How much time do you dedicate on researching the faculty profile?

[Steve2016]

Hey everyone, so I was reading through some of the posts here and suddenly became curious about this. How many articles/books of your potential supervisors do you read before applying to that school? I know that so many people apply to over 10 schools but that seems to be an impossibility for me since I am reading about 2-3 books from each potential supervisor (and probably about one third to half of each book). So since I'm applying to 7 places, that makes it around 30 books. And given that these are heavily theoretical books, I just couldn't comprehend how applying to 15 schools is possible! Anyway I just want to know how everyone prepares this part of their application, and what you usually say about their potential supervisors in your writing sample. BTW I'm applying to complit/cultural theory courses including Duke literature and Brown modern culture and media.  

[Yanaka]

*insert grain of salt here* I can't tell you if it's the right move or not, but I get what I can and what is relevant to my project out of my school's library and either skim through it or read chapters and intro/conclusion. Then I take notes that I re-write afterwards in the SoP. Overall I spend a few days on each faculty and I wish I could do more, but it's already eating some of the scarce time I have for school and finals. Even if I might be wrong on how I personally speak to faculty's works in my SOP, I think nobody  should compose an exposé of the POIs' works. First of all because the SOP has its length limitations anyway, and secondly I don't think you're expected to write like five paragraphs (to speak hyperbolically) on them. You're still the most important actor of your SOP and your ideas should come from you, not only from your research! *insert other grain of salt here*

Edited December 10, 2016 by Yanaka
Not salty enough

[Steve2016]

5 minutes ago, Yanaka said:

*insert grain of salt here* I can't tell you if it's the right move or not, but I get what I can and what is relevant to my project out of my school's library and either skim through it or read chapters and intro/conclusion. Then I take notes that I re-write afterwards in the SoP. Overall I spend a few days on each faculty and I wish I could do more, but it's already eating some of the scarce time I have for school and finals. Even if I might be wrong on how I personally speak to faculty's works in my SOP, I think nobody  should compose an exposé of the POIs' works. First of all because the SOP has its length limitations anyway, and secondly I don't think you're expected to write like five paragraphs (to speak hyperbolically) on them. You're still the most important actor of your SOP and your ideas should come from you, not only from your research! *insert other grain of salt here*

I agree with you and I write only about a line or two on each professor in relation to my interests, but I think reading them thoroughly does make a difference even when you write so little. But now, I just submitted Duke application and I got three deadlines on the 15th, so it's virtually impossible to do a thorough research of any of my potential supervisors for now I guess. I was more just curious about how others compose their statement. Just to create some more legitimate source of distraction from my reading haha...

[Yanaka]

Which programs are you applying to? I applied to Duke, too!! 

Yes it most certainly makes a big difference. For instance, I'm worried I've misunderstood their concepts and arguments because I haven't read absolutely everything  

[Dr. Old Bill]

Reading the books of multiple POIs is admirable from an academic perspective...but completely unnecessary for application purposes. You need to know what your POIs' current research interests are (as specifically as possible), their methodologies (i.e. marxist, structuralist, historicist), their general stature (no sense in wanting to work with a visiting assistant professor), and yes, some of what they've written.

Remember that research interests evolve over time. Reading a POI's book from 2002 might have little or no bearing on what that POI is interested in now. There is zero expectation on the part of admissions committees that all applicants have a deep, thorough, sophisticated knowledge of their faculty. In fact, some successful SOPs don't mention a single faculty member at all.

Again, if you are highly interested in the work of your POIs, reading their books will help you as a scholar, and might help you a little bit as an applicant, but as Yanaka says, your application will require very little direct reference to those professors, unless it is relevant and emerges organically in your SOP.

[Steve2016]

Just now, Yanaka said:

 For instance, I'm worried I've misunderstood their concepts and arguments because I haven't read absolutely everything  

I absolutely agree with this haha. For example, I would casually mention someone in my writing sample and then later worry that I perhaps misrepresented him/her and go into some random bout of reading. I'm applying to NYU, CUNY (political theory), Cornell, and Brown, and a couple in Canada. Who did you designate as your supervisor in Duke, if I may ask?  

[Yanaka]

@Wyatt's Terps well you see that's something I don't know how to deal with. If we're not supposed to email the POIs, and if the websites don't give that kind of info, what should I do to know what their current research is? And even if I know the current topic they're working on, I don't know how they are approaching it or what will be in their research... Doesn't their past research indicate the fundamentals of their thought? 

@Steve2016 I designated three, but I feel I had more in common with Dr Moi's work  

Edited December 10, 2016 by Yanaka

[Dr. Old Bill]

2 minutes ago, Yanaka said:

@Wyatt's Terps well you see that's something I don't know how to deal with. If we're not supposed to email the POIs, and if the websites don't give that kind of info, what should I do to know what their current research is? And even if I know the current topic they're working on, I don't know how they are approaching it or what will be in their research... Doesn't their past research indicate the fundamentals of their thought? 

 

First, who says you're not supposed to email the POIs? While not necessary (I didn't do it), it's pretty common to do so. Some successful applicants swear by it -- establishing a connection long before the application is due. Remember that you're positioning yourself as a potential scholar in the field who is not going to be working for the POI, but with the POI.

Second, most of the websites do give that kind of info (CVs are most helpful), but some basic research can reveal most of the pertinent info in fifteen minutes or so. You want to see their recent publications and research interests, or syllabi of courses they've taught in the past few years. What I'm getting at is that books take a long time to write, a long time to publish, and (obviously) have a long shelf life. Often a topic that a POI was interested in fifteen years ago will remain a basic interest today...but often that won't be the case. Think about your own research interests, for instance. Have you had the same general focus for two years? Four? Ten? It's a bit different, obviously, since we're all much earlier in our academic careers, but the central point remains the same: interests evolve.

[Yanaka]

I have contacted Grad offices and professors. The offices have systematically told me that either I'm welcome to contact the profs but it's okay if they don't answer (so contact per se is not really that determining) or specifically to not do so (because they already have a lot of emails and it's probably a waste of time for them to help students who might not even be admitted). The prof. who answered was very nice, but told me this: "I don't' at all mind your reaching out to me; X works a bit differently I suspect than universities you are used to, so when you apply you need only mention professors you would like to work with," Which I have interpreted as "we don't need to talk before you are actually admitted". 

[Steve2016]

2 hours ago, Yanaka said:

 

@Steve2016 I designated three, but I feel I had more in common with Dr Moi's work  

Similar here. I mentioned Dr. Moi (is this pronounced as in French??) and Chow

[Steve2016]

2 hours ago, Wyatt's Terps said:

Reading the books of multiple POIs is admirable from an academic perspective...but completely unnecessary for application purposes. You need to know what your POIs' current research interests are (as specifically as possible), their methodologies (i.e. marxist, structuralist, historicist), their general stature (no sense in wanting to work with a visiting assistant professor), and yes, some of what they've written.

Remember that research interests evolve over time. Reading a POI's book from 2002 might have little or no bearing on what that POI is interested in now. There is zero expectation on the part of admissions committees that all applicants have a deep, thorough, sophisticated knowledge of their faculty. In fact, some successful SOPs don't mention a single faculty member at all.

Again, if you are highly interested in the work of your POIs, reading their books will help you as a scholar, and might help you a little bit as an applicant, but as Yanaka says, your application will require very little direct reference to those professors, unless it is relevant and emerges organically in your SOP.

True, but I generally find that there are some lasting interests in their research. I usually try to identify those major threads and relate them to my own interests, rather than talk about how I loved their books at length.  

[Dr. Old Bill]

2 minutes ago, Steve2016 said:

True, but I generally find that there are some lasting interests in their research. I usually try to identify those major threads and relate them to my own interests, rather than talk about how I loved their books at length.  

Then frankly, I'm not sure what you're asking in this thread. 

The bottom line is that reading the books of all (or even many) of your POIs is neither necessary or prudent in the application process. Familiarity with their work is important, but a thorough understanding, while academically beneficial, doesn't have much bearing on applications. In one of my SOPs I mentioned how a book that one of my POIs edited had an influence on my academic direction, but that was essentially one sentence out of thirteen SOPs in which I felt it prudent to mention a POI's book. There are just so many other higher-order aspects to the process that reading POI monographs is simply not an effective use of time. Honing WS, SOP, CV, getting good LORs, having materials that all work together, and figuring out which programs and faculty members are the best "fits" -- these are the time-consuming things that seem to be the most critical. 

[Yanaka]

I guess it's helpful information but it's making me very anxious now. 

[Quickmick]

For me it was important to remember that the student/uni relationship is a two way street and the POI contacting process informed me as much (or more) than it did them. One school I wouldn't have applied to got added to the list, and several got removed from the list, as a result of these efforts. In terms of time, I didn't track it, but the process was to 1)scour the uni websites/faculty bios to get an idea of fit 2)do a little more looking into the 'possibles' and contact about 1/2 of those 3)depending on the feedback I looked through their history of pubs and 4)for those I met in person/skyped with/phoned/or detailed conversations with I read a paper or two and in one case skimmed their (to date) flagship book--so not really too much time.

[knp]

I mean, reading books helps! But I hope you don't worry about it too much: I spent more time on webpages and academia.edu profiles. When I applied to my current program, myself, I had in fact read the book of the faculty member with whom I hoped to work. But why had I done so? Because when I showed up to get coffee with this person the August before I applied—they were visiting my town—they asked me, "You've read my book, right?" No, I hadn't, so they loaned me a copy, as long as I finished and returned it by the time they left town two days later. Research interests change, so if you're current on what they've got in progress (to the degree that you can be from publicly available information, mostly their webpage), you should be fine.

Edited December 10, 2016 by knp

[Yanaka]

Well now I have the feeling I'm definitely out of the picture  

[tvethiopia]

This is something I've struggled with as well, not because it's necessary, but because I really WANT to read a lot of their work! For entirely practical reasons (still working on the last semester of my MA while applying for PhD), I can really only do a brief overview of some of their work. However, I do expect to spend a good amount of time this winter--while I wait for those anxiety-inducing rejections and/or acceptances--doing a little more in-depth reading to prep for possible meetings or interviews.

Edited December 10, 2016 by tvethiopia

[Warelin]

5 hours ago, Yanaka said:

Well now I have the feeling I'm definitely out of the picture  

I wouldn't count yourself out yet. There are way too many factors that go into making a decision.

+ While your foreign experience abroad would likely be neutral for English, I'd imagine it would give you a decent amount of "points" in comparative literature. It should at least get you past the "slush" round.

[AnimeChic101!]

For the vast majority of programs i'm applying to, i've read a good sized amount of work by POI. How would you determine fit if you don't read their work? I actually removed a school from my list because although the POI states that he's an Africanist (ad the school labels him as such), he is actually anti-africanist (all of his work argues against that categorization...yet he's labeled as one). Makes no darn sense. I wouldn't have realized that if I hadn't read his work.

[Dr. Old Bill]

31 minutes ago, BlackRosePhD said:

For the vast majority of programs i'm applying to, i've read a good sized amount of work by POI. How would you determine fit if you don't read their work? I actually removed a school from my list because although the POI states that he's an Africanist (ad the school labels him as such), he is actually anti-africanist (all of his work argues against that categorization...yet he's labeled as one). Makes no darn sense. I wouldn't have realized that if I hadn't read his work.

I suppose it depends on how specifically you're defining fit. If you have a highly specific focus and a narrow range of research interests, making sure you work with the few individuals who match all of those things would be key...and knowing their very specific approaches is surely equally important. The problem, of course, is that the more narrowly you define your interests, the less of a margin of error there is. Given that specializations and research interests evolve (i.e. most people don't wind up doing what they propose in their SOP), having a bit of wiggle room seems prudent. If your specialization is slightly less specific, it allows you to consider more overlap with more POIs. Remember that your SOP (as a whole) and WS are going to do more to situate you than a line or two about POIs. Knowing what your POIs have written is obviously quite important, but what I've been getting at in all of my posts is that it doesn't require a thorough knowledge of their monographs and other publication history. And frankly, it's probably more important that the POIs want to work with you than vice versa (I'm guessing that's a controversial comment, but I'm sticking by it!).

 

[knp]

@BlackRosePhD, while I agree that level of fit is important to figure out before you accept an offer, I don't think it's critical to have as an applicant. (For me personally, it turns out that although UX has a master of my field whose book is approvingly cited by all the scholars I like, I haaaaate that book, so good thing I didn't go there!) While I applied, I was living somewhere and in a place in my career that I did not have any educational access to books or scholarly articles beyond those that were posted on academia.edu—bless that website—or were on JSTOR. On the latter, unaffiliated scholars can read three articles a month, but frustratingly, most of the journals I needed weren't listed. I don't think my not doing a lot of that work before my apps were submitted made a difference to where I applied or went (I dumped UX with Dr. I Hate Your Book for unrelated reasons before I applied), for which I am happy. I agree that fit calculation is work you pretty much must do to make a wise decision where to go, and I'm sure it gives you a competitive edge if you have done it by now. At the same time, I am glad that for all the stupid, retrogressive barriers academia throws up to PhD program entry (e.g. the fees), selecting only for applicants who have current access to a research library seemed not to be one of them.

Edited December 11, 2016 by knp

[JessicaLange]

So, I didn't really go out of my way to read too much of their work, because I agree with other folks that the SOP is about me, and I'm not going to devote more than 5 sentences to POIs. However, there were a few schools where I had already read their faculty's works and one professor who is currently on my reading list for my thesis. I just mentioned this and said under what circumstances I had read them and how I admired their work and so forth. There are a few schools that I know nothing about their professors, so I went to JSTOR  and similar sites to look up the ones that had interests in my fields. If I found nothing in their work, I left out POIs altogether and just talked about the program specifically. Is it going to work? No idea! But this whole application process is sort of trial and error for all of us.

Edited December 11, 2016 by JessicaLange
missing word

[angel_kaye13]

Interrupting Moo-Cow, stating the obvious: bear in mind that most SOPs are only, like, 500-1,000 words. (The ones my apps asked for, anyway.) Most trended towards little more than 500 max. That doesn't leave a lot of room for POI talk, which I feel, applying for PhDs, needs more attention --> at this stage, you know your work, you know where you want to go, and you can speak more concretely about prospective people to work with. (First-time applicants, applying for MA and PhD are just as capable, I just realize, in retrospect, how ill-prepared I was, my first cycle, compared to my applications this cycle - complete difference in material fodder!) 

ALL this ramble to say: don't freak out, if you read a lot, because that's great, don't freak out if you don't (though it's wise to check out their profiles, at the very least). Those who read, you'll know more who fits your needs, and you can talk intelligently about that. Most committees can tell the difference between an MA candidate and a PhD applicant, based on how you prepare your materials, that's all. This isn't really something to quibble over.

My feeling, though, and main point is, you ONLY have 500-ish words. Make sure the ratio you spend reading is equal to the amount of space you'll actually have to dedicate to the POIs. As others have already stated, the SOP is about YOU, and that's what they want to hear most of, how YOU will fit and aim to work. Not just singing the accolades of people who are already renown.

[Steve2016]

Thanks everyone for your opinions. I started this thread just out of curiosity, but it's actually very useful information. 

[AnimeChic101!]

If you take a look at the results page, there was a person from a top 30 or so program that said that the adcom really appreciated the way that she spent time talking about the faculty, program and fit. Then again, it's a program that allows you to write 3 pages single-spaced for your SOP.