Applying to only 1 POI at a school

[modestmousktr]

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Helllooooo 😀

I am wondering if it is bad to apply to only one professor of interest at a university. At some schools I am applying to, there are 2-3 professors that have similar research interests, and their publications indicate they actively collaborate, so in my personal statements I am mentioning each of them. However, at other schools with smaller number of faculty, there's just 1 person I am extremely interested in. I was given the advice in undergrad to list more than one name when applying to a school, but for two schools in particular, it would look ridiculous... I am not interested in any other faculty because their research interests aren't even in the same ballpark. But it sort of makes common sense that if one faculty member does completely different research from all the others, and that's the faculty you like, that you wouldn't be interested in working with anyone else. Anyway- is it okay to apply to a school just to work with one person? And to tailor your personal statement based on this one individual?


Thanks!

 

[cara susanna]

I think it's fine. You can't help it if there's only one person in your area of interest.

 

[A Blue Duck]

A resounding yes. It's more than OK.

I believe there are many profs that respond better to being the only POI listed in the statement. Of course, it depends on the program; mentor structure, collaboration level, and of course personal preferences of the prof.

 

[CheetahGirl]

Another reason to mention more than one is to increase your probability of finding more faculty willing to take you on as a mentee (just in case your beloved Professor X has already filled his/her 'quota' on possible matches). It's great to have a several on an admission committee willing to vie for you. That's why listing Professors X, Y, and even Z helps. Plus most dissertation committees have 3 faculty members. So they are not usually the same ones you mention on an application cover letter, but sometimes they very well could be if your research interests do not change during the course of your studies.

But as the others stated above, one is 100% better than none.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

I'm pretty sure that I only identified one POI at just about all the programs to which I applied (way back when), so it's definitely ok. And looking at my own grad program, it just wouldn't have made much sense for folks to apply to more than one, as pretty much every lab was doing very different work. That's certainly not the case everywhere, though, so if you can identify 2+ folks who're doing what you'd like to do, awesome.

 

[WisNeuro]

I'm with AA. I only applied to a handful of schools, but I had one identified POI at all but one of them I believe. All depends on how many people are doing the work you are doing. It's actually worse IMO to identify a bunch of people, makes you look unfocused and that you have no idea what you really want to do.

 

[CheetahGirl]

I'm chiming back in to say, that I actually only identified one faculty member also (maybe two) to the programs I applied to...but my comment above was based on hindsight having gone through a program now and observing the interview process, as well as the research-student advisor process (I had two research advisors b/c one retired after my 3rd year). And, of course, there are 3 members of my dissertation committee who are all nicely connected to my independent research.