Experiences Emailing Professors of Interest

[and...and...and...]

Hello, all!

So I started emailing POIs about a couple days ago. I have no idea if/when they will respond. I'm just wondering about everyone else's experiences. Have you heard back from POIs? What kind of responses have you received? About how long did it take them to write back?

Thank you! Hope everyone is doing well!

[Timshel]

I am curious, too. I have a couple I intended to reach out to, but I haven't yet. It's just another thing on my list that I need to do......This process is torture!

[Alaskah]

There are other threads here that chat a bit about this:

There are probably more. From what I gather, they respond better if your e-mail is really tailored toward them (not a mass e-mail sent to multiple profs). As for when...it depends how busy they are. Someone at another forum was freaking out because he/she did not hear back from a prospective prof after a week or two (he apparently had been enthusiastic about her after her first e-mail, but took a while to reply to the second) - turns out he had just be traveling, not ignoring or forgetting about her.

[yank in the M20]

I wrote to two at different Unis. From one I had very positive feedback, he wants me to email him to let him know when I've applied so he can look at my application, and he was very friendly and expressed real interest in my proposal. He took a week to get back to me and apologized for taking so long because he was traveling. The other was professional and told me a bit more about the program, but didn't express the enthusiasm that the first did. I only emailed back to thank them both, no follow-up questions, etc.--I know how busy my MA lecturers are so I would really hesitate to try to keep up an email exchange. Mine was personalized about why I was writing to them and then a paragraph on my specific topic and another on my larger perspective. I was planning to write to at least one prof. at another Uni, but hadn't gotten to it yet. I would hesitate to contact anyone this late in the game. I mean, it might come off more that you want them to remember you than that you are really genuinely interested in their program and their availability to supervise you. At least that's what I decided for my last one--I'm not contacting. Because of the mixed advice on this forum, I wanted to try both so I contacted profs at two (would have been three) of the seven Unis I'm applying to. Just my two cents. Hope it's useful.

[Timshel]

I wrote to two at different Unis. From one I had very positive feedback, he wants me to email him to let him know when I've applied so he can look at my application, and he was very friendly and expressed real interest in my proposal. He took a week to get back to me and apologized for taking so long because he was traveling. The other was professional and told me a bit more about the program, but didn't express the enthusiasm that the first did. I only emailed back to thank them both, no follow-up questions, etc.--I know how busy my MA lecturers are so I would really hesitate to try to keep up an email exchange. Mine was personalized about why I was writing to them and then a paragraph on my specific topic and another on my larger perspective. I was planning to write to at least one prof. at another Uni, but hadn't gotten to it yet. I would hesitate to contact anyone this late in the game. I mean, it might come off more that you want them to remember you than that you are really genuinely interested in their program and their availability to supervise you. At least that's what I decided for my last one--I'm not contacting. Because of the mixed advice on this forum, I wanted to try both so I contacted profs at two (would have been three) of the seven Unis I'm applying to. Just my two cents. Hope it's useful.

Well, I think it depends on when apps are due if it's too late. For Dec. 1st apps, sure, but I have a couple of schools that don't have apps due until the end of January, so it doesn't seem too late right now.

[darjeelingtea16]

I think that as with any other aspect of this mad application process, it really just depends on the POI. Last year, I emailed maybe 10 people. Each of the emails I wrote was catered to them (so not a mass email). Two replied right away, three wrote me back in about a week, and then one (who I was really excited about) didn't write back until a couple months later, when the semester ended. That last one took a while because he said he was just very, very busy, but he kept my email in mind and wrote me back when he had time, which just happened to be a couple months later. The other people I emailed never responded.

I also agree with Timshel. If the apps are due in early Dec, it might be too late to start contacting POIs.