Admission committee sponsors/contacted professors

[Tynan]

So this year is my first go at PhD applications. I was going to apply last year but a lot of the departments I contacted (I do history/lit/regional studies) asked that I put it off a year as there was a rash of retirements of professors that would have supported my application. This time around everyone was happy to hear from me and that I was applying. However, the reactions I got ran the gambit from "Yea sure, go ahead and apply, you might fit" to one professor promising he'd support my application during the review process, he even edited 3 drafts of my SOP. What kind of reactions has everyone else gotten? I feel like as safe/threatened as any response might be, you just can't predict what the committee is going to do.

[foucaultmania]

It sounds good but if that professor will be in the selection committee, your chance will be very high. Otherwise, his support may not make a sense in some cases...