Contacting profs as MA (not PhD) applicant?

[bck203]

I've read that one should contact potential advisers at each school and ask if they are taking new students. Does this still apply to MA applicants? I have a couple possible areas of interest, but I'm still pretty open at this point. Not sure what I should say in the email...just that I would be potentially interested in working with a particular prof? I don't know if it's necessary for me to email a couple people at each school...might make me stand out more, I guess? I'd appreciate any advice. Thanks.

[newms]

I've read that one should contact potential advisers at each school and ask if they are taking new students. Does this still apply to MA applicants? I have a couple possible areas of interest, but I'm still pretty open at this point. Not sure what I should say in the email...just that I would be potentially interested in working with a particular prof? I don't know if it's necessary for me to email a couple people at each school...might make me stand out more, I guess? I'd appreciate any advice. Thanks.

I think it's still useful to contact profs when you're applying to a MA. There's a lot of advice on this forum about what you can say, but the email can be just a paragraph (at most 2) introducing yourself and your interests and asking if that prof would be advising new students next year. You can also ask the prof to suggest other profs at that school who's interests would match yours.

[newms]

there's been a lot of discussion about this previously - generally, people in the humanities don't need to contact profs ahead of time. this mostly applies to areas like the hard sciences (and some social sciences like psychology, i think?) where those profs need to have the funding and time to add you. english dept admissions work in a completely different way.

i don't have a lot of time to expand on this, so i'm hoping others will kick in, but the gist of it is that it's not expected and can go either way in terms of whether or not it helps you in admissions

That is true - I should have mentioned that I was speaking from a Science background, and yes some Social Sciences do recommend this, but as you said, it's not necessary at all for some fields.

Edited October 5, 2010 by newms

[diehtc0ke]

there's been a lot of discussion about this previously - generally, people in the humanities don't need to contact profs ahead of time. this mostly applies to areas like the hard sciences (and some social sciences like psychology, i think?) where those profs need to have the funding and time to add you. english dept admissions work in a completely different way.

i don't have a lot of time to expand on this, so i'm hoping others will kick in, but the gist of it is that it's not expected and can go either way in terms of whether or not it helps you in admissions

Most of our bickering took place here:

I think we were talking about PhD applications in that thread but I'd venture a guess that contacting professors would be even less necessary for MA applications. I wouldn't mind standing corrected, though.

[poco_puffs]

At my school, we aren't even assigned an advisor until the second term of the first year. Until then, all of us huddle under the kind umbrella of our Grad Studies director. This likely differs from school to school, but I'm guessing the general decisions process on advisors is a combination of student requests, faculty workloads and interests, their position within the department (retiring soon, just off the boat) etc. In some departments, you will NOT get the advisor who seems most closely aligned with your interests, due to their commitments, or plans for sabbatical or retirement-- any number of reasons. In some cases, you're simply matched up with an advisor who is there to help you with the progress of your work and your responsibilities to your department. They aren't meant to be your personal professor to impart their knowledge of that specialty, but they ARE an expert in graduate and professional work. As much as I would like a mentor in my own field, I'd take an amiable off-topic advisor who provides helpful guidance rather than a cranky, distracted advisor in my field who is just adding to the stress or confusion.

I suppose you could always approach a professor or some sort of director/liaison for graduate studies at a particular institution via an email saying "Hi, This is a brief recounting of my situation, my interests, and my goals (admission to the program, studying X). What is the general process and timeline for a student to get an advisor at your school? Is there a lot of competition among students to find advisors within my field/specialty?" and questions along those lines. It's a polite request for information, and an expression of interest, without sounding needy or demanding. Some might argue that you wouldn't want to get into department politics with a question about fields and competition among students or professors, but if you keep it vague they can tell you as much as they feel comfortable.

To reiterate what others have said, though, it's not really expected of you to contact them ahead of time. It might lodge you somewhere in their memory, but it's really hard to say if it would really yield significant benefits.

[wreckofthehope]

I have only had contact with profs at a couple of programs that I'm applying to and was wondering whether or not to send emails to people at the other programs...I wasn't going to... but then, when I started filling out applications, quite a few ask you to name professors who you have been in contact with - and the dates you first contacted them, that scared me a little - as if it was absolutely expected of you. Do you think, in those cases, that they actually want you to contact people?

[bck203]

Thanks, this is very helpful!

[poco_puffs]

I have only had contact with profs at a couple of programs that I'm applying to and was wondering whether or not to send emails to people at the other programs...I wasn't going to... but then, when I started filling out applications, quite a few ask you to name professors who you have been in contact with - and the dates you first contacted them, that scared me a little - as if it was absolutely expected of you. Do you think, in those cases, that they actually want you to contact people?

If the application is a general one through the all-discipline "Graduate School" of that University, they might include that to cater to the non-humanities applicants who have, in fact, contacted professors. I remember seeing things on my applications where I thought "There is no way that applies to me as a humanities student."

[diehtc0ke]

I have only had contact with profs at a couple of programs that I'm applying to and was wondering whether or not to send emails to people at the other programs...I wasn't going to... but then, when I started filling out applications, quite a few ask you to name professors who you have been in contact with - and the dates you first contacted them, that scared me a little - as if it was absolutely expected of you. Do you think, in those cases, that they actually want you to contact people?

Doubtful; as anecdotal evidence I remember seeing those spaces on a few of my applications but I left them blank and still got in.

[foppery]

<br style="text-shadow: none;">Doubtful; as anecdotal evidence I remember seeing those spaces on a few of my applications but I left them blank and still got in.<br style="text-shadow: none;">

<br style="text-shadow: none;"><br style="text-shadow: none;">Ditto.

As always, my advice is this: If a certain prof is capable of answering a question that *you* can't answer by looking around the website (e.g. "Are you still working on X, the topic of your latest book?"), go ahead and write. But don't bother if your email is going to be along the lines of "Hi, just wanted to let you know I'm applying, please accept me."<br style="text-shadow: none;">