So far, grad school applications have been a really reasonable and practical process. Basically, you go to college, do well, write a thesis, decide you want to be a professor of some sort, conceive of subject you want to study further, describe it in 800 words, get recommendations, take a straightforward test, and send all that in. Unlike college applications, you don't have to play three sports and be president of the knitting club, you don't have to emphasize your obnoxious "uniqueness," and you don't have to write essays about how your mother is your hero, or how that one time you planted trees for orphans in Guatemala changed your life, or how you are an orphan from Guatemala, or your boring hobby is a metaphor for life, or Vladimir Nabokov once said this thing that you totally looked up on Wikipedia 30 seconds ago because you've never read Nabokov, but this quote nonetheless encapsulates your inner being. You don't even have to drive to a coffee shop 30 miles away to demonstrate your simultaneous but non-conflicting well-roundedness and obsessive driving passion for an extremely narrow pursuit to an alumnus from the class of '74. The removal of these expectations can only be a good thing.
Because I remember well how unreasonable the college process was, I am mostly pleased about how nice grad school apps have been so far. However, I have discovered one extremely displeasing step I had not previously counted on: apparently, I am supposed to email professors I want to study with? Given how comprehensive this whole application thing seems, what is there left to say after submitting your grades, scores, recs, resume, writing sample, and statement of purpose except, "Hello, I think your research is swell. I will soon be sending you an application. Would you mind considering it?" But this seems to be implied by the part of the process where I press "submit" and pay $75. My online message board perusal has unearthed up the possibility of asking if said professors are "taking students," but I already know most of them are, and even if I didn't and I asked, and they said yes, where would we go from there? "Ok, good to know, thanks"?
Other suggestions have included sending your cv, but that seems even more pointless because you're already going to include your cv in your application, and if Professor Swell is seized by an urgent desire to behold the glory of your accomplishments, he can do that. I have come across the suggestion that you describe your intended project and ask Professor Swell if he's into that kind of thing, but again, already part of the application. Elsewhere, it has been recommended that you talk about how much you liked his most recent book, but what could be more obviously brown-nosey than that? And if the point of emailing is, ostensibly, to get their attention, how effective is that strategy going to be if all 300 or whatever applicants email to ask exactly the same redundant questions?
Problems.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
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15 comments:
It is *not* very effective and there's no reason to do it. The utility that extra-application contact might once have had (i.e. the one person in all the world who would make your ideal advisor and who would instantly recognize that fact might not be on the admissions committee this year and might be willing to lobby the committee on your behalf) has been drowned in a sea of spam from applicants who shotgun-contact everyone. At this point the likelihood that you annoy someone with one of these e-mails is far, far greater than the likelihood that you'll have some useful conversation that allows you to fill in the "have you had contact with any of our professors?" line on the form. Who told you you were "supposed to" do this?
Stop reading the F-ing sycophantic asshats on the online message boards = Problem solved.
I was told you were supposed to do this. And did it. Can't tell if it helped or hurt.
For what it's worth, at the (philosophy) grad school talk I went to, the professors expressed the same sentiments as Jacob Levy's.
JTL is right--there is no reason on earth to do this. If there were a professor whose work totally totally changed your life (or, more to the point, your undergrad thesis), it wouldn't be inappropriate to contact him or her, though I still don't think it's necessary or useful.
I believe it is useful to mention, in your statement, the strengths of the particular department's faculty as a way of indicating that you've thought seriously about why you're applying there, and whom you might work with.
(Of course, I didn't do that, either, when I applied 10 years ago. As I think I've mentioned elsewhere, I wrote baddish/crackpotty essays that demonstrated I really had no idea what a PhD program was, much less what I intended to do with my degree. But crackpottery must have been selling that year.)
And what did I say about reading the online message boards?? BAD IDEA.
You should certainly name the people who you'd most like to work with in your application essay-- at many schools your application will then be shown to those people. If you have some every specific reason for naming someone-- "in my senior thesis I engaged with this person's work a lot, and while I disagreed with much of it I found it an especially helpful" yadda yadda, throw that in. Specificity is good in the application essays.
Bad: mass e-mail that reads "Dear every professor in X department: I am very interested in studying [topic]. Can you tell me whether you have fellowship support for me, who would be suitable advisors, and whether you have any comments on my attached 100-page BA thesis?"
When deciding whether to send any e-mail at all, be aware that we get a lot of those bad ones, and it affects our reactions to the whole enterprise.
If you must e-mail: only contact people with a very clear connection to your research interests, don't include attachments, do be up-front about why you're e-mailing, and don't ask questions about admissions/ fellowships/ structure of the PhD program/ who else at the school might advise you/ etc. All of those questions are for after admission. Just explain why you think your interests and the prospective advisor's interests are a good match and express your hope that he or she thinks so, too.
But the basic rule is: don't bother with this activity at all.
See, these are all good reasons not to email--I already know about basic funding options, I know who is in which department (and if I didn't, I would only look like a moron for asking because this information is prominently available on teh internets), and why would I inflict my BA on any more unwilling readers? I have that naming faculty in the essay part done. There is only one person whose interests are exactly the same as mine, but I'm also disinclined to email her because this affinity will be obvious from my application. All the arguments for not emailing make sense to me, but I am concerned that, even if this is a redundant and utterly useless enterprise, the other 299 people who partake in it will have an advantage over me.
And to Julia and FLG: Internetz is important source of informashuns!
[B]ut I am concerned that, even if this is a redundant and utterly useless enterprise, the other 299 people who partake in it will have an advantage over me.
I think this is unlikely; it seems to me that contacting a prof in advance could give an exceptional applicant an infinitesimal advantage--except that he or she wouldn't actually need it, if he or she truly is an exceptional candidate and an exceptional fit. In all other cases its effect would be neutral at best and negative at worst.
(In other words, what Jacob said.)
I am wholly removed from this process (thank you, retirement!); however, if the professor whose interests are exactly the same as yours is someone you think you really want to work with, I think in your shoes I would send that professor a letter (paper, stamps, envelope, the works) explaining that you are applying to the school and hoping to benefit from a relationship with him or her. I would include an email address so they could spam you back.
Your request would not be lost among the 299 other letters.
The good Dr. Levy is right. Don't do it.
You realize how masochistic you are for reading those discussion boards, right?
You could send Prof. Swell a sample of the bugs and fibers that you coughed up, and ask for an opinion about those. That would get their attention... Maybe I'm conflating two threads, though.
As an established member of a class of PhD candidates all of whom except two (one being me) have finished their program and moved on, I feel I am qualified to speak on this topic. I have to tell you that I've never heard of such a thing. Part of my application process was to discuss areas I was interested in researching, and while doing so I often would hear "Oh, you'll want to meet so and so and think about working with him/her" because of the overlap of interests. It was never implied, however, that I randomly choose someone I think I might want to direct my dissertation. That's seriously putting the cart before the horse.
But what do I know...like I said I'm in my sixth year and have about 1/10 of a dissertation written...
This was not recommended by my professors (philosophy@U of C); one of them said they think it's presumptuous for a prospective student to send an email asking for some kind of invested attention _before_ being admitted into the program. So like everyone is saying, your statement of intent and your work & recommendations should be more than enough to do the work that these emails purport to do. Seventy percent of the 299 students who do end up emailing are going to fall off the list for more important, and probably egregious, reasons anyway. Being in the remaining pool won't be an issue for you, but there is little you can do at that point, so not emailing won't be a big deal and you should be fine!
Just to belatedly second everyone else: for the love of god, don't do it. Use the time to hone a really kick-ass essay and polish any writing samples you're sending instead.
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