What is the etiquette in addressing the Grad Advisor who answers applicants calls and emails?

[the_smiley1]

I emailed her once and started off by referring to her as Ms. Last Name, but in the email she replied back with, she used her first name only (no last name). Should I continue addressing her as Ms.Last Name in the emails, OR, should I address her with her first name?

Comments

[_hellenophile_]

I say stay with Ms. Last Name.
Of course when she emails back she refers to herself with her name...why would she refer to herself as Ms. Last Name? That would be weird.
When in doubt, it's better to be overly polite than rude!

Lol don't worry about every little thing :P

[the_smiley1]

lol that's a good point about how she wouldn't refer to herself as Ms.Last Name.lol

and yes i know I worry about every little thing lol

[endxgame]

If this person is either a professor or the holder of a PhD then you should absolutely not call her "Ms." anything. She is not a high school teacher and should not be referred to as such.

The general rule is to call someone by the name they use to respond to your e-mail, so I would go with the first name. If you don't feel comfortable doing so that I would go with "Dr. X" or "Professor Y" but certainly not "Ms. Z."

[roseofjuly]

I'm assuming that this is a departmental coordinator or something from the OP's wording - "grad advisor".

[roseofjuly]

I call all professors "Professor X" and all administrative staff "Ms./Mr. X" in both in-person communication and emails until they either give me the go ahead to call them by their first name or I just start feeling ridiculous.

I called my departmental coordinator "Ms. Constancio" for months until she was like, "Just call me Andrea." I've had a couple of professors come outright and just say "call me [first name]."

On the other hand sometimes I ended up stopping because I felt silly. This usually doesn't happen until you enroll, but for example, I called my advisor "Professor Wilson" for about six months but everyone else of my status (grad students) called him by his first name. Students in his classes, definitely his mentees, etc. So eventually I started calling him by his first name, too. The same thing happened in both of my departments eventually with all of our professors, because our departments tend to be less formal and everyone is on a first-name basis with everyone else.

[thespisgeoff]

I call them "Ms." or "Mr." in the initial email - then by first name if that's what they reply with.

[fullofpink]

I disagree with everyone. The signature in an email should be what the person wants to be addressed by. I've sit with my one of my scariest professors who reads his emails out. Well, he responded to someone's email with his nickname as the signature, and was a bit flustered that the responding email still called him "Dr. skdfjsj."

Call by first name if the email signature says so.