Contacting Advisors

[StudyMom]

Hey all,

When accepted by a school and then indicate your advisors, should you contact hose advisors and chat even if you have not yet decided to go to that school? What if they notified acceptance in Feb. and I stil haven't cvalled the advisors? Will this look bad? I think I goofed! Any thoughts please share! Thanks!

[engguy]

No way it makes you look bad -- it's their crazy season and, depending on the size of the program, they may be overwhelmed right now anyway. Then too, calling might actually invite the kind of "soft pressure" and misunderstandings re. your intentions that so many have written about elsewhere on the forum. I think a polite note via e-mail, introducing yourself, would be the best approach.

:wink:

[santana]

No way it makes you look bad -- it's their crazy season and, depending on the size of the program, they may be overwhelmed right now anyway. Then too, calling might actually invite the kind of "soft pressure" and misunderstandings re. your intentions that so many have written about elsewhere on the forum. I think a polite note via e-mail, introducing yourself, would be the best approach.

:wink:

?

Not true. It all depends what do you ask for and whom. I agree that asking something trivial is foolish but asking for program details, textbooks, syllabi, what are the areas of expertise etc. You need to know that and no professor in his right mind would consider that annoying. If they are overly busy they will not answer fast but you can always wait.

Beside you will learn fast who is accessible and who is not. You do not want to work with a person who is not accessible.

[StudyMom]

Hi,

Thanks - you've made me feel better. I was afraid the advisor would think I wasn't interested when I really really am interested and I didn't want to bother them, or commit until I had word on funding.

[nazzaz99]

I think they also contact you when you are accepted. Or at least that's what happened with my admits.

[maa]

I dont see why this should be a problem.

A professor (who recruited me) from one of my admits mailed me simulataneously with the graduate office. I have been writing to her asking different questions and most importantly, she always reiterates that I should ask her questions regarding anything. She seems to appreciate my queries. May be this way she gauges my interest in her program. One particular reason I am writing to my prospective advisors is that I have been accepted to two closely ranked schools. Both of them have some pros and cons. So, I want to take decision by nature of the research works of my prospective advisors, their attitude etc. So far, none of them seems to be annoyed at my queries.

[kant's mistress]

I contacted an advisor via email the other day. I sat there and drafted the email "Dear X", as I couldn't recall the name of the "starter advisor" the program had assigned me.

When I was happy with my draft, I copied the email from my acceptance letter into the address field, reread the email, made a few changes.

But as I hit "send", I literally screamed with a momentary brain freeze-- all that drafting, and I couldn't remember whether or not I'd changed "Dear X'" to, you know, "Dear Professor Smith."

This would be a better story maybe if I had, in fact, failed, as I feared, to address the thing, but I feel like it's pretty telling about the mania of this process that one of the biggest moments of relief I've had the past few months was the moment when I double-checked the sent email and saw that I had, in fact, corrected "Dear X" to read "Dear Professor Smith." I'm losing it.

[indrayahya]

Just curious, what kind of questions do you usually ask to your potential supervisors?

[maa]

Just curious, what kind of questions do you usually ask to your potential supervisors?

Usually fund related and academic questions- how funding process works, prospect of summer RA or internship, types of research I shall be engaged in, any prerequisites (like learning any new tools or application before coming), load and responsibilities of RA (or TA).

[StudyMom]

Thanks maa.

[sashababie]

I'm in a similar predicament only reversed, potential advisors at the program I'm most definitely going to have been emailing me 2-3 times a week - separately! I'm starting to feel a bit harassed since there are 3 I might like to work with and I really want to meet them before I ask to be their advisee. Right now I'm having to think of trivial, noncommitant questions to ask, such as reading lists for their upcoming seminars/classes, joint projects with my cohorts, and recommended prep material (languages, theory) etc etc. Dancing around questions concerning individual research has been tricky and I'm not sure how to respond if they decided to ask me outright. :evil:

[StarvingStudentYeah]

Usually fund related and academic questions- how funding process works, prospect of summer RA or internship, types of research I shall be engaged in, any prerequisites (like learning any new tools or application before coming), load and responsibilities of RA (or TA).

I sent this exact email to my assigned advisor at a school I was accepted at. I was very polite, told him I knew he was busy and that short answers were fine, etc.

He responds with this fairly rude email about how email was not the right venue for such a discussion and that I should call him at his office. 1) Rudness from your potential adviser during your first correspondence from him/her is not a good thing. 2) I generally always prefer email to chit-chat on the phone. 3) Long distance is not a preferred thing for the starving student.

In the end, this left a HORRIBLE taste in my mouth, and I ended up more or less eliminating that school at that point. My feeling of a generally grumpy/stingy atmosphere was later confirmed by some honest current student.

[maa]

I sent this exact email to my assigned advisor at a school I was accepted at. I was very polite, told him I knew he was busy and that short answers were fine, etc.

He responds with this fairly rude email about how email was not the right venue for such a discussion and that I should call him at his office. 1) Rudness from your potential adviser during your first correspondence from him/her is not a good thing. 2) I generally always prefer email to chit-chat on the phone. 3) Long distance is not a preferred thing for the starving student.

In the end, this left a HORRIBLE taste in my mouth, and I ended up more or less eliminating that school at that point. My feeling of a generally grumpy/stingy atmosphere was later confirmed by some honest current student.

Thank God, none of my advisors turned out to be like this.

I wrote to one of my advisors saying that I have couple of options on the table and I shall make my decisions by the end of the month. On the reply, she congratulated me for having another option and asked to take longer time to make the decisions. She then answered to my questions with greater details than I expected.

Then I wrote to my other advisor with same questions. His response was not that much elaborated but it was nowhere near rudeness [he even used smileys!]

[StudyMom]

I finally decided to contact my advisor and left a voice message. I was pleasantly surprised that she returned my call within a day or so long distance. We chatted about job availability once I had the PhD and her summer schedule. I followed up with a thank you e-mail. The call gave me a good feeling about the school.

[CIIP]

Good advice on what to address in the initial contact; thanks!

So, along these lines... my advisor is on sabbatical until next fall. Normally I'd prefer to call, but if he doesn't have any classes this semester, I'd probably have better luck reaching him via email than via office phone, don't you think? I just don't want to receive a nasty email!

N.B. - I had been in contact with a faculty member during the application and asked him to be my advisor, and then the school assigned me a different advisor. His research looks interesting, and I'm sure I'll be able to work with the other faculty member, but I'm not as jazzed about advisors as I was at the beginning of this process. Which is why I still haven't contacted my advisor (but I plan on doing so this week.)

[anewtypedude]

Is it okay to email your potential advisor to ask for contact information of his/her current graduate students? On the other hand, is it alright to ask him/her if they are planning on retiring any time soon? Because I have this horrible fear that my advisor might not last thru my graduate school years due to her age.

[maa]

Is it okay to email your potential advisor to ask for contact information of his/her current graduate students? On the other hand, is it alright to ask him/her if they are planning on retiring any time soon? Because I have this horrible fear that my advisor might not last thru my graduate school years due to her age.

I have the same fear for my advisor. Therefore I asked her if she is leaving the university in near future. She replied me saying that if she had had that possibility, she would have not taken new student.

Can't you find the contact information of his/her graduate students from his/her website? I am not sure what would be his/her reaction if you ask him/her, but some professors encourage to contact with their students.

[rising_star]

Is it okay to email your potential advisor to ask for contact information of his/her current graduate students? On the other hand, is it alright to ask him/her if they are planning on retiring any time soon? Because I have this horrible fear that my advisor might not last thru my graduate school years due to her age.

Well, just ask for the names of current students. You should be able to find their email addresses on the department's website. Retirement is tricky to ask about but you definitely need to. Remember, this is a career move. Get all the information you can!

[anewtypedude]

I am guessing if she's retiring soon, then she wouldn't have accepted a student. My worry stems from the possibility of an "unplanned" retirement due to old age. (God forbids) One of my current professors told me that his graduate school advisor expired during his third year into the program, and it took a while for him to recover from that mess.

[InquiringMind]

If you are uncomfortable directly asking your potential advisor whether they are planning on leaving in the near future, you may want to ask the grad director or chair of the admissions committee. I asked the grad directors or dept chairs at each of the programs I was admitted to whether they anticipate any changes to the faculty in the near future, and they were not put off. I always got the same response - "good question". They were rather glad, in fact, to tell me about the new additions to the faculty that I would otherwise have not known about. They also gave me an idea of who might be leaving in the near future. I would also ask this of grad students currently in the department.