contacting your new professors over the summer

[mlle]

So, is it poor form or whatever for get in touch with your advisor/faculty contact for the first time in the middle of July?

Back in late April my program sent me the name of a faculty contact/preliminary advisor who I could get in touch with re: course selection for my first semester in the program. The email with this info said, "We encourage you to contact your faculty contact within the next four weeks with any questions you may have regarding registration." I never did this within four weeks because for god's sake, I was just too wound up in graduating from program #1 to sit down and map out my first semester of classes for program #2 (I guess I'm a bad grad student).

It's now July and I'm seriously working out my potential plan of study and I have questions about core classes, etc. Is it inappropriate to get in touch with the faculty contact now, in the middle of the summer, with my course selection questions? Has the window of opportunity closed and I've already screwed things up before even starting my first semester?

[yumitsjudy]

Better late than never! I don't think it's an inexcusable offense to not contact the advisor within a certain time frame. You may not be only one in your program who hasn't contacted the professors yet.

[twocosmicfish]

They understand - I just contacted my professor recently without problems. They really just want to make sure you are selecting courses in conjunction with your advisor.

[rising_star]

So, is it poor form or whatever for get in touch with your advisor/faculty contact for the first time in the middle of July? ...

It's now July and I'm seriously working out my potential plan of study and I have questions about core classes, etc. Is it inappropriate to get in touch with the faculty contact now, in the middle of the summer, with my course selection questions? Has the window of opportunity closed and I've already screwed things up before even starting my first semester?

You can definitely contact the person, but don't be too surprised if you don't get a reply. I actually met with my advisor in June, because I came out to look for an apartment then. That said, he's out of the country on a research trip right now so he's not really checking/replying to his email.

If your concern is about registration for courses, you might do best to email and see if you can meet with the person before orientation. That way, you can have 30-45 min to talk about your research interests, get info on what's being offered and what you should take, and that sort of thing. I really think it's one of those things that you want to do in person.

[mlle]

Thanks for the input, guys. I basically didn't know if the professor would find it off-putting to be contacted during the summer. I was able to reach the prof over e-mail and he replied and said he was happy to help

*sigh* =)

[belowthree]

Hmm... talking about classes is the one thing I forgot to discuss with my advisor.

Is it terribly typical to plan this quite a bit before the start of the term?

[katreese]

It probably differs by program, but in mine, we were required to have chosen classes by this time last summer.

[thatnarrowfellow]

Has anyone else not received information about their advisers yet?

I only ask because my program has not sent me the name of my adviser or information on registration. I thought maybe it was a little late so I sent an e-mail but haven't heard back, now looking at this discussion I feel like I should be worried and be more aggressive in finding out what's going on. Is anyone else's school kind of late like mine on this?

- C

[yumitsjudy]

For my master's program, I was told that we would be notified of our advisers in September during the first day of class. However, I had reached out to a professor who does research in an area similar to my interest, so I am now on her advisees list after contacting the student services coordinator.

[mlle]

Has anyone else not received information about their advisers yet?

I only ask because my program has not sent me the name of my adviser or information on registration. I thought maybe it was a little late so I sent an e-mail but haven't heard back, now looking at this discussion I feel like I should be worried and be more aggressive in finding out what's going on. Is anyone else's school kind of late like mine on this?

- C

Eh, I wouldn't freak out or anything. This prof with whom I was corresponding was a "faculty contact" and not my official advisor; the dept said I will find out who my advisor is at the end of the summer. With the masters program that I just finished, they didn't even assign me an advisor/faculty contact, much less info about registration, until later in the summer before I began. I think I received advising and registration info in July with masters program #1 only because I got antsy and e-mailed the dept coordinator asking about it.