Contacting professors

[cooperstreet]

From the FAQ at Columbia's Poli Sci website:

Q. Does the department conduct admissions interviews? Can I visit campus, visit the department, speak with someone about admissions?

A. Because the department receives about 600 applications per year, it is not possible to conduct admissions interviews or to provide general briefings to visitors. However, questions may be emailed to the Graduate Program Coordinator. Applicants may also send email inquiries to professors with whom they may want to study.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to arrange for applicants to meet with faculty and graduate students. Since faculty who are not on leave hold weekly office hours, prospective students may wish to meet with faculty members at posted times for office hours. All students who are admitted to the Ph.D. program are contacted personally by members of the department and are invited to attend an open house after admission decisions are made.

I know this is discipline specific, but should we be contacting profs that we want to work with?

[Tall Chai Latte]

Why not?

[TropicalCharlie]

You should definitely contact professors whom you are interested in working with.

In my experience, many are great resources for the application process. During my application season last year, I was in contact with a prof from an Ivy school who offered to look over my SOP and advised me on the content. I was not admitted to this school but it was very helpful to have someone on the inside point me in the right direction. Keep in mind that most profs are busy and will not respond to your first or second email, but be persistent and follow up. You will get a response after the second or third email. Good luck.

[Penelope Higgins]

Because you are not admitted to a political science program to work in a particular professors' lab or group, faculty as a whole are far less involved with the admissions process than in the natural sciences. As a result, they are less inclined to respond to email, and their influence is going to be less important in your admissions process. I encourage my students applying to grad schools not to reach out to faculty, but I reach out to colleagues on their behalf as appropriate. If you are applying to political science programs, I would not spend much energy trying to contact faculty.

[3221]

Agree with Penelope.

[jacib]

There was also about this in the Sociology subform recently. I imagine the two disciplines admit people in similar ways with regard to professor relationships (with the primary difference being that Soc's subfields are less well defined than Poli Sci's).

[cooperstreet]

Thanks. This is helpful.

[cooperstreet]

How about this.

I'm a continuing education student at one of the schools that I am applying to.

Should I stop in during office hours to some of the profs that I want to work with?

[BrunoPuntzJones]

It depends on what you want to get out them. If you want advice on graduate school, the application process, etc..., than I know a number of faculty members are happy to help out. I'd recommend e-mailing them ahead of time though.

It won't help you in terms of admission. Penelope's post is spot on (at least for where I'm at). Admission decisions are made by faculty members on the committee and there really isn't any involvement from other folks. There's a post somewhere on this board that describes how one adminssion committee operated that's pretty good. You might want to give it a look.

[dworkable]

I recently spoke with my former advisor at my undergraduate institution and mentioned to him my new-ish interest in the works of two particular professors at top schools I am applying to. He reached out to them via email on my behalf (they are old friends) and now one of the professors is interested in speaking with me over the phone. Does anyone have advice for this sort of conversation? I am primarily interested in finding out what current projects this professor is working on, as well as feeling out how I might tailor my research interests in my SOP towards getting into this school. Is there a way to do that without coming off as unsure of my research interests? To be honest, I am a political theorist and do have rather broad interests (but have been getting more involved in questions about gender.) I want to make sure this call goes well, any advice would be SUPER appreciated.

[puddle]

I recently spoke with my former advisor at my undergraduate institution and mentioned to him my new-ish interest in the works of two particular professors at top schools I am applying to. He reached out to them via email on my behalf (they are old friends) and now one of the professors is interested in speaking with me over the phone. Does anyone have advice for this sort of conversation? I am primarily interested in finding out what current projects this professor is working on, as well as feeling out how I might tailor my research interests in my SOP towards getting into this school. Is there a way to do that without coming off as unsure of my research interests? To be honest, I am a political theorist and do have rather broad interests (but have been getting more involved in questions about gender.) I want to make sure this call goes well, any advice would be SUPER appreciated.

Advice (in handy-dandy list form)

1. Re-read the paper or book that you originally expressed an interest in. Read carefully. Make notes. Do not get caught with your pants down if they ask you about a particular argument.

2. Steer the conversation - have some points jotted down on a piece of paper so that you can talk comfortably for a while. Have clear quesitons that you want to ask the professor.

3. Be honest about your intentions - you plan on applying to the school at which this professor works and you should not feel embarassed asking how the admissions processs works, what types of applicants they may be looking for, which junior and senior faculty will be around next year, etc.