Contacting prospective advisers
I posted about a month ago with some questions about choosing an art history grad program that would be suitable to my area of interest and to my goal to someday work as a curator. I'm back at my undergrad campus now, and just had a phone conversation with a friend who graduated in May 2008 and is now going for her Ph.D. at Princeton. She mentioned that she had been really diligent about contacting professors at the schools to which she applied, and had visited a good portion of them in the fall of her senior year at my school. More importantly, she told me she hadn't been accepted at any school that she hadn't visited. Clearly, I need to start getting in touch with professors about visits. I've already pinpointed some good faculty matches and investigated their published work, but what should I say in an e-mail? Should I talk about the beginnings of my independent research project? What other information about myself should I supply? It's difficult for me to give a specific date for when I might like to visit, since I have a bunch of other commitments in October that already necessitate my being off campus. Is November too late? When I do visit, should I ask to sit in on one of the professor's courses? I'd love advice from someone who has contacted and met with professors in their area of interest at prospective schools.