Meeting Professors

[edost]

I'm visiting the United States soon and would like to meet potential advisers in departments of mass communications and PoliSci. I should stress that I haven't even applied yet. Would I be considered out of bounds if I e-mailed someone asking to meet with them? If this is acceptable, then do you have any tips about what I should write? Should I attach a CV?

[eklavya]

Would I be considered out of bounds if I e-mailed someone asking to meet with them? If this is acceptable, then do you have any tips about what I should write? Should I attach a CV?

no out of bounds at all - this is actually how most of us start the application process - email profs you want to work with, find out if they are taking new students, and then decide.

and yes, you should definitely attach a CV - make it short (1 page) yet complete enough to give a better/fuller picture of yours.

[Penelope Higgins]

A note of caution - in political science and communications programs faculty don't take individual students. Instead admissions is handled by the department as a whole (or in most cases by a committee to which decision-making is delegated). Individual faculty are MUCH less vested in the admissions process and much less receptive to being contacted by, let alone taking the time to meet with, prospective students. Information about our research interests, teaching, etc. is online; we don't have information about funding or admissions, which are handled at the department level.

Don't take a lack of response to your emails personally, nor let it deter you from applying to a department.

[signed by someone who would rather get fewer emails from prospective applicants, but is very happy to work with students once they are admitted]

no out of bounds at all - this is actually how most of us start the application process - email profs you want to work with, find out if they are taking new students, and then decide.

and yes, you should definitely attach a CV - make it short (1 page) yet complete enough to give a better/fuller picture of yours.