rude if not replying immediately?

b_r_um
Thu, 17 Mar 2011 14:21:09 +0000

I would get back to them with a short thank-you note, but don’t waste their time if you don’t have any real questions at this point.

I just came back from an Open House where I met with a professor who had contacted me after I got admitted. Turned out that the grad school gave him a list of about a dozen admitted students to contact (whose expressed interests overlapped vaguely with his, though most of them were more interested in other research groups). He seemed a bit annoyed by the recruitment strategy and felt like he was being “demoted to telemarketing.” After meeting with him, I was so glad that I had resisted the urge to keep up a conversation just for the sake of making a good impression (which would have probably accomplished the opposite).