Reply from a professor

[akraz]

Hi,

I contacted one Professor in December with my resume and he replied that my background looks good and he will review my application in Jan. So come January i contact him again saying that I hope he had reviewed my application and found it interesting and note about please let me know if there are any question. I get a simple reply back saying:

Thank you, No Questions.

Now i am wondering what this means. Is that a yes / maybe or more likely a No? Any ideas.

I think i should now contact other professors in the same department.

Any suggestions.

Thanks,

[communications13]

I know the waiting is brutal, but I'd say continue to wait it out. If you have questions about when decisions will be made etc and just cannot stand the wait contact the secretary/program coordinator, it is his/her job to anwser questions so the professors can continue to work with students and do research. Don't contact every professor with questions and information. If there was one or two particular professors you wanted to work with, I don't see a problem contacting them, but it sounds like you did just that. All schools are right in the thick of making decisions as well as just now getting into the swing of a new semester with thier current students and are busy! Trust in the application system that you are being reviewed.

[Strangefox]

Hi,

I contacted one Professor in December with my resume and he replied that my background looks good and he will review my application in Jan. So come January i contact him again saying that I hope he had reviewed my application and found it interesting and note about please let me know if there are any question. I get a simple reply back saying:

Thank you, No Questions.

Now i am wondering what this means. Is that a yes / maybe or more likely a No? Any ideas.

I think i should now contact other professors in the same department.

Any suggestions.

Thanks,

It's neither yes, nor no - do not overanalyze it

Just keep waiting, - contacting professors after you have submitted your app and until a decision is made by the department may annoy them. Especially since you have not contacted them before, only the one you have sent these two letters to. You have been in touch only with him/her, am I right? Then sit tight and hope for the best. At that stage it's the only thing you can do.

[natsteel]

Your second email was probably not the best move as evidenced by the curt reply. It doesn't mean "yes," "maybe," or "no." And I certainly don't think it would be a smart move on your part to go contacting other professors in the same department. Like Strangefox said... sit tight and hope for the best.

[Zouzax]

I had a similar experience with one POI that I had contacted. I had written that I was interested in working with her. She wrote me back the next day and asked me to explain my current research & future goals. I wrote her a long email in reply. I waited a week or two for a response but never received anything. I started getting paranoid -- maybe the email didn't send? Maybe it went to her spam box? So I sent her a quick message saying - my emails been a little spotty lately (which was the truth, that's why I was so paranoid) ... just checking that you received it, etc. etc .... she wrote back: "Got it. Thanks."

..... and that was all. I didn't reply. Nor did I contact anyone else in the department. I think it's best to leave it alone; if they are interested and want to accept you, it'll happen. But a curt reply is a pretty clear message to not try and continue the conversation, in my opinion.

Edited January 29, 2011 by Zouzax

[Strangefox]

I had a similar experience with one POI that I had contacted. I had written that I was interested in working with her. She wrote me back the next day and asked me to explain my current research & future goals. I wrote her a long email in reply. I waited a week or two for a response but never received anything. I started getting paranoid -- maybe the email didn't send? Maybe it went to her spam box? So I sent her a quick message saying - my emails been a little spotty lately (which was the truth, that's why I was so paranoid) ... just checking that you received it, etc. etc .... she wrote back: "Got it. Thanks."

..... and that was all. I didn't reply. Nor did I contact anyone else in the department. I think it's best to leave it alone; if they are interested and want to accept you, it'll happen. But a curt reply is a pretty clear message to not try and continue the conversation, in my opinion.

Oh, that was really rude!

She asked you herself to tell her about your interests and then she sends you this curt reply! I definetely would not want to work with such a person...

[Zouzax]

Oh, that was really rude!

She asked you herself to tell her about your interests and then she sends you this curt reply! I definetely would not want to work with such a person...

You know, Im so glad you said that! I was really down on myself after that; I had really put time into my email response & was excited to hear her thoughts. When she blew me off I figured it was because she really didn't like what I had to say. I ended up applying to the school anyway, but it's a fairly large department. I won't mention wanting to work with her again.

[Strangefox]

You know, Im so glad you said that! I was really down on myself after that; I had really put time into my email response & was excited to hear her thoughts. When she blew me off I figured it was because she really didn't like what I had to say. I ended up applying to the school anyway, but it's a fairly large department. I won't mention wanting to work with her again.

Whatever she thought about your interests, she should have written you a longer reply. I am sure it was obvious from your letter that you had spent some time working on it and that you had been thinking about your research interests for some time. Even if she had an entirely different point of view on things you had written she should have at least tried to explain what exactly she did not like and what she did not agree with. You are a future student, you are learning and she is supposed to teach you and help you. She is just a bad educator.

[LJK]

While I totally agree that the politest thing would have been for her to respond and respond with more words, I don't know that I would write her off without meeting her if there is a good research fit. Some people are crappy at email. Sometimes this indicates a larger problem and that they will be crappy in all aspects, but sometimes it really just says that they are crappy at email. I would have the question in my mind about her but still be open to being pleasantly surprised by her if given the opportunity to meet her. On the other hand, if you get more evidence that she is unconcerned with good communication, or doesn't care, etc. then avoid, avoid, avoid.

[ZeChocMoose]

Meh. I don't think what she did was that terrible. Faculty are really busy and have a lot of demands on their time. I don't know what time of year this was but it is quite possible she had other priorities. I agree that you should wait to pass judgment until you meet her in person and get to talk to her advisees.

[akraz]

Thank you all for responding the post. I guess at this time the best thing might be, as you suggest, is to sit tight and wait. I agree that the second e mail was not the best idea but i have done the same to others Profs at different institutions and didn't receive a reply at all yet.

Regarding faculty replying.......i think it is hard to judge faculty by their e mail response.........some people are really bad at e mail and don't even bother replying. My MS major prof was like that and he also acknowledged that he was bad at replying to e mail. He use to say send me emails but don't expect a reply but I do read them and know what is going on.

[HappyCat]

Thank you all for responding the post. I guess at this time the best thing might be, as you suggest, is to sit tight and wait. I agree that the second e mail was not the best idea but i have done the same to others Profs at different institutions and didn't receive a reply at all yet.

Regarding faculty replying.......i think it is hard to judge faculty by their e mail response.........some people are really bad at e mail and don't even bother replying. My MS major prof was like that and he also acknowledged that he was bad at replying to e mail. He use to say send me emails but don't expect a reply but I do read them and know what is going on.

Also, from an admissions perspective, the professor may not be able to say much: if the professor seems interested, it could be misconstrued as an "in"--and it would be in writing. This could be problematic for the school if you opted to press the issue after a positive response. I view it like a celebrity saying "No comment." It doesn't necessarily mean it's bad. It's completely neutral.

[Zouzax]

And I also agree, thanks for the advice. I was so down on myself that I didn't consider the fact that maybe the professor just isn't good with emails. (Btw, I saw some people were asking - I had sent this email way before the application period, in September). Hopefully that was the case. I guess I will find out in a few weeks, when acceptances/rejections start rolling in

[MoJingly]

Hopefully that was the case. I guess I will find out in a few weeks, when acceptances/rejections start rolling in

Um, you mean acceptances. Only acceptances. No rejections.

[TheDude]

Why do people do this? It isn't going to give you a leg up on your competition to remind a POI to look at your resume and credentials. They are swamped, and I can imagine even in semi-productive labs, would rather be doing other things with their time than looking at all of our CVs and SOPs.

I wouldn't email anymore professors.

Edited January 31, 2011 by musicforfun

[tayfray]

Don't read too much into short, clipped emails from professors. As someone who has been in academia for a good long while, this is normal. They get a bazillion emails and they just want to get through them, and they don't worry about being wordy to make you feel better. You're lucky if they sign the email with more than a lowercase initial. The professor that I work for rarely sends out emails that are complete sentences. The average character length is probably about 20.

[Medievalmaniac]

Don't read too much into short, clipped emails from professors. As someone who has been in academia for a good long while, this is normal. They get a bazillion emails and they just want to get through them, and they don't worry about being wordy to make you feel better. You're lucky if they sign the email with more than a lowercase initial. The professor that I work for rarely sends out emails that are complete sentences. The average character length is probably about 20.

This. It's so easy not to consider the demands made on professors' time, because we don't consider the bigger picture when it comes to correspondence. Remember that most professors on any given day walk into the office, sit down, turn on the computer, and check their inbox....only to find department emails, emails from colleagues, emails from family and friends, emails from listservs, emails from current students, emails from thesis/dissertation advisees, emails from current and former students asking for letters of recommendation, emails from conference organizers, emails from publishing houses about new books coming out; if they're publishing or working on a publication project they have emails from editors, readers, proofreaders...it can be a hundred or more, a day. And the better-known/more respected the prof, the more emails. That's a lot of correspondence to wade through. I wouldn't take the curt response as a negative - they bothered to respond at all, after all. But I wouldn't necessarily send them anything else, either.

Hang in there!

[Zouzax]

yep, i figured the same - if a question came to her mind and she wanted to ask me about it, she would -- no need for me to harass further.

[was1984]

Those of you who are offended by curt replies need to develop some thicker skin of you are going to be successful graduate students. Most faculty members are -extremely- busy people and they are dealing with a lot of these types of emails right now. If they sat down and wrote a well thought out reply to everyone that has emailed them wanting to work for them, that would probably be an entire day or more wasted on that process.

Plus, people who are emailing professors right now are indeed being a tad bit annoying. It's totally fine to email a professor to verify that they are a good research fit before applying to the school, but at this point you've already applied and if you are an appropriate fit your application will be reviewed. Emailing potential advisers right now is superfluous and irritating.

[akraz]

It's totally fine to email a professor to verify that they are a good research fit before applying to the school, but at this point you've already applied and if you are an appropriate fit your application will be reviewed. Emailing potential advisers right now is superfluous and irritating.

If you had talked to a prof. back in october/november time frame, and they said i encourage you to apply or your background looks good etc etc......i am pretty sure they don't remember any thing about that. Now don't you think it will be a good idea to send them a quick note reminding earlier conversation so your application gets looked at.

[natsteel]

If you had talked to a prof. back in october/november time frame, and they said i encourage you to apply or your background looks good etc etc......i am pretty sure they don't remember any thing about that. Now don't you think it will be a good idea to send them a quick note reminding earlier conversation so your application gets looked at.

"No," is what everyone is saying. The time to send a second email was right around the deadline (and even that is in some dispute here). The consensus on the fora is that emailing them after the deadline, especially after the process has begun, is more annoying than anything and will not help your cause.

[Zouzax]

I agree with Natsteel, Akraz. I wouldn't try to contact them at this point. Let the chips fall where they may.

[cadisfly]

You know, Im so glad you said that! I was really down on myself after that; I had really put time into my email response & was excited to hear her thoughts. When she blew me off I figured it was because she really didn't like what I had to say. I ended up applying to the school anyway, but it's a fairly large department. I won't mention wanting to work with her again.

Her response might mean nothing at all. I am the director of an art gallery and I get a lot of emails. I view all of them on my blackberry. I try my best to respond to thoughtful email messages in a similarly thoughtful way - often this means that I respond in a less timely manner, and always from a computer. When I receive emails asking whether I've received emails, I almost always respond quickly from my blackberry in order to quell any fears on the part of the sender. I almost treat it like a text message.

I hope this helps - she might not have meant anything at all with her flippant email, and I certainly wouldn't write her off as rude. She may just want to take the time to reply with equal thoughtfulness.

[coffeem8]

If you had talked to a prof. back in october/november time frame, and they said i encourage you to apply or your background looks good etc etc......i am pretty sure they don't remember any thing about that. Now don't you think it will be a good idea to send them a quick note reminding earlier conversation so your application gets looked at.

No, imo it's usually best to let your application speak for itself.

[Zouzax]

Her response might mean nothing at all. I am the director of an art gallery and I get a lot of emails. I view all of them on my blackberry. I try my best to respond to thoughtful email messages in a similarly thoughtful way - often this means that I respond in a less timely manner, and always from a computer. When I receive emails asking whether I've received emails, I almost always respond quickly from my blackberry in order to quell any fears on the part of the sender. I almost treat it like a text message.

I hope this helps - she might not have meant anything at all with her flippant email, and I certainly wouldn't write her off as rude. She may just want to take the time to reply with equal thoughtfulness.

Thanks for the nice response. Actually, I used to be like you -- I was in charge of importing goods for a fashion company from Europe to America, and also of collecting money from vendors for the goods received -- so I used to get well over 100 emails per day. As soon as I sat down at my computer at 9 AM, I would have at least 40-50 emails waiting from Europe that had to be responded to within the hour (due to the time difference). Then, when that was finished, I had to move on to the local emails from vendors. Not to mention all the other work I had to do. I always made sure that, no matter how short they were, that my answers were always polite (like you).

Unfortunately, she didn't take the time to reply with equal thoughtfulness I sent the email back in September lol. I'm over it at this point, I just wanted to share my experience with the original poster, and I'm afraid I kind of hijacked his post.