Faculty nomination for admission?

[crossbonestyle]

I talked to someone at the admissions office in order to find out when the decisions were coming out. The person told me that I would have to talk to a professor in my interest area and get him/her to nominate me for admission. I don't exactly understand how to go about this, can someone help?

[ChrisTOEFert]

20 hours ago, crossbonestyle said:

I talked to someone at the admissions office in order to find out when the decisions were coming out. The person told me that I would have to talk to a professor in my interest area and get him/her to nominate me for admission. I don't exactly understand how to go about this, can someone help?

It sounds like they may have already made their decisions and the only way to get in at this point is a rave review from a faculty member.  I could be wrong, but this seems strange.  Most offers are based off of your profile (GPA, GRE scores, research outline, etc.).  While professors do agree to work with students and "nominate them" for admission, essentially by saying "Oh yeah, crossbonestyle and I have been e-mailing back and forth a little bit, they have a pretty cool project that would fit well into my grant I just got," I am not sure how else it would work.  I have never heard of it going the way you are describing it where you have to contact a prof directly with an application instead of sending one generally.

[embe87]

Hey @crossbonestyle, when I did this before app deadlines, I sent an email to the professor(s) who would be an ideal prospective advisor/supervisor/mentor. I mentioned I was planning to apply, explicitly mentioned I was reaching out about potential supervision, outlined my research interests and current projects (implicitly aligning with theirs), and then asked if it would be possible to have a face to face/skype/phone chat (depending on locations).

I know some PhD programs are adamant about having faculty members give the OK for potential supervision... without it, an applicant wouldn't be offered admission. I imagine a shortlist is created by the admission committee, then ranked by potential faculty supervisors, then again reassessed by committee. You apply generally to the program, then there is an internal list forwarded for recommended final admission by each faculty member taking on student(s). One school i applied to had a checkbox and space to fill in who would be my supervisor, and if I secured supervision.

Maybe with your program, some people are able to do this after the app deadline. Usually though, I think you're to do it in advance. There may be some wiggle room to see if there's a fit and interest in taking you on.

Now that it is after admission deadline, I'd suggest you quickly email the prof(s) with tthehr strongest links to your own research area and ask to see if they have come across your application. I'd also forward my docs to them (sop, personal statement if any, and cv), and ask if they would be able to speak to you about potential nomination for admission. Good luck!

[embe87]

Oops for typos!