Who qualifies as POI?

[cassie.castillo]

Hi! A few of the schools I'm applying to have a rather large faculty with a combination of tenured professors, associate professors, assistant professors, etc. Should I limit myself to tenured professors? Or are other professors involved in the advisory process as well? Thanks!

[Eigen]

In the US, any tenure track faculty member is usually involved in advising, from my experience. In fact, students graduated is one of the things usually required for a tenure package.

[cassie.castillo]

I suppose that makes sense. How would you identify if the faculty member is tenure track, though?

[kaister]

Typically they list that on faculty websites, or sometimes there will be "list of faculty advisors" on department websites. If it's completely unclear and they're just listed as "assistant, associate professor or professor of..." then I would assume they advise students. You can always ask to make sure they accept students, but that's my general guideline, that and usually they have a place listing their research interests or a research page, and those tend to be those who advise.

[Eigen]

To add on, generally "professor" positions are tenured or tenure track, the exceptions being "Professor of Practice" and "Visiting Assistant Professor".

What you want to look for are Assistant, Associate and full Professors, as a general rule.

[cyberwulf]

"Research Assistant/Associate Professor" or "Teaching Assistant/Associate Professor" can sometimes denote non-tenure track positions. However, these faculty members are often eligible to advise (or at least co-advise) students.

[cassie.castillo]

Thanks, everyone! Clears that up about as much as possible, I guess