connecting with faculty
This is where applying to graduate school looks a lot like dating.
Faculty can be intimidating, but one of them is going to be your future advisor. The person who will mentor you, challenge you, and most importantly, graduate you. So you should look into potential advisors carefully.
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1. The schools that you are applying to should be largely based on the faculty working at each of them. It is best if there's more than 1 faculty member who you're interested in. In other words, don't put all of your eggs in 1 basket. With that said, if that 1 person does exactly what you want to do, apply! It can't hurt.
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2. Email faculty you're highly interested in early on. We both emailed almost every professor we were interested in at each school (no more than 3 per school). Keep the email succinct by introducing yourself briefly and the reason for your email. Make sure to provide relevant background information on your experiences, and ask to set up a phone call. They may or may not answer.
Tip: Develop an email template that you can personalize for each faculty member. If you need help writing the email, let us know!
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3. Once you set up phone calls with the faculty members you're interested in, your focus should be finding out some key information about the school. The most important being details about their application process that aren't on the website: what life is like in their lab, their mentorship style, general information about student life, and of course, how you would fit into their lab should you be accepted.
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Note: These conversations are especially important at universities that don't do rotations, as you will have to connect with faculty beforehand.
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Tip: If you really got along with the faculty member and think you have identified your top choice school, ask if they would be willing to look over your essay in its final stages. It can't hurt, but definitely give them plenty of time to look it over.
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Kat's Take
I would argue that this is the most important part of the graduate application process. In fact, many of the universities that I applied to actually asked which faculty I had reached out to, how I had reached out to them, and the date that we spoke. It is a tedious process to reach out to all of the faculty that you are interested in. I believe that I sent around 40 emails to professors whose work I found fascinating--that also means I read a lot of papers, but I cannot stress how valuable it was. Not only did it give me an edge as an applicant, but it also expanded my network across the country.
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I also want to stress how important it is to put an effort into doing research on each faculty member that you reach out to. To demonstrate, I have a short story. I reached out to a faculty member that I was interested in one morning at around 9 am. The phone rang at 9:02 am. He had already read my email and called the number in my signature within minutes of me emailing him--MINUTES. He wanted to gauge how interested in his research I truly was. In other words, had I done my research. Thankfully, I had and we had an excellent conversation about the ongoing projects in his lab. Had I not taken the time prior to emailing him to explore his research, this call would have been a disaster, but instead he insisted that I mention him specifically in my application. This is an extreme example, but I think it highlights similar experiences that Kiara and I shared throughout our application processes. Take the time to do your research, it will pay off.
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Kiara's Take
Faculty conversations are a very important part of this process. At some schools they decided if I applied or not. It can be uncomfortable at moments, but they're very important to have. A little small-talk to begin is a great way to ease into the conversation. At Brown (my university), they admit based on faculty recommendations since we aren't required to do rotations. I spoke with my (now) PI over the phone while I was applying. He was looking to fill a spot in his lab with someone with my skillset from previous research, and I liked his lab, mentorship style, and personality. Thus, it was a good match. At another university I applied to that didn't do rotations I did not find a faculty member that I really connected with. So if you have questions about applying to schools that don't require rotations and what that is like, I'll be happy to answer them!
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