Contacting POIs about meeting at upcoming conference?

[ed2122]

I am applying to graduate school (cog/dev psych PhD programs) for my second time this year. Last year I interviewed at 3 schools, got wait listed at 2, but wasn't accepted anywhere. I finished undergrad in 2007 and since then I have not really had any academic/research experience. The professor whose lab I worked in as an undergrad (who is one of my recommendation letter writers) suggested I try to get a poster at a conference based on my senior thesis research - her recommendation was the BUCLD conference. Somewhat to my surprise my poster was accepted (with only a 34% acceptance rate too).

 

Now, the conference is next weekend. I am planning to attend all 3 days as I figure this is a good way to get exposure to people, ideas, realities of academic life. There will be profs there from most if not all of the programs I am planning to apply to, including the professors who I'd want to work with. I know it's probably really late to be doing this, but should I email these professors and ask to meet them? I figure I could at least mention that I am presenting during one of the poster sessions and would appreciate the opportunity to discuss my past research and interests with them. I am also planning to attend the presentations of as many POIs as I can, and hopefully I can come up to them at the end and introduce myself and ask a few questions.

 

Also, if anyone has any other helpful suggestions for networking at the conference, I would truly appreciate it. I don't really know anyone there and will be alone pretty much the whole time. I will probably see the prof I mentioned above but we have not been in touch much recently as she's been really busy, and I doubt she will have too much time to spend with me.

[TakeruK]

Yes, this is what I did (although there wasn't a big time gap for me). A few months before applications were due, there was a big conference in my field, so I emailed a bunch of people I was interested in for grad school and just introduced myself, said I was interested in applying, and asked if they were going to be at the conference, and if so, could I talk to them about applying. Some of the people were busy / not attending so they gave me names of their students who were attending instead. Many of them said that they will look for me at my poster etc.

 

Also, you can look at people's nametags and if they are at the school you want to go to, introduce yourself as a potential applicant! Many conferences in my field are run by the national society for X, so the nametags will usually say if they are a student/jr. member or a full member (i.e. post-doc or prof). It would be a good idea to talk to both students and profs at the schools you want to go to.