Asking for advice on other graduate schools while asking to be in their program

[ms_octopus_lady]

Hello all.

I want to start applying to graduate school in the next few months, but finding ones that are right for me has been proving to be remarkably difficult and frustrating. I want to get a Ph. D studying behavior of cephalopods, and after months of searching online, I have only found three professors who are in that field in the United States

Comments

[green_tales]

sorry, a little off-base from the question, but regarding your search: have you tried looking up recent papers on cephalopods, then considering the authors' schools as potential targets for application?

re: working with the professor or asking for recommendations..

Ideally, strike up a correspondance with him. Come off as an intelligent human. Tell him you're interested in his work, and would like to research cephelapods at the graduate level. Tell him that you had to look hard for his work. Then if he replies, discuss your qualifications with him, and then you can ask for recommendations on where else to apply.

just my idea =) Now, he might not reply to your email, so.. anyway. good luck =)

[bigoleplatypus]

Agreed. Express interest in his research and ask a question or two. Don't ramble on about yourself, but do say you're a student of X with such and such interests/experience and hope to do this research at the doctoral level.

Tell him you would love to apply to his university and ask what he is planning for his lab in 2010. And I think it's also fine to say something like "I have found that there are few places in the United States where such research is being done - would you be able to tell me about any other labs focused on cephalopod research, here or abroad, that I might also be able investigate?" Or something.

You don't have to get into your GRE scores or say that you're not sure you'll get in to his school so you want to apply elsewhere. You're just scoping out the field. Just make it sound like you have an interest and want to find out where there are other people who share it! Which is true :)

[keito_f]

I definitely would agree that you should look for other papers. Have you tried web of knowledge

[ms_octopus_lady]

Wow, thank you for all the great information! I really appreciate it. :)

[cork118]

I agree with this, especially the part about looking at recent publications and trying to find professors via that route.

[ms_octopus_lady]

I have tried looking at papers, specifically papers written by those two professors who work at universities that don't offer Ph. Ds, and so far, I haven't found much. One of the professors writes papers primarily with her students, and the other professors she works with are from Israel and France. I am not really interested in moving to either of those countries. :/

Anyway, thanks for the advice about the e-mail!