Contacting Potential Programs and Advisors

Once you've narrowed down your list of potential schools, you will eventually want to consider contacting at least one faculty member at each school.  The best way to do this is through a simple e-mail describing your academic interests and your intention to apply to their program.  I sent a few e-mails to faculty at each of the seven schools I applied to - and even sent a couple of e-mails to faculty at other schools where I chose not to apply.  The latter group of faculty actually advised me not to apply to their programs - given the nature of the faculty politics and an honest description of how their interests didn't really match up to mine.  Keep in mind that while being advised not to apply to a school you otherwise like may be frustrating, it will save you both time and money in the long run.  

Also keep in mind that applying for graduate school is different than applying for undergraduate programs.  Graduate programs in the humanities and the sciences are often looking more at your potential "fit" than your GPA, GRE scores, and overall background.  The graduate admissions committee will ask - is the applicant hoping to study something that we're also interested in?  Do they meet the minimum qualifications for our program?  Do they have any publications or research experience that makes them stand out?  

Obviously, when slogging through (often) hundreds of applications for a few number of slots, graduate admissions committees will have to take a hard look at the entirety of your application.  But one thing that can help you stand out is a pre-existing relationship with the faculty you are interested in working with.  This, however, is far from a guarantee that you'll get in to your favorite program.

Once you've decided who you want to write to at each school, craft an e-mail with your academic interests and reasons for applying to the program.  Have your parents read this, have your friends read this, have your friend's friend read this - avoid any silly mistakes or typos. Then send the e-mail off and wait for a reply. 

When you hear back from potential faculty advisors at your list of schools - consider a few things.  First, what is the tone of the response.  Do they sound as though they are interested? Uninterested?  

I applied to two of the top five programs in my field.  The faculty of one of the programs responded back to e-mails quickly and professionally.  Their responses showed interests in my potential research and they were even quite friendly - written in an overall positive tone.  The second program responded to e-mails as though their keyboards were stuck in molasses.  They were far less friendly and appeared generally uninterested.  This caused me to switch the two programs on my own personal list of schools.  

To conclude, don't be afraid to contact potential advisors at the schools that you're interested in applying to.  Be polite, craft an e-mail that avoids silly mistakes, and read between the lines a bit in their responses.  

Narrowing Down Your List of Graduate Schools

In our last post, we discussed putting together a large master list of potential graduate schools. My first list included about 24 schools and a variety of programs that overlapped with my interests.  Of these I would eventually apply to 7 and be admitted to 4.  But how did I narrow the list down to only seven schools?  

My first step was to hit Google.  I spent a lot of time looking up each program that interested me. My top concerns for entering a doctoral program with the hopes of securing an academic position in the future were ranking and prestige of the program, funding, and high quality faculty.  In particular I wanted to find a list of faculty where more than one overlapped with my areas of interest.  I was concerned about the horror stories I had heard where people were admitted to work with Famed Brilliant Dude, Ph.D. and he turned out to be a complete wreck.  Working with several faculty while in graduate school is a reality for most of us and I wanted a broad network of support.  Looking back, I am really happy that I took this kind of approach.  

This combination of factors brought the list down to about 14.  My next move, probably the one that I can only really share because this an anonymous blog, was to cross a few off the list due to being in an undesirable location.  Intellectually, some of these places were reasonable fits, but I simply had no desire to move to a location I knew that I would hate for 6-8 years.  This brought my list down to about 10 schools within two related disciplines.  It is hard to ignore if the perfect school for you intellectually is in an undesirable location, but it is something to consider - after all, the reality of moving to this place to start your new life in graduate school will set in at some point.  Don't you want to be excited about that move rather than ambivalent or apprehensive?  

The next step was the most important.  I looked at the faculty listings again and I e-mailed two or three faculty at each institution.  The subsequent responses brought my list down to a manageable number - 7 schools.  I will expand on this particular process in my next post. 

Looking for the Perfect Graduate Program Part I

I realized fairly early on in my undergraduate education that I had an interest in attending graduate school.  The lifestyle of the academy appealed to me.  Despite the low pay, constant stress, and sometimes agonizing pretentiousness, I felt as though I could thrive.  I knew, however, that I would only thrive under the right circumstances.  When I first began looking at graduate programs in the humanities, I was given a lot of advice.  Some of this advice was sound and some of it, well, not so much.  

The best advice I received early on was fairly simple.  If you're still in an undergraduate program, work on getting the best possible grades you can muster in your remaining courses.  Write a strong senior thesis or craft a shorter writing sample for publication in a small journal or magazine related to your field.  Also, continue to cultivate strong relationships with a handful of faculty members by visiting them in office hours.  Study for and take the standardized test required for admission to most of the programs in your field (GRE, MCAT, GMAT or LSAT depending on your field).  

When you visit the aforementioned faculty in their office hours explain to them your major interests and reasons for applying to graduate school.  Pick their brain on who the big players in the field are, where do they teach, where did they attend graduate school?  Do all the best people in your field teach at Virginia?  Minnesota?  Berkeley?  Harvard?  Check out U.S. News and World Report's Best Graduate Schools issue and try to get a field for the important schools in your field.  Many scholars will disagree with how US News ranks graduate programs, but it offers a nice starting point.  Start compiling a list with brief notes describing why they made it on the list (for example, Harvard - ranked no. 2 overall in general field, no. 4 in my proposed area, and has faculty John Doe and Jane Brilliant working on history of women living in urban high rises).  

Build up this list to the point where it is nearly unwieldy.  In conversations I had with faculty at my undergraduate institution and others in the field whom I had met, I came up with a list of about 25-30 schools.  

In our next post, I will talk about paring down that list to a more reasonable list of schools to apply.