Advice re: name dropping professors?

[bummerman]

On this site and around the net I see a lot of people suggest mentioning in your SOP a few faculty members at the school you're applying to whose research your interested in or who you look forward to working with... In my head this seems a bit disingenuous, as I'm applying to a handful of schools and certainly don't know things about the professors at all of them.  How does one go about mentioning the professors?  "I'm particularly interested in Dr. X's research in the field of Z"?

However, my main question is how the heck do you actually find any of their research?  I've jotted down the names of a few professors at each school I'm applying to who in their bios mention areas of research i'm interested in, but I don't have access to any of the journals that they've written in.  I feel particularly weird name dropping professors of whom I only have a vague idea of their area of study...

Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated about this!

[Quickmick]

I'll pm you

 

Edited December 6, 2016 by Quickmick
holiday spirit

[rising_star]

Short answer: Yes, something like what you've written is fine. Even if you don't have access to journals, you should be able to find the abstracts for free and read those to get a sense of both the topics and methods faculty are using in their research

[MaytheSchwartzBeWithYou]

I don't know what field you're in, but you could also probably access most of the journals you'd need through a public library. I'm no longer a student, but I joined the local city library (hey, it's free and easy!) and I can access all of their online journals/databases. 

[karmapalooza]

A lot of programs actually require you to mention people in the department whose research you're interested in and who'd you'd like to work with. These people may become your advisors and often times funding is reliant on which of these people have grants that can support you through your program. The admission requirement page on the department website sometimes mentions this, if not maybe get in contact with the graduate director and see if it's recommended to mention who'd you'd like to work with.

[sivakumaranandan]

Yes, SOP with references to particular prof and their works tat you are interested to work helps in finding the opportunities of research in their group in the future , once you accept the admission.