<p>I heard this story of a guy who went and visited Stanford, saw a flyer for a certain grad position, then actually contacted the prof and talked to him, who then invited him to work with him. That is, got admitted to MS EE just by talking. Is this common? Can getting your name in some professors’ minds before your application is reviewed help?</p>
<p>I contacted all the professors with whom I was interested in working before I applied. </p>
<p>Typically, the response was: “Yes, we I will be taking more graduate students next year. I wish you luck in the application process”.</p>
<p>That’s basically all you can do. </p>
<p>Also, you’ll feel guilty when you start turning down programs after establishing relationships with PIs.</p>
<p>That’s uncommon, and contacting profs often doesn’t help. In fact, it’s usually annoying (unless you have something meaningful to say).</p>
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This is pretty unavoidable thanks to interview weekends, anyway.</p>
<p>I think one can express one’s interest without being annoying by asking a legitimate question such as: “Your work is the only reason I am interested in applying to XYZ Univeristy. Will your laboratory be taking on new graduate students next year?”</p>
<p>ixington,</p>
<p>yeah that example quote is exactly what I was thinking. Because it’s true too.</p>
<p>But should I just wait for interview then, or actually be proactive and contact before?</p>
<p>To echo what Ixington said, I am a strong believer in contacting Profs pre-application, but only if you can come up with some real questions to ask. “Are you accepting students” is certainly an important one, and I also made sure to ask professors what kind of work they would be pursuing in the future to see if I had any interest there. My wife was switching fields, so I encouraged her to ask about that issue with regards to the professors in question, and she got some very helpful responses.</p>
<p>Of course, you should never ask something available on their website or recent/major publications - it looks sloppy and shows a lack of interest, although asking for clarification is usually fine. And don’t be disheartened if they do not reply, or fail to reply favorably - many professors don’t want to invest the time until you have reached a certain point in the screening process. After all, until the app is in, how do they know you really do have that 3.95 GPA and 800/800/6.0 GRE with 3 years research?</p>
<p>If all of your interest in a program is directed at a single professor, then it is probably advantageous to contact him/her with ixington’s question. If the professor informs you now that they are not taking on any more students, then you will not have wasted your time applying.</p>
<p>Personally, I wouldn’t apply to or attend any program in which only one faculty member does research interesting to me, because if you go, and the environment of his research group turns out not to be right for you, well, then you may be out of luck. When I was being advised on selecting graduate schools to apply to, my professors told me there should be 10+ faculty members that I could visualize myself working with. But that could be field-specific.</p>
<p>SPICEy, if this is somebody you think you would really, REALLY want to work with, and the professor tells you he has space for more students, maybe then should you apply. But you’ll have to determine at the interview weekend whether the research environment created by the professor makes you happy.</p>
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Don’t throw out your stats when proactively contacting professors, anyway. It’ll just make them angry at having to state the obvious: “I do not have a direct hand in admitting you.”</p>