How to approach faculty at prospective schools?

[rustytrix]

So a lot of people suggest that this is good start towards a successful application but how exactly do you start the conversation? Do you talk about some of their papers in the field or about yourself? And I suppose those faculty members already know that you are contacting them to improve chances for admission, wouldn't that somehow make your communication look a little fake (even though some of us might be genuinely interested in talking to the faculty in question) ?

[Canofbeans]

Hmm, yes I have actually been wondering myself, I got in at the university I want to attend but I don't think the supervisor has actually been assigned or the courses I will be TAing either. There's the question of who i'm supposed to contact with regards to that stuff. I was thinking, I would email the professor I want work with and ask which courses he will be teaching so that I can apply to the T.A positions. I'm also wondering how early I should do this. I think it's a bit early now, I'm thinking I'll wait till May or June. Visiting is also another good idea, before you do, I think it may be a good idea to contact the faculty, ask them if the'll be around and free to meet.

[socialpsych]

I assume you are planning to apply next cycle. Write them emails in the fall. Introduce yourself, describe your research interests, say what work of theirs you are particularly interested in or what interests you share with them, and ask whether they are taking on grad students next year.

I didn't do this myself this year but I wish I had. I think the "are you taking on advisees" question is a good way to start b/c it's not demanding much of their time/interest, but at the same time, if they're willing to talk more, they have an opportunity to offer.

If they do say they are willing to talk more, say you have seen their recent publications but are wondering what they've been working on more recently, or something like that. To address your worry about sounding strategic/disingenuous: I would hope that you'd actually be sincerely interested in the work your potential advisors are doing. If you can't manage to be interested even during a half-hour phone conversation, perhaps you had better not apply to work with those people. Just keep asking intelligent questions and your sincere interest should come through; otherwise, yes, you probably will sound disingenuous, and, yes, I'd imagine that will hurt you.

[Canofbeans]

Oh well, ok I totally misunderstood the first question. But I actually did spend a lot of time contacting faculty before applying and it really really does improve your odds of getting in (from my experience, I got into schools, I never imagined getting into because of my horrible grades in 1 and second year). Anyways, another important factor in your application is knowing what you want to do and research. You really need to think about what you want to study in detail and why this is important. Once you have that, you can identify interesting faculty, read some of their work (if you haven't already). Then you can simply email them, tell them your interesting in studying such and such and that you are particularly drawn to their work, and that you will be applying for gradschool at their department. You can also ask them if they'll be taking on graduate students in the upcoming years (sometimes they go on leave). The conversation goes off from there. I actually spoke with one professor for a bit, and at the second conversation he said that he receives a lot of emails from prospective grad students but that mine was different, because I knew what I wanted to do and research so I think that's key. You can start doing this around the end of summer or fall 2009 if you're applying for the 2010 cohort.

I also found that another thing that really mattered was talking to your current profs, some that you feel comfortable talking to or may have common interests. It is quite possible that your prof already knows some of the other faculty members that you plan to work with or contact and in that case they can put in a good word for you ;-) or perhaps introduce you or something.

My cumulative GPA was pretty crappy due to the fact that I didn't do so great in my 1.2 years, but I got in to most universities with a lot of funding, and I know that it was due to the fact that I was in touch with some of the faculty members and my statement of interest which was clear, concise and well written (although I spent about 3 months writing it).

[rising_star]

This question, and variations on it, have been asked repeatedly over in "Applications".

[rustytrix]

First of all, thanks a lot guys for all the helpful suggestions. I also wanted to ask one more thing...namely, is it a bad idea to contact more than one faculty member from the same school? or does it not matter how many faculty member you contact as long as they are a good match for your own research interests?

[sunny27]

On contacting faculty and asking if they're taking on advisees to help your chances of getting in -- sorry to say, this has a low likelihood of working (to the person above who said it did work, my guess is that your clear research statement had more to do with your success). All schools have a small subset of faculty who make the admissions decisions (usually about 4-5 faculty members), and the admissions committee is rotated every year (and you won't know who's on the committee). Since admissions committees have read all the applications and thus can make all the relevant comparisons among the files, they usually don't take into consideration a single faculty member's suggestion that they admit someone with whom he/she had a few interesting email conversations. I know everyone wants to believe they have more control over this process than they do. But it's better to know now that your best shot is to have a combination of good grades, good gre scores, research experience, and a fantastic research statement.

[jackassjim]

Here is my somewhat polisci-specific answer (for future generations of obsessive gradcafe readers).

I concur with sunny27. Contacting faculty seems to be much more important in fields like psychology or the natural sciences since individual professors of such disciplines have more influence on the admission process. It is important to contact such professors, if only to know if they are taking students in their lab in the coming years. If they don't have the funds to pay for your stipend, they typically won't consider admitting you. Since they have much of their own individual research funds invested in their students, they are quite invested in the selection process (that's why they often do interviews too). Polisci profs might take you on as a first year advisee even if they have many others, as this does not necessarily mean a long term commitment (your research interests might change, etc.).

In polisci, I would be very surprised to hear of a prof from outside the admission committee sticking her head out for a student whom she only knows through email. What my letter writers suggested: contact a prof only if you've met her in person, or if you have a genuine question that only she can answer (not on the website FAQ and not the responsibility of some departmental chair). My current advisors told me that they get so much of this type of email that they can rarely remember the names of the students they exchanged with.

What might actually help your chances though, is if one of your letter writers makes phone call on your behalf to people inside the prospective department. This is much more likely to have an impact than a couple of smart emails.

combination of good grades, good gre scores, research experience, and a fantastic research statement.

To this list, I would add: Fantastic research interest match with (ideally more than 1) faculty members.

[Canofbeans]

I don't think you should contact faculty with the intention of simply making yourself look better for the admissions committee. There are a lot of benefits of actually talking to faculty members before applying, this can be done by email, going to visit the university, calling or whichever. First, it helps develop a relationship between the student and a prospective supervisor, it can help you determine whether or not (1) you actually want to go to the school and (2) whether you want to work with the person. And I can say this from actual experience, I did get a faculty member (not on the admissions committee) mention me to other faculty members on the admissions committee after meeting him at a conference. Of course, I met this professor through one of my current professors that is well known in the field, so that obviously helps build your credibility. Talking to faculty members also helps you figure out what you want to do and why you want to do it which helps in building a good statement. I also don't think there is anything wrong with contacting multiple faculty members at the same university if they all have interests that are similar to yours. I spoke to a lot of people to get advice about applying to gardschool, and everyone said it's a great idea to get in touch with faculty members. Obviously, good grades, statement and GRE's and also key.

[Canofbeans]

Also, some application forms actually ask you if you have been in touch with any faculty members at their university.

[rising_star]

On contacting faculty and asking if they're taking on advisees to help your chances of getting in -- sorry to say, this has a low likelihood of working (to the person above who said it did work, my guess is that your clear research statement had more to do with your success). All schools have a small subset of faculty who make the admissions decisions (usually about 4-5 faculty members), and the admissions committee is rotated every year (and you won't know who's on the committee). Since admissions committees have read all the applications and thus can make all the relevant comparisons among the files, they usually don't take into consideration a single faculty member's suggestion that they admit someone with whom he/she had a few interesting email conversations. I know everyone wants to believe they have more control over this process than they do. But it's better to know now that your best shot is to have a combination of good grades, good gre scores, research experience, and a fantastic research statement.

Maybe this is true in polisci but it certainly wasn't my experience. Where I did my MA, the committee met and reviewed files. If they were considering the applicants, they then passed the application on to the faculty mentioned in the SOP and on the application (applicants are asked to list who they would like to be their advisor). If the faculty member passed on the applicant, then the file would go to another faculty member. If all the faculty pass on advising the applicant, the applicant isn't admitted. Sometimes the applicant's first choice passes due to having too many students and someone else decides to accept the applicant. My MA advisor wasn't on the admissions committee but helped me secure admissions because she immediately and enthusiastically agreed to work with me when my file was placed on her desk. Why? Because we'd exchanged something like 10 or 15 emails discussing my research interests, other units on campus I could work with, future course offerings, etc. So, at least in that program, an individual faculty member can sway the admissions committee because they could all decide that an applicant's interest doesn't fit in with theirs, which would mean that someone with a 4.0, 1600 GRE wouldn't get accepted. Like I said, this isn't a poli sci program but I know that admissions style happens in other fields too. Also, I'd hesitate to say that every member of the admissions committee reads every file because that is often NOT the case (as in, not at my current program and not at a couple of places to which I applied).

Contacting faculty seems to be much more important in fields like psychology or the natural sciences since individual professors of such disciplines have more influence on the admission process. It is important to contact such professors, if only to know if they are taking students in their lab in the coming years.

I would say this is important in the humanities and social sciences too. A lot of people waste money applying to work with some all-star that already has all the PhD students s/he wants and isn't planning to take any students for a year or two. Emailing first to ask this question can save you money. (Personally, I learned that two people I wanted to work with weren't taking students when I was applying so I saved myself $125 in application fees alone by not applying to those schools. Without sending those emails, I would not have known as my advisors had no clue about that either and even seemed surprised when I told them.) I would also ask questions about advising style, student success obtaining funding, etc because if you want to develop your own project, and the person you want to work with has a big grant that they want their RAs to work on and write a dissertation based on, it may be an incompatible relationship.

[jackassjim]

rising_star: I agree with much of what you are saying. My point was that professors in polisci do not seem to "take" students as they do in other fields. I have been accepted to quite a few schools, but I have not received any confirmation about who would be my adviser. You are usually assigned an informal adviser when you enroll. That person helps you plan your program (choose courses, etc.). Of course, at some point you'll need to find a chair for your dissertation committee. My sense is that the process of finding a dissertation chair (your main adviser and advocate on the job market), is sui generis. It depends on your individual path through grad school, and is certainly not decided by those in charge of admissions.

[rising_star]

rising_star: I agree with much of what you are saying. My point was that professors in polisci do not seem to "take" students as they do in other fields. I have been accepted to quite a few schools, but I have not received any confirmation about who would be my adviser. You are usually assigned an informal adviser when you enroll. That person helps you plan your program (choose courses, etc.). Of course, at some point you'll need to find a chair for your dissertation committee. My sense is that the process of finding a dissertation chair (your main adviser and advocate on the job market), is sui generis. It depends on your individual path through grad school, and is certainly not decided by those in charge of admissions.

That's interesting. I'm in another social science discipline and every PhD student starts with an advisor (the one they identified on their application). But things are pretty friendly and people can and do switch advisors as they see fit. My advisor has told me all year long that while he enjoys working with me, I'm more than welcome to switch to working with whomever I want in the department, and that he'd still serve on my committee if I did. So I would say that people "take students" in the sense of agreeing to advise and mentor them throughout their MA and PhD program. This was true of where I did my MA and is true of my current PhD program (and those I applied to). But, I never received "confirmation" of who would be my advisor when I accepted. I always contacted the prospective advisor and made sure that s/he would be willing to serve as my advisor/dissertation chair throughout my program. Often, when I visited schools, that person was the one that coordinated my visit, made sure I had airport pickup and a place to stay, arranged faculty meetings, etc. So it was pretty clear that it wasn't an "informal advisor". Maybe polisci is really different than other social sciences.

[jackassjim]

Maybe polisci is really different than other social sciences.

Or maybe this is just another sign of my obliviousness

In any case, I think we will all agree that the cost of contacting potential supervisors is so low that even if the benefits of doing so might be somewhat overstated, it almost certainly doesn't hurt to do it.

[Ferrero]

Nothing wrong with dropping them a line. One good approach that (in my experience) leaves an impression and elicits a response is to CC the rest of the faculty with your email, in addition to the graduate students in your subfield at the school. There will be more pressure for the professor to then reply to you, and, as a side benefit, people will be chatting up in the halls about your precociousness and (hopefully good) questions/manners.

[socialpsych]

Ah Ferrero...you're back!

[natofone]

Nothing wrong with dropping them a line. One good approach that (in my experience) leaves an impression and elicits a response is to CC the rest of the faculty with your email, in addition to the graduate students in your subfield at the school. There will be more pressure for the professor to then reply to you, and, as a side benefit, people will be chatting up in the halls about your precociousness and (hopefully good) questions/manners.

I would like to encourage my competition (next year) to do exactly this. Every one of ya!

[convex]

Nothing wrong with dropping them a line. One good approach that (in my experience) leaves an impression and elicits a response is to CC the rest of the faculty with your email, in addition to the graduate students in your subfield at the school. There will be more pressure for the professor to then reply to you, and, as a side benefit, people will be chatting up in the halls about your precociousness and (hopefully good) questions/manners.

This is not good advice.

[natofone]

You think?

[rustytrix]

This is not good advice.

ya does not sound like something i would want to do ... but then again that is just my personal opinion

[sunny27]

Ferrero is joking, people!

[natofone]

You think?

[plisar]

Ferraro figured out the secret to my success!

[rustytrix]

do assistant professors get to be in the adcom? or is it just associate and other tenured profs?

[plisar]

do assistant professors get to be in the adcom? or is it just associate and other tenured profs?

seriously?