Mentioning wanting to work the a prof. through a consortium. Good idea?

[NerdyKnitter]

Hello all! I am getting ready to turn in applications and everything is going well except for one little snag in a SoP for one school. At the encouragement of my former advisor, I am applying to the school where I did my MA. While there, I worked closely with a professor at another university through the graduate consortium and this prof. is a major reason why I'd like to do a PhD at this location. Should I mention him in my SoP? As it stands, in the section where I talk about why I want to go to this particular school, I have a sentence along the lines of: "In addition to X University's faculty, I would be interested in continuing to utilize the Graduate Consortium to work with Dr. Y in the area of..."

There is one additional issue to consider: While my former advisor really supports working with Professor Y, the director of graduate studies really dislikes Prof. Y and made snide comments about him when I was working with him during my MA. I know it's silly to worry about infighting/professor's egos, but I'd rather not blow an application because of something like this.

[Safferz]

I wouldn't do it. I made a similar mention on my SOP for one school, but I was careful not to go into why I'd like to take classes at Other University with X professor(s), since my concern was that an adcomm may wonder why you didn't just apply to Other University instead. Mention the consortium as being one of the reasons you're drawn to the program, but don't bring up the professor there. Your SOP should be entirely focused on the school you're applying to.

[zep]

While my former advisor really supports working with Professor Y, the director of graduate studies really dislikes Prof. Y and made snide comments about him when I was working with him during my MA.

Sorry to hear that. It's unfair that you got stuck in the middle of this ego contest. I'd advise you to avoid mentioning Prof. Y, but it's unfortunate that your SoP is being stifled by someone else's political disagreements. :-/

[rising_star]

I would mention the Consortium when you're mentioning all the other assets on campus that you will draw on. For example, I always talked about the related strengths of other areas on campus that could support me in doing my research.