Contact Profs or Not?

[kmp34]

Now that admissions decisions are getting nearer, I'm starting to regret that I didn't reach out to any profs at my top choices... Do you guys know if it makes a difference to email profs you want to work with? (Anyone with prior experience?) Do you think it's too late to do so now?

Thanks for any advice you can provide!

[natofone]

I was told that it was a waste of time in our discipline.

[kmp34]

were you told that by professors or past applicants? and did they say why?

[tskinner]

I never did it either and I regret it (though I am happy to see the response above...has anyone else heard this).

The main reason I didn't do it is because it all feels so fake to me and suck-upy. I don't want to do something that isn't true to myself. If I don't get in anywhere, though, I will have no problem e-mailing some and asking for maybe a reading list of current research to prepare for the next round of applications.

[Parisienne]

A grad student in a top institution told me that emailing professors ahead of sending in your application is generally speaking a good idea. I think it can help if you're interested in that professor's research, are a bit familiar with it, and perhaps have questions regarding how his interests could fit with yours. No? It doesn't necessarily turn out to be suck-upy.

I don't have that much more info or experience with such issues (haven't applied for this round), but that's just my 2 cents!

[Ziz]

Just to add some anecdotal evidence. This year I am applying to schools in North America and the UK. I took advice and contacted a handful of professors in each continent. The response in the UK was overwhelmingly positive and I have already received an acceptance from one of those schools. On the other hand, the response in the US and Canada was lukewarm at best ("yes I'm intersted in that but that has nothing to do with admissions"). Now since I was only emailing those who I knew had overlapping interests and sending the same research proposal/CV/intro email to all of them, I have to think it's not just because the fit wasn't there or whatever that accounts for the difference in response. Just anecdotal!

[Penelope Higgins]

As a faculty member, I will say that it does you no good to contact me. First, I am not usually on the grad admissions committee. Second, I've only got a limited amount of political capital in the department. Am I really likely to spend it on someone who I have never met in person, and who (for all I know) is also contacting people at other schools, and may go to one of them even if I do pull my limited strings to get them admitted?

I was told it was a good idea, but you're not going to be up a creek, admissions-wise, since you did not. The impact of positive contact with profs is not clear.

[anxiousapplicant]

I never did it either and I regret it (though I am happy to see the response above...has anyone else heard this).

The main reason I didn't do it is because it all feels so fake to me and suck-upy. I don't want to do something that isn't true to myself. If I don't get in anywhere, though, I will have no problem e-mailing some and asking for maybe a reading list of current research to prepare for the next round of applications.

That's exactly what I am feeling. I am getting all nervous reading about people sitting out on their front porches with prospective professors, watching the sun go down and sharing life stories, but I haven't contacted any, because it would be so transparent what I am trying to do. I mean, can anyone really say that these professors don't have a clue that you're trying to get a leg up in the admissions process? That's why I can't contact any until I'm accepted. Then I'll ask about research and classes and so on.

[Ziz]

I think maybe a lot of the stories we hear on this forum about professors being "really interested in my research" and basically choosing students based on prior contact are in the sciences. This may be because those professors have labs and work on specific projects that the students have to be interested in. On the other hand, in humanities/social science, people can often supervise on a variety of topics and don't have a group of students that all work together on the same project. Just a thought.

[brewski]

I took some time to contact a few professors at the US and Canadian schools to which I'm applying. My impression was that it doesn't make much difference in terms of the success or failure of my application, but that it is positive in the initial period to get a prof's assessment of how your research interests fit in with that particular department, especially if you're not entirely sure of the list of schools to which you'll be applying. Most of the profs I emailed were fairly brief, which is completely understandable, but generally speaking they were encouraging in that they confirmed my view that my interests would fit well with their departments. Beyond that, I don't think it has any substantial impact on actual chances of admission.

Edited January 12, 2010 by bjlyth

[GopherGrad]

Not that my newbie two cents is worth anything, but I agree with b and c above.

I plan to contact professors with matching interests prior to application in order to evaluate my interest and fit and then tailor my SOP to the feedback. I never would have thought of using it as a "test" of my SOP language. That's frankly brilliant.