Emailed Potential Supervisors - No reply back?

[WaitingKills]

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Hey everyone. So ya, I'm doing this process again this year but am trying to be way smarter about it since finding this website.

So I've been emailing professors at different universities over the last few weeks to see if they were taking new students next year and what their current research is focused on and the direction it's moving. I think I've emailed 10 profs and only 3-4 have gotten back to me. I kept my email fairly short (2-3 short paragraphs) but enough to tell them my interests and briefly about my academic history.

So there are many ways to look at this situation, and would love to hear your experiences on this or opinions of whether I just need to relax a bit.

1. My email was **** and they just deleted it (don't think it was, but that's my fatalistic thinking at the moment)

2. They are really busy with school starting and will email me soon.

3. They aren't interested or aren't taking students so are just being rude and not getting back.

What do you guys think? Have you ever gone through this? How much time should I let pass before I email again and say hi?

I am distinctly remembering now while contacting prof's and trying to get things sorted to test with ETS why I hate this process so much.

Thanks for you advice guys. I appreciate it.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

This is a tough time for profs, since they are just getting into their work with their new people, so they may be busier than usual. It may take some time for them to get back to you. I'd give it good 2-3 week or so before e-mailing them again.

I'm sure others can provide more info on the topic.

-t

 

[JockNerd]

I agree with T4C about waiting. When I was applying, a few people got back to me literally within minutes, and some took two or three weeks. I think a few weeks ago was probably not the best time to send it.... the year is starting and the profs are setting up their new students and getting ready to teach courses. Mid-Aug and right about now are good times to send e-mails, on my opinion.

I think a consequence of sending the e-mails during a busy time is that they could easily have been lost in the shuffle of the new academic year. I'd give it three more weeks and then send another e-mail. I'd say don't even reference the first one... it's really hard to emote over the net, and a simple innocent "I sent you an e-mail already, but I guess you were really busy!" could very easily be interpreted negatively.

In my experience, anyone who wasn't taking a student just said that, so I'd bet more on the email being overlooked than jerk profs. It doesn't take long to fire off a "Thanks for your interest but the lab is full/I'm dept chair this year/I'm on sabbatical/I'm moving/I'm replying in the stead of Dr. X because he/she passed and I got his/her office."

 

[bettysblue08]

Hi WaitingKills,

I also emailed about 8 profs of interest in the past week or two and had less than 50% response rate. I agree with everyone else's comments about the profs being extremely busy at this time of the year, so I'd wait for a few more weeks. I just hope that the professors who are NOT taking on students will at least let us know, so we can reconsider sending in the application for that program. Good luck!

-betty

 

[standbyme]

I also have been e-mailing profs with far from 100% response rate. Although I have received more than 50%, so I guess that's a start. I plan on following up about 3 weeks after sending the initial e-mails...my dilema is that I want to get my letter of recommendation forms out ASAP (my original goal was Oct. 1, but that's getting pushed back a little) because one of my recommenders is a procrastinator and lives 6 hours away, so I need time to mail the forms to him, and get them back for the schools that require all materials be sent in together. I was hoping to give him a deadline of early november, but I can't send him the materials until I finalize my list of schools, and I can't finalize my list of schools until I know if professors are accepting students or not.

So, would anyone recommend calling either the department secretary, director of the program, or the actual POI to find out they are accepting students? Would the director or secretary have that information?

Even if I called schools and found out, I still plan to follow-up with the actual profs in hopes of establishing a memorable connection!

 

[standbyme]

.

 

[thewesternsky]

I definitely think it's #2-- This is a busy time of year, and it's still early yet. I would give it a few more weeks (so that it's been maybe a month total), and then send a brief follow-up email. Also, make sure to check the program and prof's website-- I know of one professor who posts that information on the web and therefore doesn't reply to query emails.

 

[WaitingKills]

Thanks everyone for your responses.

I sent out most of the original emails at the beginning of September, so I think I will wait till this weekend and the email them again.

I know how important this contact is (from my lack of doing it last year) so I really don't want to just totally let it slide. I also want to know though whether I should be contacting other people at the same university without looking like I'm bouncing or being insincere.

Anyway, thanks again. 🙂

 

[amy203]

Thanks everyone for your responses.

I sent out most of the original emails at the beginning of September, so I think I will wait till this weekend and the email them again.

I know how important this contact is (from my lack of doing it last year) so I really don't want to just totally let it slide. I also want to know though whether I should be contacting other people at the same university without looking like I'm bouncing or being insincere.

Anyway, thanks again. 🙂

It's absolutely fine to email multiple professors at the same university, assuming your interests match with both. You just don't want to give them the impression that you are applying because you like the school in general, rather than because you see a strong a research match.

 

[JockNerd]

I know how important this contact is (from my lack of doing it last year) so I really don't want to just totally let it slide. I also want to know though whether I should be contacting other people at the same university without looking like I'm bouncing or being insincere.

Do you mean contacting other profs you're interested in? I'd say no, unless the first one says he or she isn't taking anyone. That point is actually mentioned in the Insider's Guide, and they recommend against it as well.

 

[amy203]

Do you mean contacting other profs you're interested in? I'd say no, unless the first one says he or she isn't taking anyone. That point is actually mentioned in the Insider's Guide, and they recommend against it as well.

Huh, I don't remember reading this, but I might have an older version of the Insider's Guide. I emailed more than one faculty member at several schools and mentioned more than one in some of my personal statements. I don't think it was an issue (I was interviewed/accepted at several of these schools), and I made the decision to contact more than one based on advice I got on this forum! But Waitingkills should probably trust the Insider's Guide. Why does it say it's a bad idea?

 

[RayneeDeigh]

It can actually be a good idea. A girl in my cohort contacted two people and now she's working with both of them. The collaborative aspect of her research ideas appealed to the school so now she has two advisors which is a great luxury I think.

Plus... if a prof is going to take offense to you scoping out other profs, you don't want to work with that kind of ego anyway. lol

 

[Duckygirl]

The Insider's Guide does have a little note about this in the section where they provide a sample email that you might write to a professor. I'm sorry I'm not providing a page number or a quote here...

HOWEVER...I think that is BULL HONKEY!

Most school's applications specify that you list at least two, and sometimes as many as 4 or 5 (for bigger programs) professors that you'd be interested in working with. How insane would it be if they expected you to show interest in multiple faculty and then did not want you to contact more than one? At that point you'd be like pulling straws. I think that's silly.

Moreover, it seems perfectly reasonable that if there were two or more faculty at a school that specialized in very similar areas, you have every right to contact both. Maybe one is taking students and the other is not. Maybe the two of them would like to fight over you. I'd prefer the latter.

I don't think it's wise to "shop around" until you get someone biting, especially if a professor is a stretch of a fit, but whatever. I don't care if it irked a professor or not. Whatever. Okay, I'm done.

 

[JockNerd]

It's on page 60 of the IG (I looked it up; I wanted to be sure that's where I read it before I mentioned it). They don't give an explanation, but the authors do say that they wouldn't like it themselves.

I'm guessing profs don't want to fight over the same applicant if things aren't as smooth as they are in Ducky's program. I know one person who applied last year and contacted multiple profs, and felt that that action seriously damaged his apps at some schools.

If they're encouraging it, sure do it. Maybe the message behind the Insider's Guide recommendation (and a good recommendation that was made in the last few posts and which I definitely agree with) was not to make it sound like you're trying for every prof in the department.

 

[Duckygirl]

I know one person who applied last year and contacted multiple profs, and felt that that action seriously damaged his apps at some schools.

Thank you for providing the citation, Jock Nerd. Really? You knew someone who thought by contacting more than one professor at a school hurt his chances? Of all the things, a person has to worry about when it comes to applying to clinical programs, I really think this worry has to go lower on the list. To me, it's more about how qualified you are as an applicant, and if you are the right person for the professor. I don't think people should stress too much about emailing a couple of faculty members at one school. I'd worry more about putting the right school's name in your essays and not sneezing and blowing snot all over during a presentation at interview day (both things I've seen...), those are things to be concerned about.

 

[ducle7]

I most of my people this month and so far have an 86% response rate. Some of them are really great at getting back within a day or two and others have taken a couple of weeks to get back. So just hang in there! I asked a graduate student whether it would be too pushy to write to them again, and she said that it wouldn't...maybe just send a shorter note? I tried to keep mine really short and to the point. I also think that you should COMB the website thoroughly to find out if it says they're accepting students first before asking them. Also, don't take it personally if they don't get back to you ASAP, I know that my PI can barely keep up with her emails and often forgets about some of them all together!

 

[WaitingKills]

Alright... So I resent 4 of the emails to POI's last night (that I hadn't heard back from) and emailed 2 new ones. I looked and I originally sent the emails at the end of August to the beginning of Sept so it's been about a month.

So as of right now, I've heard back from 1 of the prof's who didn't get back to me originally. They didn't say anything about me resending the email (neither did I, I just emailed like it was first contact) and they didn't seem upset.

So one down, 5 to go. Lol, we should place bets on how many I'll hear back from.

 

[RayneeDeigh]

Alright... So I resent 4 of the emails to POI's last night (that I hadn't heard back from) and emailed 2 new ones. I looked and I originally sent the emails at the end of August to the beginning of Sept so it's been about a month.

So as of right now, I've heard back from 1 of the prof's who didn't get back to me originally. They didn't say anything about me resending the email (neither did I, I just emailed like it was first contact) and they didn't seem upset.

So one down, 5 to go. Lol, we should place bets on how many I'll hear back from.

Was it the one you and I talked about? I saw him rushing around like a madman today lol

 

[WaitingKills]

Was it the one you and I talked about? I saw him rushing around like a madman today lol

Unfortunately no. Hopefully I'll hear back from him sometime next week lol, if he stops running for 5 minutes. This was actually a prof from a uni on the west coast. (I'd give you more detail if we were PM'ing).