Writing to potential supervisors

[Mornington]

How important is it to write to a potential supervisor? I am feeling a little jittery because I didn't write to anyone, thinking that in Economics research aims are typically not cast in stone at the beginning of the PhD... And from what I hear now, it seems to be part of the process.

[Tall Chai Latte]

I'm in the science field, so the situation might not apply to you... Just my two cents, I think it's okay if you didn't write to people because it may or may not help. My boss told me that, sometimes he gets emails from applicants whose research interests fit with our lab's, and he'd like to have them here, but from time to time the Graduate School rejects some of these students because of their GPA, GRE/TOEFL etc. Plus I didn't really write to anyone at the schools I'm admitted to, rather, it is the schools I wrote to put me on wait list (haven't heard a beep since Dec)... So.. I guess it's hard to say. I also heard a success story, where an applicant wrote to the program director expressing his interest in working with him, he was rejected at first but then admitted.

Edited February 23, 2010 by Tall Chai Latte

[Kelei2010]

I'm not sure how useful it is to email professors when you apply. Sometimes they don't get back to you, sometimes they do with nothing interesting. But then again, once in a while you get a helpful piece of advice, or a professor who's even willing to write to the Admission committee about you. It doesn't always have the impact you'd like but it can't hurt. So basically you have nothing to loose by writing them, it might not help but it certainly won't penalise you. I'd advise people to do it.