Contacting Faculty During Application Process

[tardisblue]

I had a question for those of you who have received acceptances from various schools: did you contact faculty members at those schools during the application process? Does anyone have a sense of whether or not contacting faculty makes a significant difference? I'm just curious because I only contacted faculty at some of the schools I applied to. 

[Darth.Vegan]

This has been debated over and over on here. Personally, I think it makes little to no difference and is largely a waste of time. I was accepted to programs I never received replies from and was rejected from programs that I received long and incredibly enthusiastic replies from. 

[Sociolite]

I think considering it a waste of time is a bit extreme. Does it improve your chances at getting into a particular program? Maybe. I think the most important impact of emailing professors is to answer critical questions about your application i.e. will said professor be accepting students or are they still investigating a particular line of inquiry. 

[Darth.Vegan]

I think considering it a waste of time is a bit extreme. Does it improve your chances at getting into a particular program? Maybe. I think the most important impact of emailing professors is to answer critical questions about your application i.e. will said professor be accepting students or are they still investigating a particular line of inquiry. 

 

I meant in terms of improving acceptance chances. 

Edited February 7, 2014 by xdarthveganx

[faculty]

 

This post above also relates to the chatter on the forum about contacting departments to check on the status of applications. This is completely understandable when it comes time to make a decision and you still haven't heard from a school that you think would be your top choice or a real contender. But right now it is way too early in the process to be doing this. It is certainly better to contact an administrative assistant if you decide to do this, but recognize that this is a busy time for people involved in admissions - whether they are a DGS, office staff, or other faculty - so please don't read too much into response times, etc. I know it's hard, but I recommend you wait a while before you start hunting down all the programs you applied to in order to get updates.

[entdeckung]

I have no clue about its impact.

 

I've been accepted at 4 schools thus far-- 2 of them I contacted faculty, the other 2 I did not (so a bit of a natural experiment? Though I can't guarantee that the schools I contacted versus did not were randomly assigned to a condition! haha).

 

I was told during the application process that I had very specific research interests and that it would be a good idea to check at certain schools to make sure those interests would be supported, which was my reason for e-mailing faculty members at some schools. At other schools, it was clear that I would find support for my research interests based on faculty members' existing work so I did not contact faculty at those schools. But who knows how it affected my chances!