Contact with faculty members

[Chanyoung Kim]

Hello, Dear!

I am a Korean M.A. graduate, and planning to apply to several U.S. universities.

So, I e-mailed faculty members, and got their response.

However, one of them just replied that "We would welcome your application."

Although looking kind, it seems to show that he has no interest in my application.

I was told that in this bad economic situation, chemistry between me and faculty members is the much more important than ever.

Moreover, up to my experience, favorable responses from the potential adviser by and large lead to good consquences,

though it doest not always gurantee success in applications.

In this regard, I got a bad start. Should I apply to this program?

Please give me any advice!!

[TMP]

#1 rule of grad school: Don't take anything personally.

People still have gotten in without meeting or e-mailing faculty members. It all really depends on the departments. You can take a hint from looking at department webpages. If they encourage contact, chances are that these professors do care about meeting and making connections with applicants before the actual process and it's an advantage. If the website discourages it or absolutely does not give a hint, then contacting them would not matter all that much.

If you e-mailed the faculty member within the last two weeks, chances are the professor's just a tad little too busy to be thinking about PhD applicants because it's finals period in US universities and there are a lot of due date for other things. It could also be that the professor isn't interested in making personal connections before he reads all of the applications in January and wants to be able to do so with an open mind.

I've gotten several responses like that. I inquired about these professors' general reputation and if people assured me that these people were good, then there's no reason to be offended and I should just submit my application anyway.

It's not a bad start. A bad start would be a professor writing back to tell you that he's retiring and not taking new students, or that the program is not a good fit. Anything to give a real excuse on why you should take the school off your list. This one isn't one of them.

[Riotbeard]

#1 rule of grad school: Don't take anything personally.

People still have gotten in without meeting or e-mailing faculty members. It all really depends on the departments. You can take a hint from looking at department webpages. If they encourage contact, chances are that these professors do care about meeting and making connections with applicants before the actual process and it's an advantage. If the website discourages it or absolutely does not give a hint, then contacting them would not matter all that much.

If you e-mailed the faculty member within the last two weeks, chances are the professor's just a tad little too busy to be thinking about PhD applicants because it's finals period in US universities and there are a lot of due date for other things. It could also be that the professor isn't interested in making personal connections before he reads all of the applications in January and wants to be able to do so with an open mind.

I've gotten several responses like that. I inquired about these professors' general reputation and if people assured me that these people were good, then there's no reason to be offended and I should just submit my application anyway.

It's not a bad start. A bad start would be a professor writing back to tell you that he's retiring and not taking new students, or that the program is not a good fit. Anything to give a real excuse on why you should take the school off your list. This one isn't one of them.

I am not sure what this says about my interview skills etc., but of the 6 acceptances and 1 waitlist i got last year (mind you there were 6 or so rejections too! And 5 rejections and no acceptances the year before that). I had only met or talked to faculty two of the schools and i didn't end up at one of those two... I think contacting faculty can be helpful for you and how you feel about the school, but at the end of the day your application is what is most important not what you write about in e-mails. I had plenty of rejections from places where I thought are meeting when I visited went great.

[history_PhD]

This is one area I wish I had been diligent in. I didn't contact potential advisors (ran out of time). Hopefully, it won't be problematic, but it is something to do next year, heaven forbid!