Contacting Schools

  • This has become our largest and most active forum because the physics GRE is just one aspect of getting accepted into a graduate physics program.
  • There are applications, personal statements, letters of recommendation, visiting schools, anxiety of waiting for acceptances, deciding between schools, finding out where others are going, etc.

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evilclaw2321
Posts: 118
Joined: Mon Dec 08, 2008 5:51 pm

Contacting Schools

Post by evilclaw2321 » Sat Feb 28, 2009 11:45 pm

So I'm not doing this yet, I'm trying to be as patient as possible, but i've been advised that if i don't hear something from anywhere in another week or two to email the departments and check on my status. But I don't know which schools or if I should for all? And more importantly I don't know exactly what to say, like how to word the email. I've noticed on here several others have said they've sent email inquiries to schools, so do any of you have any advice on how to word these so as to not come off impatient and to hopefully get a response (one thats hopefully not full of disdain because I annoyed them)

sterculus
Posts: 116
Joined: Tue Nov 18, 2008 2:16 am

Re: Contacting Schools

Post by sterculus » Sat Feb 28, 2009 11:54 pm

When I contacted Harvard I said something like:
Dear [name],
I submitted a Fall 09 PhD application and was wondering what my status is, and if you haven't made decisions yet when you think you'll do so. I'm starting to schedule travel for visiting weekends and it would be helpful for me to know when I'll hear from you.

Thank you,
Sterculus

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coreycwgriffin
Posts: 249
Joined: Fri Nov 07, 2008 1:28 am

Re: Contacting Schools

Post by coreycwgriffin » Mon Mar 02, 2009 3:16 pm

sterculus wrote:When I contacted Harvard I said something like:
Dear [name],
I submitted a Fall 09 PhD application and was wondering what my status is, and if you haven't made decisions yet when you think you'll do so. I'm starting to schedule travel for visiting weekends and it would be helpful for me to know when I'll hear from you.

Thank you,
Sterculus
So many contractions! Whenever I write to a professor/someone my future rides on I try to use as few contractions as possible. I used to get yelled at for this back in high school when I was preparing speeches and such.

murs
Posts: 33
Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2008 12:48 am

Re: Contacting Schools

Post by murs » Mon Mar 02, 2009 9:08 pm

Did you write to the department secretary?

sterculus
Posts: 116
Joined: Tue Nov 18, 2008 2:16 am

Re: Contacting Schools

Post by sterculus » Mon Mar 02, 2009 9:26 pm

Yes, I wrote the the department secretary, and my future does not ride on the department secretary's opinion of my written style.

abeboparebop
Posts: 112
Joined: Sun Oct 19, 2008 11:26 am

Re: Contacting Schools

Post by abeboparebop » Mon Mar 02, 2009 10:39 pm

coreycwgriffin wrote:
sterculus wrote:When I contacted Harvard I said something like:
Dear [name],
I submitted a Fall 09 PhD application and was wondering what my status is, and if you haven't made decisions yet when you think you'll do so. I'm starting to schedule travel for visiting weekends and it would be helpful for me to know when I'll hear from you.

Thank you,
Sterculus
So many contractions! Whenever I write to a professor/someone my future rides on I try to use as few contractions as possible. I used to get yelled at for this back in high school when I was preparing speeches and such.
Contraction-less writing is dumb -- it's the arbitrary preference of grammarians and English teachers, without a logical leg to stand on (<-- very similar in that respect to ending sentences in prepositions). I can't stand academic papers whose writers go to such great lengths to reproduce "correct" grammar that the writing becomes stilted and awkward. It's almost always best to write in the clearest and most direct way.

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coreycwgriffin
Posts: 249
Joined: Fri Nov 07, 2008 1:28 am

Re: Contacting Schools

Post by coreycwgriffin » Tue Mar 03, 2009 10:19 am

abeboparebop wrote:Contraction-less writing is dumb -- it's the arbitrary preference of grammarians and English teachers, without a logical leg to stand on (<-- very similar in that respect to ending sentences in prepositions). I can't stand academic papers whose writers go to such great lengths to reproduce "correct" grammar that the writing becomes stilted and awkward. It's almost always best to write in the clearest and most direct way.
I don't know. Part of me thinks that saying things like "you'll" to people who may decide your future just sounds impolite. But hey, man. You can do whatever you want.
Last edited by coreycwgriffin on Tue Mar 03, 2009 10:23 am, edited 1 time in total.

abeboparebop
Posts: 112
Joined: Sun Oct 19, 2008 11:26 am

Re: Contacting Schools

Post by abeboparebop » Tue Mar 03, 2009 10:22 am

coreycwgriffin wrote:
abeboparebop wrote:Contraction-less writing is dumb -- it's the arbitrary preference of grammarians and English teachers, without a logical leg to stand on (<-- very similar in that respect to ending sentences in prepositions). I can't stand academic papers whose writers go to such great lengths to reproduce "correct" grammar that the writing becomes stilted and awkward. It's almost always best to write in the clearest and most direct way.
I don't know. Part of me thinks that saying things like "you'll" so people who may decide your future just sounds impolite. But hey, man. You can do whatever you want.
Do you avoid contractions when you're talking to people too?

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coreycwgriffin
Posts: 249
Joined: Fri Nov 07, 2008 1:28 am

Re: Contacting Schools

Post by coreycwgriffin » Tue Mar 03, 2009 10:23 am

abeboparebop wrote:
coreycwgriffin wrote:
abeboparebop wrote:Contraction-less writing is dumb -- it's the arbitrary preference of grammarians and English teachers, without a logical leg to stand on (<-- very similar in that respect to ending sentences in prepositions). I can't stand academic papers whose writers go to such great lengths to reproduce "correct" grammar that the writing becomes stilted and awkward. It's almost always best to write in the clearest and most direct way.
I don't know. Part of me thinks that saying things like "you'll" to people who may decide your future just sounds impolite. But hey, man. You can do whatever you want.
Do you avoid contractions when you're talking to people too?
It depends on who I'm talking to, but yeah.

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Andromeda
Posts: 127
Joined: Wed Dec 10, 2008 3:17 pm

Re: Contacting Schools

Post by Andromeda » Wed Mar 04, 2009 11:37 am

Number one rule about writing: all the rules are made to be broken.

(Thanks for posting this topic btw, I was wondering about this myself!)



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