Mentioning faculty in SOP

[colormelovely]

Hi everyone,

I will be applying for the fall 2015 application season, and I'm looking for advice about SOPs. I've heard differing opinions about mentioning faculty who I want to work with in my statement; is this okay to do? I had someone tell me that it would sound artificial to do so; instead, he suggested that I should just talk about interests and how they match the department's not a specific person. Thoughts?

[seroteamavi]

You were told correctly. It is better to mention your interests. Those faculty with who you want to work with recognize shared interests. Naming people, I understand, doesn't win you any points with those named, and may have the undesired effect of having other faculty appear uninteresting to you.

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

I mentioned that I "share an interest" with Dr. X on bla bla bla, but I didn't say I "want to work with" Dr. X. Probably because I'm doing a 1-year master's so I won't really be doing research with specific professors anyway. But I just wanted to show that I was familiar with the work of some of the professors. Anyway, I got in. I don't know if mentioning that had any effect on me getting in though. 

[newenglandshawn]

You were told correctly. It is better to mention your interests. Those faculty with who you want to work with recognize shared interests. Naming people, I understand, doesn't win you any points with those named, and may have the undesired effect of having other faculty appear uninteresting to you.

 

This seems to go against everything else I've ever heard on here - and other places.

Edited April 8, 2014 by newenglandshawn

[sacklunch]

What level, M* or PhD? The program you are applying will drastically change my answer to the question. 

[spellbanisher]

Here is advice on applying from Eric Rauchway, who is a professor of history at UC Davis

Graduate school applicants: applying to graduate school is like applying for an medieval apprenticeship — you’re applying to study with someone, as much as at someplace. You need to show that you know why you should be an apprentice to this person, and not to some other person. Furthermore:

Please consider, checking the website is not good enough. A department website will tell you that Professor Q is an expert in administration during the Age of the Pharaohs. You mustn’t cut-and-paste, saying, I want to study administration during the Age of the Pharaohs with Professor Q. Because Professor Q will have a very specific take on administration during the Age of the Pharaohs. Professor Q will have strong opinions about the sources you should use to study administration during the Age of the Pharaohs. And — this is the key point — Professor Q will not have kept these ideas secret, but will in fact have published them somewhere. Get hold of that publication. Read it. Then explain why you should study with Professor Q, using meaningful and specific examples.

Please don’t write Professor Q to ask her opinion on administration during the Age of the Pharaohs until you have read what she has already said in print. Emails that say, “I am interested in administration during the Age of the Pharaohs and I see you are too. Could you tell me more about your research?” are emails with the secret message in invisible ink reading “I did not go to the library. I do not care enough about you or your research to read it before writing you. I am, honestly, unclear on the concept of being a graduate student.”

http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/edgeofthewest/2007/12/03/do-thy-homework/

This advice implies that you should mention specific faculty, as you are applying to work with a particular person.

Edited April 8, 2014 by spellbanisher

[sacklunch]

That is for doctoral programs, here in philosophy. Also, the field of philosophy, while similar in many ways to religion, often has students applying straight from college. I'm not saying this has a huge impact on one's SOP, but the differences are worth keeping in mind.

[colormelovely]

What level, M* or PhD? The program you are applying will drastically change my answer to the question.

I will be applying for MA programs directly out of undergrad. Edited April 8, 2014 by colormelovely

[marXian]

I will be applying for MA programs directly out of undergrad.

 

Applying for an MA you don't need to worry about mentioning specific faculty.

 

spellbanisher is right; people applying to Ph.D programs absolutely should mention specific faculty. You need to demonstrate your fit with the department and that you're interested in working with particular faculty (with whom you will be working for a long time.)

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

Applying for an MA you don't need to worry about mentioning specific faculty.

 

spellbanisher is right; people applying to Ph.D programs absolutely should mention specific faculty. You need to demonstrate your fit with the department and that you're interested in working with particular faculty (with whom you will be working for a long time.)

Very true. Think about it. As a PhD student, you'll be working alongside this professor for 5 years. They'd want to know that you share an interest and overall goal. As a master's student, you won't be much different from an undergrad, at least from the professor's perspective. You'll be taking classes for a year, maybe two, and might do some minor research projects in the lab. As long as you meet the program's minimum qualifications and didn't make a major mistake in your statement of purpose, you have a very good chance of getting accepted. Hell, I only applied to one MS program and I wasn't even really worried. Not to mention, it was at a top notch university, and I had no research experience and went to a low-tier undergrad university. People thought I was crazy. I wasn't worried. And I got in.

[sacklunch]

What kind of M* programs you are applying will also change the trajectory of your SOP. If you are applying to divinity schools, you will likely fair well (e.g. funding) to be more 'personal' and 'pastoral'. Do some research and play the part. 

[seroteamavi]

This seems to go against everything else I've ever heard on here - and other places.

 

I'm just passing along what I was told. For instance, one highly respected professor said "I do not think I would mention the name of any particular professor." A Ph.D. student said that "naming individuals is a risky business - it basically leaves out everyone you didn't name in the cold. This is not a way to engender love for yourself. My advice is to give nods to certain faculty by mentioning interests, not names." Others spoke similarly. I am sure that different faculties have different perspectives on this.

[sacklunch]

Meh, not mentioning why the school is a good fit is a terrible idea, we would all agree (I hope) and this often entails discussing faculty you hope to work with. Again, we are merely speaking past one another if we are talking about M* vs PhD programs. The former, again, will vary greatly depending on the program (HDS would rather hear about how your post-op transition from male to female has helped your theological interests grow, while an MA in NELC at Harvard would, I imagine, look around the room utterly confused on why your personal life has anything to do with your academic interests). The latter...well, if you apply to a doctoral program, especially in our field where having 3-5 years of masters work is not uncommon...well, good luck on getting in without mentioning faculty of interest. Again, if you are a senior in college and a classics major applying to doctoral programs, sure, it might not matter at that point what particular faculty you'd like to work with, perhaps philosophy students, too, though I would bet even those folks would not imagine turning in an SOP without at least a paragraph addressing faculty interests and how they jive with your own. 

[seroteamavi]

Meh, not mentioning why the school is a good fit is a terrible idea, we would all agree (I hope) and this often entails discussing faculty you hope to work with. Again, we are merely speaking past one another if we are talking about M* vs PhD programs. The former, again, will vary greatly depending on the program (HDS would rather hear about how your post-op transition from male to female has helped your theological interests grow, while an MA in NELC at Harvard would, I imagine, look around the room utterly confused on why your personal life has anything to do with your academic interests). The latter...well, if you apply to a doctoral program, especially in our field where having 3-5 years of masters work is not uncommon...well, good luck on getting in without mentioning faculty of interest. Again, if you are a senior in college and a classics major applying to doctoral programs, sure, it might not matter at that point what particular faculty you'd like to work with, perhaps philosophy students, too, though I would bet even those folks would not imagine turning in an SOP without at least a paragraph addressing faculty interests and how they jive with your own. 

 

None of which follows from what I said. The whole point of what I was suggesting--which, again, is not from any abundance of wisdom of my own--was crafting a SOP that identifies faculty of interest without naming them explicitly, which shows why you are a good fit. That is very difficult and requires a lot of research, prudence, and editing. Again, this is the counsel I received, and perhaps it is quite debatable, but there is no sense in such a misrepresentation of their professional advice.

 

I got into two programs justifying my fit without mentioning faculty of interest. Last year, I mentioned faculty in every SOP and got in nowhere.

[sacklunch]

Fair enough, we all are working with our own experiences. I, on the other hand, mentioned faculty in every one of my apps, and had the luxury (luck!) of receiving several top offers. I know a dozen or so doctoral students at other top 10 programs in 'our' field and all of them I am almost certain mentioned faculty in their statements. I think if your SOP demonstrates good fit within the body of your essay, then you might be good to go without naming anyone. I guess, weighing the possibilities of one not gaining admittance to a program, either because of mentioning faculty or just simply not being competitive (based on things well outside your control, to be sure), I would put my money on the latter. Anyways, I suspect if one is competitive and the fit is good, then mentioning specific faculty may not matter at all! So, yes, it seems we agree more than disagree!

Edited April 10, 2014 by sacklunch

[davidipse]

Honestly, one has no way of knowing. I've talked with faculty who think it's a good idea to mention names, and other faculty who think it might be "risky." That said, if I were to go through this process again, I'd only mention faculty whose work I've read, and whom, preferably, I've contacted before. About this last point, if you've read someone's work (not a lot, but say 10 or so pages) do send them an email identifying yourself as a prospective applicant who shares some scholarly interests with them. I emailed a few profs at big name (Read: ranked 1-10) schools and got kind responses across the board. You could ask about whether they're taking on new students; heck, you could even tell them you've gotten contradictory advice about mentioning names when applying to that particular school and ask what they'd suggest.

 

A neutral way of mentioning names that I used was "A number of faculty at PlaceX, including professors A, B, and C, specialize in fields I would like to study or have studied."