Does a friendly reply from a POI mean anything?

[DBear]

I've been sending out emails to POIs and most have been very friendly, suggesting things to put in my SOP and other professors who I may be interested in working with. One POI said "I hope you join us"

I'm feeling like a teenager dissecting a text from a crush and seeing if he realllllly likes me or not

I know that a friendly response doesn't mean I'll get into a program, but should I at least put in more effort based on the level of attention I got in these correspondence?

Argh... So anxious.....

[fuzzylogician]

Don't read too much into it. It's good that they are friendly and it probably says good things about their communication style if and when you become their student, but a friendly reply by no means implies that you'll be accepted. It does mean you should probably apply, but I don't think that spending energy on applications according to how friendly the PI was necessarily makes sense. Though if you e.g. run out of time and need to choose an application to drop, I'd probably drop one where you never got a response or the PI was unfriendly over one with a friendly PI, all other things being equal. (Which is to say, other considerations, such as fit, location, funding, etc. might trump the friendliness of the email response.) 

[TakeruK]

As you said, a friendly response doesn't necessarily mean anything when it comes to the actual decision making time. If you want to put more effort in a few applications, choose the ones where the program excites you the most, rather based on their friendliness.

It's not all meaningless though. I would take the friendly replies at face value---these are always nice emails to get when you are stressed/frustrated/tired from applications.

[bhr]

I'll third the "take encouragement, but don't count on it meaning anything" response. There are so many factors that go into selections (cohort composition, who has money, if that POI is even on the review committee) that you shouldn't count on anything coming from a friendly response. That doesn't mean you shouldn't maintain these contacts, however, as it sounds like they have offered valuable feedback and have been welcoming. I would say, even if you wind up going somewhere else, that you should keep a list of these folks and follow up with them after the process to thank them for their help. Leave a good impression, as you never know who winds up impacting your career in the future.