How Soon to Contact Potential Professors

[Medievalmaniac]

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.

I guess everyone is just different. If someone sent me an email asking me specific things about my department, I'd be glad to answer as honestly as I could because a.) I'd want the same courtesy extended to me and b.) I'd want that person to have as accurate a picture as possible of whatever s/he wanted to know about, because I take academia and university seriously, and I work hard to check things out at any given program prior to applying, including asking as many people as I can about it, and such an email from someone else would indicate to me that s/he was doing his or her homework and taking it seriously, too.

For me, it's important to get as much information as I can, from as many sources as I can obtain it from. I'm an older candidate, and I already have an MA. I need to feel very certain that a PhD program is going to work for me, especially after last year's disastrous results, and I'm really serious about my work and going somewhere where I can get it done. I'm sure there are people in any given department who are going to see it as brown-nosing, or as being an imposition, or as a waste of time, or whatever -but I can't help that. I have to do what I can do to research programs and try to find the right fit, and I feel like the best source of information is going to be the current students and the professors.

As I said, if I got an email like that, I would be delighted to respond as best I could, and I would think that candidate was really focused and really motivated to research programs thoroughly. But I think that way. I'm not prone to thinking the worst of people. I'm sure there are folks who will probably think "Oh, she's just trying to get in good with us" - but in my opinion, that's an unfair, snap judgment, and a personal response that indicates a lot of cynicism and shortsightedness - and frankly, if that were the response from the majority of people in a department, then why would I want to go to that school and study with them? I'm looking for a place where people can agree, disagree, shout, throw things, maybe even burn a few things in effigy - but at the end of the day, go out and have a beer together and be supportive. As others have noted, not every department is like that. If people were negative and snarky about a query email sent to the department, or felt it was too much of an imposition, then that would be a red flag for me in terms of how the department and the individuals within it function as a group.

Anyhow, I'm just rambling now. The original point of my first post was to give the other peson an idea of what I had done because s/he asked for opinions on the matter. I gave mine. It doesn't sit well with some other folks here, and that's OK - we don't all have to agree (wouldn't it be so boring if we all did agree on everything? No point to grad school, then!)

Edited May 6, 2010 by Medievalmaniac

[strokeofmidnight]

I guess everyone is just different. If someone sent me an email asking me specific things about my department, I'd be glad to answer as honestly as I could because a.) I'd want the same courtesy extended to me and b.) I'd want that person to have as accurate a picture as possible of whatever s/he wanted to know about, because I take academia and university seriously, and I work hard to check things out at any given program prior to applying, including asking as many people as I can about it, and such an email from someone else would indicate to me that s/he was doing his or her homework and taking it seriously, too.

For me, it's important to get as much information as I can, from as many sources as I can obtain it from. I'm an older candidate, and I already have an MA. I need to feel very certain that a PhD program is going to work for me, especially after last year's disastrous results, and I'm really serious about my work and going somewhere where I can get it done. I'm sure there are people in any given department who are going to see it as brown-nosing, or as being an imposition, or as a waste of time, or whatever -but I can't help that. I have to do what I can do to research programs and try to find the right fit, and I feel like the best source of information is going to be the current students and the professors.

As I said, if I got an email like that, I would be delighted to respond as best I could, and I would think that candidate was really focused and really motivated to research programs thoroughly. But I think that way. I'm not prone to thinking the worst of people. I'm sure there are folks who will probably think "Oh, she's just trying to get in good with us" - but in my opinion, that's an unfair, snap judgment, and a personal response that indicates a lot of cynicism and shortsightedness - and frankly, if that were the response from the majority of people in a department, then why would I want to go to that school and study with them? I'm looking for a place where people can agree, disagree, shout, throw things, maybe even burn a few things in effigy - but at the end of the day, go out and have a beer together and be supportive. As others have noted, not every department is like that. If people were negative and snarky about a query email sent to the department, or felt it was too much of an imposition, then that would be a red flag for me in terms of how the department and the individuals within it function as a group.

Anyhow, I'm just rambling now. The original point of my first post was to give the other peson an idea of what I had done because s/he asked for opinions on the matter. I gave mine. It doesn't sit well with some other folks here, and that's OK - we don't all have to agree (wouldn't it be so boring if we all did agree on everything? No point to grad school, then!)

I'm not sure how else to put it, other than that things look very different from this perspective.

1. You seem to assume what I think is a false dichotomy between people who are willing to help and people who are not. It's not nearly that simple--as my previous response (unsuccessfully, apparently) tried to indicate. Most graduate students ARE willing to help, but are discerning about who they help, under what circumstances and framework. Personally, I would never speak badly of a professor, adviser, or my program via email to what is essentially a stranger. It's a political risk (even if you reassure them that you'd never share, word does get out quickly). I'd be willing to take it to help a prospective student (aka, with an offer in hand) make decisions (through the phone or in person), but not for someone who--quite frankly--might be among the 90-99% of applicants who won't be accepted into my program to begin with. Being careful who you badmouth your program/professors/peers to isn't overly pessimestic...it's common sense. As as long as you make requests in a format where the respondent isn't inclined to give full disclosure, it's hard to access how honest the answers really are (which isn't to say that they can't be useful).

2. I don't think it's a snap judgment to respond negatively (or not at all) to an email that is practically a SoP, or bears uncomfortable resemblance to an interrogation. What its very length says is that its writer deems him or herself worthy of the recipient's time, effort, and attention. That's a somewhat dangerous assumption to make in academia, particularly if you're starting out. There's no need to kow-tow every time you meet a person, but one should be aware that academics are insanely busy, and taking two or three hours to respond is unusual courtesy, not a right. The negative characterization of those who would not respond to that email favorable (even if we'd do so courteously) seems to suggest that you think the graduate student or professor is somehow professionally obligated to do view that email favorably. That's the assumption that I'm trying to challenge, I suppose. As foppery stated, such an email (or any such--particularly long--email which asks for detailed feedback) is an imposition. At times it will be worth it for you to take that risk, but most of the time, it probably wouldn't...but in any case, it's probably to recognize that giving detailed, helpful, and truly enthusiastic responses to such long emails from pre-applicants is not in anyone's implicit or explicit job description...and because the request is so unusual (by the standards of academic courtesy), the failure to response positively probably shouldn't be viewed as a black mark against the department.

3. At the risk of being blunt and possibly bitchy, I think part of the implicit assumption that is so subtly dangerous here is that you're rhetorically positioning yourself in two contradictory stances. 1. You're asking for help in a manner that makes this a one-way street (since this is all about the grad student/professor can help YOU make decisions, or craft a better SoP for this field). That's what I meant by the strange and uncomfortable power dynamics. 2. At the same time, you're positioning yourself as a peer in putting forth your project and (implicitly) demanding several hours of their time. As I noted earlier, we don't know yet if you're a colleague. That juxtapositioning is very difficult to manage, I think. What I keep trying to say is that your email seems to frame as apart of the "family" (and yes, every program is its own little semi-dysfunctional family) when you're not, yet. This doesn't mean you're necessarily inferior (or superior, or whatnot), but it does mean that you may put people off when you expect to be given the same courtesy.

4. Honestly, researching programs isn't about quizzing the grad students and professors. It's about digging up potential professor's work, reading dissertations, book reviews...etc, etc...until you gain a sense of what projects they support. While there may be opportunities to ask grad students/profs before you're accepted, this isn't the most effective way to go about doing so.

[diehtc0ke]

4. Honestly, researching programs isn't about quizzing the grad students and professors. It's about digging up potential professor's work, reading dissertations, book reviews...etc, etc...until you gain a sense of what projects they support. While there may be opportunities to ask grad students/profs before you're accepted, this isn't the most effective way to go about doing so.

This, I think, is what primarily felt so disconcerting about the e-mails that were provided as models on the previous page. The level of intimacy in both their playfully interrogative tone and attention to seemingly minute detail felt unwarranted, especially at this stage of the game. Certainly, theoretical approaches and access to childcare are appropriate questions to ask but I think really only once those offers of admissions are actually in play. It's been made perfectly clear over the past few months that getting into an English PhD program (regardless of ranking) isn't a given for anyone and there's a level of presumption in those e-mails that almost says, "I know that I'll be getting into University X so just let me know about the day-to-day logistics about the department so I can figure out whether it's worth it to send in my application fee." Now, of course, this probably was not MM's intention but I think it would be fair to point out that it would be more than a minority of graduate students that would/could interpret these messages that way; we see this even just from the responses in this thread. Finding out which program to apply to should be much more about whether an applicant's future work meshes with that of people already there and much less about becoming closely engaged with how a program operates--that's an exercise that should be left to when the prospective applicant becomes the prospective graduate student. I will, however, add the caveat that of course this is not universal and I don't want to erase MM's success in receiving positive feedback for her e-mails from this discussion. Again, I just don't remain convinced that anyone should rely on receiving such responses if they go into such detail when writing to professors/grad students before they've been accepted.

I also want to say to MM that I don't think you should completely disregard a program if you receive a curt response or don't receive one at all, especially if you sent these e-mails out anytime in the past few months. I haven't even received responses from close friends who are in graduate programs right now just because it's always so very busy and such e-mails can easily get lost in the shuffle. This can't accurately reflect how "the department and the individuals within it function as a group" not only because you're only speaking with one graduate student and one professor (I assume) but because people simply might not realistically have the time to 20 questions that require more than yes/no answers. I know that if I ever were to receive such an e-mail, I wouldn't want to half-ass it and give a less than full reply so in the middle of the semester, I probably just wouldn't write back at all. It wouldn't be worth it to send a short reply saying that I'll get back to it when all the craziness is over because I'm liable to forget. Furthermore, I think that just about everyone in the program that I'll be entering in the fall is genuinely helpful, courteous and/or, at the very least, quite agreeable but I'm having a hard time picturing many of them taking the time out of their day to respond to e-mails that require such involvement.

[Medievalmaniac]

I'm not sure how else to put it, other than that things look very different from this perspective.

1. You seem to assume what I think is a false dichotomy between people who are willing to help and people who are not. It's not nearly that simple--as my previous response (unsuccessfully, apparently) tried to indicate. Most graduate students ARE willing to help, but are discerning about who they help, under what circumstances and framework. Personally, I would never speak badly of a professor, adviser, or my program via email to what is essentially a stranger. It's a political risk (even if you reassure them that you'd never share, word does get out quickly). I'd be willing to take it to help a prospective student (aka, with an offer in hand) make decisions (through the phone or in person), but not for someone who--quite frankly--might be among the 90-99% of applicants who won't be accepted into my program to begin with. Being careful who you badmouth your program/professors/peers to isn't overly pessimestic...it's common sense. As as long as you make requests in a format where the respondent isn't inclined to give full disclosure, it's hard to access how honest the answers really are (which isn't to say that they can't be useful).

2. I don't think it's a snap judgment to respond negatively (or not at all) to an email that is practically a SoP, or bears uncomfortable resemblance to an interrogation. What its very length says is that its writer deems him or herself worthy of the recipient's time, effort, and attention. That's a somewhat dangerous assumption to make in academia, particularly if you're starting out. There's no need to kow-tow every time you meet a person, but one should be aware that academics are insanely busy, and taking two or three hours to respond is unusual courtesy, not a right. The negative characterization of those who would not respond to that email favorable (even if we'd do so courteously) seems to suggest that you think the graduate student or professor is somehow professionally obligated to do view that email favorably. That's the assumption that I'm trying to challenge, I suppose. As foppery stated, such an email (or any such--particularly long--email which asks for detailed feedback) is an imposition. At times it will be worth it for you to take that risk, but most of the time, it probably wouldn't...but in any case, it's probably to recognize that giving detailed, helpful, and truly enthusiastic responses to such long emails from pre-applicants is not in anyone's implicit or explicit job description...and because the request is so unusual (by the standards of academic courtesy), the failure to response positively probably shouldn't be viewed as a black mark against the department.

3. At the risk of being blunt and possibly bitchy, I think part of the implicit assumption that is so subtly dangerous here is that you're rhetorically positioning yourself in two contradictory stances. 1. You're asking for help in a manner that makes this a one-way street (since this is all about the grad student/professor can help YOU make decisions, or craft a better SoP for this field). That's what I meant by the strange and uncomfortable power dynamics. 2. At the same time, you're positioning yourself as a peer in putting forth your project and (implicitly) demanding several hours of their time. As I noted earlier, we don't know yet if you're a colleague. That juxtapositioning is very difficult to manage, I think. What I keep trying to say is that your email seems to frame as apart of the "family" (and yes, every program is its own little semi-dysfunctional family) when you're not, yet. This doesn't mean you're necessarily inferior (or superior, or whatnot), but it does mean that you may put people off when you expect to be given the same courtesy.

4. Honestly, researching programs isn't about quizzing the grad students and professors. It's about digging up potential professor's work, reading dissertations, book reviews...etc, etc...until you gain a sense of what projects they support. While there may be opportunities to ask grad students/profs before you're accepted, this isn't the most effective way to go about doing so.

1. I would never expect anyone to badmouth a program or a professor (although you'd be surprised at how much candor some people will respond with if asked point-blank). I sent an email of questions. I didn't expect answers, I asked for them, and if someone chose not to respond, that would have been totally fine with me (in fact, many people didn't). I know how busy people are. I'm an academic myself, after all. I teach six classes a term, five terms a year. I've done a thesis. I've worked on articles and conference papers - I'm working on one right now. I do understand that my email was a long one, and in no way did I expect anyone to answer all of the questions - notice that I asked specifically for any information each person could or would share with me, I did not "demand" answers. These are the same questions we are counseled to ask in interviews, during open house weekends and campus visits, and over the phone when looking into programs, so I fail to see why sending them via email is so much worse or so much more a time-waster. Luckily, I received some very kind responses, had my questions forwarded to other people whose names/emails I didn't originally have, and the department in question appears to be as open and supportive an one as it initially seemed to be, as evidenced by their willingness to take the time to respond to me.

2. I sent a detailed email to the professors because I want them to see specifically what I am looking for. As I said, I know exactly what I need and want from a program, and I am looking for a professor to tell me, point-blank: "Yes, your work would fit here" or "no, based on what you have said you wouldn't do". Sending a general, vague email that says "I'm interested in medieval studies" is going to result in "oh, OK, you should apply". I sent this one to the professors of interest at one program and was inundated with responses that "no, we definitely do not do that here, try x,y,z uni instead", despite the fact that the faculty interests as listed on the website were very much aligned with my interests - the faculty had recently shifted, and they weren't working in these materials as much. I'm glad I did not waste their time or my money applying to a program that through initial research had seemed so perfect for me. I didn't send this email to every professor at a program, I sent it to the professors I would specifically be interested in working with. I was told this is a good way to go about doing this by my own professor, and in fact, the results were positive. So while you disagree with me, I respectfully continue to disagree with you. My email was in no way an SoP, which would be far more polished. It was a request for the professors' view as to whether or not, if I am a good candidate, my work would fit in with what they are doing. I see no problem with being specific and to the point on that. I know as a teacher myself I would rather someone take the time to tell me exactly what s/he needs and wants to know than that s/he expect me to read his or her mind. Many of the professors I sent that message to agreed with me.

3. My email was asking whether or not they felt I "could be" a good fit into the "family". I'm not a peer yet. I may never be a peer. But if my work would not be a good fit, I should know that before I apply and waste their time. I'm not asking them to tell me how to write an SoP or to tell me how to make decisions. I know how to write and how to make up my own mind about things. I'm asking them if they feel as though the department could support my work or not. That's a perfectly acceptable and important question to ask prior to embarking on a doctoral degree, which would be a major investment of time and money both for me and for them.

4. I have read the professors' work, looked over their CVs, and researched the department as a whole as much as possible through the usual venues available via internet websites - recent graduates' work, dissertation topics, department expectations, placement rates, and so forth. This was the time to get in touch with real folks in real time and see what I could hear "from the horse's mouth" as it were. I don't send these emails to every program, only to the one(s) I am seriously considering. I will also be visiting the campus at the beginning of next academic term, and will be following up on these emails at that point with a face-to-face conversation wherever possible, because as has already been stated in this thread, the in-person conversations are really important as well.

I understand your points, and I see where you are coming from. I can also see why your points might be valid ones, and that many people might agree with you on them. I just don't agree with you on them, myself. That is my prerogative.

It seems to me that, having apparently exhausted our helpfulness to the original poster, any further discussion concerning my particular situation would best be broached via personal messages, rather than in the open forum...at this point, your responses to me are appearing to be much more personal than collective, as it were, and I honestly don't have anything further to contribute - I stated my personal view of the matter, having been asked for my personal view on the matter. You disagree, apparently vehemently, with my view. That's totally fine - but it's not going to be of any help to the person who originated this asking for our viewpoints for you to continue to tell me what you think (or, don't think) of me, and it might end up making either you, me, or both of us look bitchy, foolish, or both. At any rate, strokeofmidnight, however strongly we disagree, at the end of the day, I would still buy you a beer and listen to your newest research project.

Edited May 6, 2010 by Medievalmaniac

[intextrovert]

...I understand your points, and I see where you are coming from. I can also see why your points might be valid ones, and that many people might agree with you on them. I just don't agree with you on them, myself. That is my prerogative.

It seems to me that, having apparently exhausted our helpfulness to the original poster, any further discussion concerning my particular situation would best be broached via personal messages, rather than in the open forum...at this point, your responses to me are appearing to be much more personal than collective, as it were, and I honestly don't have anything further to contribute - I stated my personal view of the matter, having been asked for my personal view on the matter. You disagree, apparently vehemently, with my view. That's totally fine - but it's not going to be of any help to the person who originated this asking for our viewpoints for you to continue to tell me what you think (or, don't think) of me, and it might end up making either you, me, or both of us look bitchy, foolish, or both. At any rate, strokeofmidnight, however strongly we disagree, at the end of the day, I would still buy you a beer and listen to your newest research project.

I do want to just add one thing that I do think is more broadly applicable than just to you, MM (and for the record, I really don't think the above posters intended to attack you, but just intended to make it clear to other applicants who might be considering taking your advice/example that they, as people who would literally be on the receiving end of those emails, think that it would be a bad idea). In some ways, I totally sympathize with you and the impulse to establish contact with profs and students at programs you'd like to apply to. But, like the above posters, that email made me cringe a bit as well, and here's why:

After my first unsuccessful application season, after taking a year off from the whole thing to recover, I wanted to do everything differently the second time around, and was convinced that one thing I needed to do was more networking (that idea was probably influenced by my time in an NYC publishing house). I LOATHE networking at every level - hence one of the reasons I left the corporate world - but I felt like my problem had been that I was just utterly gauche about the inside world of academia, and felt that I needed to somehow establish "productive contact" with people on the inside of these programs. Yes, it was to find out if I would really be a good fit there, but really, a big motivation was also to begin getting initiated into that world, or to prove I was or could be part of it.

But the ironic thing is that sending a long, detailed email is itself one of those things that conveys that you're not a part of it and makes you run the risk of looking a little clueless. We may certainly be doing some of the things that academics do, like teaching and going to conferences and writing articles, etc., but we're not quite in the world at that level yet and may have to accept some degree of humility about how much we know, or can possibly know. I couldn't see it at the time, but now that I've gotten at least a little bit more direct experience with the way things work in PhD programs, it's so obvious to me why the giant emails I was tempted to send would have been a politically terrible move. If a bunch of current grad students are saying (candidly, I think, and not bitchily) that an email like that would be the sort of thing that is fodder for the proverbial departmental water cooler, then it probably has some merit.

In the end, I was too chicken to send any emails to most programs and ended up just doing it for two. But I'm now grateful that I was what I though of at the time as "chicken": it was really my intuition telling me not to do something that was forced (again, HATE networking), and would feel forced to everyone involved. I sent a short email (200 words - you really ought to be able to reduce your interests down to that) with just a few (2?) broad questions to a prof I had heard was generally receptive, and after an enthusiastic response, and a few phone calls and further conversations, did establish that productive contact. That's the program I'll be attending, but only after a long season of sweating it out on the waitlist. I want to emphasize that I highly, highly doubt that any of the conversations I had with them (aside from the core content of what they'd been saying all along, which was that my work was a great fit) had anything to do with my getting in, which could have easily not happened - I got in on April 15. The other email I sent to the other program, very similar, resulted in a short but polite reply, and I got rejected. All the programs I got solid acceptances from? No contact.

Eventually, I did send longer emails, but only after I was accepted at programs. Even at the places I was waitlisted, I was hesitant to send detailed emails, and the one longish email (500 words) I did send went unanswered until I got in. Much of academia is about implicit, subtle hierarchies, and you really have to be careful about respecting them at every level.

So, my non-personal, general take-home message is that despite how nerve-wracking it is, there's really not much you can do other than write great SoPs and samples. Trying to appear/make yourself a part of that world will likely backfire by making you look presumptuous, thus making it all the more obvious that you're not part of it (which, really, is the reason you're talking to them about their programs in the first place!). And also, that trying to know SO much about a program doesn't make sense at this stage: you should just go with the CV/article/website research you've been doing, and once you get some acceptances, the nuances become more important. Really, the only way to get any accurate sense of the nuances of a program at all is by visiting, and the fullest experience of that comes after your acceptances have narrowed down the pool for you. In forming that pool, you just have to go with those "objective" criteria - it's not fair to ask profs and students for that level of nuance so soon. It will come later, when you're in. There really aren't shortcuts.

I wish you luck!

Edited May 7, 2010 by intextrovert

[Riotbeard]

God I love the Grad Cafe. I find it very entertaining, and I love how everybody (including myself) pretentiously tell someone there being pretentious. For what its worth, I network best with a beer in my hand, I am just not good in the office/professional world, so I avoided contacting people this year, and it worked out better for me, but I think everybody's approach is and should be different.

[foppery]

God I love the Grad Cafe. I find it very entertaining, and I love how everybody (including myself) pretentiously tell someone there being pretentious. For what its worth, I network best with a beer in my hand, I am just not good in the office/professional world, so I avoided contacting people this year, and it worked out better for me, but I think everybody's approach is and should be different.

Sorry, but I don't think anyone told MM she was being pretentious, and I don't think we were pretentious in our criticisms, either.

[diehtc0ke]

God I love the Grad Cafe. I find it very entertaining, and I love how everybody (including myself) pretentiously tell someone there being pretentious. For what its worth, I network best with a beer in my hand, I am just not good in the office/professional world, so I avoided contacting people this year, and it worked out better for me, but I think everybody's approach is and should be different.

*they're. *it's. Don't get me started on the comma splices.

Now I'm being pretentious.

[foppery]

*they're. *it's. Don't get me started on the comma splices.

Now I'm being pretentious.

Yeah, that too...

[curvature]

I recently contacted my top 3 professors by email and it went well. One of them replied back enthusiastically and I'm going to UC Davis in a few days to check out his lab. The other one gave me what felt like a canned response along the lines of, "Hi curvature, that's great that you're interested in our work. I encourage you to apply." The last professor didn't email me back.

Contacting professors over email can work. For what it's worth I generally followed guidelines you can find online:

http://www.cs.virgin...rospective.html

http://www.ece.ucdav...s/applying.html

Also I tried to give value throughout my whole email and tried not to take value. For example, I briefly mentioned some interesting open problems in our sub-field and some possible ways to tackle these problems because it gives value: who doesn't want ideas for future research directions? I also mentioned that my paper got accepted to a venue that the professor publishes in as well because it gives value: I'm making the professor aware of a good student- that they wouldn't necessarily have known about otherwise- that has what it takes to further their (our) research agenda.

Nothing in my emails explicitly required a response. I didn't ask 100 questions because I feel like that would be taking value; I'd be requiring them to respond to 100 questions which takes significantly more effort than reading my email.

Instead, the general tone of my email was "Hi. I'd like to quickly make you aware of me because I'm a good student and it would be a win-win for me to do my PhD in your lab. Now that you have my email address, you can get in touch (or not) at your convenience." I didn't actually say any of that, but that was the tone. I hope this helps the OP and hopefully other people too

Edited May 21, 2010 by curvature

[strokeofmidnight]

From what I understand, you're in engineering, right? The entire application structure is extremely, extremely different. In English, we don't apply to work with specific faculty (although we are encouraged to have faculty members in mind, it's highly flexible). People can--and many do--change fields once they start grad school. We apply with our own research projects in mind--not sign up to work on a professor's preexisting project. I applied this year the extremely unusual position of going straight into orals--I asked my orals committee members the day after I accepted an offer. Even then, I did not contact faculty in advance--it's not necessary (and as many members have stated already), not necessarily helpful either in our field.

This is all a long way of saying that I'm certain your approach was entirely appropriate and helpful for your field (I don't know nearly enough to comment, but a few engineering and science friends seemed to have had success with contacting professors), but I don't think that methodology or experience can be translated easily into this particular field.

I recently contacted my top 3 professors by email and it went well. One of them replied back enthusiastically and I'm going to UC Davis in a few days to check out his lab. The other one gave me what felt like a canned response along the lines of, "Hi curvature, that's great that you're interested in our work. I encourage you to apply." The last professor didn't email me back.

Contacting professors over email can work. For what it's worth I generally followed guidelines you can find online:

http://www.cs.virgin...rospective.html

http://www.ece.ucdav...s/applying.html

Also I tried to give value throughout my whole email and tried not to take value. For example, I briefly mentioned some interesting open problems in our sub-field and some possible ways to tackle these problems because it gives value: who doesn't want ideas for future research directions? I also mentioned that my paper got accepted to a venue that the professor publishes in as well because it gives value: I'm making the professor aware of a good student- that they wouldn't necessarily have known about otherwise- that has what it takes to further their (our) research agenda.

Nothing in my emails explicitly required a response. I didn't ask 100 questions because I feel like that would be taking value; I'd be requiring them to respond to 100 questions which takes significantly more effort than reading my email.

Instead, the general tone of my email was "Hi. I'd like to quickly make you aware of me because I'm a good student and it would be a win-win for me to do my PhD in your lab. Now that you have my email address, you can get in touch (or not) at your convenience." I didn't actually say any of that, but that was the tone. I hope this helps the OP and hopefully other people too

Edited May 21, 2010 by strokeofmidnight

[curvature]

This is all a long way of saying that I'm certain your approach was entirely appropriate and helpful for your field (I don't know nearly enough to comment, but a few engineering and science friends seemed to have had success with contacting professors), but I don't think that methodology or experience can be translated easily into this particular field.

That's fair

[curvature]

Oh wait I'm a total idiot. I didn't realize this thread was in a sub-forum specifically for humanities. I just did a search for contacting professors and this was the first thread that came up. Oops.

[Origin=Goal]

Bumping this topic. For anyone concerned reading page two will save a lot of time.

Edited September 4, 2011 by Origin=Goal