When a POI doesn't respond to your email?

[Plasticity]

On 10/16/2016 at 10:07 PM, buttercup8d said:

I will not apply to faculty who are unresponsive to my emails (currently, there has been only ONE).

Honestly, I know they are busy but this is part of their job description, and I think it is a bit rude as they went through the same process we did to get to where they are today. Ya know?

Some advisors truly receive hundreds of emails over the course of an app cycle, sometimes dozens per day. You cannot fault them imo.

[eternallyephemeral]

On 11/2/2016 at 10:37 AM, swannsway said:

Jumping off of this discussion, I have a slightly different scenario. I've gotten plenty of replies and some of the professors asked me for my application materials (transcripts, CV, GRE scores, SOP in particular) and I have not heard from them since. It has been a month. Now, my transcript has a sprinkling of C's and a bunch of Bs, so I am really paranoid that perhaps they glanced at my documents and promptly decided they were not interested, and didn't care to respond? This is making me super anxious because I don't know if I should apply to those schools anywhere (and they were my top choices too, darn it!)

Anyone been in this situation before?

Hi! i experienced this before, at a very competitive school I didn't think I would make it to anyways. But I contacted 1-2 profs, and one of them asked for my SOP months before (I sent my transcript and my cv with the first email). I did not have a very good SOP at the time (and I don't think it got that much better looking back), and then the POI didn't answer again.

In that case, because my application was such a stretch, I believe they didn't think I was that great and therefore didn't answer me. However, I know they were very busy as well.

I still did apply to this school, as it was a top choice for me and the people did reply. I considered that good enough. However, you might have different criteria. I would suggest not changing your list of schools over this, or getting anxious. Neither one is helpful, and how will you know if it's even negative? I know all profs get tons and tons of emails.

Perhaps there are other people in the department, like admissions officers, that you could talk to and get more information so you feel better? The whole process is just anxiety-inducing, and it's best not to put so much anxiety on yourself because you just add to it.

Best of luck!