When is a good time to begin reaching out to potential advisors? -also timeline in general

[geobsessed]

Hello all,

I will be graduating in Spring 2016 (it seems so close yet so far away!) and I am wondering if now is too soon to start emailing potential advisors for Fall 2016 admission. If so, when is a good time to start? It would be nice to visit a few places in the fall and be able to meet with people I've already built a rapport with.

Additionally, other than studying for the GRE and researching potential programs, is there anything else I can be doing now to prepare?

Thanks!

[GeoDUDE!]

Hello all,

I will be graduating in Spring 2016 (it seems so close yet so far away!) and I am wondering if now is too soon to start emailing potential advisors for Fall 2016 admission. If so, when is a good time to start? It would be nice to visit a few places in the fall and be able to meet with people I've already built a rapport with.

Additionally, other than studying for the GRE and researching potential programs, is there anything else I can be doing now to prepare?

Thanks!

 

 

few things:

 

1) I think july is a good time to contact them, because NSF grants are due in August-Dec and they might write one with a student like you in mind depending on your research interests ect. 

 

2) Most good departments pay for you to come visit AFTER you have already been accepted. If they are close by it doesnt hurt to meet them in person, or meet them at AGU/GSA/ect but in general I think visiting before getting accepted is a waste of time.

 

Of course, this is all coming from the perspective of doing a PhD in the earth sciences. A masters student is less likely to have a grant catered to their interests and also less likely to be flown out to visit (although my department does pay for MS students to visit).

[Mechanician2015]

Here, in no particular order:

 

1- Identify and inform your potential recommenders about your plans.

 

2- Not only contact PIs, read some of their material(papers, articles, books). If you visit, is a good idea to mention some of his current research.(also, this is how you will find out if you really like their research).

 

3- Start brainstorming for your SoP. Although you should follow the guidelines of each program when writting the SoP, a solid brainstorming exercise will give you the material to start with each one. This is a long and maybe hard process, so start early.

[geobsessed]

few things:

 

1) I think july is a good time to contact them, because NSF grants are due in August-Dec and they might write one with a student like you in mind depending on your research interests ect. 

 

2) Most good departments pay for you to come visit AFTER you have already been accepted. If they are close by it doesnt hurt to meet them in person, or meet them at AGU/GSA/ect but in general I think visiting before getting accepted is a waste of time.

 

Of course, this is all coming from the perspective of doing a PhD in the earth sciences. A masters student is less likely to have a grant catered to their interests and also less likely to be flown out to visit (although my department does pay for MS students to visit).

 

GeoDUDE! thanks for your reply. I'm looking to get into a PhD in the earth sciences as well! I have a few followup questions if you do not mind.

 

It would not be a big deal for me to visit some of the schools I am interested in; it is also very important to me that I like the area that I will be working/living in so I'd like to visit my top contenders if possible. However, I am not familiar with this process- I didn't know they would pay to have you travel out! Would that be something that they would offer, or would I have to inquire about that?

 

Also, they would write a grant for me? I didn't know that was a thing either. Would I have to have a really specific project in mind first or would I be able to tell them my general interests, then they could write it based off a marriage of my and their interests? Again is that something I should ask about or would they take it upon themselves to do that? What if I don't know specifically what I would like to do? For example, my main interests are sedimentology/fluvial geomorph/watershed science. I have found a few researchers doing really fascinating work but I don't feel confident enough in what I want to do specifically to say "I want to do a project where I test/study/measure a, b, and c, in order to find out more about x, y, and z", when in reality pretty much almost everything at the intersection of these three disciplines is interesting to me.

[GeoDUDE!]

Would that be something that they would offer, or would I have to inquire about that?

 

Also, they would write a grant for me?

 

 

All of my visits were offered. Some of the bigger schools have visiting days where all the accepted students come on the same day, some do it individually. Usually its a Thurs-Sat affair, and they either book you a hotel or in the case of my dept (if you are interested in info, you should pm me)  we tend to have them stay with one of the grad students on a extra bed/couch.  Some departments that don't normally have students visit after being accepted still allow potential advisors to fly students out using grant money, and that is something either your potential advisor could offer or you could inquire about. If you did have to pay out of pocket to visit, I think it would be more beneficial to pay AFTER you have been accepted. Hopefully you have choices between many programs, but since graduate school admissions is not predictable (because of funding) I feel that choosing places based on interactions with potential advisors, and information you can find on the web / past experiences is more than enough to figure out where you should apply. Where you should go once you've been accepted to these programs is a different matter, and things like financial offers, location, ect should come into play. That's at least how I've seen the most successful people approach it. 

 

 

So a lot of Professors have many different projects they want to work on. Interactions with potential students can help shape what problems they might want to work on first. IE, I have a strong potential student who wants to do field work so I will write a field work grant instead of  laboratory grant this time around. Its not so much that they will write a grant for you (although, if you really are that strong, it might be the case) but it helps them further predict how their research program will proceed in the near future and that student will be more likely to get in because of it.  

 

Maybe a better way to put it is it will not be a grant for student X, but a grant for a new graduate student who is interested in researching Y.  Because that student is interested in researching Y, the student has a better chance of being picked! 

 

That being said people are gonna do what they are gonna do. I wouldn't count on something like that, but its worth it to at least contact a few POIs that you really want to work with in the middle of summer rather than at he beginning of fall.  FWIW, my advisor and I weren't in contact until the end of September. I know people who met their advisor in December(AGU) when applications were due in Janurary. So none of these are absolutes... always keep looking !