Researching faculty
Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2020 3:23 pm
I wanted to get an idea how one should go about researching a given university for matching faculty, and if/how one should go about getting in touch with them and including them in the SOP.
I get the impression that your chance of admission depends heavily on your compatibility with, and availability of, faculty. However, for someone about to begin the application process, this looks like a massive time investment. A single physics department can have 20+ faculty members in just one field of physics. Did you really end up researching each and every one of them for each university you applied to?
On top of that, I've noticed a lot of people contacting potential faculty members throughout the process. To those people: did you end up restricting yourself only to those whose research overlaps well with yours? I don't see how I could ever hold an interesting exchange with a professor on their topic of expertise if this wasn't the case. Also, how many did you end up emailing? The last thing you want is to spam mass emails.
I get the impression that your chance of admission depends heavily on your compatibility with, and availability of, faculty. However, for someone about to begin the application process, this looks like a massive time investment. A single physics department can have 20+ faculty members in just one field of physics. Did you really end up researching each and every one of them for each university you applied to?
On top of that, I've noticed a lot of people contacting potential faculty members throughout the process. To those people: did you end up restricting yourself only to those whose research overlaps well with yours? I don't see how I could ever hold an interesting exchange with a professor on their topic of expertise if this wasn't the case. Also, how many did you end up emailing? The last thing you want is to spam mass emails.