Reply from a professor

[chocolate_blanche]

I too second the opinion that all that was said and done was over, now its just waiting. But under what circumstance will you email the POI again? For example, when other applicants hear back and you do not?

Or when based on the records here there are a couple that I want to email and ask already for example whether the adcoms have met yet but I think it is unwise and pushy.

Or in either case I should best direct my questions to the grad coordinator?!

[natsteel]

If you are going to pose those questions to anyone, it would be the DGS and NOT the POI!! But, I'd advise against even emailing the DGS with questions about when the adcom will meet.

In short, you should not be contacting a POI from here on out until you have been accepted. Some people will email them if they were rejected to find out what they considered the weak spots in their application, but I don't think you would do that immediately upon receiving a rejection notice.

[chocolate_blanche]

Phew I have not done this (posing such questions etc) at all, DGS or POI. Thanks for the re-confirmation.

[surprisecake]

"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.

Thats what I always thought, but I thought i'd share my experience for future applicants reading this thread. I sent out emails starting from a few days before the deadline to more than a month after. One never replied, two were interested but had no openings, two were interested and asked for my CV and copies of my posters and papers and one actually ended that she was excited about my application and looked forward to reading it. Granted, I have no idea if any of it will actually lead to an acceptance but i'm glad I sent out the mails.

I'm sure in some cases late emails are annoying as hell but if you *really* have a good fit with a professor/lab, I would go for it even if I were late.

Edited February 6, 2011 by surprisecake

[Medievalmaniac]

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. For three reasons:

1. The professor in question is in the middle of an academic term and focusing on his/her classes, current students, research, publishing, conference work, department committee meetings, & etc. and your email at this point, having already applied, is just one more annoyance - no offense, but really, even if s/he is super excited about your application - you are not a current student, and s/he is trying to get through the first half of the term.

2. The professor in question may have absolutely no say as to whether or not you go to the admissions committee for review. S/he may or may not be on the admissions committee. The admissions committee will not see this email and therefore, refer back to #1.

3. You've already applied. Any further unsolicited communication now makes you look like a kiss-up, intentionally or not.

Just hang tight and trust the system. If your POI was interested in your work in October, s/he may have spoken with folks on the adcomm and asked them to keep an eye out for your application, dependent upon the size of the department. If you are a good fit, your application will be pulled for review. It's out of our hands now, and as much as that sucks, we have to accept it.

I will say, in the case of number, two, I know that from personal experience. I had been in contact with a very well-known (and very rare, Stateside) Celticist last year, and he was keen on having me as a student because of my interests in Old Irish, especially. After a flurry of emails it was determined that yes, he was taking on grad students and yes, I was the type of committed student he was most interested in having and no, my being an older student would not affect my application in detrimental fashion, in fact he preferred older students because they were usually doing it for a reason and therefore more committed than younger students who thought "Cool, I'll learn Old Irish" and didn't realize what that would entail. So I applied. After the admit season ended and I was rejected roundly from that program, I ran into him at a conference. He remembered my name and wondered why on earth I hadn't applied...I said I had, and had been rejected. It turns out the adcomm - which he was not on - had determined I didn't meet their GPA cutoffs in comparison to everyone else who applied. He never saw my application, and never had the chance to decide whether or not I was in. I can only imagine the consternation he might have felt if we had had further communication during the admissions season and this had been the case (and it would have been the case, it's a large department with limited funding, the adcomm makes the decisions). So...from personal experience, I say "nay" on communicating unsolicited at this point.

[GK Chesterton]

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. That's what everyone is saying to you. I think it was a poor decision to send the second email, and it would be an even worse decision to send any further ones. I sincerely doubt that they have one pile for applications to get looked at and one pile for those to be binned immediately, and that if they did, an email would probably not be sufficient to move from one to the other.

[Guest bubuli]

I will say, in the case of number, two, I know that from personal experience. I had been in contact with a very well-known (and very rare, Stateside) Celticist last year, and he was keen on having me as a student because of my interests in Old Irish, especially. After a flurry of emails it was determined that yes, he was taking on grad students and yes, I was the type of committed student he was most interested in having and no, my being an older student would not affect my application in detrimental fashion, in fact he preferred older students because they were usually doing it for a reason and therefore more committed than younger students who thought "Cool, I'll learn Old Irish" and didn't realize what that would entail. So I applied. After the admit season ended and I was rejected roundly from that program, I ran into him at a conference. He remembered my name and wondered why on earth I hadn't applied...I said I had, and had been rejected. It turns out the adcomm - which he was not on - had determined I didn't meet their GPA cutoffs in comparison to everyone else who applied. He never saw my application, and never had the chance to decide whether or not I was in. I can only imagine the consternation he might have felt if we had had further communication during the admissions season and this had been the case (and it would have been the case, it's a large department with limited funding, the adcomm makes the decisions). So...from personal experience, I say "nay" on communicating unsolicited at this point.

Interesting... If I were you I would really regret not having further communication with my prospective advisor during the admission decision process. It could have made a big difference. You could have been accepted last year had you contacted this POI of yours just to remind him about yourself. He could have said something to the adcom recommending your app. You have this kind of experience, but you do not recommend people to have further communication after application submission... ?

[Guest bubuli]

Thats what I always thought, but I thought i'd share my experience for future applicants reading this thread. I sent out emails starting from a few days before the deadline to more than a month after. One never replied, two were interested but had no openings, two were interested and asked for my CV and copies of my posters and papers and one actually ended that she was excited about my application and looked forward to reading it. Granted, I have no idea if any of it will actually lead to an acceptance but i'm glad I sent out the mails.

I'm sure in some cases late emails are annoying as hell but if you *really* have a good fit with a professor/lab, I would go for it even if I were late.

Hi surprisecake,

I'm curious to know.. Did you have any prior contact in the past (before you submitted your application) with these people/professors you sent emails to?

I'm currently deliberating.. whether I should make an initial contact with a professor at the department I applied to now that I have submitted my application. I know everybody says it's mightily annoying, is a gamble and/or suck-up and it will sound desperate. But honestly I am kind of desperate.

Edited February 19, 2011 by bubuli