E-Mailing future profs?

[missgawain]

Hi all,

I'm beginning my application process for English PhD programs (applying Fall 2011 for Fall 2012) and am curious about how others have gone about cultivating relationships with professors in prospective programs? I was thinking that I would contact via e-mail the professors whose work I admire and aspire to learn from.

Is e-mail too informal? This seems like a crucial step to acceptance and, once admitted, success in the program. I'm worried about messing it up, which is why I'm looking for answers this far in advance. What is polite to talk about in an e-mail in order to form a respectable professor-student relationship? Questions about their work or the program? I feel that maybe asking questions about the program wouldn't be good because the professor could turn around and tell me to look at the website (I have practically memorized all of the websites).

I'm sure I'll look back at this post in a year and laugh at how ridiculous I'm being, but for now.....

All answers are appreciated

Edited February 2, 2011 by missgawain

[Kitkat]

I am in the same boat that you are in right now, I will be applying this fall for next year and am looking to start email profs (but I am in a different field, geosciences), but I will tell you about the advice that I have received. I think that it should be able to apply generally to people in most fields. Basically, look at what they are working at, get a good background feel for them. In the email, summarize what you like about their work, and why you are interested in them, let them know that you are looking that their program, and with them specifically. But also ask something along the lines of if they are taking on students to work with them. When you write up an email them, its fine, because it gives them time to respond to you in their own time.

Let me know if that helps at all...

[arkel]

It's definitely a great idea to contact professors before you apply, and I think email is the preferred method.

On the other hand, a lot of professors are really busy and many do not want to read through a long email and answer detailed questions from potential applicants. When I was looking for potential professors, I sent a very short email, telling them that I was planning on applying to X university, and would be interested in working with them. I summed up my interests in a sentence or two, and then asked them if they were accepting students. I also attached a copy of my CV.... I've heard different things about adding attachments. Some people say not to use attachments in these emails, as they make more work for the professor. To avoid any annoyance, I didn't refer to the CV in the email (eg. please see my attached CV), but just attached it so that if they were interested they could look at it without requesting it from me.

I would judge by their responses whether or not to proceed with more questions. Some responses were very brief, one-line responses letting me know whether they were accepting, whereas others were longer and encouraged me to ask questions. Others didn't respond at all (don't get discouraged if that happens). I would be more inclined to ask questions of someone who invited them, or someone who was friendly in their response. In terms of building a relationship... I think this really depends on the person. Some profs might be really keen to get to know you before you apply (one was interested in talking to me on the phone to tell me about the program/answer my questions) but it seems like most prefer to wait until after they've seen your application.

That's just my approach...maybe it's a bit passive, but it worked well for me. Good luck!

[Strangefox]

Hi all,

I'm beginning my application process for English PhD programs (applying Fall 2011 for Fall 2012) and am curious about how others have gone about cultivating relationships with professors in prospective programs? I was thinking that I would contact via e-mail the professors whose work I admire and aspire to learn from.

Is e-mail too informal? This seems like a crucial step to acceptance and, once admitted, success in the program. I'm worried about messing it up, which is why I'm looking for answers this far in advance. What is polite to talk about in an e-mail in order to form a respectable professor-student relationship? Questions about their work or the program? I feel that maybe asking questions about the program wouldn't be good because the professor could turn around and tell me to look at the website (I have practically memorized all of the websites).

I'm sure I'll look back at this post in a year and laugh at how ridiculous I'm being, but for now.....

All answers are appreciated

It's good that you are already thinking about this!

I was going to write that contacting professors is a great idea and then I saw that you are going to apply to doctoral programs in English... With English it must be different. May be I am mistaken (English is not my field) but I am almost sure that there have been theads on this forum where people discussed this issue and they wrote that English grad programs are like an exception and your are not expected to contact your potential advisors in this field. You might want to look for these threads, there is a search bar on the top of the page.

Good luck!

[arkel]

It's good that you are already thinking about this!

I was going to write that contacting professors is a great idea and then I saw that you are going to apply to doctoral programs in English... With English it must be different. May be I am mistaken (English is not my field) but I am almost sure that there have been theads on this forum where people discussed this issue and they wrote that English grad programs are like an exception and your are not expected to contact your potential advisors in this field. You might want to look for these threads, there is a search bar on the top of the page.

Good luck!

Good point! My response worked in the field of psychology, but it might not be applicable to English...

[newms]

Yeah, this has been a source of much confusion for us non English folks (me in particular) - it apparently is not advised for applicants in English to contact profs beforehand. Perhaps someone from English can comment on this thread and give you specifics. Or you can search the forums, because there has been multiple threads about this for English in particular. Best of luck!

[missgawain]

Hmm... I just read through 7 pages of the thread on contacting professors but it didn't say anything about contacting prospective English professors as a bad thing! :/

The most that was discussed is the proper way to go about writing and responding to e-mails as well as the fact that every field is different. But nothing specific about English.

I'll have another look through some more threads.

My current undergrad English professor got excited when I mentioned that I was going to try and make contact with prospective advisors, etc. She nodded quite emphatically and seemed to think it a great idea -- but now I'm confused!

[BrandNewName]

I applied to English and American Studies programs this round. In total I contacted one professor at my top school because I genuinely wanted to ask about her work and whether she found an idea in a similar thread interesting. She did and it actually panned out into a vibrant email exchange and a half-hour phone conversation one afternoon. She was great and it definitely confirmed to me what my first choice is. I got no indication from her, however, that she could or would get me in...she said she wasn't on the committee this year (she's actually at another institution!) and that I should let her know what happens.

At other programs I had plans to contact all of the professors I was going to mention as potential advisors. But I kept waiting and waiting because I wanted to be sure I could write a concise and clearly connective email about my plans and their work. When it came down to it, I never sent any of them emails (one or two I managed to chat up briefly at a conference and drop my name...it also helped that I had a cast on my arm, made me memorable when I shot them a quick email closer to deadlines to ask one final, brief question about something in their work).

On the whole, my opinion on emailing professors in English/Am. Studies has changed quite a lot. I thought it was necessary, but as deadlines grew closer and closer, I began to feel that it was a pretty transparent process, especially because most of my SoPs mentioned two main advisors as well as 3-6 additional people who I would hope to interact with. So which person do you contact? I think unless there is clearly one single person you want to work with at a school and you have genuine questions, then go ahead and contact them. Otherwise, I attempted to ground the research interests presented in my SoP with two main advisors and mention connections to a number of other people in the department.

We'll see how successful that proves, but my thinking became: I can maybe (MAYBE) get this one person on my side by emailing them OR totally turn them off to me...or, I could write a strong proposal and connect it convincingly to a number of people in the department in a variety of ways (thematically, methodologically, theoretically) and thus get a number of people excited by my project instead of just one who may not even be on the committee.

[missgawain]

Thank you, outofredink !

That was very helpful, especially since one of your fields is the same as my own. I have already started my SoP and am giving it all of my attention as well as having it read over by many professors at my current undergrad program. I wasn't intending for these proposed e-mails to take the place of a great SoP, recs, and writing sample. I just thought perhaps it would be good to get my name into consideration before the apps started rolling in. But, like you, I didn't know if prospective professors would find that appealing in a student or simply annoying!

Please let me know how your applications fare, I am especially interested to learn about UPenn (a program I would very much like to attend).

Edited February 3, 2011 by missgawain