Question about Contacting Professors

[frozendry]

I'm currently pursuing a Masters in Comparative Lit & Cultural Studies and planning to apply to phd. programs in the same area (well, in Literature, English, Lit Theory and Cultural Studies). I've been advised by a couple of people to write to the professors at the schools in which I'm interested

Comments

[beckalex]

I'm applying to programs in history, but I'm guessing the procedures are probably the same.

1. It's really best to apply to places where the professor(s) ARE working in your area of interest. However, there's nothing wrong with emailing more than one professor at a school. I've had a couple of cases where the professors I've emailed have forwarded my emails to other profs that they think would be good for me.

2. For history it's YES YES YES so I would say YES to emailing professors before applying. What if the person you want to work with is retiring? What if they're leaving? What if they're just not taking students? You can get denied just because your desired professor cannot or will not take you. Do your research ahead of time!

A good thing to do if you're not sure who to contact is to email the graduate coordinator and he/she can put you in touch with the right professors.

Good luck! I hope this was a help. :)

[i_like_snow]

hi beckalex
what did u tell them in the email? cause like i mentioned below, I tried that and they didnt respond. do u have some tips for us on what to write pls? k thanks!!!! :)

[xvx_dagda_xvx]

don't write like that, for starters.

[i_like_snow]

I know don't worry

[cheez_ball]

#1: It's fine to email any and all profs doing work in which you're interested. You can even say that you're interested in that program because there are three people (name them) doing that work.

#2: Dunno...not my field. This is strongly advised in sciences.

[i_like_snow]

well I took the advice of people on here and I emailed some prospctv profs and they didn't reply back even after i sent a second email a month after to make sure they got the first one! i guess some of them dont wanna be bugged. lo oh well

Thank you!

[frozendry]

@beckalex and @cheez_ball - Thank you. This certainly helps.

I am applying to schools with professors working specifically in my field.
I'm interested in this particular school for a bunch of personal reasons. I like their program structure and apparent flexibility, but like I said, couldn't seem to find one single professor working specifically in my area of interest.

Thanks again, this was very helpful!

[circumfession]

This may be helpful. All of these links are specific to English applicants. I'd be slightly wary of following advice from other disciplines, since this procedure varies WIDELY from field to field. It's virtually mandatory for some fields, and quite unusual for others. (English leans towards the latter). The semi-consensus seems to be unless you have absolutely compelling reasons to contact a professor, don't do it. It can hurt you as much (or more) as it might help, and is absolutely not necessary. For it's worth, most of the commentators in gradcafe forums who suggested that one should not contact professors got into multiple top programs

[_theplague]

I'm thinking of having those links copy-and-pasteable in a Word document since this question comes up so often. On that note, and as another current English grad student in a top program, I'm in complete agreement with circumfession. Unless you have a sincerely valid question about a program or how it operates that is not answered on the website, I'd really be cautious about sending out e-mails to professors. The payoff would be minimal at best and can leave a terrible taste in the mouth of a potential adcom member at worst.