it is as an indication of your real, true fit.

I should add that my adviser also told me not to mention specific professors in my statement of purpose, and since I worshiped the ground he walked on, I did as he said. He claimed that professors found these mentions even more presumptuous than unsolicited emails. I'm not sure if this is true, and I'm curious what other successful applicants did with their SoPs, but my adviser's rationale seemed sound: THEY decide if they want to work with YOU.

Edited April 21, 2010 by greekdaph

[soxpuppet]

I should add that my adviser also told me not to mention specific professors in my statement of purpose, and since I worshiped the ground he walked on, I did as he said. He claimed that professors found these mentions even more presumptuous than unsolicited emails. I'm not sure if this is true, and I'm curious what other successful applicants did with their SoPs, but my adviser's rationale seemed sound: THEY decide if they want to work with YOU.

I had a professor tell me something very similar, and my friend, another of her advisees, was very, very successful last year using this method. Personally, I did a mix. I mentioned faculty in some SoPs and not others - and there was no real pattern in my acceptances and rejections that would confirm which method is superior. I was accepted (&rejected) at schools where I mentioned faculty, and accepted (&rejected) at schools where I didn't. I ultimately did not mention faculty at the school I chose to attend, partly because there were so many things to talk about in terms of fit I couldn't decide what to put. There were about 6 faculty members I wanted to work with. Anyway, my application showed how my work resonated with theirs in more subtle ways - I quoted one professor in my writing sample, etc.

I also didn't email anyone beforehand and I'd echo the people who advised using caution in doing so. If you need to ask if it's a good idea, my guess would be that it isn't. If you come to a place in your research on a school where you really can't move further toward getting a sense of your fit from the website and professors' writing alone and you know precisely what you'd need to hear from them to confirm that they'd be a good school to have on your list (or not), the decision to contact the department should be a fairly obvious one.

[hopefulwoolfian]

I just wanted to thank everyone for the incredibly helpful responses. I feel like I'm kind of shooting in the dark on this one after such a bad season, so this discussion is really helping me think about how to start formulating a strategy, which I definitely need to do BEFORE e-mailing anyone.

[Riotbeard]

<br />I just wanted to thank everyone for the incredibly helpful responses. I feel like I'm kind of shooting in the dark on this one after such a bad season, so this discussion is really helping me think about how to start formulating a strategy, which I definitely need to do BEFORE e-mailing anyone.<br />

<br /><br /><br />

I totally struck out last year, but dusted myself off, made my apps much better this year, and am starting in the fall. You can do it too!

[foppery]

as a current grad student, i can say 100% i would a) not have time to read that huge email not have time to reply to that huge email and c) would likely come away with a negative opinion of the e-mailer ("does (s)he REALLY think i have time to answer all these questions?!"). i also agree that the professor email template is way too SoPish and not likely to lead to dialogue with a prof.

so, that's good that you've been successful so far, but i can't say i'd recommend others do the same...if you want to contact grad students or profs, make it short and appropriate. i'm much more likely to respond to 2 or 3 broad questions than things like "However, I want to make sure that this coursework is going to challenge me above and beyond what I have already done" that makes me think you are, well, very full of yourself.

and this is not intended to insult you directly... just giving another perspective on things.

Yeah, let me be more honest than I was before:

I'm a current grad student, too, and I'd find the email an imposition. I'd respond as thoroughly as I could, out of common courtesy, but the sheer volume of questions would overwhelm me. If MM were to read my response, she'd think the email was successful (and, if it answered her questions, I suppose it would be). But it would do her no favors with the department. I can even imagine the dialogue that might ensue between a grad student and her adviser:

GRAD STUDENT. A prospective applicant wrote to me last night. She asked me exactly 20 questions--I counted. She even asked me whether I thought you were a good professor! It was like she wanted me to go behind your back and reveal all the dirty secrets of the department. And she seemed to assume that the coursework here wouldn't be challenging. I was a little insulted.

ADVISER. Wait, who was this person? Was it __? Because she sent *me* an email that read like a statement of purpose. She listed all her interests, all her hobbies, and all her teaching experience. It was like she was trying to apply before the application season began. Essentially, she seemed to be asking me whether I thought her interests would fit in well here, but she took 700 words to do it. I was up all night answering her.

See what I mean? MM, I'll be frank: those emails will give you the reputation of "THAT student" long before the committees meet. Departments are gossipy (what else do academics have to do?), and word gets around. There is no foolproof way to get all the information you want before you're accepted. Those long, detailed emails can wait until you have acceptance in hand: that's when they'll be totally appropriate. At this stage, though, they'll only alienate you from potential professors and colleagues.

[foppery]

you articulated this, or rather the possible consequences of these emails, much clearer than i did. i do think that prospective applicants need to realize how "gossipy" departments are and they can easily earn a reputation (either good or bad) long before they are ever considered for admission.

i will say this too (although slightly off topic): meeting other graduate students and younger faculty at conferences has been an excellent experience in terms of having fairly frank discussions about programs (and, sometimes, what type of graduate students they breed). i have met several ph.d students who attend a program on the east coast that is highly ranked and all of those students were...not very nice. one of them came into our panel after we had finished speaking and were on the Q&A portion, and then proceeded to ask us to resummarize our papers for her. after the q&a was over, she walked up to a panelist and said "just so you know, i disagree with your whole premise and you're wrong because i came to the exact opposite conclusion" and turned to another panelist before the first one could even process what she had said. i'm all for disagreement, but girl, there needs to be a conversation, not an insult. this, on top of the sour experiences i had at lunch with other students from this school, have made me pull the school from my app list. i do not want to spend 5-6 years with those types of people. and maybe it's a fluke... but with it only being a decent fit, not great or perfect, i'm willing to take the risk.

Sad to say, I think there are people like that in every graduate program. Intellectual douchery knows no bounds or borders.

[strokeofmidnight]

as a current grad student, i can say 100% i would a) not have time to read that huge email not have time to reply to that huge email and c) would likely come away with a negative opinion of the e-mailer ("does (s)he REALLY think i have time to answer all these questions?!"). i also agree that the professor email template is way too SoPish and not likely to lead to dialogue with a prof.

so, that's good that you've been successful so far, but i can't say i'd recommend others do the same...if you want to contact grad students or profs, make it short and appropriate. i'm much more likely to respond to 2 or 3 broad questions than things like "However, I want to make sure that this coursework is going to challenge me above and beyond what I have already done" that makes me think you are, well, very full of yourself.

and this is not intended to insult you directly... just giving another perspective on things.

Yeah, let me be more honest than I was before:

I'm a current grad student, too, and I'd find the email an imposition. I'd respond as thoroughly as I could, out of common courtesy, but the sheer volume of questions would overwhelm me. If MM were to read my response, she'd think the email was successful (and, if it answered her questions, I suppose it would be). But it would do her no favors with the department.

Seconding both answers vehemently. There's a lot to be said for getting help from current grad students. When I last applied, I had friends and colleagues at almost every program on my list. Their help was absolutely instrumental: they (knowing my work) suggested professors that I would never have thought of, helped me gauge the atmosphere of the program, edited my SoP and writing sample, introduced me to other graduate students, offered suggestions on other programs, etc, etc. I don't think I can ever pay off that intellectual debt and I feel absurdly lucky. But I knew them going into this process--and in many cases, had helped them in previous years when they were applying. I'm also guilty of favoritism myself: when I find applicants that I would have to have colleagues (either at my program or in academia more generally), I go out of my way to offer feedback on their work, their potential programs, create connections (etc). But--and here's the catch--I need to have a strong and favorable impression of someone (both as a potential friend and future colleague) already before I'm willing to go to such length. It's virtually impossible to create that sort of impression "cold-calling" through an email. In short, the power dynamics and the explicit favor-asking framework doesn't facilitate forming the sort of relationship that would motivate me (and I'd suspect, most grad students) to stick my neck out for you. Like foppery, if I'm not *too* busy, I will answer out of civility and give reasonably honest responses, but I'd be doing it largely out of a sense of obligation, rather than to insure that your application is as strong as it can be and that you're fully well informed. These emails, frankly, also take forever to write.

Inafuturelife is also completely right on how "gossipy" graduate students (and faculty) are. Even if you aim your email carefully, only at the students working in your field...chances are, they're friends with each other (or at least speak to each other) and this will come up. I've seen it happen again and again, and the result is almost never positive. Of course we'll be civil (or simply not answer)...that isn't necessarily an indication that the email was successful.

Connections matter in far more subtle ways than simply influencing admissions decisions--and this is part of why I emphasize that if a professor tells you to email someone and use their name, definitely do it. Whenever a friend or colleague (and certainly, a professor) sends "someone my way," I will always take the time to see that the student's concerns are addressed. I suspect that professors adopt a similar approach (though probably with a more complicated hierarchy). But unless you have some sort of an "in"...or a genuine, compelling question that can evade this "just tryin' to get my foot in the door" framework and catch the attention of the professor in question, I wouldn't recommend cold-emailing anyone. Professors are far too busy (and from my experience, usually annoyed even if they're too polite to let you know this) to look on an unsolicited email favorably. We grad students often feel the same way.