Have you contacted any POIs?

[herbie77]

I had never heard of doing this before coming to the forum so I'm interested to see how many of you have done this.

[Darth.Vegan]

I did it for some schools and not others. Outside of ensuring certain faculty will be there and will be accepting students, I don't think it's necessary.

[iowaguy]

For Ph.D. programs it is paramount.

[Darth.Vegan]

For Ph.D. programs it is paramount.

Not in sociology it isn't, I assure you. Some departments differ, but in general this is a waste of time.

[joss10]

In some applications they ask you if/when/how you've contacted professors. Does that mean that they encourage you to contact profs? Also, would it be better to ask the grad coordinator or the professors themselves to see if they're accepting students?

[Darth.Vegan]

I would think it doesn't really matter but if you email the professor's directly you can find out about their current research which may help strengthen your SOP.

[jacib]

Joss, check out from a few weeks ago; I think it's probably a pretty good summary of the various opinions on the topic. The tl;dr: it's absolutely not necessary but probably won't hurt and may (in rare instances) help. Most likely way to help: you find out someone key is retiring and you save an application fee. I'd add, "if you do email, be considerate in terms of length". Regardless, the graduate coordinator is probably not the person to contact about this.

Also, I accidentally voted down IowaGuy the other day; glad he's back at neutral (you can't go back and vote the opposite direction after a day or two anymore like you used to be able to).

[mbrown0315]

I am currently contacting professors. One professor at UT-Austin mentioned that he "might let the admissions committee know that I talked with him." I took that as an indication that, as long as you handle the conversation well, talking with POIs can give you a bit of an edge during the admissions process. Also, several of the application forms I have reviewed ask specifically if you have consulted with any faculty. I think that filling in that part of the form might at least reflect your interest in the program, which certainly can't hurt.

Remember, in March these programs spend a fair amount of money bringing accepted applicants to visit their campuses. You have to assume that, on top of qualifications, they are interested in accepting applicants who can demonstrate that they are serious about the possibility of enrolling. Otherwise these schools are just wasting money.

[gilbertrollins]

I think a long, poorly done letter will annoy someone a little (as @faculty pointed out) and be then forgotten at worst. Nobody is emailing their adcom colleagues saying "X student contacted me -- don't read their application." A short note that hits a faculty's research interests on the head and compels them will be mildly positive -- the odds of that happening are not great, as my experience contacting external faculty just for research questions (where there was no fawning for placements) would indicate. But the vast majority will probably just be ignored, for no better reason than faculty don't care what external undergraduates need or have to say. I'd venture an 80/20 rule here. 80% just completely ignored. 10% annoying. 10% mildly positive.

@mbrown seems to be correct on filling in the question on the application, though I don't expect the signal to be especially strong.

That said, the question exists because in the (rare) event one has made *strongly positive* contact with a potential adviser, the circumstance probably weighs very heavily in the admission decision. The cost for the program to ask you is near zero. The benefit, though rare, is very large. Hence they ask.

I have only had luck hearing back from faculty whom have worked with, slash are close with my current adviser, or whose work I have done substantive research in and had *concise,* legitimate questions about thus.

Edited October 16, 2012 by econosocio

[jacib]

Just so this is all done with full knowledge, the potential adviser that seemed most excited by my contact (I remember positive words and at least one exclamation point; it was a few years ago, but I believe he was also DGS so presumably on the adcomm.) was also at a school where I ultimately didn't get in. FWIW.

[Ladril]

Just so this is all done with full knowledge, the potential adviser that seemed most excited by my contact (I remember positive words and at least one exclamation point; it was a few years ago, but I believe he was also DGS so presumably on the adcomm.) was also at a school where I ultimately didn't get in. FWIW.

I believe you. That happens quite often.

[gilbertrollins]

Yeah it's the committee's call. I imagine they take measured interest in recommendations from faculty who want X application given attention -- but they're assembling a cohort, which is a different task than just vetting applicants to match with faculty.

[magicunicorn]

Also - realize that the admissions committees for every school usually changes from year to year and only has maybe 8-15% of the entire faculty... and that often these faculty will have preference over students in their area. And sometimes the admissions committee is chosen based on what students they are looking for to fill in gaps. For example, if a school has too many graduate students who are cultural sociologists but not enough ones doing historical sociology, they may ask the historical sociology professors to be on the adcom and to have the cultural ones step back. So if you happened to make an earth-shattering connection with the cultural sociology professor at that school in that one cycle, you might be out of luck. Think about a program like Wisconsin which has 50+ professors, 20 "subfields," hundreds of applications, an admissions committee of 8 professors trying to decide. Making a connection with a professor may help, probably won't hurt, for some cases may be what gets you in (*that* professor sits on the committee that year), but in all likelihood is not crucial.

I think what is more important -- and something you should spend time doing -- is reading up on the research of the professors you would want to work with at each program and to craft something in your statement reflecting something smart about that connection between your interests and their work.