emailing POI's

[child of 2]

I saw in the results section a post by a guy with a 3.2 GPA. He emailed a professor, got a response, and received an offer hours later. This is Georgia Tech, a top 10-20 school. As far as I know, this isn't something that normally happens. What do you think?

[crimsoc]

I saw in the results section a post by a guy with a 3.2 GPA. He emailed a professor, got a response, and received an offer hours later. This is Georgia Tech, a top 10-20 school. As far as I know, this isn't something that normally happens. What do you think?

You should be in regular contact with your POI either way. So drop him/her an email and ask what is happening with the selection process.

[tip3r]

I saw in the results section a post by a guy with a 3.2 GPA. He emailed a professor, got a response, and received an offer hours later. This is Georgia Tech, a top 10-20 school. As far as I know, this isn't something that normally happens. What do you think?

 

Yes, this is something that is known to help. It actually is quite normal, especially for international students. Since they can't really visit the campus or speak to faculty any other way they bombard the POIs inbox with emails. Sometimes it back fires, sometimes you get lucky.

 

Personally, I haven't been able to get in contact with most of my POI so I don't exactly know how this works. But a school like Georgia Tech gets lots of applicants and many professors hate spending time going through the process. If they see an email from someone with an interesting resume they might offer him a position in their lab. I'd assume adcom would have to approve but it would still be a huge boost for the applicant.

 

 

You should be in regular contact with your POI either way. So drop him/her an email and ask what is happening with the selection process.

 

This is easier said than done. How do you do this? I am totally frustrated that I have not been able to get in contact with them.

[Cooleggyh]

Also, does this depends on the program? It seems it is easier for people in humanities to get in contact, but as far as I know, we people in mathematics do not really get that much reply.

[zapster]

Also, does this depends on the program? It seems it is easier for people in humanities to get in contact, but as far as I know, we people in mathematics do not really get that much reply.

 

I think this is quite field specific - you are right, in humanities as well as most social sciences it is quite usual to email POIs and elicit responses - but it gets harder in the hard sciences and business schools. Most of the time a detailed read of the program website actually provides good guidance - most of the programs I researched had clear guidelines / FAQs that mentioned either "we encourage you to contact professors before submitting applications....etc." or "Professors are busy and do not encourage contact ......etc." quite clearly.

 

I have been told by professors that programs / departments / fields where the admission process is highly POI dependent - i.e. the POIs make more individual decisions based on specific interests and fit with the POI - often even with admission given with the assignment of a specific advisor - we are encouraged to write to POIs in advance. On the other hand where the admission decisions are highly structured, wrt a formal adcom etc. and where specific advisors are commonly chosen well into the program, do not usually encourage initial contact.

 

Either way, unless the website specifically discourages contact with the professors, I think it can never hurt to email them in advance. My biggest learning from the application process was that I should have probably emailed professors earlier than I did. I received a fair number of replies, even some information on latest research interest etc. that was not published on the websites - this enabled me to select the programs better and ensure I could genuinely address the question of fit.

 

There were equally some professors who did not respond at all, and a few who came back with "pls apply through the normal application process...etc.". I was pleasantly surprised with responses from some of the professors, including some which subsequently replied with personalized comments on why I had been rejected (far more helpful than the standard rejection "you are 1 out of 10 zillion perfect applicants blah blah" that most schools provide!).

 

Finally, one last observation - so far the acceptances I have received have been from programs where the POIs I had contacted had replied back.