SoP without naming PoIs

[Caien]

Does anyone have any experience of submitting an SoP without naming faculty members with whom you would want to work? I'm applying to a particular department for because they have excellent collections in my area of interest and host a lecture series which brings scholars in my field to speak at the uni. I know two professors work quite well but they would be about 50 years removed from what I'm looking to research; having had exposure to their work as an undergraduate I could work in a mention, but it strikes me as a little insincere. Its not that there would be nobody at the uni to supervise me (in fact, someone recently competed a thesis there that was very similar to my area of interest in terms of texts and theoretical approach, supervised by professors who are still on staff), but I don't want to just name people to tick off that box - I have genuine reasons to apply to the department beyond specific faculty members.

[poliscar]

It seems sort of strange, honestly. Why aren't you naming the faculty members who supervised the recent thesis you mention? Obviously there are numerous reasons to apply to a school, including those you mention, but faculty are essentially the central factor. They are the people who will be reviewing your application, and making final decisions. Moreover, some schools pair applicants off with POIs during the process, so they might not have the same ease "locating" you as they would with those who had listed faculty members. 

The other thing that comes up for me is that listing collections and lecture series, without listing POIs, might come off as a bit instrumentalizing? Sort of like the department/faculty being a means to an end, but without particular significance for you otherwise. In that case you might risk coming off as a bit arrogant... 

Sorry, just to flesh this out more, I don't think your intentions are bad at all of course. Nor do I think you're arrogant, etc. Just seems worthwhile to mention faculty members (and a few points about their work) as a strategic move. I think you can do that without seeming insincere, and besides, there is a little bit of subtle flattery involved here. You don't want to seem supplicant, but likewise, you don't want to seem indifferent either?

Edited November 2, 2016 by poliscar

[unræd]

So, take what follows with a grain of salt, "it's just one person's experience," etc, but I had successful SOPs for two schools that didn't mention POIs for exactly the reasons you mention. Unlike in my other statements, there wasn't an honest, sincere way to tie their work to mine, and so my fit paragraphs for those schools focused on institutional draws more broadly (collections, research centers, resources, etc).

 

A huge caveat, though: my field is such that even though I didn't mention them, it was entirely clear who'd be my advisors -- each school only had one professor in my period.

[TakeruK]

There's no absolute rule on whether you have to name a professor or not. There will be people who get in without naming any and there will be some cases where the fit wasn't clear and if only they had named someone it could have made a difference!

I think context is also important. Some departments want to accept students without necessarily fitting them with a professor. My department is really small (~8 faculty) and it's pretty clear where you would fit just based on interest (like in @unræd's case). The department also provides full fellowships for the 1st year for every student, so it's not like you need a professor to pay you in the first year either. It's less important to mention professors in this case because you can join the department and spend the first year trying different projects to see what you like (in fact you have to do 2 different projects, kind of like rotations). However, mentioning a professor can still help because 1) it makes it clear that you've done your homework on what they study and 2) since our department is so small, the entire faculty reads every single application, so if you wanted to work on X, the Prof that works on X might read your SOP and think "well, why didn't they mention me?"

[Caien]

Thanks for your thoughts guys. I've just drafted a fit paragraph without naming profs and its come to about 600 words, so I can certainly make my case, but I suppose it comes down to whether I want to take a risk of ignoring a convention.

The department is fairly large, and I can definitely put together a committee of 3 supervisors who can help in all that major areas that intersect in my proposed dissertation, its just there isn't one perfect match. Funnily enough, in regards @poliscar's point, the three professors who supervised the previous dissertation that is quite similar to my proposal in texts and methodology are not those I would have picked from my knowledge of the department. The link is there, but its tenuous. One is an expert in the same time-frame and genre but a different national tradition, one is a postcolonialist, and since the literature is question is of a former colony that must be the connection, but we're talking a colony on the opposite side of the planet and with a completely different colonial history to that of the supervisor's, and the dissertation was not even dealing with postcolonialism! So its a bit odd. I actually emailed the phd candidate in question (now an assistant prof in a highly ranked department) to ask about her experience but received no response. I can only assume perhaps its a question of the project changing significantly from its starting off point.

[Yanaka]

I'm reiterating but-- I think the best option is to ask the Grad offices. When I was on the phone with the Advisor from UC Berkeley, she told me to mention POIs when she explained to me what were the differences between SoP/PS. But I'm sure not all school ask for that criteria to be met in their applicants' SoPs, and I'm rather pro-emailing grad offices anyway, just to say hello and make sure of a few things (since I'm not familiar with the US educational system, I always have a few questions to ask them).

There are a few schools that I'm applying to that have courses and programs that fit my project, but I'm not always sure about their faculty (can't read their whole bibliographies). So not systematically having to be that specific might save me and offer good surprises, I don't know!

Edited December 2, 2016 by Yanaka