Advisor suggests not emailing POIs....thoughts?

[maelia8]

My advisor has only 5 but he still barely has time to see all of us with his current limited office hours ... I'm surprised anyone can manage with more!

[HistoryMystery]

This thread almost prevented me from contacting POIs, but I did anyways. 4/7 replied back with kind and overall awesome e-mails that really made me feel good about my chances. The other 3 didn't get back, but I imagine it's because they are big shots and/or were on vacation.

 

I say you got nothing to lose. If your e-mail really does piss off a potential POI, they would have been a bad match anyways.

[Riotbeard]

I would say contacting an potential adviser is more for your benefit (in terms of deciding whether you would like to work with the person), but won't make a difference in terms of acceptance. At the end of the day, they are gonna take the better applicant. The only potential benefit is figuring out whether a professor is going to take students that year, so you may at least learn whether it is a waste of time to apply.

[kotov]

I would say contacting an potential adviser is more for your benefit (in terms of deciding whether you would like to work with the person), but won't make a difference in terms of acceptance. At the end of the day, they are gonna take the better applicant. The only potential benefit is figuring out whether a professor is going to take students that year, so you may at least learn whether it is a waste of time to apply.

 

I would echo this. It isn't going to hurt to talk to them, but it's not gonna make or break whether or not you get in. If you're applying somewhere specifically to work with one person, it's still a decent idea to contact them; even if you don't get in, you've at least spoken with them and worked on building that relationship a bit. You never know who you're going to need to help you somewhere down the road. In my case, a professor I had spoken to at a school I got rejected by ended up giving me some really useful feedback at a conference later on which helped me kind of narrow down what I wanted to research. I know my current advisor did go in pretty enthusiastically in support of me when the committee was making their decision (he told me as much later), but at the same time, I think that had less to do with the fact that I had emailed/spoken on the phone with him and more to do with the fact that he liked the research that I was proposing and felt that I would be a good student to work with.

 

tl;dr: talking to a professor won't get you accepted/rejected, but making contacts/building relationships with people who share your interests is never a bad thing.

[nerdguy]

I contacted roughly thirty professors this time around. My MA program told me I ought to contact two at each school - sending more would appear desperate. However, other professors from my school told me to reach out to as many people as possible, as graduate students tend to work with numerous faculty members. I had a couple of informal skype conversations with two professors at one school, and both of them suggested I reach out to a number of other professors at that same school. Decisions are often made by committee so having more people knowing about you is certainly a plus. And believe it or not, the nicest folks I emailed with were from the nation's most prestigious schools. Some of them took longer to reply than others, but every single professor who replied to me (and some 70% of those I emailed did in fact reply) was kind, appreciative, and offered really great advice. Just do it. The one's who don't reply may still remember your name when they read your application. Anyway, I wouldn't want to go to a school where the professors are too busy to be bothered by people interested in their work.

[Heimat Historian]

I had a similar experience. I received an email reply from 90% of those I contactef, many saying they'd be happy to take me on as an advisee and complimenting my research ideas. Point is it can't hurt, may help. It's always good to build relationships.

[Josh J.]

So, to follow up on my original post, I ended up contacting two professors. One, a senior, well known scholar who I thought might no longer be taking students, and one at a University that states in their materials that they expect you to make contact with a professor if you intend to apply.

The senior scholar in fact was no longer taking students, but he was extremely gracious and recommended that I look at several other programs. The second professor was actually somewhat rude. It was immediately obvious that we were not a good fit for each other, and I did not apply to work with that person.

[Vr4douche]

I will not apply before discussing the project with a potential supervisor. My emails to POIs consist of a sentences on my academic program and a short paragraph outline my project. Generally it has worked well for me. Maybe 1 out of 8 does not reply. I wouldn't want to work with a Prof who can't be bothered to read/respond to a short email.