Has anyone ever gotten in without a POI?

[therapeutic turtle]

I thought I was very diligent to study the process before I applied to PhD programs, but I'm afraid I may have made a fatal mistake. I applied to 8 programs, have 2 interview, 1 rejection, and 0 POIs. I keep seeing everywhere that other students emailing back and forth and received invites from their POIs, but I never contacted one and my interview invites were from program directors. I did identify in my personal statements certain faculty I felt were a good research fit, but I never contacted them. I know several are taking students this year because that information was available online. Has anyone ever been as stupid as me and still gotten in or am I doomed?

[artsy16]

You have (at least) 8 POIs. Your POIs are the professors you listed in your essay.

Some professors individually invite students. Some programs have the DCT do it. 

Edited January 20, 2016 by artsy16

[Freudian_Slip]

If you're talking about AFTER applying, then it's what @artsy16 said: you could have contact from your POI, from a grad program coordinator, or some other possibility depending upon how the school's admissions process is arranged.

BEFORE applying, it's true some people (I don't what %) do reach out to their POIs. This could be just to find-out if they're taking students for the upcoming year, though, if that info isn't on their web page. Some of these emails could develop into pre-application informal phone or Skype chats, which could probably give the applicant an advantage, but I think that's a pretty rare case. I emailed several POIs before applying to find-out if they were taking students and/or express my fit and overlapping interests, but it was nothing beyond a couple friendly emails maximum--and most of it could be accomplished through your Statements, which you did. 

Plus, if you already have 2 interviews out of 8 programs with potentially still some to go, I'd say you're doing just fine--so don't worry!

[Applicant 1746]

I didn't contact any of my POIs prior to submitting my applications (and naming them in my statements, of course), and looking back I wish I had. I feel like doing so might have done more to express interest and to put me on their radar/give them a name to look out for when going through applications. 

That said, it shouldn't make or break an application. I've gotten a few interviews (as have you! congrats!), which means at least some of our POIs learned what they needed about fit from our applications. Also, I know at least a few professors who prefer *not* to be contacted by applicants prior to their application submission, and they say so on their website -- because they don't want to give anyone an unfair advantage, etc.

Honestly, the norm of contacting POIs before applying (especially when information about whether they're taking a student this cycle is on their website, and unless an applicant has specific questions they want to ask before applying) has always left a bad taste in my mouth. It's always seemed to me a weird way to try to garner familiarity bias/favoritism, and outside of that, I can't imagine much could really be gained by either the applicant or the POI about someone's qualifications or fit that couldn't be gleaned from the application itself. But that's just me, and I'd be interested to hear from folks who actually find this practice to be more useful.

[simister]

I'm not sure what the rule is, but I will say that I applied to three schools last year without directly contacting POIs and got no responses whatsoever. This year I've applied to two schools, had previous contact with POIs, and have gotten interviews at both of them. Now there are a lot of other factors involved - I feel my SOPs were much stronger this year, and I'm applying to slightly less competitive programs this time around, so who knows if the previous contact actually made a difference. Overall I feel like it's a crap shoot - if you've gotten interviews without making any prior contact, don't worry about it! Getting interviews is the hardest part, so you've already got a chance and your foot in the door. Good luck!! 

[FeelTheBern]

I would agree with @simister, sometimes it really does feel like it is just a crap shoot.

One POI that my SO got an invite from contacted him completely out of the blue (early on) and invited him to the official interview day, even though there had been no previous contact, besides naming the POI on the application and SOP.

Another professor whom my SO contacted in the summer, particularly sought out his application after it had been submitted and contacted him for the official interview shortly thereafter. In the case of that university, I can 100% say that contacting the POI in the summer helped substantially. Additionally, I would like to think that because the professor sought out the application, it is possible that it was not eliminated during any first round review.

[St0chastic]

While it may give you an advantage to contact your POIs before applying, it is not strictly necessary to be invited to interview.  I only contacted some of my POIs at a subset of schools I applied to and have received invites from 7/8 programs.  I wouldn't sweat it too much!

[sociallyawkard]

I can't speak to getting in. But for 3 research-oriented schools to which I applied, I identified a total of 9 POIs in my essays. I reached out via email to 7 prior to the application deadline, and prior to visiting those campuses (after the app deadline). Of those 7, two responded. One agreed to meet with me (for 10 minutes) during office hours on the day of my visit - this was a very nice, wide-ranging conversation (for what turned out to be about 20 minutes). One sent me an extensive explanation of how the POI has very little influence on the committee, and in that in any case he doesn't meet with potential applicants during the application process in order to avoid "familiarity bias". I was very pleased with both of these. The rest totally ignored me. I got no invitations from any of these schools.

All that to say, yes prior contact probably does help bring you to the attention of POIs. Chances are good at big schools, or high-demand schools that your communication will be ignored (either on purpose or in a flood of emails). And whether or not such contact matters at all is probably very dependent on the school. I think trying is worthwhile. But it is frustrating to spend what may be up to several hours researching and constructing the perfect introductory email which will just end up in the "I'll look at this later" box.

[therapeutic turtle]

Thank you for all the feedback. I guess if my identification of POIs only in my essays was good enough then I may get in this year, if not then I choose to apply for a second round I will reach out to some via email prior to applying.