Emailing Professors?!?!?! Any Help??

[StructuralEngr88]

I have read and heard that emailing professors and getting in touch with them is a very positive thing for graduate school admissions. However, I have a question that I could not find online and I hope anyone here can answer or in the same situation as I am.

I will be applying for a master in engineering for grad school in structural engineering. I will not want to do research (M.Eng instead of M.S) so should I still somehow need to email professors in my discipline? If so, any idea how I would go about it? I feel like emailing professors only help if you want to do research for him/her or have the same interest in the professor's field. What would you even say if you are not doing research and still emailing the professor?

Any advice will be grealy appreciated! Thank you!

[TeaGirl]

Why would you email a professor for a M.Eng.? Since you won't be doing research it's not likely that you'll get any type of research funding, nor are you looking for an advisor for a MS thesis, so emailing a professor is not really going to accomplish anything. If it's to improve your admission chances, I don't think it matters much. I think it would be better if you work on building a really strong application.

Edited September 25, 2012 by TeaGirl