Name Dropping in SOP

[Timshel]

Okay, I have a question about the SOP. I currently have my Master's degree in Lit, and I will be applying to PhD programs this fall. A professor at the university I go my Master's at had a workshop that gave us tips on applying to PhD programs. She got her PhD at Buffalo and sat in on the admissions board while she was there, so she gave us advice based on what Buffalo did when deciding on who to accept. She said one of the big no-nos was to mention specific professors that you want to work with in your statement of purpose. She claims that this could upset or alienate other instructors, and it could contribute to you not getting in. However, I have read conflicting thoughts here on the boards and elsewhere, where people have said that they listed specific people they wanted to work with.

I'm just curious, what advice have you heard? If you were accepted somewhere, what did you do? I'm just trying to figure out what I should do.....I'm so conflicted.

[newms]

Okay, I have a question about the SOP. I currently have my Master's degree in Lit, and I will be applying to PhD programs this fall. A professor at the university I go my Master's at had a workshop that gave us tips on applying to PhD programs. She got her PhD at Buffalo and sat in on the admissions board while she was there, so she gave us advice based on what Buffalo did when deciding on who to accept. She said one of the big no-nos was to mention specific professors that you want to work with in your statement of purpose. She claims that this could upset or alienate other instructors, and it could contribute to you not getting in. However, I have read conflicting thoughts here on the boards and elsewhere, where people have said that they listed specific people they wanted to work with.

I'm just curious, what advice have you heard? If you were accepted somewhere, what did you do? I'm just trying to figure out what I should do.....I'm so conflicted.

I'm not in your field, but perhaps I can speak to why you've seen conflicting advice about this - I was confused about it as well. Apparently whether you should mention specific professors is very field specific - in science and engineering fields, it's usually a good idea, but from what I've seen about your field, it's usually advised that you don't mention specific professors. Maybe someone from your field can confirm or clarify.

[lyonessrampant]

I did mention professors whom I hoped to work with, but I didn't do it in a name-dropping way. I talked about courses offered and specific books by faculty that I was familiar with and had used in my own research. I also framed it in such a way to say that while I was really excited about these courses/books/faculty, it was the overall department and everything they had to offer in my subfield that motivated my decision to apply (justification of fit). I know there is mixed feelings about this. I wanted to personalize and thought I could best demonstrate fit that way; I was pretty successful with my applications (UMn, UT-A, UUtah, UO, KU, Notre Dame and told I was very competitive and close in conversations with UChicago, Duke, and UW admissions/DGS folks). On the other hand, a friend who got into Brown, Cornell, and waitlisted at Princeton did not name drop or really do anything to show fit, but his research proposal was very detailed and reflected interests/recent work done by people at those institutions. So, yeah, I think you should do what you feel works best for you, and as long as you're careful about how you invoke specific faculty, I think you can avoid offending people.

[Gelpfrat the Bold]

I mentioned multiple people I'd be interested in working and taking classes with, and like someone else mentioned I did my best to talk about why the department appealed to me as a whole. I was wary of alienating faculty members by just talking about how great their one famous colleague is, so I tried to spread my enthusiasm around and find relevant things to say about more than just one person. But thanks for sharing, it's interesting to hear that not everyone thinks name-dropping is such a great idea. I'd be inclined to agree, since I think that if a statement of purpose is well-written enough, it should be clear whether or not there are any relevant faculty members for the student's interest, even if no specific names are used.

[stillthisappeal]

I think your professor was correct in the spirit of her comments, but not in the specifics. She's right that you don't want to rattle off the names of every professor in the department that holds a distinguished chair, or claim that you are only interested in taking courses with Professor X. After all, it's possible that the admissions committee could be critical or jealous of those professors' reputations. At the same time, a central focus of your SOP is to articulate why you need to study at this particular university and not somewhere else. One way to explain how you see yourself fitting into the department is to express an interest in a specific professor's work. No one is going to penalize you for admiring research. Anyone who suggests otherwise has unrealistic (or misguided) expectations. Still, you should keep in mind that these references should be concise. A sentence or two is more than enough space to show that you understand what certain faculty members are working on. The SOP should ultimately be about your interests, not the department's.

My background: I mentioned faculty members in every SOP and was accepted at over 50% of the schools I applied to. I don't think it makes a difference one way or another.

[runonsentence]

My DGS advised all of us master's students not to name-drop because you have no idea of the politics at play at the schools where you're applying. (In his words: "Suppose you’ve found faculty you would liketo work with: what if they’re not around anymore, or one of them got drunk andfell into my Christmas tree? It’s so easy to get the tone wrong. You are onsafer ground, if you want, to indicate that you know what is the strength orfocus of a program. (“I am applying to your program because I want to do thecreative dissertation but also work with the Institute on Riverboat Gambling….)")

Having had this slightly back-fire on me during my master's round of applications, I'm inclined to agree with him. I think it's much safer to talk about the kind of research being done that interests you, or to take lyonessrampant's tack.