Email chain with POI - what to do next?

[rockbender]

I have been in the process of emailing POIs for a couple of months now, to limited success. Recently I started including people more on the fringe of my interests just to try and get more responses. I guess it sort of worked? I emailed a professor last Friday and he emailed me back (rather quickly!) on Friday evening. He seemed enthusiastic (an alum from my undergrad university) and wanted to set up a time to talk on the phone. I was busy over the long weekend and have been dragging my feet in responding. His work really is on the fringe of my interests (although I have a lot of lab experience in his field from undergrad), and I was hoping to hear more about his projects before committing to a phone conversation (I am really uncomfortable/awkward on the phone - it would hurt way more than help). Plus, since then I talked to my advisor about the other professor's research, and he (my advisor) didn't think he (the other professor) would be a good fit for me. So my questions are:

1. I've waited so long - should I still send a reply? Or does the point come across (rather bluntly) from the fact that I haven't responded yet? I am pretty sure at this point that I will not be applying to work with him, but his email was nice and he DID actually respond, unlike many others. I feel like propriety dictates that I should send a reply but -

2. Do you have any advice on how to word it so it doesn't come off rude? What I would like to say is 1. sorry for taking so long to reply (though I have no good excuse) 2. that his projects are not really along my main interests 3. i emailed him to find out if his current & future projects might incorporate an element of my main interests 4. maybe after that we could talk on the phone (but not now)

Help???

[kaister]

It wouldn't hurt to chat with him. That way you can properly discuss your research interests and just be honest about them. From there he will probably tell you that you don't fit well or maybe he'll turn out to be a really interested in what you have to say and is flexible with his research (which could work out to be a great thing for you). I just don't think shutting this door is wise when you haven't even really felt it out yet.

[rockbender]

Crap - Rereading the original email I sent him, I did say that "I thought his research group could be a good fit for me" and that I was particularly interested in this work (organic geochem) that I am not particularly interested in at all (I would prefer inorganic geochem). I just used the standard format that I used for all of my other emails. Now if I tell him that I am ACTUALLY not particularly interested in his work, then the whole point of emailing him in the first place is lost...

I don't know, I think I have dug myself into a pretty deep hole with this one. I'll have to think very carefully about what to write so I don't sound like a major flake....

[ktel]

I agree with the above poster. I think you should have the phone conversation regardless at least to find out what sort of projects are available. Treat this as a practice phone call, as you will probably have many more.

[rockbender]

Ok so I did email him back! I basically said that I was interested in his work but was hoping to expand it along a different direction. I said I would be happy to talk to him on the phone if he wanted to explore that different direction... Not sure if he will take me up on it or not, but I guess we'll see.

Thanks for the advice!

[TMP]

Remember, don't overextend yourself just to be "loved" by everyone. While it's a good practice to stretch your mind and interests and talk to different people, you don't want to commit yourself to someone who DOES expect you to commit to him/her and his/her lab..... just for the sake of "being loved" and accepted.

[rockbender]

just for the sake of "being loved" and accepted.

To be clear, I am not emailing people to pat myself on the back and see how loved/lovable I am. I already know the answer to that question, which is "not much": I'm not sure what other people's success rate with cold emailing POIs, but mine has not been great. I have researched almost 50 professors, emailed ~20 of them (over several months), got responses from half, and positive responses from half of that half. I don't feel all that comfortable only having 5 schools at this stage of the process, so yes I am emailing people more on the fringe of my interests. Admittedly in the case I probably extended too far..

[TakeruK]

I think it's worth mentioning that the only real way to find out what a certain prof is currently working on is to talk to them. Publication history is just that -- history, it's stuff they worked on in the past! CVs and webpages can be outdated. It's almost always worth the 20-30 mins to talk to them -- you might be surprised!

In addition, when you visit schools, you don't always get to pick exactly who to speak to/meet with. Most of the time, you will meet with people you indicated in your SOP or they might ask you when inviting you to visit. However, there may be additional meetings set up with people you might not have considered initially. So even if this prof ends up not being a good fit at all, it's still good practice for future meetings.

[Bearcat1]

To add to this, if you speak with someone who doesn't necessarily fit, but make a good impression, that person could always mention you to the person who is a good fit. A recommendation from within the department is always a good thing!